From the December 20 edition of . . .
http://www.explorernews.com/
EXPLORER Newspapers Inc.
7235 N. Paseo del Norte Tucson Arizona 85704
Telephone (520) 797-4384 Fax (520) 575-8891 
Robson spends $50k to derail petition drive

by Bryon Wells
Email: News@ExplorerNews.com
 

 
Citzens for Pinal County's Future finance report
   According to a finance report filed Dec. 7 with the Pinal County Elections Division, the campaign to fight a referendum drive last moth cost almost $50,000.
   Of that figure, over half was listed as a debt owed to a Tucson consulting firm for "phone services and consulting," and was still at least partially outstanding as of press time.
   The breakdown of expenses and contributions follows:

   Donations and contributions

  • $21,938 in-kind contribution from Robson Communities INc., for newpaper advertising Nov. 3 to Dec. 3.  In kind means dontations that do not go directly to the committee, but must still be reported.
  • An individual contribution of $125 from Mark Lewis, the committee's treasurer.  Lewis is also employed by Robson.
  • A $15 in-kind contribution for "printing and publishing."
   Expenditures not listed above:
  • $60 to the U.S. Postal Service in Mammoth for mailers, June to November.
  • A $25,000 debt owed to Zimmerman and Associates for phone calls and consultin.
  • A $343.47 debt owed to Casa Grande Newspapers for advertising.
       Expense reports released this month by Pinal County Official reveal a developer backed committee spent the bulk of its money hiring telemarketers to fight a citizens' referendum drive.
       The group, calling itself Citizens for Pinal County's Future, filed a statement of organization Dec. 1 to battle an effort to stop the planned SaddleBrooke Ranch development near Oracle Junction.
       According to campaign finance reports filed Dec. 7 with the Pinal County Elections Division, the group listed expenses totaling $47, 421 to fight the referendum drive announced by Oracle activists on Nov. 1.
       Referendum backers expected Robson to finance an opposition campaign, but Mary Ellen Kazda, a spokeswoman for the Oracle group, said she was shocked that the corporation so far spent almost $50,000.
       "This amount of money on the campaign that has ended is a surprise to me," Kazda said, adding she expects the company to spend more money on challenging the signatures the group collected.
       Robson Senior Vice President, Steve Soriano said that is unlikely.
       The Oracle group needed to collect about 2,800 to place the issue on the 2002 ballot.  Arizona law states that referendum are held on a regular general election year, which are offset going by even numbered years.
       A challenge would only be successful if the company could disqualify more than half the signatures the group collected.
       "That's a lot of signatures," Soriano said, adding that the company did receive petitions from supporters asking to take their names off the referendum -- but not enough for a solid challenge.
       "You've got to get 2,000 or 3,000 -- that's not going to happen," he said.
       The opposition group, Pinal Citizens for Sustainable Communities, filed petitions containing about 5,800 signatures to put approval of the development to a vote.
       Robson Communities, Inc. which developed Sun Lakes near Chandler, received Pinal County Board of Supervisors approval to build a retirement community of 6,319 homes, golf courses, a medical facility and shopping center on 2,528 acres of land.  Robson has also built golf communities in Denton, Texas, and has studied building in Florida.
       Telephone operators phoned Pinal County residents in the weeks running up to the petition deadline date Dec. 4, asking them not to sign referendum petitions.
       A representative of Zimmerman and Associates only said she believed the political consulting company had received partial payment for its services.
       Mark Lewis, a Robson community relations representative and campaign treasurer for the political committee, could not be reached for comment.
       During the campaign, Robson officials said signing the petitions would mean a loss to  a major revenue source for the economically depressed region, which was crippled with the recent closure of the BHP commercial mine in San Manuel.
       According to a study by Arizona State University's Center for Business Research, the existing SaddleBrooke retirement community, on North ORacle Road, provides directly and indirectly, 7,700 jobs and $283 million in revenues.
       As part of their campaign against the referendum Soriano and other Robson officials told Pinal County residents the company would pump $5.5 million into the community if they didn't sign the petitions; if not, they would spend the money to defeat it.
       Robson's master planned community would be built near where Highway 79 connects with State Route 77 (Oracle Road).
       The site, dubbed Falcon Valley in a 1987 area plan, would border the University of Arizona's Page Trowbridge Experimental Ranch, which was the site of documented radioactive and toxic waste dumping from 1962 to 1986.
       Oracle residents believe that university and state officials have inadequately handled the Page Ranch landfill's closing, by installing what they called an inferior dirt cap covering it.
       Also, hazardous material could be leaking into the town's water supply, which development of the area could expedite through increased ground water pumping, residents said.
       University officials have maintained they are complying with guidelines for closure mandated by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the state agency tasked with monitoring the dump.
       University officials have also maintained there has been no credible evidence of water contamination.
       The board approved a "multiple zone change" for SaddleBrooke Ranch from rural usage to single residence for the SaddleBrooke Ranch development, Nov. 1, the same day it considered about 10 other projects, totaling about 41,000 units countywide, on 13,800 acres.
       Because of the fear of Proposition 202 shutting down development, many developers rushed to get projects into the approval pipeline before the Nov. 7 election.  Many of the properties filed in Pinal COunty were the high desert areas between Oracle and Florence.
       According to minutes from the Nov. 1 meeting, most of these were passed under the consent agenda heading, meaning that the board would not have discussed the topics.
       Of those, the Robson development was pulled for discussion, two other projects were withdrawn, and another was continued.
       If the signatures pass muster of the county's verifying process the referendum halts development of the project until 2002.
       Soriano said the company could still develop its property in Acre-and-a-quarter lots, but it would not be as profitable as the master planned community, and, "it wouldn't be a SaddleBrooke."  He added that during the next two years, the company may still try and work with the community.
       "I'm hoping that the next few years will give a chance for us to work together toward a common goal of protecting the area while maintaining people's jobs," Soriano said.

Mark Lewis, Maricopa Resident and Treasurer of Citizens for Pinal County's Future

Mark Lewis, treasurer of Citizens for Pinal County's Future is a resident of Maricopa County, and represents Maricopa County on the Central Arizona Project board of directors.

From the CAP web site (as of this writing at this URL: http://www.cap-az.com/management/board/board_list/index.cfm?director_ID=54)
 


 
 
Mark Lewis 
CAWCD DIRECTOR
(Maricopa County)
term expires: December 31, 2004
Mark Lewis is currently employed in government relations with Robson Communities, Inc.

Mr. Lewis earned an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He is a member of the National Water Users Association, Colorado River Water Users Association, and is elected Precinct Committeemen.

Originally from California, Mr. Lewis has resided in Arizona since 1986.


 
Lewis Warns SaddleBrooke Residents Constitutional Process 
"Goes too far"


In November, Lewis, presumably acting in his role of a citizen concerned with Pinal County's Future, placed a large sign cautioning citizens that their constitutional right to question and review decsisions made by the county supervisors "goes too far." 

Lewis placed the sign next to the home of SaddleBrooke resident Jack Walden.  Walden was in the process of obtaining signatures opposing the rezoning request at the time.

Lewis then skulked about noting the license plate numbers of SaddleBrooke residents who stopped by to sign the petition on a paper attached to a clipboard he carried.
 

Robson Official Mark Lewis, left, with a SaddleBrooke Patrol Security officer in the community Nov. 28 to dissuade supporters of a referendum against one of his company's development projects.  SaddleBrooke resident Jack Walden was collecting signatures for the referendum at his home, where this photo was taken

A few of the SaddleBrooke residents were disquieted by Lewis' antics and voiced their opinion. 

Lewis apparently became unduly alarmed and summoned the SaddleBrooke Patrol for backup.


Letter to the editor printed in the Dec. 20th edition of the Northwest Explorer


Robson bending truth about Oracle

   Dear editor, 

   Comments attributed to Robson lobbyist Steve Soriano ("Falcon Valley may go to vote," Dec. 6) continue a patter of manipulation and deception increasingly familiar to Pinal County residents.

   Soriano claims Oracle residents were invited to participate in public meetings at SaddleBrooke on water contamination issues.  This is false.  The invitation never existed and meetings to which he refers were closed to Oracle community leaders.

   Soriano claims Oracle residents are using the Page-Trowbridge dump to oppose development under any circumstances.  This is false.  I was personally involved in investigating the dump long before any mass development was contemplated in the region and continue now as I was then to be concerned about the quality of water from Oracle's sole-source aquiver.

   Soriano claims only a handful of Oracle residents are involved in efforts to secure a safe, adequate water supply for the region.  This is false.  About 50 Pinal County registered voters circulated petitions to refer to a vote Robson's request for 6,000 homes and three golf courses.

   Part of Oracle's frustration in dealing with Robson lobbyists is their consistent willingness to bend the truth to get what they want.  These deceptions and manipulations appear to work on Pinal County politicians, but they don't go over well with ordinary citizens in small towns like Oracle.

Frank Pierson 
Oracle 
 

The Advertisements


Click on image for larger view
In addition to buying advertisements exhorting citizens forego their constitutional right to question the decision of Pinal County Supervisors to allow 12,000 people to invest in a home built adjacent to a radioactive and toxic waste landfill, Robson Communities Inc. also printed letters allowing citizens who had been "misled about toxic waste dumps" to remove their name from the referendum petition.

The text form of the letter follows:

If you have been misled about toxic waste dumps and want to remove your name from the controversial petition...you can remove your name. Sign this form and have it notarized.

To: Pinal County Elections
Gilbert Hoyos, Director
P.O. Box 737
Florence, Az 85232

Re: Statement Of Intent To WIthdraw Signature From Referendum Petition

   Pursuant to A.R.S. Section 1-261, I hereby declare my intention to withdraw, and do hereby withdraw, my signature from referendum petition bearing serial number 110600-REF concerning Ordinances PZ-033-00 and PZ-PD-33-00 of Pinal County, Arizona, which approved multiple zone changes and a planned area development overlay district to develop and adult, golf-oriented, SaddleBrooke Ranch Master Planned Community situated in the Falcon Valley Ranch Area.  I want my signature removed from the petition.
 
 

Printed Name: __________________________

Signature:        __________________________
 
 

State of Arizona         )
                                     ) ss.
                                     )
 

The foregoing statement was executed and acknowledged before me this ______ day of ______________, 2000, by _____________________

_______________________
Notary Public 

 

My commission expires:

_________________ 

520-465-6471
Call for notary locations and drop off points
Paid for by Citizens for Pinal County's Future
Kenny Sutton, President, Mark Lewis Treasurer, Bill Purden
Major contributions by Mark Lewis,, Pinal County employers and Robson Communities, Inc.

 

Use The 'Back' Button On Your Browser
To Return To Previous Page

News & Information
Introduction
Radiation Symbol
email:mekazda@mindspring.com