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October 3, 2012 Perspectives Quirky Quartzsite's Contributed by Violet Kiss The Good, the Really Bad, and the Ugly site, for future generations and today's residents and visitors. I've never been on one political side or the other. It's sad that people listen to Richard Old- ham, Jennifer Jones and Ed Foster, taking their words as true without one shred of real evidence. In my opin- ion, their intent since Day One was to bankrupt and dis-incorporate this town. Their recent actions to bankrupt Quartzsite through lawsuits, even AF- TER the town is fi nally being cleaned up, just shows their goal was always to bankrupt and dis-incorporate Quartz- site. Understand I am not talking about the good people of Quartzsite who wanted change, taking corruption out of town hall, and to provide transpar- ency. Almost all of us agree on that. Four years ago my husband and I I care very much for Quirky Quartz- attended council meetings and dissi- dent coalition meetings to get to know Quartzsite. We met a destructive coali- tion who wanted this town's disincor- poration. A select few dissidents de- cided to take one planned and staged incident to go "viral" as they say. Un- fortunately, the town manager, Alex Taft, and town attorney, Martin Bran- nan never made proper public state- ments to defend the town. One won- ders why? A year ago, many of us previous www.DesertMessenger.com against his wishes. That was when a bigger rift occurred between Taft and Chief Gilbert. Taft decided all events from QPD at the last minute so they had no time for investiga- tion or thought. It appears Taft forced Chief Gilbert to hire Brannan's wife, Janet, OPINION should go straight to her without fol- lowing protocol through Chief. Taft's 'alleged' secretive town issues were blamed on Chief Gilbert, using him as the scapegoat to take the 'heat' off of her. Taft apparently knew in mid-July Chief Gilbert was exonerated on the last DPS report, and allegedly 'con- spired' with her cronies to keep the re- sults secret while she planned Chief's downfall and use the time to do her latest cover ups. I've heard that Taft, Johnson, Martin and Janet Brannan, Nora Yackley and Renee have made "hostile environment complaints at the workplace". They can only blame themselves for making it hostile. Townspeople reacted hotly when Taft put Chief Gilbert on leave for such a stupid thing as a 'time sheet' ques- tion of one hour for Sergeant Garcia, (which was already corrected by Chief Gilbert and Sergeant Garcia). Taft did not follow protocol at all. The town at- torney tried very hard to stop Council from doing their rightful job to stop this insanity, including a Temporary Restraining Order against the Council. The meeting fi nally occurred and an interim town manager was hired. She is a very proper, professional town supporters, started doubting the knowledge, ability and motives of Alex Taft, Martin Brannan, Janet Brannan, Al Johnson and Nora Yackley. Appar- ently Taft gave these people big un- authorized/unethical promotions and raises (which the town cannot afford) to buy their loyalty, which seemed to work very well. Taft was a librarian who tried to mimic the prior town manager/town attorney. People tell me the previous town manager did a poor job here and was chased off (before becoming the County Manager). There were many strange things happening and Taft made sure everything was held tightly with less and less information to the public and more and more control over the Council. There was a concerted ef- fort to get everything to the Council Page 17 After a week like yours, you need a church like ours! Changing Hearts.... Changing Lives... Through Worshiping God and Serving Others Join us for Delicious Home-style Breakfasts Tuesday & Thursday MORNINGS 7:30AM-9:30AM Still only $3 donation EVERYONE IS WELCOME! • Sunday: woman, Laura Bruno, having real mu- nicipality experience. She is doing an outstanding job so far to accomplish so many things in a short time. She's constantly having staff meetings, press meetings, etc. At the last town meet- ing, Bruno gave a report that was way overdue: explanation and fi ndings of 3 DPS reports started by Foster and oth- ers on Chief Gilbert. Chief Gilbert was exonerated, and therefore, reinstated. For several weeks, a quieter town seemed to be coming together and people were talking and smiling. Most people reacted well to the new Interim Town Manager, but, as of 9/25, when Police Chief was reinstated, the few unruly dissidents went crazy again. I wish people would understand: 1) Chief had nothing to do with what goes on in Town Hall and its secrets/ SEE PERSPECTIVES PAGE 22 665 W. Tyson, Quartzsite, Arizona • 928-927-5808 Christian Education 9am Worship 10:30am Evening Worship 7pm For free ride to Church call (928) 927-5808 • Wednesday: Bible Study 7pm Fire Station Church Starting Tues. Nov. 6