11 replies to this topic

[CoyoteQ]

When incoming Glendale mayor Jerry Weiers was elected earlier this month, he had a stern message for the Phoenix Coyotes: “Glendale is not your cash register.”

At the time, the Coyotes’ 20-year, $320 million lease (that’s money going to the tenant, not the traditional other way around) had yet to be approved by city council.

That changed Tuesday when the deal was given the green light, leaving Weiers no choice but to see it through when he takes office next year.

“I’m not overly happy with the decision made, but we’ll take that decision and run with it the best we can,” Weiers said, as per CBS 5 News.

“It is what it is, the council, the current council passed it. It’s something I’m going to have to deal with.”

Prospective owner Greg Jamison has yet to close on the purchase from the NHL, but he reportedly has the financing in place to get it done within the next month or two.

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[CoyoteQ]

Big shock.

Oh...and Ken Jones is doing another referendum.

"It is what it is, the council, the current council passed it. It's something I'm going to have to deal with," he said.

Not if Glendale resident Ken Jones gets his way.

"Go down to City Hall tomorrow and get our information to start a referendum to get this thing to a public vote," Jones said.

He tried putting this issue up for a public vote for this past election, but he didn't get enough signatures required to get it on the ballot. Jones says this time more people are riled up about the deal that'll cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"We can't afford this, Glendale is so broke. Those council members know that," Jones said.

Jones says he'll be setting up outside of the city's main library, just like last time, trying to collect those signatures. Weiers says by the time he gets into office the ball will already be rolling with contracts signed so he's not going to push for any changes.

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[goldenbear64]

eff'em both where they breathe.....

[CoyoteQ]

eff'em both where they breathe.....

And exhale.

[**LS**]

That Ken Jones is a persistent old bugger, isn't he?

[CoyoteQ]

That Ken Jones is a persistent old bugger, isn't he?

Yes, yes he is.

Referendum effort underway on Glendale arena-management deal

An effort is under way to take a controversial multimillion-dollar hockey arena-management deal to voters via a citizens referendum.

The Glendale City Council, in a 4-2 vote, approved the deal this week with potential Phoenix Coyotes buyer Greg Jamison. Two days later, two of the critics , Glendale residents Ken Jones and Francine Romesburg, formed a political committee called Back to Sanity, to initiate a referendum.

The committee has less than 30 days to collect nearly 7,000 signatures.

The number is based on 10 percent of votes at the last election. This year’s Glendale election happened to have the highest turnout in the city’s history, with 69,558 voters.

Jones said he has a lot of people volunteering to help.

“I’m not predicting whether we’ll get to it (the necessary number of signatures) or not, but the interest is already there from people to hit the streets right away,” Jones said.

Jones tried to get a referendum on the November ballot, but was unable to collect the necessary number of signatures.

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[CoyoteQ]

I can’t believe what a disaster Glendale is

If you've been reading What We Learned every Monday here on Puck Daddy pretty much since the lockout began, you've probably noticed that the Phoenix entry each week has more or less served as a chronicle of the city of Glendale's woeful fiscal irresponsibility.

Let's take the time, right off the bat, to remind you how broke Glendale actually is: very broke. Like, crazily broke for a city of its size. The city's outgoing mayor, Elaine Scruggs, left the guy who's taking over from her with a deficit— and I can't even believe this is a real number — of $1.2 billion. With a frickin' B.

And that's not including the $16 million a year on average over the next two decades the city council just voted to give Greg Jamison and the Phoenix -- I mean Arizona -- Coyotes. (Scruggs, to be fair, voted against the deal, along with one councilwoman, though that was a reversal of her previous position.)

The reason the vote took place now, by the way, is that the current mayor and more than half the city council got voted out of office pretty convincingly. And, in an attempt to pass through unpopular legislation by a lame-duck legislature not seen since Lincoln hit theaters, they decided that now was a perfect time to give a bunch of rich dudes millions of dollars per year in public funds. Which, by the way, they could ill afford to dole out.

Because, I don't know, having a hockey team is good for your civic self-esteem, even if (relatively) nobody goes to the games or cares about them. Libraries and public services not so much.
Mike Sunnucks, who has absolutely killed it for the Phoenix Business Journal in covering this entire mystifying debacle, told Marek and Wyshynski the other day that if the decision to fund the Coyotes with that much money for that long a period was put to a public vote, it would have an incredibly hard time passing. Which is why opponents of the decision, including many incoming city councilors, want to get it to just such a public referendum.

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[CoyoteQ]

Another article on this mess and Jones.

“We have a lot more help this time than we had last time,” Jones said.
The summer effort was less organized with Jones and Cobb trying to collect signature outside of Glendale libraries in the unenviable desert heat.

Phoenix attorney Walt Opaska, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor this year, is helping with the anti-Coyotes referendum.
“I will help Ken organize the effort and collect signatures,” Opaska said.

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[52G228PIM1996-97]

Another article on this mess and Jones.

Someone needs to kick Walt's ass.. Oh wait, someone already did when he was covering up campaign signs..

[CoyoteQ]

The first and biggest reason to believe that this referendum will have trouble succeeding is the requirements have changed, for the better if you are a Coyotes fan. Last time, the election that was used to determine the amount of signatures required was the 2010 Mayoral Election.

In that election, 18,620 people cast votes, which meant the previous referendum needed 1,862 valid signatures in order to make the ballot in November. As we reported in July, Ken Jones and Joe Cobb failed to even get that many.

This time around, things will be even harder. Because this was a Presidential Election, and because the mayoral race went to the general election ballot instead of the normal primary ballot, the amount of people who voted in this latest citywide election is dramatically higher than it was back in 2010.

According to the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, 58,940 people voted for mayor. 10% of that, which is what the Glendale City Charter requires for referendums on city actions, is 5,894. So Ken Jones' PAC will have to improve their signature collection total by about 500% off of their first attempt. That's a pretty tall order.

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[CoyoteQ]

Deja Vu All Over Again

The City of Glendale has sent a letter dated December 12, 2012 to the “Back To Sanity” (BTS) people explaining that their referendum documentation for R12-02 (to bring the arena lease to a public vote) is wrong. Click here to read it. The letter explains that a copy of the full text of the measure to be referred, in no less than 8 point type, must be attached to the application. It goes on to state that a 100 word summary of the principal provisions of the measure must also be submitted.

Directions? Nah!

The reason for these two requirements is to ascertain that, should petitions be submitted with signatures, the people signing the petitions were not misled into signing something else by the fact that the petition matched what is on file with the city. Common sense, really.

I am not sure why the city decided to clue BTS in on their errors early. We knew about the mistakes within five minutes of getting a copy of what was filed by BTS. We were so surprised at the error repetition that we verified our records request with the city to be sure we had asked for the correct papers. We had and I admit to having a bout of nearly hysterical laughter at seeing the EXACT SAME mistakes repeated.

Some would say that their paperwork is “Rotten”.

Groundhog Day

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[CoyoteQ]

Man...we're dealing with some real geniuses here. The exact definition of epic fail.

Epic Fail
Epic- Anything great, spectacular, or large/monumental in nature

Fail- An inability to complete an objective, task or job either assigned or volunteered for.

Epic Fail -A mistake of such monumental proportions that it requires its own term in order to sucessfully point out the unfathomable shortcomings of an individual or group.

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