Initiative would decide how Carefree mayor is elected

CAREFREE - A Carefree Councilman plans to launch an initiative to place a measure on the May ballot asking for voters to elect their own mayor.

Bob Coady had yet to file papers with the Carefree town clerk Wednesday to start circulating petitions and collect the 255 signatures needed to force the issue to the May 19 ballot. The deadline to turn in paperwork and signatures is Jan. 18, Town Clerk Betsy Wise said.

Carefree and Paradise Valley are the only two northeast Valley municipalities in which the council, not the public, chooses the mayor. Paradise Valley is mulling amending the rule, with plans to thrash out two versions of a draft ordinance on the subject Thursday.

Coady said in an email that he received a "large number of citizen requests" for direct vote of the mayor. He plans to collect signatures for the initiative outside the Carefree Post Office, he said.

According to Coady, when asked that the issue be placed on a Dec. 2 council agenda, Mayor Wayne Fulcher rejected it, saying it was "for the good of the town."

Fulcher denied the statement: "What I said . . . was, 'I believe this needs long and serious discussion."

According to Fulcher, direct election of the mayor would open the doors to a "whole new level of a political process" in Carefree.

His concerns ranged from election costs to mounting partisan politics.

"We've seen that happen a little bit here," Fulcher said. "I think that's wrong for a small town."

Carefree will ask voters to approve four-year council terms instead of two in the March 10 election. The years would be staggered so that all seven council members would not be up for election at the same time.

Cave Creek, Carefree's neighbor to the west, elects its mayor and council every two years.