Thank you Fountain Hills Chamber, FHCCA and SRP for producing such a first-class mayoral debate for the town. Anyone who watched the debate between Cecil Yates and Ginny Dickey for mayor of Fountain Hills should have easily seen that Cecil was much more prepared and ready to take this office in the fall.

He actually had ideas, answers and plans to achieve the goals or overcome the challenges of the town. It appeared that Ginny was reading prepared statements about each question (how did she get the questions early?), but never really answered the question. One of them, regarding how to pay for the aging water pump of the fountain, where Dickey simply went on about the importance of the fountain and how it may need to be shut off, but never answered how to fix it.

Yates used his knowledge and experience about possibly obtaining grants or working with SRP or other entities to help purchase the new, needed pump in an exchange of value. Yates even gave a real-world example where he and his firm recently worked with Tesla to obtain an electric car charging station for free. In exchange, they only wanted to have their logo on the station. Win/win!

It also appeared that Dickey was receiving multiple texts during the debate. I guess she needed help obtaining more information on how to answer other questions. I saw on social media that many of her supporters did not know who the current mayor was and that some of them stated they were from Scottsdale. I guess she needed more support in the crowd. She also admitted her lifelong friend and supporter was behind the hit-piece website against Cecil. That is disgusting! Yates won the day and earned your vote in August. Vote Cecil.

Editor’s note: Both candidates were provided the questions before the debate in order to prepare responses.