Pima County Attorney Whips Out Goldwater Response
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to allow the Pima County Attorney to send an official response to the Goldwater Institute regarding World View Enterprises on the behalf of the Board of Supervisors. In that letter, the Goldwater Institute, asserted that Pima County’s deal with World View violates Arizona’s Gift Clause and the County’s selection of Swaim Associates and Barker-Morrissey Contracting for design and construction services violated Pima County’s own procurement code.
The Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to allow for the response and in an uncharacteristic fashion, the County Attorney whipped out a response the very same day. The rapid response startled many residents who struggle with the normal delays associated with most County functions.
According to the letter: “The Goldwater Institute also alleges that the County violated Title 34 bidding requirements, and the County’s own procurement code, when it awarded contracts for the design and construction of the County Facility on an emergency basis.”
The County Attorney argues that “neither allegation has legal merit” because the justification for the emergency procurement, as set forth in Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry’s January 19 Memorandum to the Board, “explains that Pima County had, for some months, been competing with several other locations within the United States for the siting of World View’s expanded operations.”
However, in 2014, the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) announced the six winning companies in its Spring 2014 Arizona Innovation Challenge (AIC). These grant recipients, including Word View, could be located outside of Arizona, but they had to “plan to relocate or build a significant portion of its operations to Arizona as well as commercialize their products/services in Arizona within the 12-month award period.”
Additionally, for all companies, the awarded funds were required to be spent to the benefit of increasing jobs, revenue and capital spending in Arizona.
At the time, winners could not “have more than $10,000,000 in net assets, which does not include capital from investors,” and applicants ‘must demonstrate that the products or services being considered for AIC grant funding will begin generating revenue for the company within 12 months after the company begins receiving funding, if the company is selected as a winner.”
In its announcement, the Arizona Commerce Authority noted:
World View Enterprises is the developer of high-altitude balloon technology that will provide trips to near space for tourism, research, and industry uses. A sealed capsule carries 8 people to 100,000 feet to see the Earth from the edge of space or to perform research. The unmanned balloons can carry payloads for communications, surveillance, research, and launching microsatellites.
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