Tucson Weekly: The Skinny (May 28

Skinny TOO MUCH INITIATIVE? Statewide, at least half a dozen groups are circulating initiative petitions in hopes of placing various issues on the November ballot. To make it onto the ballot, the organizations each must gather a minimum of 112,000 valid signatures by July 2.
As in prior years, most groups floating these initiatives are employing paid petition passers, because, thanks to arizona's exploding population growth the number of signatures required to place an issue on the ballot has become so large it's almost impossible to do it with volunteers alone.
There's one problem this year: The for-profit firms that collect signatures efficiently are having big trouble finding enough employees willing to circulate petitions. The economy is apparently good enough at the bottom that anybody who wants a scut job has already found one, and passing petitions is hard labor.
The problem is further complicated by the sheer number of petition drives. This year in the City of Tucson, for example, folks passing petitions for water recharge and election-by-ward have added to the local pile.
And a professional signature-gatherer can only carry so many petitions, something candidates--who also must gather signatures to make it on the ballot--had better realize. It's too late to plan on paying people to do it for you, so you'd better find some volunteers or go get your own signs.
What this ultimately will mean is that some ballot measures just won't make it. Petition passers are all independent contractors and will go with the highest bidders, because the labor shortage has run up the price per signature for those willing to gather them. So the cost of placing items on the ballot will be even higher this year.
So much for the original concept that the initiative process was a way for "the people" to place items on the ballot.
AND HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP: The Urban Growth Boundary Initiative is the developers' worst nightmare. Considering how cheap and greedy the bastards mostly are, anything that might slow their continuing rape of our unique desert ecosystem scares them.
This item would go like crap through a goose with Arizona voters--if it gets on the ballot. The measure, which would actually put some teeth into local government's ability to restrain sprawl and growth, spooked the Growth Lobby so badly they got their legislative stooges and Gov. Jane Dee Hull to shill for their loophole-laden alternative, which will be on the November ballot as a referendum.
Proponents of the real proposal have set up a large volunteer base and raised some money to get paid signatures. But time is short, and these folks need all the help they can get.
So if you really believe in saving what's left of the Sonoran Desert, do something about it by passing petitions. Those inclined should call Citizens for Growth Management at 747-5078. They're being led here by a super lady named Linda Tepper, and she needs your help. Do it now!
BOYD FLIES THE COOP: We had some hope that Pima County Supervisor Mike Boyd would mend his ways when he took over as chairman of the Board and accept some of the responsibility the job entails. But once again, he can't even meet our low standards by performing the simple task of staying through a meeting.
Boyd grabbed a whole lot of ink and air time from the gullible establishment press a couple of months ago when he announced it was time to do something about the problems caused by urban sprawl. What he really had in mind was appointing yet another pointless committee to study growth issues, while the Legislature passed measures to prevent counties from doing anything at all about uncontrolled growth.
Fortunately for our community, other Board members, led by Supes Sharon Bronson and Raul Grijalva, pushed beyond Boyd's spineless puppet show and actually tried to accomplish something.
They did that May 19--almost two months early. Boyd, who was responsible for bringing up the subject in the first place, clearly had plenty of notice that he had the responsibility to be there on May 19 and chair the meeting. But he chose to bug out early. We're told he had to go out of town for his other employer. What's the matter, Mikey? Didja have one of those cheapo airline tickets you didn't want to lose out on?
County supervisors are paid $52,000 a year, along with a car, plenty of bennies and a pension package twice as good as ordinary government employees, all for what's basically a part-time job. All they have to do to avoid malfeasance, misfeasance, and non-feasance is show up for the regular meetings. Boyd can't even do that.
AMPHI ANTICS: At the March meeting of the Amphi School District Superintendent's Council (composed of district principals and their PTO presidents) Superintendent Bob "Bubba" Smith, with Board Member Richard Scott in attendance, split the members into four groups to "discuss" the pros and cons of the call-to-the-audience segment common to most democratic governing bodies in this land.
However, it's definitely not a feature of meetings of the Amphi School Board, which is ruled by a tight little cabal.
At any rate, during the Super's Council meeting, district personnel wrote down the pros and cons on the issue as voiced by the participants, and after the session reconvened to review. Members say they felt the consensus was that there was some merit to instituting a call-to-the-audience at board meetings.
At the April Super's Council, Smith announced that he wanted to revisit the issue. Reading from a prepared script, he said the consensus was that there should be no change in the policy.
Members report there was an uneasy silence. Finally, they say, one annoyed parent announced she didn't think that was the consensus at all.
Smith reportedly replied something to the effect that, "So we want to keep things as they are with consideration of other possibilities."
After more uneasy silence, Smith moved on to other issues, leaving members feeling as if it was a done deal. No call-to-the-audience.
But if you're an Amphi parent interested in letting the cabal know how you feel about the issue, the topic is currently scheduled for discussion by the Board at the June 16 meeting, which begins at 6 p.m.
Be warned, however, that Board President Mike Bernal has promised several times to put call-to-the-audience on the agenda, only to back out later. There's no guarantee he won't use the same sleazy move again, but you can count on this: We'll be watching.
COP SHOP BE-BOP: Seems the Tucson Police Department doesn't just take care of its own, but may extend its services to other law-enforcement agencies too.
A Skinny reader reports an incident that's eerily similar to that involving TPD Capt. Kevin Danaher, in which fellow cops recently were punished for covering up his single-car accident.
This time, however, the incident involved a Sheriff's detective. Magically, there's no record of the incident on file with the Tucson Police Department, which would have been the investigating agency.
On January 30, our reader was following a car down Tanque Verde Road. She saw the car was weaving. At one point the reader observed a Sheriff's patrol car pull up along side of the weaving vehicle, and noted the drivers seemed to have some sort of communication before parting.
Our reader continued to follow the weaving car as it went down Tanque Verde, heading toward Wrightstown Road. She saw the car almost hit a guardrail and the curb. Attempting to turn right onto Wrightstown, the car veered all the way across the lane and through the left-turn lane, over the median and into the oncoming lane before it rolled over a bush on the side of the road. At least two of the car's tires were flattened, and it was obviously not going much farther.
Fearing the driver was hurt, our reader pulled over to see if he needed help. At about the same time, she saw a man getting out of the car. Apparently unhurt, he was wearing a sweatshirt that said "Sheriff's Department" on the front. He was also wearing a gun in a shoulder holster.
Feeling discretion was the better part of valor, our reader headed to a nearby service station and called 911. She was informed hers was the second call to come in on the accident.
Passing the same spot the next morning, our reader saw the car was gone, and the only trace of the accident was the squashed bush.
Finding nothing in the daily press, she called us with the car's license number.
After many weeks of persistent calls on the our part, TPD Sgt. Eugene Mejia says he can find no record of the 911 calls; nor was he able to come up with an accident report. Mejia assures us that if such an incident had happened, there would have been a report.
Calls to Sheriff's Lt. Leo Duffner reveal that a Det. Rodney Hamilton was, in fact, driving the car that evening and was involved in a single-car accident.
And, in fact, a Tucson Police Department officer responded to the scene.
Hamilton did the right thing and reported the incident to his supervisor the next day. Duffner says he believes Hamilton's explanation was that he was simply not paying attention and crashed. They say they have no idea why TPD has no record of the 911 calls, or an accident report. Duffner also says he's not sure this could even be called a "traffic accident."
We'll never know. Although we can verify it happened, there's no official TPD record that it did.
Makes us think that maybe Danaher's screw-up and the subsequent attempted cover-up isn't an isolated incident.
ROSS HONORED IN SEATTLE: While The Arizona Daily Star is shabbily treating outgoing Arizona Opera Director Glynn Ross like an over-the-hill has-been, the folks in Seattle, where Ross led that company for 20 glorious years, are bestowing high honors upon him.
Seattle's Corporate Council for The Arts has extended to Ross their Lifetime Accomplishment in the Arts Award for his work as founding director of Seattle Opera. Over a thousand business, civic, and arts leaders assembled to recognize Ross' accomplishments at May 26 luncheon.
Glynn Ross was--and is--a class act. It's past time for Tucsonans to similarly honor him.

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