Illegal Town Council meeting in Quartzsite, Arizona

Illegal Town Council meeting in Quartzsite, Arizona

Gary Hunt
Outpost of Freedom
July 11, 2011

[Note: There have been many rumors flying around about the request for Mayor Ed Foster’s attendance at an illegal Town Council meeting, on Sunday, July 10, 2011.  To assure that what is occurring in Quartzsite, Arizona, doesn’t get blown out of proportion with rumors, speculation and falsehood, I contacted Mayor Foster, this afternoon, to make sure that the truth does come out, and unfounded rumors return to whence they came.  GH]

Mayor Ed Foster, of Quartzsite, Arizona, was invited to a meeting.  He chose to go to that meeting and felt that there was no duress involved in making him attend.

When he arrived at the Town Council chambers, he was standing just inside of the doorway when he heard the door shut and the lock click.  A photographer who had wanted to attend the meeting was barred by that action.

Dozens of Town residents held their ears to the door in an effort to hear what was transpiring in a meeting that the Mayor described as an illegal meeting, meeting only the quorum criteria, under state law, for a meeting.  No prior notice; closed meeting; no agenda — all of the normal requisites for openness in government had been dispensed with.

The results of the meeting, under the watchful eye of the Town Manager, Alex Taft, and Chief of Police, Jeff Gilbert, was that those two appointed entities have superseded the elected officials (people’s choice), and placed the Chief of Police in charge of the Town, as an emergency measure.

The nature of the emergency is said to be fear, based upon threats received by various members of the Council, Town employees, and officials.  When asked if any of the threats came from Quartzsite citizens, the answer was that the threats were coming from all over the country, and from other countries.  There were, apparently, no threats at all received from any local people.

Why, then, does the emergency warrant a change in Town government from elected officials to appointed, and, presumably, unable to be recalled, only fired?  But, then, if they are in charge, who can fire them?

The attention that the recent incident involving the ‘arrest’ of Jennifer Jones has gone viral.  It appears that the politicians in the capitol, Phoenix, in both the Governor’s and the State attorney’s offices are beginning to listen to what they had refused to acknowledge, in the past.  This may also be true of the La Paz County Sheriff, who had sent officers to Quartzsite, with instructions to not get involved.

Now, if we are, truly, a nation of self-governed people, then it behooves the rest of us to understand that if it can happen in Quartzsite, it can happen where you are — just as those in Virginia realized that what was happening in Massachusetts could also happen to them, 236 years ago.

So, in light of the Founder’s willingness to participate in support of others who found themselves under the yoke of despotic government, lend what you can by calling, or, at least, emailing, those involved in this charade of government tyranny.

(For some information regarding recent activity, see http://www.quartzsitemineshaft.com/)

Government officials with the capacity to support the citizens of Quartzsite – Ask them to aid Mayor Foster:

Governor Jan Brewer: (602) 542-4331
online email link: http://azgovernor.gov/contact.asp

State Attorney General: Tom Horne (602) 542-5025 — Media Contact for SAG: amy.rezzonico@azag.gov
Also, Open Meeting Law Complaint Form  If you feel you have been the victim of or have information of Violations of the Open Meeting Law please file a complaint with our office.

La Paz County Sheriff, Don Lowery: (928) 669-6141 email: dlowery@lapazsheriff.org

* * * *

Bad guys – let them know what you think:

Chief of Police, Jeff Gilbert: (928) 927-3889

Town Manager: Alexandra Taft:  (928) 927-3889

[Article on line at Illegal Town Council meeting in Quartzsite, Arizona]

4 Comments

  1. Hunt says:

    Some have asked about what the legal requirements are with regard to public meetings. The following is from the Arizona Revised Statutes (http://www.azleg.gov/ars/38/00431-01.htm)

    38-431.01. Meetings shall be open to the public

    A. All meetings of any public body shall be public meetings and all persons so desiring shall be permitted to attend and listen to the deliberations and proceedings. All legal action of public bodies shall occur during a public meeting.

    B. All public bodies shall provide for the taking of written minutes or a recording of all their meetings, including executive sessions. For meetings other than executive sessions, such minutes or recording shall include, but not be limited to:

    1. The date, time and place of the meeting.

    2. The members of the public body recorded as either present or absent.

    3. A general description of the matters considered.

    4. An accurate description of all legal actions proposed, discussed or taken, and the names of members who propose each motion. The minutes shall also include the names of the persons, as given, making statements or presenting material to the public body and a reference to the legal action about which they made statements or presented material.

    C. Minutes of executive sessions shall include items set forth in subsection B, paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of this section, an accurate description of all instructions given pursuant to section 38-431.03, subsection A, paragraphs 4, 5 and 7 and such other matters as may be deemed appropriate by the public body.

    D. The minutes or a recording of a meeting shall be available for public inspection three working days after the meeting except as otherwise specifically provided by this article.

    E. A public body of a city or town with a population of more than two thousand five hundred persons [Note: Quartzsite has 3,400 plus persons] shall:

    1. Within three working days after a meeting, except for subcommittees and advisory committees, post on its website, if applicable, either:

    (a) A statement describing the legal actions taken by the public body of the city or town during the meeting.

    (b) Any recording of the meeting.

    2. Within two working days following approval of the minutes, post approved minutes of city or town council meetings on its website, if applicable, except as otherwise specifically provided by this article.

    3. Within ten working days after a subcommittee or advisory committee meeting, post on its website, if applicable, either:

    (a) A statement describing legal action, if any.

    (b) A recording of the meeting.

    F. All or any part of a public meeting of a public body may be recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or camera or any other means of sonic reproduction, provided that there is no active interference with the conduct of the meeting.

    G. The secretary of state for state public bodies, the city or town clerk for municipal public bodies and the county clerk for all other local public bodies shall conspicuously post open meeting law materials prepared and approved by the attorney general on their website. A person elected or appointed to a public body shall review the open meeting law materials at least one day before the day that person takes office.

    H. A public body may make an open call to the public during a public meeting, subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body. At the conclusion of an open call to the public, individual members of the public body may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the public body, may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. However, members of the public body shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during an open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action.

    I. A member of a public body shall not knowingly direct any staff member to communicate in violation of this article.

    J. Any posting required by subsection E of this section must remain on the applicable website for at least one year after the date of the posting.

  2. Hunt says:

    This was posted on Sons of Liberty Riders, Arizona State Group, in response to my article:

    Thank you for posting Mike and keeping us informed. According to our friend in Quartzsite:

    The city council put rules in place for the meetings. #1) do not remove the mic from the stand #2) do not make any personal insults #3) do not turn and address the public directly. Now, I’m not saying that these should have been allowed, but Jennifer Jones knew about them when she went to the podium. That’s what the councilman was addressing when he said she was breaking the rules. Nothing she did justified her ass being dragged out of the room and it’s despicable that the cops ignored the mayor! Should have been handled completely different. Jennifer does have another video posted on youtube of a city code enforcer illegally entering her property. There is definitely some clear corruption going on and it’s a good think it has national attention instead of it continuing.

    I’ve been to many city council meetings and I can tell you, there are rules. It’s how order is established. Quartzsite city council meetings have been heated for quite some time. They didn’t tell her she couldn’t speak, they just gave guidelines on how to conduct herself at the meeting. I applaud Jennifer for what she is trying to do, but on the other hand, we all need to respect the rules. For instance, WBC has the right to free speech, however, AZ gave them rules as to when they could speak and where at funerals here. See where I’m going with this? Imagine a city council meeting where anything goes…a rambling citizen with a mic, screaming at whomever they please for as long as they like…that’s why we need order.

    It seems the city council is out of control holding illegal meetings. If there was ever justification for an overhaul, this would be it!
    by Wendy Schops, AZ President

  3. Hunt says:

    Wendy makes a very valid point regarding maintaining order and abiding by the rules.

    She fails, however, to look at the other edge of that same sword. The Mayor is responsible for the conduct of the meeting. If any council member can order the cops to remove someone for violation rules, and if the policeman doesn’t recognize the authority of the Mayor to make the call to remove someone, both being officials of the city, and obliged to be obedient to the rules of order, as well.

    It is appropriate to correct someone, if they err. Those doing the correcting, however, should be held to a higher standard. It would seem that a warning from the Mayor, once he got the police to recognize his authority (Oh! He never did get them to recognize his authority), he may have been going to respond to what was said. I will ask him, next time I speak with him, about the approval of the rules, which leads to the next point.

    The remaining question is whether the rules were properly approved by council, or, whether, as Jennifer Jones said, before the microphone was taken from her, they were not properly approved. If rules are made arbitrarily (not in accordance with the law or ordinances), or are printed and passed out, without proper approval, are they really rules?

    There is little doubt that Jones had something to say. The handling of silencing her, however, speaks much more loudly than her failure to give up the microphone when the Mayor told her that she had the floor.

  4. Gene Forte says:

    ALERT: WHAT IS TAKING PLACE IN QUARTZITE IS THE SAME THING THAT IS TAKING PLACE IN MERCED COUNTY CALIFORNIA. THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE NEWSPAPERS IN MERCED COUNTY ARE INVOLVED IN COVERING THE STORY UP UP FOR LEON PANETTA WHO IS NOW SECRETARY OF DEFENSE.

    CITIZENS OF QUARTZITE PLEASE CONTACT ME, GENE FORTE AT 209-894-5040, OR EMAIL ME AT GENEFORTE@BADGERFLATS.COM. GO TO THE WEBSITE BADGERFLATS.COM FOR AND FIND OUT WHAT MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS, THE THIRD LARGEST PAPER IN THE NATION IS COVERING UP FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS.
    DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE PRESS IN ARIZONA WHO WILL ABSOLULTEY TURN THE STORY AROUND ON YOU WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT.

    OUR MEDIA IS IN LEAGUE WITH THE GOVERNMENT TO CONCEAL THEIR CORRUPTION STARTING IN THE SMALLEST CITIES SUCH AS LOS BANOS AND QUARTZITE.

    What is taking place with Murdoch pales in comparison to what is taking place here is the United States with McClatchy Newspapers and Dean Singleton’s Media News concealing government corruption. The covering up of public official corruption and public officials not holding each other accountable starts with their smallest newspapers in every town across the nation.

    My name is Gene Forte, publisher of the Badger Flats Gazette and I have the proof to show that the police, newspapers, the public officials, and the courts in Merced County and Monterey County, for the benefit of Leon Panetta our Secretary of Defense is covering up that I am being prosecuted for exposing the corruption they are involved in.

    Rupert Murdoch pulled together a huge conference in Pebble Beach California (Monterey County) and sat around with Leon Panetta, now our Secretary of Defense and a number of other government leaders of foreign countries, and Hollywood celebrities.
    Snipers were sitting on top of the Pebble Beach lodge and the media was blacked out (supposedly). What in the heck do you think they talked about other than control over the masses via propaganda spewed out for the government by the media companies?

    When I exposed that a number of judges that were friends and part of Panetta’s power base in Monterey (where he comes from) were fixing trials, his son’s law firm was involved etc., The Monterey Herald printed Sunday front page 2,000 word article with false statements of facts about me, then weeks later printed a small three sentence correction saying that they had made a mistake due to court records buried in the pages of the paper.

    Panetta called me (you can listen to a portion of the phone call at my website and asked if I could just move on and forget about exposing the newspaper he then wrote for, The Monterey Herald, and the courts partnered together to cover up their crimes by maligning me.
    I stayed on them. I put seven judges into retirement. The newspapers didn’t print a word about it.
    Right now, I have McClatchy Newspapers and the Merced County gang of corrupt public officials behind the eight ball. When I busted a Mayor for taking bribes, and the DA for siphoning money out of the Underground Storage Tank Fund all hell broke loose.

    I received death threats from the Mayor that were covered up by the DA and the Police Department. I was falsely arrested in a courtroom hallway by a mad dog Sheriff. The DA asked if I would forget about it and not sue them. I told them to go to hell.

    The local paper owned by McClatchy didn’t print a word about it, while they printed commentaries saying that I was a “known racist” while knowing that my wife is Chinese American and my best friend for forty years and best man at my wedding was an African American. The Mayor was African American and told people that he knew for a fact that I was a dangerous member of the KKK, which of course I am not.
    When a Grand Jury investigation was started in April 2011, about the false arrests and the death threats cover up it was terminated at the direction of the DA, and the County Counsel, who were under investigation with McClatchy Newspapers.

    The DA and County counsel committed grand jury tampering.

    Now, the Merced PD is not forwarding the criminal investigation report that shows the jury was tampered upward to other law enforcement because they do not want it to be seen by law enforcement outside of the county.

    All the while, the newspapers throughout California are not printing a word about this story.
    The story itself could be the start of an American Revolution that would actually bust the back of the link between government and the media that keeps us under control.

    You can go to BadgerFlats.com and listen to the recording of a Stanislaus County Sheriff that came forward on June 28th, 2011. The Deputy says that I and being falsely prosecuted, the arrest reports contain fabrications of the truth and outright lies. The Deputy say the public officials feel threatened due to my investigative reporting and obviously have dirty laundry they do not want exposed.
    The Deputy says the only thing that is going to get these public officials held accountable is public opinion and that we can’t go to the newspapers because they are involved.

    Please, I need your help to do so. It is not just me crying wolf, there is now a law enforcement officer from another county that is standing up and verifying the crimes being committed against me that are being ignored by even the FBI. Forward this email to as many people as you can.

    It is far worse than the Murdoch situation and it has gone beyond what is happening now in Quartzite because I have the evidence that the Merced County court themselves and the FBI are closing their eyes to what is taking place to bury me.

    Thank you.
    Gene Forte (Geneforte@badgerflats.com)
    209-894-5040
    BadgerFlats.com

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