News

Ed Foster, soon to be declared Mayoral Candidate
Ed Foster, has gone ahead with the publicizing of areas of the law that he believes constitute malfeasance in office. Foster's Letter Here. In spite of the questions raised by Foster at the Quartzsite Town Council meeting of October 27, 2009, no resolution has been brought forward.

MEETING SCHEDULE

The Coalition meets regularly at 6 PM the Monday before each Quartzsite Town Council meeting [held the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month at 7 PM] in the community building at Paradise RV Park, 145 North Moon Mountain Road, one block beyond the Senior Citizen's Center on the east side of the road.

[There is a stone house in the front, meetings are directly behind that building. Coordinator Pat Workman can be reached at 928.927.6318.]

Those needing further information are invited to call Writer/Activist Ed Foster at 928.210.4552.

Citing concerns of retribution [because of the recall effort] many of the Citizen's Coalition members are participating by net-meeting, telephone, e-mail, fax and e-mail instead of participating in meetings. These are welcomed methods of participation as well.

We are further facilitating this effort by allowing citizens to request a pin number by which they can have their comments posted without their names being attached.

This method of protecting privacy has been effective: please feel free to request your pin by writing the webmaster at admin@citizenscoalitiononline.com

More News

Coalition attacked over recall effort
Note: This Group did not facilitate the Recall effort against C. Guthrie

It has come to our attention that the Citizen's Coalition is frequently being misquoted and misrepresented by people hoping to further their own agendas. For them, it seems to be imperative to prevent the Citizen's Coalition from providing a voice for those -- unrepresented until now -- individuals within the regional community that have concerns and/or grievances, that are not being addressed.

The Citizen's Coalition is, in fact, the only vehicle available locally to citizens that wish to present matters that are of concern to them. Meetings are always open to the public, although reports have been logged concerning efforts made to dissuade people from attending, and others have reported that they are intimidated by 'veiled threats' mentioning their participation.

For these people, we have a newsletter to which they may subscribe, and alternative means for attending meetings that they may utilize.

Those that have questions are welcome to attend and are invited to have their questions addressed.

For this reason, the group frequently deals with the intentional misrepresentation of what the group is, who the participants might be, and what types of issues the group addresses.

Thus, it is necessary to use discernment and carefully assess any and all sources of information outside of this website that purport to know what the Citizen's Coalition is doing.

Such is the case with one public attack against the Coalition.

At a November meeting of the Town of Quartzsite, Councilman Carolyn Guthrie's father, angered over a recall effort he believed was done at the direction of the Citizen's Coalition, stood to criticize the Citizen's Coalition. Several people who recognized him and understood the reason for his diatribe -- including those that were not even members of the coalition -- told him to set down.

One of these individuals later attended a coalition meeting to apologize for having 'made the Coalition look bad.' That individual was not a member and has not been attending Coalition meetings before or since that incident.

Since the Town of Quartzsite meeting room does not facilitate a separation of the Citizen's Coalition members from the general public, this situation was confusing for onlookers, who had no way of telling the Coalition members from the general public. The Citizen's Coalition has never before been publicly attacked, and professionalism is a pre-requisite for members. Coalition members are to be consistently respectful of all persons, all of the time.

One idea presented to the Citizen's Coalition consisted of the development of an online forum for posting ideas and information pertinent to the area, inviting open dialogues designed to address areas of concern.

To utilize this forum, just send an e-mail to admin@citizenscoalitiononline.org and request a pin number. When you post, your pin number may be used instead of your name. No one but the administrator of this site need know your identity, and you can speak openly. We do not critique posters. Each group of postings will be posted according to subject matter and date.

The Citizen's Coalition membership strives to make all news and information pertinent to the Citizen's Coalition available via this website. If any news concerning the Citizen's Coalition is not found here, it may not be factual.

The Town of Quartzsite has political issues that are once again gaining notoriety. It is for this reason that the Citizen's Coalition is under attack. A careful review of the site or a telephone call to organizers will readily validate or refute any information being publicly disseminated. You can easily reach organizers through this site.

Be careful what you assume to be the truth: ask for substantiating information when dealing with rumors. We all owe each other a careful allegiance to fact finding and information before assuming anything to be viable information.

This site and those affiliated with this organization will not act in an improper manner, citing 'facts' that are nothing more than rumor -- or making statements about others that tend to be a 'blanket assessment' of the character of another.

We urge all members to be diligent in these matters and extremely careful in deciding what information to disseminate. Most communications are to be in writing so as to be easily recognized as a true and documented statement concerning the decisions, remarks or position of the Citizen's Coalition as a whole.

The Citizen's Coalition is not, as reported in one Quartzsite newspaper, a Quartzsite organization.

The group's focus is clearly stated on the front page of this site and the organization has not deviated from that purpose. It is, primarily, a tool -- and its focus is, primarily, educational.

The Citizen's Coalition -- as the title itself suggests -- is not owned, nor run, by any one person or persons, but is comprised of many individuals with diverse ideas. Its meetings are open and it is from this core group of individuals that committees are formed with more specific agendas. These committees are independent of the group, which simply facilitates meetings with an 'open forum' format.

Documentation is instrumental. We encourage the audio or video recording of all interviews and meetings so as to assure all parties of adequate, complete and unbiased representation of the conversations as they took place.

Further, we request that issues being considered are not handled on the basis of opinion, addressed via a 'hit and miss' methodology but -- instead -- are presented with an historical bent, properly and adequately researched, so that all aspects of the issue are properly documented.

The first meeting of the Citizen's Coalition was facilitated by several people all of whom invited their own friends and neighbors, business associates and acquaintances to attend. Not everyone discovered the group would fit their requirements: Not all returned at the next scheduled meeting. However, many that were not at the first meeting have since begun attending.

No one person nor any group may credit themselves with the development of the Citizen's Coalition. The need for the group was recognized by many persons and many others have joined since its inception.

The resulting group developed a mission statement that clearly stipulated the reasons behind the formation of and, ultimately, the functions of the Citizen's Coalition. That mission statement is the foundation for the goals and intent consistently stated throughout the pages of this site.

All members are considered equal and all have equal opportunity to attend meetings and to address the group.

Any person living in or effected by things happening throughout the region may freely join -- and also withdraw -- their membership as they deem necessary.

The decision to join the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce was presented and voted upon at an open meeting, and it was also agreed by the group's membership that they would join the Business Chamber as well -- although that group's leadership has not yet returned a decision concerning official membership to the Coalition.

The purpose of joining the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce was, as delineated at that meeting, a business decision borne of first discovering what the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce offered their member businesses. It was decided that the group would benefit from having access to those many services: including the facilitation of advertising and public relations campaigns, group mail services, fax and e-mail assistance, printing services, meeting planning and coordination as well as communications oversight.

Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce meeting planner Angelina Masales had, over the past months, assisted the Citizens Coalition simply as a service to the group -- which is a paying member of the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce. She did not join the staff until the group's last meeting, held at Taco Mio just this month. [November] We are pleased to welcome Angelina Masales and her many years of experience to the Citizen's Coalition.

She's served and continues to serve on the boards of many prominent organizations in Quartzsite including a stint on the Town of Quartzsite's Planning and Zoning Commission -- and she currently serves on a variety of community minded boards in and around the Quartzsite region, including that of Horizon Community Bank.

Ms. Masales brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table and we feel fortunate to now have her participation in assisting [in an official capacity] the Citizen's Coalition in being the best it can be, with professionally organized meetings and oversight of communications issues.

Ms. Masales is a citizen of this region and we are delighted she's chosen the Citizen's Coalition as a viable outlet for her considerable talent.

C. Richard Oldham has returned -- upon request -- to his previously held position as President of the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce, an elected position. Oldham held this same position 25 years ago when the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce directors worked to incorporate Quartzsite. He and Charles [Chuck] Busby then went on to serve as Mayor and Vice Mayor, with Oldham maintaining his position as Mayor for three terms. However, he does not -- nor has he held - any position of leadership within the Citizen's Coalition. He, like many others, is simply a member.

The Citizen's Coalition is not - at this time - planning or carrying out recalls. There are, at this time, recall petitions circulating throughout the community of Quartzsite

The Citizen's Coalition is a member organization of the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce. These two organizations remain separate entities and each have expressly different purposes as delineated by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Arizona Office of Tourism. Please contact Angelina Masales if further explanation is required.

The official position of the Arizona Office of Tourism pertinent to the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau is stated here.

The Citizen's Coalition welcomes the attendance of all press and media representatives and respectfully requests that it be considered imperative that anyone attempting to communicate the intent of the Citizen's Coalition attend meetings in order to facilitate accurate coverage.

The Citizen's Coalition Wednesday evening reiterated its request for an opportunity to elect a Mayor for the Town of Quartzsite. Meeting attendees left unsure of what the vote had been intended to entail and Town Manager/Town Attorney Dan Field was unavailable for comment Thursday and Friday, as was sitting Mayor Walter Akin.

Also as issue during the meeting was the town's approach to zoning, delineated in a statement by Century 21 Real Estate Agent Doug Guilford. Guilford discovered an unorthodox approach to zoning issues when he purchased a property in Quartzsite only to find the C2 zoning challenged by Quartzsite's zoning official.

Story on QUARTZSITENEWS.COM READ MORE

The Citizen's Coalition Wednesday evening, November 12, officially requested the appointment of a public information officer. The statement [click here] is a formal request citing the reasons for an official to disseminate information the Town of Quartzsite following a two-week period of weak or mishandled communications.

The Citizen's Coalition has formally requested the Town of Quartzsite allow an election to be held for the position of Mayor following the death of Charles [Chuck] Busby November 4, 2008.

The matter has yet to be addressed by the Council and, at present, Walter Akin is filling the position temporarily. The Vice Mayor position has been filled by Hal Lindsey.

Stories concerning the the newly organized Citizen's Coalition are online at QUARTZSITENEWS.TV: be sure to check out the issues already being addressed by the Coalition and contact them through the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce 928-927-5600 or the group's moderator, Dean Taylor, at 337-283-3650.

Regular Meetings

Bi-weekly meetings assist citizen's in addressing issues

The Citizen's Coalition meets the evening before the Quartzsite Town Council's regular meetings in order to discuss items scheduled for discussion by the council. [2nd and 4th Monday of each month.]

Members and citizens are encouraged to bring topics for consideration to these meetings, or to contact Committee members for issue oriented information.

These meetings are held at various locations. Call the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce for scheduled meetings and location information.
Committee Agendas

Special committees address specific concerns

Each committee is designed to address specific areas of concern for attendees.

If you have a specific issue you would like to see addressed by the Citizen's Coalition, bring all pertinent information to the General Meeting held bi-monthly or contact the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce to find the committee best suited to address your area of concern.

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