A couple of years ago John Kavanagh used this newspaper to sound the alarm that Democrats outnumbered Republicans on the non-partisan Town Council for the first time in our town’s history. A group called ROT answered that call and made sure to change the makeup on the Council regardless of whether those candidates were suitable or not. They also gave us the ugliest Fountain Hills Council election ever.

ROT has made Council meetings unbearable with their constant barrage of complaints by the same speakers at every meeting. They spit out their words, lecturing our public servants and fellow citizens as if they were junior high school teachers communicating with an unruly class. How will we ever find decent and capable candidates who would be willing to submit themselves to such a grueling job in the future?

Some of the new Council members stir up issues and then their followers complain at meetings and write letters and post online. Then these Council members can swoop in and claim they have the answers to these issues that they stirred up. These Council members complain about the time they have to spend on some issues, but have clogged up the meetings with this manufactured outrage that causes the meetings to go on for hours longer than previously. They add to this by putting things on the agenda that were already decided, because they don’t trust that the past Council members knew what they were doing.

These Council members are spreading fear and have people believing that crime and strangers are everywhere. They don’t care about the damage those lies are causing the town. The stench of ROT permeates the town and will linger in the air long after it’s gone.