Assistant Town Manager Scott Rounds Leaves The Town of Buckeye

Finally a breath of fresh air and good news for the Citizens and employee's of the Town of Buckeye.

It was learned today Scott Rounds has accepted an early retirement package from the town and his official responsibilities as Assistant Town Manager is expected in the very near future. Sources state his last day of duty will officially be the first week of July or sooner. Generally one would think that retiring from a position as such would come with a huge party and many sad employee's thinking of missing their boss.

In the case of Scott Rounds I do not think this was the case. A small gathering took place Tuesday night after the Council meeting at La Placita the infamous Good O Boy hangout. Mr. Rounds I wished I could say you will be missed by many but, I don't think this will be the case.

On June 12th and 13th the Mayor and Council will be on a special retreat which is said to be hosted by the Town's new Interim Town Manager compliments of the League of Cities. Wait...did I say knew Interim Town Manager? You bet I did! CFABB staff intend on attending this retreat.

Now the only question left is what is the Town going to do with Ms. J Guy? Rumors have been flying all over town as to what Ms. Guy's new responsibilities will be. Common sense would tell you she should be heading back to the Library but, in Buckeye one can never tell. CFABB would suggest that Ms. Guy slip away into the sunset as a retiree and leave her post on a good note. This would probably be good solid advice since serious investigations are ongoing which could possibly place Ms. Guy in a very uncomfortable position if found she had any involvement.

In conclusion until the next update we at CFABB celebrate these changes and look forward to many more of the same positive changes over the next several months. Stay posted folks as we are not going away and will continue to grow into an even stronger voice for the people and a watchdog against wrong.

Mayor and Town Council Violate Open Meeting Law

On June 2nd CFABB members attend the Town's Regular Council Meeting and observed a major violation with regard to open meeting law. The record will show that Mayor, Vice Mayor and all Council people were in attendance with the exception to Councilman Garza. The record will also show that critical town officials, staff and Town Attorney Scott Ruby was also present.

The violation of the Open Meeting Law occurred when Council and Mayor voted on and approved Agenda item 7D as reads below.

CORE Construction - Change Order #5 - Mill out existing paving and replace with three inches of asphalt paving.

Council to consider and if advisable, approve Change Order #5, under the contract No. PW-2006-DB-0001, with Core Construction, to mill out existing paving and replace with 3 inches of asphalt paving on 6th street, 7th street and Roosevelt street, to be funded from Account No. 070-50-598 (HURF), in the amount not to exceed $71,503.

During discussion on this matter an issue surfaced as a result of several questions from Councilman Doster. Through his questions and discussion it was learned that the reference referred to as the (HURF) account was incorrect and the correct account to be used was known as the GADA account. Once discovers limited discussion took place and the Town attorney did not advise the council correctly on what should have taken place as a result of this inaccuracy with regard to which account was actually being used.

According to the Open meeting law, Council should have tabled this agenda item to a later meeting so the appropriate correction reflecting the proper account for funding this project was corrected.

The reason for this law is simple. Each and every agenda item must be represented exactly as it is meant and precise with all facts to be correct. Since this is a public meeting you have the right to speak publicly on any agenda topic you wish. Therefore let say you had an issue with money coming from the GADA account to fund this project and would have rather seen the money come from the HURF account or any other account. You as a public Citizen would not have been able to offer your complaint or concerns on this agenda item because the public forum where this type of discussion would have taken place had already taken place well before the discussion of this agenda item. Therefore you would not be able to voice your concerns.

Thus is the reason what ever is provided in the agenda must be complete and accurate. If this is not the case it should have NEVER be voted on. We are very surprised that not the Mayor, Council or even the Town's HIGH paid Attorney was aware of this. It has also been discovered the work on these streets as per the agenda item started immediately within 24 hours of the approval. This in itself lends to another question whether or not it was approved quickly because work had already been scheduled to start.

We have been investigating the relationship with Core Construction for sometime and to date we have learned of Councilman Hardesty's affiliation, Core's affiliation with the towns committee's and the fact that rarely does any company ever get a chance to bid on projects within the Town. Sure is odd everywhere one looks in town on major construction projects you will always see Core Construction. Makes one pose the question... why?

Councilman McAchran Update

It seems there is more to the story than what was represented by Mr. McAchran in recent articles in the AZ Republic and WestValley View newspaper. His representation of the facts may only be partly true. The investigating Goodyear police department found it necessary to forward the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's office for a review of the charges.

As reported earlier in a prior blog it was learned that Buckeye Police were called to the McAchran's home on April 23rd and again the next evening on the 24th. Though the initial police blotters did not reflect these incidents. We eventually through a public records request obtained a police call log report that confirmed that said incidents did occur.

Through this report we have found one was related to an incident involving drugs for which Councilman McAchran explained to the newspapers. This incident involved the Councilman's son being caught with pot and paraphernalia which was dealt with by the parents and police. This in our opinion is a private issue and we will not pursue or interject with comments since we are also parents.

The second incident on April 24th is a different story however. This was an incident of a Domestic nature and due to how the local police handled this case by transferring the investigation to Goodyear we found further investigation on our part was needed.

Though Councilman McAchran stated in both newspaper articles his son only received a small cut to his lower lip CFABB has found that his son made a comment on a social networking website that quote "I feel like my brain is oozing out of my eye socket" end quote.

This statement and the fact that his son was sent to California very abruptly sheds concerns whether or not an excessive amount of force was used against a child under the age of 18. It is the position of many throughout this country that no matter what the circumstances are...you are never to use excessive force or unnecessarily beat children. The only exception to this rule may only be considered in a life or death situation.

The fact that Maricopa County Attorney's office is reviewing the charges on this case demonstrates something of this nature may have taken place. We hope the County Attorney's office has reviewed the same information we have reviewed as well as interviewed McAchran's son.

As always CFABB would hope this sort of event has not taken place and hope all involved will learn from these incidents. However if the facts show criminal child abuse through excessive force then we as a community expect justice to be served no matter if McAchran is an elected official or not.