Tucson Weekly: The Skinny (May 14

Skinny AMPHI'S STALLED CALL: The story so far: Last fall, some parents in the Amphitheater School District began pushing the school board to reinstate the "call-to-the-audience" segment at its meetings. Somewhere along the line, the board had quit letting the public speak on the record at meetings unless the subject was on the board's agenda.
One of the chief organizers was Diana Boros, a mom in the district who went to the trouble of collecting signatures from nearly 500 Amphi parents in support of call-to-the-audience. She also met with both daily newspapers, which ran editorials supporting Boros' populist crusade.
Board President Mike Bernal told Boros he supported call-to-the-audience and promised he would put the item on the agenda so she could present her signatures to the board and speak about the subject.
But then Bernal started stalling; months went by with no action because he said the board was too busy with the pygmy owl crisis.
"I've gotten a promise here, a promise there, and then somebody's out of town and we can't do it for this reason or that reason," Boros says.
But then a funny thing happened: The group Parents Committed to Kids' Education, a.k.a. the Yellow-Ribbon gang, turned in a set of signed petitions attacking board member Nancy Young Wright for her failure to support building the high school in prime pygmy owl habitat. Oddly, that petition was immediately entered into the board's official record under correspondence.
After seeing how the petitions critical of Wright had been entered into the record at the earliest possible opportunity, Boros admits she felt kind of "stupid" for trusting Bernal to follow through with his promise.
So she decided to send in her petition and enter them as correspondence as well. On April 15, she sent in the petitions and requested that they be entered into the correspondence segment of the next meeting.
But--surprise!--at that board meeting, on April 28, there was no correspondence at all before the board.
"It was completely ignored," Boros says.
When Wright asked during the meeting what had happened to the correspondence, Bernal said they would take up the matter at the next board meeting.
He wrote a letter to Boros promising the same thing: "The petitions will be included in the correspondence section of the board agenda for the May 12, 1998, board meeting."
"Your request to place call-to-the-audience on the board agenda for discussion has not gone unheeded," he added a few paragraph later, "but before that happens, I feel it is necessary to discuss the issue with established advisory and constituent groups. We established these groups to give advice and input on issues facing the district. When the task of collecting their opinions is complete, then I will feel we have a balanced perspective."
Funny how that kind of lengthy study and balanced perspective didn't figure into the equation when the Yellow-Ribbon moms mailed in their petition--but they're tight with the Amphi administration, which might explain the different policy.
Encouraged by Bernal's letter, Boros did a little grass-roots organizing, mailing about 500 letters and racking up a steep postal bill.
"I sent a letter from myself to everyone who had signed petition, saying 'They finally took it, so please, if you're interested in preserving your one last right, come out,' " she says.
The bombshell arrived this last Monday, May 11, one day before the board meeting. In a letter dated May 7 and postmarked May 9, Bernal informed Boros the item wouldn't be heard after all.
"This letter is to inform you that the petitions you submitted regarding call-to-the-audience will be removed from the correspondence section of the May 12, 1998, governing board meeting," Bernal wrote. "I am aware that this information contradicts an earlier letter sent to you."
Bernal said the delay was unavoidable because the board had a lot of business to attend to in executive session (translation: behind closed doors) relating to the pygmy owl lawsuit and other matters. He told her he'd rescheduled the discussion for a special 6 p.m. board meeting on June 16--at an unusual time after the end of the school year.
"At first I was angry," Boros says. "I was very disappointed, because I thought, 'This is truly messing with politics. I knew it existed, but I didn't think it was going to hit me. But after I did some soul-searching, I decided I know in my heart that people really want this right given back and if I have to wait, I'll wait."
Not that a public show of support for a call-to-the-audience segment is likely to make much of a difference at Amphi. Recently, the district has been working with Donn Williams, a former Amphi staffer who now works for the Arizona School Boards Association, to "streamline" the district's policies. Williams has told several folks that part of his "reform" includes eliminating call-to-the-audience.
Bernal, meanwhile, recently announced to a group he was looking forward to winning another term this November. He certainly has a platform to run on: I'm the guy who broke my word and took away your right to address the board!
HOME SWEET DOWNTOWN: So if La Placita is converted into luxury apartments, what are they going to do with all that encapsulated asbestos in downtown's multi-storied, ersatz Hispanic hodgepodge landmark? Maybe they could team up with the Miller-Pitt Building owners and hold a seminar on asbestos removal.
Overall, however, we think it's a great idea for La Placita to go mostly residential. In the long run, it'll put more cash in downtown coffers than building a stupid multiplex theatre that's bound to go belly up. In fact, if the downtown boosters who are pushing for that ill-considered theatre will remember, La Placita itself sported a multi-screen movie house in the 1970s. Didn't work then, won't work now.
D4 DELIGHTS: The Republican primary isn't until September, but sparks are already flying in the race for the District 4 seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
Incumbent Ray Carroll is facing two challengers, Tucson Unified School District Board member Brenda Even and accountant Ken Marcus. The special election is necessary because Carroll was appointed to the office in 1997, when Brenda's husband John died just months after taking office. When the supes picked Carroll instead of Brenda for the seat, she vowed to win at the ballot box.
A few months back, Even sent out copies of her nomination petitions to precinct committeemen in District 4, requesting them to gather signatures to get her on the ballot.
Apparently, however, the precinct folks had better things to do, because now Brenda is paying people to gather signatures on her behalf. Some Skinny spies in Green Valley spotted some mercenaries gathering sigs for both Brenda and the proposed open-primary petition--not the sort of thing that goes over real big with the party faithful Brenda will be courting in what promises to be a hard-fought primary.
Carroll, meanwhile, is gathering his own signatures--perhaps a little too aggressively. At a recent event, he assured some District 4 voters it was OK for them to sign more than one nominating petition, leading to an argument with Marcus campaign manager Scott Kirtley, who confronted Carroll when he spotted the incumbent approaching voters who had signed Marcus petitions.
A check with the county's election division confirms that Kirtley was right in this case. Voters can sign only one petition; if they sign two, the most recent one counts. And if you get two on the same day, neither counts, so it doesn't make much sense to poach 'em at political events.
Carroll has also recently started communicating with the voters at taxpayer expense. Last month, he sent his first "Community Update," which filled voters in on transportation, health, environmental and ethics issues in front of the board. It also boasted about Ray's accomplishments, including his idea for a shuttle on Mount Lemmon, his support for incorporation, and his work on developing an ethics committee.
Hey, we think it's a great idea to mail info to your constituents--but when you wait until six months before the election, it sure smells more like campaigning than communicating.
The Marcus campaign has been doing some communicating of its own. A recent fundraising letter, signed by Kirtley and Wendy Marcus (the candidate's wife, who is also chairman of the campaign), busts on Carroll for switching parties and picking Scott Egan as an aide.
"The current temporary appointee has switched parties many times, becoming a Republican most recently in 1994," the letter reads. "His lack of political experience showed when he chose an aide who was formerly registered in the Communist party!"
Good Lord! There's probably a Red cell on the 11th floor!
The Marcus campaign should probably be careful about rooting out Commies, especially since one of Marcus' biggest supporters is Nancy Young Wright, one of The Skinny's favorite lefties in the valley. There's no reason for Egan to be ashamed of his past political affiliations, and he makes a good aide, especially since he knows how the game is played and he's not in the corrupt establishment's pocket.
IN ABSENTIA: How is it that Malcolm A. Escalante, under fire and recall threat as a member of the Indian Oasis-Baboquivari School board, lives 55 miles outside his district? Escalante was elected to the troubled district board in Sells four years ago with a Sells voter registration address. For more than a year he has lived in the 300 block of East Mohave in Tucson. Apparently he's found safe haven in --where else? The rogue district of Amphitheater. What's the matter, Malcolm? Sells schools not good enough for your three kids? Tacky, particularly from a judge.
But then again judges have shown amazing creativity in allowing politicians to live outside their various districts. One of the greatest ripoffs this decade was pulled off by City Councilman Roger "the Dodger" Sedlmayr. Not only did Sedlmayr not live in his eastside Ward 4, but he didn't even live in the city.
Just like Sedlmayr, Escalante shows disdain for the voters and taxpayers. He should resign.
CEMENTHEADS ON THE MARCH: The craven Arizona Legislature, urged on by the greedy Growth Lobby, has passed legislation greatly restricting local jurisdictions from controlling and restraining growth. Under the cover of property rights, they have essentially extended mere government-granted privileges into entitlements that cannot be reversed. While lawmakers claimed they were only prohibiting county supervisors from "downzoning" property, the legislation actually goes quite a bit further--it eliminates any future overlay zones, such as the current Pima County buffers ordinance. The bill, signed by Governor Jane Dee Hull, will also preclude many other options currently under consideration by the Pima County Board of Supes, ranging from native plant ordinances to grading restrictions.
Now we know why Supervisor Mike Boyd wanted to stall those ordinances through a "study" session--because in 90 days, when the law goes into effect, they'll be as toothless as the current ones. When it comes to caring about the environment, Boyd continues to talk a good game, but he's just about as phony as they come.
And speaking of phony, some state senators who have also pretended to be "environmentally sensitive" voted in favor of this latest outrage. Republican Ann Day, who has her eyes on Boyd's seat in 2000, voted aye, locking in future support from the Growth Lobby. And Democrat Ruth Solomon, who's rumored to be looking at the mayor's job in 1999, has also figured out what makes local politics run. Both of them should be ashamed of themselves for this disgraceful vote.
We've always said the reason Republicans don't win often in Tucson elections is that the Growth Lobby has figured out it's easier and cheaper to buy Democrats.
Environmentalists and neighborhood types should remember how they were shafted by Day and Solomon next time they see their names on a ballot.
CRIMINAL POLICIES: Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall recently told one of our local dailies that, "We're going to see an explosion of violence like we've never seen before."
LaWall, who made her dire prediction at a forum with other law-enforcement officials, bases her alarm on the "recent population boom that puts record numbers of kids on the street."
In other words, as many of us have known for some time, higher taxes aren't the only price of all this wonderful growth. As cities get bigger, the crime rate increases. It's nice to know that law-enforcement pros recognize that fact--now when will the rest of those in charge try doing something about it?
GOING POSTAL: Pima County GOP leaders are apparently so eager to suck up to an incumbent governor that recently they mailed the announcement of the opening of Jane Dee Hull's Tucson headquarters. They even used the local party's bulk-rate permit (#3) and return address.
That'd be fine if it had always been standard procedure, but the local GOP overlords have denied other candidates use of party mailing privileges before. And in this case, Hull isn't even officially nominated yet, faces a primary opponent (although a weak one), and the filing deadline hasn't passed, so there could be someone else thinking about it.
So local party officials let Hull, who has about $1 million in the bank, save a few bucks by not buying her own mail permit. Normally this type of pre-primary endorsement requires at least some official discussion.
MORON CAM: One of the kids got ahold of the remote control the other day and accidentally turned to Channel 9 during one of KGUN-TV's bland hour-long newscasts just in time to see the station's latest amazing newsgathering tool: the Toddlercam.
The Toddlercam consisted of strapping a camera to the head of a small child so we could get a look at the world the way a kid sees it--presumably to get an idea of how hazardous the world can be to a child. (Frankly, we think strapping a camera to a kid's head is pretty hazardous in and of itself.)
Guess you have to figure out some way to compete with KOLD-TV's Newschopper 13....
BENCH PRESS: TUSD board candidate Rosalie Lopez has left the Tohono O'odham bench. A judge in Sells for more than a year, Lopez resigned April 27 to concentrate on the school board race and spend more time with her family. The move was not unexpected--she had told supporters and friends in March that the commute was robbing her of time at home.

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