They said they were recalling South Tucson Mayor Paul Diaz because he “gave the green light” to Pasedera Behavioral Health Network to “convert the Children’s Home to another agency that will worsen the city’s severe homeless, prostitution and drug addiction problems.” The statement wasn’t true, but it is what the residents of South Tucson read as they signed the recall petition.
The right to place a referendum, initiative or recall a public official on the ballot are constitutionally guaranteed in the state of Arizona. This year, Governor Doug Ducey vetoed legislation that would have required government clerks to take steps necessary to ensure that inconsequential clerical errors did not thwart those voter rights. Ducey claimed the burden was too great for government officials to bear.
While Ducey’s rational is unreasonable; it is not too much to expect clerks to make sure that the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed before sending the public out to collect signatures for ballot eligibility. It is just as unreasonable to claim that a petition upon which lies are written is acceptable simply because it has all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed.
Yet, that is the case in the recall of Mayor Paul Diaz and the Green clan.
After Pasedera Behavioral Health Network purchased land across the street from Mission View Elementary, Diaz, who had been working to spur economic development for the residents, met with Pasedera officials. He saw their interest in the City as an opportunity to bring well-paying health care jobs to the tiny 1.2 mile square city.
While Diaz saw an opportunity for the residents, the Greens and their cronies saw one as well. So they about ginning up fear about those type of people who require addiction recovery services.
The Greens have wanted Diaz, and his fellow reformers on the Council gone for some time, and the potential placement of Pasedera was a great excuse. It didn’t matter that no official decisions had been made one way or another about Pasedera, the specter of it was enough to begin the recall witch hunt.
Unable to gather signatures himself because he is a convicted felon, Raul Green, recruited a self-described wanna-be community organizer. Crafting inflammatory language and dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s, they collected 320 signatures, of which 222, could be verified by the Pima County Recorder’s Office. They needed a mere 183 get the measure on the ballot.
The ballots go out this week, and many of those residents, who signed the petitions, won’t have the facts.
They won’t know that that the new city manager, Benny Young denied Pasadera the permit it needed to offer services to adult clients, after he found that while Pasedera offered similar services to juveniles under a grandfather clause, expanding them to an adult population would be considered a change of use and against current zoning.
They won’t know that while the petition also claims that Diaz has “failed to uphold his campaign promises of transparency,” it was Diaz, and now-retired City Manager Luis Gonzales, who reported the illegal secondary tax created by the previous administration to the FBI.
Those residents could be left in the dark and the very people who have been trying to shine the light could left in the cold.
In response, residents formed Total N-Tegrity (TNT). TNT is an Independent Expenditure Committee registered and certified by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office for the “purpose of participating in political campaigns for candidates and/or issues of interest. Its commitment is to seek out candidates, who exemplify integrity, honesty and a clear agenda to serve the people they hope to represent with dignity and respect.”
According to the group, “TNT seeks to work against the idea that the political process has to be influenced and tainted by self-serving interests whose misguided agenda is to serve themselves and not the interests of the people. TNT is launching a campaign in the South Tucson recall election that is totally independent of any candidate but is independently supporting current Mayor Paul Diaz because he champions open government, has a positive agenda, a proven record of honest accomplishment and truly represents the peoples’ best interests.”
Already members of the public are also asking Rep. Mark Finchem to revive the bill Ducey vetoed, and add a provision that requires the language on the recall petitions be more than grudge based rants.