Recent letters have suggested, requested, pleaded with Councilman Cecil Yates, now actively campaigning to be our mayor, to do the right thing and resign from the town council immediately (certainly by the deadline set in the law) to avoid disenfranchising (depriving) his would-be constituents of their constitutional right to vote for his replacement on the council.

His successor will serve our town for the two full years left on his term. We have yet to hear from Councilman Yates when (if) he will stand down before the deadline. If he does not resign from the council by the deadline, the law defaults to the town council to decide who his successor will be.

Not only will that deny the voters of our town the constitutional right to choose who will serve us for the next two years but, more importantly, I believe Mayor Kavanagh, Councilmen Yates, Brown and Tolis are ready to nominate and vote for their handpicked candidate.

These four elected representatives of the citizens of Fountain Hills have continued to vote in lockstep (see the firing of the town attorney at the council meeting Oct. 3, 2017). This kangaroo court was initiated and led by Mr. Yates and resulted in an editorial by this newspaper condemning the lack of due process and characterizing the proceedings as a “metaphorical firing squad in a public forum” and “the reckless firing was totally avoidable.”

Furthermore, at the recent March 6 council meeting the town was forced to make a budget transfer of $160,000 to cover unbudgeted legal costs which resulted directly from the firing of our longtime, highly regarded town attorney. Even with the $160,000, we are very close to running out of money in the remaining five months of the fiscal year.

Faith and trust in our elected officials!