CAREFREE, AZ - SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

CAREFREE, AZ - SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS - TOWN'S PRESS RELEASE

As Law Enforcement Liaison for Carefree, the Mayor and Council have requested that I address recent letters and claims alleging that Carefree uses traffic enforcement as a means of generating revenue.

SPEED TRAPS: There are no speed traps in Carefree.
NOISE: Yes, we have a noise ordinance in Carefree.
GENERATING REVENUE: ALL fines collected by Carefree Town court was $269,869.
OFFICER CONDUCT: There were two instances in the past several years alleging sexual harassment by deputies. Officers do approach vehicles with their hand on their weapons.
We contract with MCSO for police services and enforcement. They have performed their duties in an exemplary manner.

The controversy flared again recently at the Nov. 4 Carefree Town Council meeting when Councilman Bob Coady asked Lt. David Trombi, with the Cave Creek substation of the Sheriff's Office whether Carefree had speed traps.

"Absolutely not," Trombi said. He then added that people who say the town has speed traps usually are holding a blue traffic citation.

John Hoeppner of Cave Creek was ticketed in March for going 59 in a 45 mile per hour zone on Cave Creek Road just north of the Carefree Highway. He had received another speeding ticket in almost the same place three years earlier. He hired a lawyer to fight the ticket three years ago and lost. He has taken the most recent case to the Court of Appeals, claiming he was driving at a safe speed on this stretch of road, which consists of four lanes separated by a median.

Rick Stockett of Carefree has spent $500 on a lawyer to appeal a $200 speeding ticket he received three months ago while driving west on Cave Creek Road between Mule Train and Scottsdale roads in a 35 mph zone. Stockett said he was going less than 30 miles per hour, but the sheriff's deputy said it was more like 59.

"I'll bet my right arm I wasn't going no 59 miles an hour," Stockett said. "I think these cops have to write so many tickets to justify their existence out here."

"We make no money on our court," Morgan said. "We are losing money on our court. Everything we do is for the safety of our Carefree citizens."

Coady, the law-enforcement liaison for Carefree, insists that there are no speed traps and that speed limits are well posted and visible. He said the Carefree Town Court collects $269,869 yearly for all fines. The court's operating expenses are $273,691.

Coady disputed that sheriff's deputies are issuing up to 400 speeding summonses a month. He said the monthly number has been consistently in the 60 range.

Hoeppner said Carefree and the Sheriff's Office apparently don't understand the definition of speed trap and referred to the National Motorists Association Web site, which lists Carefree as a speed trap community that people should drive through with caution. The Web site, www.speedtrap.org says the association was founded in 1982 to represent and protect the interests of North American motorists.

Both Carefree and neighboring Cave Creek contract with the Sheriff's Office for police protection. Carefree is spending $376,000 a year, compared with $241,000 for Cave Creek. The big difference is Carefree's greater emphasis on traffic control. Until recently, Carefree employed two full-time deputies in cars and a full-time motorcycle officer. The motorcycle officer was recently cut loose. His sole job had been to increase police visibility to curb speeding on Cave Creek Road and Tom Darlington Drive.

As a condition of the contract, the Sheriff's Office agreed to adhere to a patrol schedule so Carefree officials know what areas officers are working and when. Morgan said this was necessary for greater "accountability." The town's first motorcycle deputy, David Mansur, quit the Sheriff's Office early last year after several women came forward and said he agreed to drop speeding citations in return for dates.

Last month, Carefree agreed to spend $6,400 for the purchase of two new radar guns after Trombi said the old guns had a tendency to shut down when jarred by a bump. He also believed there was a need for new guns so deputies could track speeding motorists approaching from behind patrol cars and shoot through landscape vegetation, tasks the older guns couldn't accomplish.

Carefree also has a noise ordinance that deputies enforce by taking decibel readings on motorcycles and other loud vehicles passing through town.

CAREFREE - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office insists there are no speed traps in Carefree, but critics disagree and believe tourism is being hurt.

Cave Creek activist John Hoeppner has been critical of what he feels is Carefree's "obsession" with speeders and believes tourists are easy targets as they travel through Carefree, where speed limits plummet.

"Business owners in the area have tourists come in who have been ticketed, and they don't much like it," Hoeppner said. "It leaves a bad impression to drive through town and see sheriff's deputies hiding in the bushes."

Hoeppner said speed traps in Carefree affect Cave Creek residents as well as business owners because it's impossible to drive to Cave Creek without driving through Carefree first. Carefree speed limits are generally 10 to 15 miles per hour lower than those in surrounding communities.

Carefree Mayor Ed Morgan said that this is really "just about a guy who got a ticket" and that the town's speed limits reflect residents' concerns over safety, nothing more.
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EXCERPT FROM E-MAIL WRITTEN BY MCSO LT. DAVID TROMBI - CAVE CREEK

Finally I would mention that it is true that a 71 year old man and a mother were arrested. What is not true is that they were arrested for speeding as Hoeppner has said in the past. They were in fact stopped for traffic violations and then by their own undisciplined and criminal actions were arrested.
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NOTE: Based on reports the 71 year old man (Fred Osman - Carefree architect) was stopped for speeding - and arrested for stepping out of his car to hand the officer his drivers license. The young mother was stopped because her license tags were expired by one month - she was arrested for using her cell phone to call home to tell her children she would be delayed because of the traffic stop.

Both were pushed around, arrested and booked into the Madison Street Jail. This is what local politicians have to say about this behavior:

"We contract with MCSO for police services and enforcement. They have performed their duties in an exemplary manner."

Bob Coady, Councilman/Carefree
Carefree Town Hall
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CAREFREE NOISE ORDINANCE A DUD

http://www.cyclerides.com/WeeklyUpdate2_25_04.htm

Warren Levenbaum writes: "What this means is that the Superior Court will not hear our argument that the Carefree Noise Ordinance was unconstitutionally applied to Mr. Parete in view of the Town of Carefree's concession that the Trial Court erred in finding Mr. Parete responsible based upon insufficient evidence". The Carefree Town Prosecutor wrote in his response to this case that: "Appellee (Town of Carefree) confesses error and agrees with Appellant (Mr. Parete) that there was insufficient evidence presented at the hearing to find Appellant responsible for violating Carefree Municipal Code 6-2-4(D)(3) (Noise Ordinance). Therefore, Appellee concedes that the finding of responsibility in this case should be reversed for this reason".

What does all of this mean to us who want to ride in the Carefree/Cave Creek area? Here are a few of my thoughts:
1. First of all, it means that Carefree is intent on hanging onto the Noise Ordinance. They found a way to wiggle out of this one without the Superior Court hearing the constitutionality of the ordinance. So the ordinance will stand as it is currently written.

2. It looks like the Sheriff's days of having the "Judge" rubber stamp everything that he testifies to have come to an end. The Judge is actually going to have to read the ordinance himself and make an "intelligent" decision from the facts, not just what the Sheriff officer is telling him.