Quartzsite-La Paz County: Microcosm of the State of the Nation?

Demographics are everything, so the MSM and pollsters say.  I’ll give them that and not argue with my “betters.”   My Dad always said, let everything be an object lesson.  So, I take the La Paz County/Quartzsite situation very seriously and compare it to the current Debt Ceiling standoff. 

The LaPaz County situation in a nutshell appears to be:

In past years of relative prosperity, elected officials signed a contract with a private company to provide a service they thought would be beneficial on some level.  Subsequently, there was a parting of the ways and the resulting court of appeals judgement of $9.5 Million was laid on the people of La Paz County.

The elected officials of La Paz County have run out the clock with bickering, blustering, politicking, cronyism and partisan wrangling in town meeetings to the point the judgement has now reached $14 Million and continues to climb.  

The citizens are coming unglued for very a understandable reason. It’s the same reason the Tea Parties formed. 

Look at the demographics of  La Paz County according to the 2010 Census to understand the mountain of local debt they’re facing   — piled on top of all the state and federal taxes they’re already burdened with:

Total Population                                                                                                    20,489   

Persons under 18 years old      24.5 %   (not in full time workforce)                          Persons 65 and older                 33.1 %  (not in full time workforce)                                                                 57.6% of people not in full time workforce

 Total Households between 2004-2009                                                         9,530         

Median Income Per Household                                                                      $ 30,939          Per Capita Income                                                                                                $ 20,050

In a depressed economy with lowered wage expectations, few job opportunites and increasing debt obligations, any population is a powderkeg waiting to explode.   With a median income of less than $31,000 per household to cover federal, state and local taxes plus housing, transportation, utilities, clothing and food; how are less than ten thousand households going to come up with the money to pay off the additonal $14 Million that resulted from the bad decisions and dithering of their incompetent elected officials ?

Like La Paz County, Arizona; every state, county, city and town has elected officials who’ve signed contracts heaping their citizens in greater and greater indebtedness…. and that’s not counting the federal debt ceiling Obama wants to raise.  Like LaPaz County, the federal government has us in bondage to all the nations that hold our promissory notes.

To quote Bette Davis as Margot Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” 

This is fair warning to every candidate seeking office at every level of government.  ~LTG

Quartzsite: Where the Sh#t Hit the Fan

Mayor Comments on Quartzsite State of Emergency

Tyrannical Arizona City Council Declare State of Emergency

Town in Arizona Run By Wolves

Quartzsite: Where the Sh#t Hit the Fan

I found the whole situation of Quartzsite, AZ quite fascinating and did a bit of googling to try to find some context.  I may be way off base because only locals can truly know the issues involved and all issues have supporters and detractors.

As far as I can see, the BIG ISSUE here  is due to LaPaz County signing a contract with Yakima  Compost Company of Woodinville, WA  for operations to truck in and process biosolids  aka “sewage sludge” on a tract of land adjacent to an existing landfill in Parker, AZ (the La Paz County seat)   about 35 miles north of Quartzsite.  Quartzite is the junction of Interstate 10 and Hwy 95

La Paz County and Yakima Composting Company  had a dispute and the contract was broken.  The case went to court and the judgement went against La Paz County to the tune of $9.5 million dollars.   The County (with a population of less than 21,000)  has not paid and interest has accrued to date for a grand total of $14 million and will continue adding interest until  the judgement is satisfied!

Various parties have proposals on the table as to how to satisfy the court ordered judgement and the partisan politics  haave devolved into the disorder shown on all the Youtube videos.

Basically, “The Sh*t Hit the Fan” in La Paz County and Quartzsite has the videos to prove it!

~LTG

Public Private Partnership proposal
Article briefly describes the of the proposals.  The last comment  by The Desert Freedom may be a post by the woman who was arrested while trying to address the town meeting.

 

Tyrannical Arizona City Council Declares State of Emergency

On July 8, 2011, I did a post, “A Town in Arizona Run by Wolves,” about the tyrannical city government of Quartzsite (pop. 3,397). At a recent town-hall meeting, council members and the police chief forcibly removed and thereby silenced a non-violent citizen, Jennifer Jones, during the open-to-the-public portion of the meeting. They did so against pleadings from the mayor, Ed Foster.

Foster, a former Marine and retired engineer, says the town council and police department are filled with corruption, citizens are intimidated by the town manager and tax collector, and that the city council has prevented him from examining the payroll to uncover possible financial wrongdoing.

After the townhall meeting made the national news, instead of reforming their ways, Quartzsite’s corrupt city council is redoubling their tyrannical ways by declaring a State of Emergency!

Amanda Lee Myers of the Associated Press reports, July 11, 2011, that the council’s declaration puts Police Chief Jeff Gilbert in charge, which renders Mayor Ed Foster the “deputy chief executive of nothing.” The peremptory declaration also allows the five-member council to meet without public notice and suspend all public comment at the meetings until they declare the state of emergency over.

Quartzsite police chief Jeff Gilbert

The Arizona Department of Public Safety, the state police, is currently investigating Jeff Gilbert. Ten officers in Gilbert’s dept (that’s 80% of the force), “the Quartzite 10” as they are called in town, have come forward with numerous charges of criminal activity by the police chief, including Gilbert illegally using the federal NCIC criminal database to harass hundreds of local citizens. [Source]

Ironically, the “Vision Statement” of Quartzsite’s city government says “We, the Mayor and Common Council, strive to make our community the best possible place to live. Furthermore, we encourage our citizens to develop strong ethical, social, cultural, and business relationships to enhance living in our community.”

The website of the Quartzsite city government boasts that the town has “over two million visitors a year!” Let’s tell the city we will boycott Quartzsite because of its tyrannical government. Here’s contact information to express your outrage:

• Chief of Police Jeff Gilbert: qsite1@ci.quartzsite.az.us
• Town Manager, Alex Taft: PO Box 2812 Quartzsite, AZ 85346, Phone 928-927-4333
• The web-page for Quartzsite’s City Council does not have any contact info for Council Members.

And here’s contact info to voice your support:

• Jennifer “Jade” Jones, Publisher, The DESERT FREEDOM PRESS: Phone (928) 575-6594; Email: thedesertfreedompress@yahoo.com
• Mayor Ed Foster: (928) 750-8113
• Michael Roth, La Paz County Republican Precinct Chairman: (602) 791-5401 or (928)927-8888

H/t beloved fellow Anon.

~Eowyn

A Town in Arizona Run by Wolves

Again and again, our Founding Fathers sounded the warning about the inherent tendency of democracies to devolve into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson, in his letter to Edward Carrington in 1787, wrote:

“If once they [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves.”

The government of the town of Quartzsite in Arizona (pop. 3,397) has become overrun by wolves.

On June 28, 2011, at a town-hall meeting in Quartzsite, council members and the police chief forcibly removed and thus prevented a non-violent citizen from speaking during the open-to-the-public portion of the meeting. They did so against pleadings from the mayor, Ed Foster.

Quartzsite mayor Ed Foster

From Joe Kovacs, “‘Nazi’ police ‘kidnap’ woman at town hall,” WorldNetDaily, July 6, 2011:

Jennifer “Jade” Jones, 45, of Quartzsite, Ariz., was taken into custody by local police at the behest of Quartzsite councilmembers, over the objections of the mayor, who pleaded with officers not to remove the woman.

The incident took place June 28 during the “call to the public” section of the meeting, as Jones, a pet groomer who also publishes the Desert Freedom Press, was addressing matters of taxation and meeting protocol.

Quartzsite City Council member Joe Winslow

Some councilmembers interrupted Jones as she was addressing the council and audience, ordering her to relinquish the microphone. “You may leave, or you may be escorted out,” Councilman Joe Winslow warned Jones.

Jones immediately told Winslow, “You can leave or be escorted out as well. You are out of order.”

Then, as police Sgt. Fabiola Garcia attempted to take the microphone away from Jones, Mayor Ed Foster came to the Jones’ defense and interjected, “Officer, that woman has the floor. You’re violating my rules of order here. Sergeant, I have control of the meeting.”

Jones was able to speak for a few moments more, but councilmembers insisted police move in and subdue her. “Do not resist the officer!” Police Chief Jeff Gilbert instructed Jones, who responded, “I am not resisting!”

When Jones refused to give up the microphone, officers forcibly removed her from the premises, and cited her for disorderly conduct. Jones suffered a torn ligament in her elbow during the scuffle, and was transported to La Paz Regional Hospital.

In an interview with WND, Jones said she was never informed she was “under arrest,” and so she’ll seek charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault against the officers. “That’s what I’ll ask for. It’ll be up to the state attorney general,” she said. “I’ve never seen in my entire life such a group of people with such contempt for the law.”

[...] Mayor Foster, a retired Marine and former engineer for Wrigley Chewing Gum, is standing by Jones’ account, and says the town council and police department are filled with corruption. “He’s just an insane person, that chief of police,” the mayor said of Gilbert. “He’s a Nazi … he’s completely out of control. He thinks he’s running the town.”

[...] Mayor Foster said it’s not just the police chief, but also the town manager and tax collector who are creating a terrifying atmosphere. “People in town are scared to death of them,” he said. “It’s just a clear pattern of harassment and intimidation by this government. These people have run this town like they owned it. It’s got to be fixed and I’m not going to quit until I see them in jail.”

The mayor says the council has even precluded him from examining the payroll. He believes he’s uncovered some possible financial wrongdoing involving checks being paid to unknown personnel, and he speculates the recipients could be councilmembers themselves. “They’re playing a sleight-of-hand with federal money,” Foster said. “I’ve tried to get the FBI, the governor and attorney general involved, and no one has paid attention….”

To read the rest of this WND article, click here.

There was a YouTube video of the incident but it’s “no longer available due to a copyright claim by Douglas Gilford.”

H/t beloved fellow Tina & my friend Mark S. McGrew.

~Eowyn