The Fountain Hills Town Council adopted its tentative budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year on a 6-1 vote May 7.
The council decided to set the budget at the maximum expenditure amount allowed under law, $45.1 million.
“Fountain Hills need to save some money and do more road repairs,” Councilman Allen Skillicorn said. “Last night the Liberal Ladies majority of council refused to cut just $1 from their ‘spend to max’ 2025 budget.”
Skillicorn, a Republican, suggested cutting 3% or $1.35 million from that budget to fund road repairs. The motion failed to receive a second. Skillicorn made a follow-up motion to cut the budget by just $1. This motion was seconded but failed three votes to four.
Voting to cut the budget were council members Gerry Freidel, Hannah Toth, and Skillicorn.
Mayor Ginny Dickey and council members Peggy McMahon, Sharron Grzybowski, and Brenda Kalivianakis voted against cutting just $1 from the budget.
“Four big spending Liberal Ladies voted for the maximum under law budget and could not cut just $1,” Skillicorn said. “If we cannot cut the budget by just $1 to fix roads, one wonders how Dickey, McMahon, Grzybowski, and Kalivianakis plan to fix our roads.”
Fountain Hills is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona with a population of roughly 24,000.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
The town council of Fountain Hills tabled a proposal for a policy prohibiting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) discrimination during its meeting on Tuesday.
The council overwhelmingly voted to table the proposal, 6-1, with Councilman Allen Skillicorn, the introducer of the policy item, being the sole vote for it. Vice Mayor Brenda Kalivianakis led a motion to suspend the proposal awaiting further guidance from the state legislature, who has similar legislation in the works currently.
Kalivianakis’ motion occurred after Hannah Toth expressed confusion over town members’ opposition to the policy, because it accomplished the main objective of DEI: preventing discrimination based on race, color, and ethnicity. Toth suggested tabling the policy to allow the state legislature to act on a similar bill.
Skillicorn warned that the state legislature was deadlocked due to Governor Katie Hobbs vetoing nearly all legislation containing Republican or conservative substance.
The policy would prohibit the town from hiring or contracting a DEI officer, as well as prohibit preferential treatment or discrimination against an individual on the basis of race or ethnicity as a condition of hiring, promoting, or contracting.
Further, the policy would prevent DEI teachings on affirming concepts like unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neopronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, and racial or sexual privilege.
In the agenda item for the policy, town staff clarified that the town had no plans to create an office of DEI administration, and that the town adheres to all state and federal nondiscrimination laws for hiring, promoting, disciplinary measure, and terminations.
The town further noted that it would be required to collect and report race or ethnicity and gender demographics to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since the number of town employees has exceeded 100.
Those who spoke against the policy included town council candidate Clayton Corey. Corey claimed DEI was “the right thing to do morally” that would contribute to the town’s financial and social well-being.
Among those who spoke in favor of the policy was Goldwater Institute’s Austin VanDerHeyden, who cautioned against DEI policies by citing the controversial Digital Government team within the town of Gilbert. The Goldwater Institute assisted in drafting the policy.
In a press release, Skillicorn condemned the tabling as opposition to DEI discrimination. Skillicorn described his fellow council members and those supportive of DEI discrimination as “cultural marxists.”
“Last night the cultural marxists won. We had the opportunity to prevent DEI discrimination,” said Skillicorn. “We had the opportunity to protect the taxpayers from woke bureaucrats. We let down the people of Arizona and Fountain Hills.”
Kalivianakis is a longtime Republican — a member of the Fountain Hills Republican Club and former Republican National Committee legal team member — and has generally been supportive of right-leaning policies on issues like free speech and support for Israel. Kalivianakis voted in favor of banning future mask and vaccine mandates last year.
So glad Tucker Carlson is back on Twitter. Infact, I'm very happy I'm on Twitter, I just set up an account with free speech on the horizon.
