BUBBA'S BIG PROMOTION: Teachers, parents and administrators of the Amphitheater School District are complaining they were blindsided by the Amphitheater Governing Board's unanimous vote June 5 naming interim Superintendent Robert Smith (better known as "Bubba" throughout the district) to the permanent superintendent post. District members are in the process of circulating a petition stating in part: "We feel that with a district of our size and prominence, a nationwide search for a new superintendent is in order." This just didn't happen. In fact, district members complain that before the June 5 board meeting, the last one of the year, there was no indication the board would be voting that evening on the superintendent's position. No forewarning, no input, no discussion. Ain't democracy grand? Many thought the secretiveness and the fact that input was unwelcome were uncharacteristic of the governing board, especially so in the case of retiring Board Member Vicki Cox-Golder. Now a lot of Amphi folks want to thank her for the great farewell gift and assure her they'll remember how well she listens to constituents when it's time to vote for county supervisor. A VICTIM OF HIS OWN PR: A bizarre "news" item appeared in the June 21 Arizona Republic. Under the headline "Recall wizard waving wand at Symington, " reporter Adrianne Flynn told us Gov. J. Fife Deadbeat III was in big trouble if former state Rep. John Kromko got into the recall act. She said that's because Kromko was to recalls what "Q-tips are to cotton swabs." She went on to list all of Kromko's great petition drives, including the recall of the Pima County recorder--apparently she meant Assessor Alan Lang. She quoted Kromko, who went along with the farce, as saying, "I've done a number of recalls, so people call me all the time." Flynn also rhapsodized about how Kromko's initiative petitions had removed the state's sales tax on food, established the motor-voter law, restored Indian gaming, and placed the auto insurance rollback issue (Proposition 201) on the 1990 ballot--in addition to giving him credit for the abortive recall of then-Governor Evan Mecham. Wait a minute, Adrianne. While Kromko may have been a lot of fun to have around the state Legislature during his long tenure there, a petition guru he's not. On several occasions he's been on the right side of a petition drive, but somebody else finished it off for him. The Proposition 201 signatures were bought and paid for by the Trial Lawyers Association. The food tax repeal and motor-voter were passed by the legislature after Kromko started petition drives. Indian gaming never got on the ballot, but most of those petition signatures were picked up at casinos and Indian smoke shops by--Indians. Organizations like NOW worked hard for Lang's recall, and they were pissed at Kromko for failing to follow through on little items like keeping the office open during the day. And if memory serves, it was Ed Buck who ran the Mecham recall, not Kromko. Kromko has never been in a petition drive for anything he ever finished in his life without somebody else taking over and doing it for him. He missed the Ed Moore recall drive. His first pass at the City of Tucson's Neighborhood Protection Amendment in 1985 was blown because he faked the notaries. That one made it to second base when Wanda Shattuck grabbed it and allowed Kromko to hang around as the front man. In short, Kromko's petition drives have been all sizzle and no steak, as any Tucson activist into the same causes can tell you. His petition myth is a media creation which began 10 years ago with a long piece in the now-defunct City Magazine by once-and-future Citizen reporter Norma Coile. (Norma's on the desk at the Citizen now, and we miss her because, aside from the Kromko BS she was usually right on). Other reporters have been re-writing Norma ever since. The only problem is, Kromko now believes this bullshit himself, making him a figment of his own imagination. The problem with the Kromko mythology is that it ends up wasting thousands of volunteer hours on petition drives that don't get finished because Kromko has been lazy and inept when it comes to follow-through. Kromko is now running for the Demo nomination for Justice of the Peace in Precinct 4. We just hope somebody else did his petition drive. FIFE'S OTHER BIG SCORE: One item in the Symington saga that hasn't made the local press--he stiffed the Japanese for more than $100 million in the Phoenix Esplanade deal. Seems they were in for close to $200 million, and the only way they could retreat was to write off the bulk of it to get at the rest. What this country needs are more Fife Symingtons, by God. At $100 million a hit, that could resolve the nation's balance of payments problem in no time. And thanks, Fife, for proving to us once again that Japanese business acumen is a myth. THE TACKY, FLAKY WAFFLE MAN: Pima County Supervisor Mike Boyd, in a shallow attempt to use taxpayer-funded mail to get his name before his District One constituents three months before the primary election, invited a large portion of those constituents to attend the opening of the new Iris Dewhirst Trail Head in the Catalinas. Only one problem: After milking the taxpayers to get his name in their mailboxes, Mikey didn't show up for the opening he'd invited everybody to. Tacky, tacky, tacky. AND SPEAKING OF TAXPAYER-FUNDED MAIL: Supervisor Special Ed Moore--now running as an independent--just completed a mass-mailing at taxpayer expense to the north side of District Three. The mailer defended Moore's actions over the Thornydale Road closing (See "Water Torture" in Currents) and outlined all the road projects, past and future, from River to Tangerine roads. We guess this is called catch-up constituency reporting, because Moore hadn't bothered to tell folks what's been going on until just now, the week he filed for re-election. Thanks for the mail, Ed, and thanks for reducing the cost by not sending it to all your constituents, just registered voters. SLICK RICK: Pima County Attorney candidate Rick Gonzales can't seem to get it right. His campaign is just getting started, and already the Rickster's had to kill a promotional brochure which proudly proclaimed his endorsement by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 20 (the Pima County Sheriff's Department). PCSO Sgt. Mike Downing, a Lodge 20 spokesman, says they haven't endorsed anyone for the position yet. He says they've demanded Gonzales pull the brochures with the incorrect info.

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