When It Comes To Running Pima County, Do We Really Want To Hire A Real Estate Pro Like Vicki Cox-Golder? By Dan Huff IF YOU UNDERSTAND nothing else about local politics, understand this: Control of the land is the ultimate source of power for the Pima County Board of Supervisors. How the supervisors vote on land and related issues determines profits or losses--sometimes in the hundreds of millions of dollars--for the land speculators, developers, builders and real estate agents known collectively as Tucson's Growth Lobby. It's no wonder, then, the Growth Lobby works hard to control who sits on the Board of Supervisors. Their dream-come-true champion this time around is Vicki Cox-Golder, 45, a Republican candidate for the District 3 supervisor's seat currently held by Ed Moore, who was once upon a time the Growth Lobby's Prince Charming. These day's he's more like their ranting, wacko King Lear, but that's another story. Vicki Cox-Golder is today's sad tale. ENDORSED BY BOTH of Tucson's pro-growth daily newspapers, as well as prominent national politicians such as U.S. Sen. John McCain and Rep. Jim Kolbe, Cox-Golder's ascension to the board is about as well greased as the Growth Lobby can manage. They've certainly oiled Cox-Golder's political machine. The campaign has collected more than $50,000, with more than half coming from brokers, builders, bankers and bulldozers. So we have a question for our fellow taxpayers--both the Republicans who'll vote in Tuesday's primary, and those who may get a chance to vote for Cox-Golder in the general election: Is it wise to elect someone who, in her public life as an elected official, has already demonstrated a more-than-cozy relationship with the Growth Lobby? Cox-Golder, a real estate broker for two decades, has served on the Amphitheater School District Board for eight years, some of those as School Board president. Since 1992, Bill Arnold, currently her campaign chairman, appears to have benefited greatly from his association with the Amphi District. Arnold, too, is a real estate broker, and he also sits on the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission. Roughly four years ago, Arnold began handling land deals for the district. Assistant Amphi Superintendent Katie Frey, the official responsible for engaging Arnold's services, said Friday that Arnold was "recommended by someone--I can't remember who." Cox-Golder says she does not know how Arnold got the job, but flatly denies recommending him. Over the past four years, during which Frey says Arnold was the district's exclusive agent, Amphi's land transactions appear to have totaled roughly $4 million, according to the district's oddly sketchy records. It's difficult to verify the precise extent of Arnold's monetary gain from Amphi-related deals because the district does not pay Arnold's sales commissions--the sellers do--and those commission figures do not generally appear in the district's files, or at least they didn't appear in files handed over to reporters. However, two escrow documents on two separate deals, which inexplicably appear in the files, indicate Arnold's commission rate at between 7 and 10 percent. In one deal, for which there is a contract between the district and the company Arnold represents, Genesis Real Estate & Development, the district agrees to cover a 5 percent commission should the district default. Let's be generous. Even assuming Arnold made only 5 percent on $4 million in deals, he still pocketed $200,000. That's your bond dollars at work! For someone who boasts about her leadership skills both in the real estate industry and on the Amphi Board, Cox-Golder appears to know very little about the district's land transactions. She says she does not know what Arnold's commissions might have been--a statement we find ludicrous given her high position in the district and her association with Arnold. Last week, Cox-Golder suggested a reporter check with the district, saying that information is public record. It is not. Curiously, last month, when we began our probe into Amphi's records, Cox-Golder seemed to know much more about how Amphi had done business. "You're not going to find anything there," she told us. "I'm not that stupid." Earlier this week, in a written exchange of questions and answers, Arnold sidestepped the question of how much he and Genesis have made as a result of their association with Amphi. WE ARE NOT suggesting Vicki Cox-Golder and Bill Arnold have done something illegal. They have not. They are merely players in our community's longest-running game. Lamentably, land, cash and the exercise of political influence are inextricably bound in Pima County, which continues its haphazard and poorly regulated growth at a phenomenal rate, due largely to the century-long militancy of the Growth Lobby. And make no mistake about it: The Growth Lobby is a machine that cares very little about the quality of our individual lives, the livability of our community, the safety of our roads or the quality of the water our children must drink. Sure, its representatives make noises that sound vaguely like they care, but when push comes to shove, they are servants of an appallingly short-sighted beast interested only in slamming down that next cheaply constructed housing development or apartment complex--quality roads and schools be damned. And God help the increasingly rare breed of brave-hearted politician who gets in the way. Cox-Golder insists she's for "controlled growth," whatever that means. In light of her association with Arnold, and the fact that he's masterminding her current campaign, her pose appears to be nothing more than deceptive packaging. On quality-of-life issues, Arnold has an abysmal record: He led the fight against creating developmental buffer zones around our irreplaceable desert parks and monuments; he opposed an ordinance that would have preserved the natural state of our unique desert washes; and he's publicly stated his opposition to all impact fees, even though they would go to badly needed road improvements. ARE THESE REALLY the people who should be overseeing county government in this era of exploding growth? We think not. While it's not unusual, nor even particularly harmful to the body politic, to have people like Arnold and Cox-Golder working in positions of trust within a small governmental unit such school district, we believe that at this perilous point in our community's history, it's time to end the casual interplay of politics, land and the exercise of governmental power that has gone on here on a grand scale for far too long. If we as county taxpayers and voters allow business to continue as usual, we'll be screwing ourselves out of decent homes, neighborhoods and lives, and we'll be acquiescing in the continued misuse of the county's $600-million annual budget. Vicki Cox-Golder and Bill Arnold are the wrong people at the wrong time for a troubled Pima County.

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