Molever the Malevolent 2

Loren Molover, obviously hasn’t heeded the Mark Twain admonition: “Never miss an opportunity to shut up.”

Or the time-tested axiom, “Better to keep your mouth shut and let others think you are an idiot, than to open it and remove all doubt.”

In his Scottsdale Republic column today, Molever whines that the four people toward whom he was abusive, that they are a, “small, concerted, organized faction.” Funny, that sounds like Molever, Rick Kidder, Joe Galli, John Hink, and Wendy Springborn.

I love Molever’s comment:

I, for one, have never objected to their opinions. Rather, I value the diversity of opinions.

He may value “opinions,” but Molever clearly doesn’t value facts or the truth. He dismisses the attempts of Jim Heitel, Howard Myers, Ned O’Hearn, and Copper Phillips to have a fact-based discussion about city planning issues as “irrelevant.”

As an astute ScottsdaleTrails reader has oft observed, Mr. Molever is entitled to his “opinion,” but not his own set of facts.

You should take him up on his offer and review the meeting audio where he rants and raves at the four who resigned. I’ll remind you that he was railing against fellow task force members who simply wanted to correct the minutes from the previous meeting before approving them! You’ll have no doubt why Loren Molever was once being prosecuted by the City of Scottsdale for criminal intimidation.

Ex-task-force members have been disingenuous

Group tried to hijack General Plan process

Out of 25 members of the city’s 2014 General Plan Task Force, four members recently quit when their methods and motives were called into question by some, including me, one of the volunteer task-force members. Then, these four began an effort to discredit the process and, most assuredly, they will ultimately use their own resigna­tions to try to discredit the plan itself. Contrary to the impression being generated by these four, they are not a majority of the task-force members being questioned by a few. Rather, they are a small minority being questioned by the many.

And, despite their protestations, these four were not mistreated in any way. Contrary to their hollow claims — belied by the record of these recorded meetings to which anyone can listen — they were not disrespected. And, they were not forced to resign. They quit when they didn’t get their way. Plain and simple. This concerted resignation would be nothing more than an example of immaturity if it were not more likely an insidious step in a malicious course of action to undermine the General Plan now in progress.

The fantasy these folks and their few, but vocal, supporters have promul­gated is as imaginative as any Tolkien story. When complaining about the comments in opposition to their scheme, they use words like “tirade” and “tantrum” when those who have attended the meetings know that these claims are not merely false, but ridicu­lous. I find it difficult to understand how one could make such a claim and then look into the eyes of those present who know the truth.

The reality is that these four are a small, concerted, organized faction, who simply met with opposition. And, I, for one, have never objected to their opinions. Rather, I value the diversity of opinions.

But, everyone should be opposed and appalled by their disingenuous at­tempts to hijack the process, bogging it down with submissions of “white pa­pers” consisting of self-serving opi­nions and arguments, peppered with enough (often irrelevant) facts to allow them to feign surprise when anyone questioned either these positions or their efforts to wrestle the process toward their minority views in a trans­parent effort to micro-manage our City Council.

Meanwhile, the remaining task-force volunteers will work in good faith to prepare a workable General Plan for our City.

Loren Molever is a member of the Scottsdale General Plan Task Force.