CHILLED VERDE: Katie Bolger and her Pima County Green Party got sliced in Superior Court trying to gain permission to vote in relevant primary elections on Sept. 10. The Greens, who rode Peter Hormel’s laudable drive for County Attorney in 2000, gained ballot status in Pima County. Now they are the victims of that success. They cannot, unlike Greens in other Arizona counties where Greens lack ballot status, vote in Democratic or other primaries.
The Bolgeristas are Raulistas. They wanted Judge Paul Tang to carve new law out of the voter-approved measure that allowed those outside recognized parties to jump in the primary of their choice. They really wanted Tang, a Republican, to allow many of the county’s 1,786 Greens who are registered or will register to vote in Congressional District 7 to help Raul Grijalva in that still crowded field.
After a protracted hearing last week, Tang saw the Greens’ paradox, but indicated from the bench and before drafting a brief ruling that he was not about to add chile verde to Arizona election recipes.
STAR-HIGH TAXES: In its apology last week for Pima County, the Arizona Daily Star jumbled property tax categories to help justify why Pima County has the highest property taxes in Arizona. The Star, noting the trifling 1 percent, 66-cents-a-month cut in the county’s secondary tax, reported that those taxes are used to repay voter-approved bonds for such things as road projects. Wrong. The road projects contained in the county’s messed-up $350 million bond approved by voters in 1997 are financed by the county’s share of gasoline taxes.
MEANS TEST: Ward 6 Councilman Fred Ronstadt, known for his brutish behavior toward some political opponents, may have hit a new low last week during a public hearing on the city’s proposed budget.
James Modiset, a city garbage collector and chair of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, harshly berated four members of the City Council for not supporting higher salaries for blue-collar workers. He alleged a management fiasco at City Hall was taking food off his table and denying him the opportunity to put away enough savings for his daughter’s college fund.
Ronstadt responded by later asking City Manager James Keene what Modiset’s salary would be in the coming year. Before Keene could answer, Councilman José Ibarra called Ronstadt immature for the asking the question, saying it was improper to go after a speaker personally and vindictively.
Councilman Steve Leal pointed out that asking for personal financial information about speakers would have a chilling effect on democracy. Even Vice-Mayor Carol West, who’s usually has Ronstadt’s back, diplomatically tried to tell Fred to shut up. Ronstadt insisted he just wanted to get the facts on the table.
For the record, the council majority du jour of Ronstadt, West, Councilwoman Kathleen Dunbar and Mayor Bob Walkup didn’t side with Modiset’s position. And, by the way, his annual salary as an equipment operator for the city is $36,274.
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR: Paul Felix, dumped from TUSD because of allegations that he sexually harassed his secretary and then participated in an official cover-up, has got to be wondering where his friend Joel Ireland is. Felix has been the Rev. Ireland’s lapdog, yet Ireland could do nothing more than vote against a motion June 27 to cut Felix loose. Where was the substitute motion to keep Felix? Now Felix has realized that the Rev. Ireland chose TUSD’s embattled legal beagle Jane Butler over him.
The sting is hardly over. Carolyn Sebastian, the woman in the Felix matter, has filed a claim against the district for $500,000. She has Steve Weiss, the tough and smart lawyer who has won money from TUSD for people who were dead in the water. Rather than settle this case now, TUSD’s plan is to farm it out to outside suits, probably from DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy (they need a new wing on that mausoleum that TUSD taxpayers built) to run up the meter before doing the inevitable: paying Sebastian.
ECONO-SUPE: Poor economy, campaign overload, and cold feet from all the bad press from Pima County’s hyper-political road construction contracts have shrunk contributions in the special Democratic primary election for the Board of Supervisors in District 5. Appointed, er, anointed incumbent Richard Elias reported last week a paltry $4,380 for the period that ended May 31. He owes $1,520, all but $26 to his dad at Old Pueblo Printers.
Challenger Frank Felix, a former state senator and former UA administrator, raised $7,445 and has $3,000 on hand, according to the reports filed last week.
Those amounts are just tiny fractions to the banks raised by others vying on a short-course special election for supervisor. Democrat Dan Eckstrom raised many times that in one month in 1988. Republican Sugar Ray Carroll had a year’s head start when he filed his first report in 1998 and he was swimming in campaign cash. Still, it was no secret that Raúl Grijalva was going to abandon the District 5 seat to run for Congress. Either these boys have stashed the cash, or we’re looking at a low-budget snoozer.
BACAL RELIEF FUND: Big shot Democrats Martin and Eva Bacal sent a recent and desperate plea for money for their daughter, Pima County Justice of the Peace Susan Bacal.
The begging preceded the deadline for candidates wishing to cross them and Judge Susie. And now Judge Susie is unopposed for a second full term in central Justice Precinct 8 to which Democrats controlling the Board of Supervisors initially appointed her.
The solicitation was out of bounds because it asked county employees to break county law and risk termination. The Board of Supervisors, never a bunch to turn down any money from anyplace, miraculously voted in 1992 to ban political contributions from county employees to candidates for any county office.
Still, the Bacal beg made its way to many county employees, mostly lawyers listed in various Bar directories.
You’d think Mr. Democrat, Martin Bacal, his wife, a former member of the TUSD board (that says a mouthful) and now member of the Arizona Attorney General’s staff, and their little Judge Susie would know better.
Too bad the county employees were too cagey to fall for this mooch. She did haul in nearly a grand from some lawyers in private practice.
Judge Susie leads a charmed life. She has plenty of time to work out to be an accomplished athlete. She has plenty of time to sling her robe over her arm, walk over to Superior Court to catch more interesting drama while chuckling and playing with her hair. Only 37, Judge Susie has been on the bench, including time at City Court, for more than eight years.
She and Daddy and Mommy were quite offended in 1998, when word of her 1993 shoplifting arrest finally spilled out and was reported in the Arizona Daily Star. Judge Susie was busted at Fry’s, at East Grant and North First Avenue, by an off-duty Tucson cop working security. As she strolled, Susie gave herself a quick makeover by helping herself to some Sun-in for that hair she’s always playing with. She returned the bottle to the shelf and, according to the cop report, switched prices on four containers of macaroni and potato salad and then grabbed three packages of grape-flavored Kool-Aid.
When the Star’s Poli Corella quizzed Judge Susie about it prior to the 1998 election, she said: “I had an attorney, so I had very little to do with it.”
Indeed. Heavy-hitter James Stuehringer was brought in to make a quick and quiet deal.
This article appears in Jul 11-17, 2002.
It enraged me to learn of Susan Bacal’s arrest for shoplifting. The sticky fingered judge is presently trying to make me do 13 drug classes even though the case I had in her court was dropped in a plea and the connected case in Judge Paytons court was closed in 2008 by his pro-temp. I see this as abuse of power, judicial misconduct, and false imprisonment. Unfortunately neither my parents or I can afford a lawyer. It must be nice to have parents with political pull and a hudge bank account.
I guess because I’m not a cop or UofA Professor she will not show me any lenientcy even though my case is officially closed.
She should be disbarred from the legal profession and thrown off tbe bench for being a theif and a hypocrite .
I just got my ballot for her reelection. Will have to check in to see that she is honorable. Every judge should follow the same standards. No judge is any better then those of us “average Americans” but for some reason, power goes to their heads. What a damn shame.
Yes it is a shame to know that judges do abuse their power that bitch Susan but I should be disbarred for being a thief a hypocrite and abusing her power I’m not the only one who has been in her courtroom when she had refused to view evidence showing otherwise of her convictions stating that there was no damage done to the door even brought in the alleged victim who also stated that there was no damage done to the apartment in the so-called criminal damage domestic violence not to mention how she miraculously keep getting these cops out of these charges when there are witnesses and evidence state otherwise to what her verdict is I would like a full investigation into her dealings and workings obviously he’s a thief and a liar and I quote unquote she likes to be right I wish there was somebody in the attorney general’s office who would look into this matter and have that lying thief disbarred from the bench she does what she wants to instead of what the law states she should not be above the law she should be judged and have the same dealings with the law as every other citizen I am appalled and furious not just with my case but in the cases of her letting an ex police officer be free from charges of assault when they were five witnesses who saw the situation and that bitch still decided to drop charges against the cop who was also a coach for the Northwest Broncos it also upsets me to know but there are also city workers who have filed charges against police officers for sexual harassment and misconduct and she also let those officers walk away scott free all of course in retrospect of what witnesses and evidence shows that’s abuse of power and she should be disbarred and fired if there is anybody else out there reading this who has also had to deal with the unfair rulings of Susan BACal the dishonorable judge in Tucson I asked that you come forward so that we can start a petition to get her disbarred and fired from being a judge and having the effect to ruin somebody else’s life or have them locked up for years when she was busted for the same thing being a thief and a liar.