Letters: Previous Surprise leaders have disappointed us

Over the past three years, I have been to more city council meetings and labored over more agendas and related documents than I want to even account for.

I’ve gotten to know our city council, its members, and their behaviors when it comes to decision making for “we the people.” Most try to act in our best interest. But in order to do that, you have to be connected with your constituents so you can truly represent them. 

On Aug. 16, 2022, when more than 400 people gathered at City Hall to let the council know how they felt about placing Section 42 housing in the worst of conditions for those future residents — no additional schools for their kids and eight miles from the nearest bus stop — the council was put to the test on whether they’d represent the people who clearly had concerns.

The districts were split, and the mayor, Skip Hall, cast the deciding vote for the builder Dominium, who has no interest in our future or those future residents. Aly Cline voted with Hall, and in the first mayoral debate said she had no choice because the city would be sued if she voted no.

However, that’s not what she argued in front of the residents that day. No, she said that this Section 42 housing was for our teachers and our nurses without understanding that unless having four-plus kids on a single income, they’d all make too much money to live there.

With these previously undisclosed verbal threats from Dominium, our city attorneys also advised the Planning and Zoning Commission (that Kevin Sartor sat on at the time) to pass it. Kevin said in the first debate that he regrets that decision and, if given the chance again, he’d vote no — with the voice of the people — because the project doesn’t meet the needs of the future residents of that development nor of our city.

Cline and Sartor are on your ballot on July 30 for mayor of Surprise. When you sit on the city council or in the office of mayor, you’re elected there to represent the people.

Cline has not demonstrated a willingness to try to represent the people. One of the worst city council meetings I attended was on June 4 where council voted for a $1 billion budget (three-times what it was five years ago) and 0.6% retail tax increase.

If you’re like my wife and me, in April each year we’d start thinking about all the things we could spend our tax return on — and usually we’d come up with a list about 10 times the amount of our actual return.

In a similar fashion, for a $14.3 million shortfall on a nearly $1 billion budget, council members bored us with stories of about $143 million worth of things we couldn’t have in Surprise if they didn’t increase our taxes.

Cline even speculated incorrectly again that $10 million in IT capital expenses included body cameras for our police department. Many of them also patted each other on the back for how hard they worked on their two-day retreat for a solution that ended up not changing any part of the budget and putting the shortfall on the backs of the people when you’re shopping, and driving buyers away from our small businesses to save on taxes. 

City leaders, this is not about you. With two candidates on the ballot, a third person stepped into the race. With very few key differentiators to offer, he has signaled that his candidacy is all about him.

We don’t need another self-interested leader in Surprise. Kevin Sartor (with his son just deployed to the Middle East earlier this year), made the difficult decision with his family to devote the next four years to help us and our city. He’s committed to making this about “we the people”—about us.