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| Robson spends
$50k to derail petition drive
by Bryon Wells
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, 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)
"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.
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. |
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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 |
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