By George Fallar 
Why yes, I enjoy some T-Bone Walker music now and then, everybody should. Even the covers are good. But, once again, I digress from the matter at hand.
Today is Sunday, July 8, 2012 and tomorrow is a big day for Coyotes fans, the City of Glendale (CoG), Canadian social media trolls and many others. Why? Because tomorrow, July 9, 2012 is the day that Joe Cobb and Ken Jones are supposed to turn in their petition signatures to overturn the June 8 vote of the Glendale City Council approving the arena lease deal with the Jamison group, paving the way for the final sale of the Coyotes by the NHL. As we outlined in two previous posts (Is This Milk Bad? Here, Take a Whiff! and Goldwater Reinvents Calendar!), Goldwater Institute feels that rules and deadlines are flexible things, designed to be modified through constant litigation. They have decided to interfere (this word, “interfere” will probably become important in Goldwater’s future) by writing a letter to CoG expressing their displeasure with the July 9 date. CoG, while not required to respond to a letter written by an entity not involved in the case, DID respond, informing Goldwater (actually the ever insistent Ms. Sitren) that their misunderstanding of the regulations had again led them astray.
So, what are the possible scenarios now? There are many, and the faithful reader may decide which course of action all of the parties involved will follow. Be assured, however, that Mr. Cobb’s petition (wasn’t that a Jimmy Stewart movie?) is only one small piece of the tactics designed by Goldwater to further delay the sale of the Phoenix (soon to be Arizona) Coyotes.
Monday, July 9
Joe Cobb and/or Ken Jones turn in their petition signatures before close of business Monday, July 9.
If Ken and Joe turn in their signatures on July 9, the verification process will begin immediately. We could safely assume that they would be thinking they had enough vaild signatures to get their referendum on the November ballot. After some period has passed, the petitions are made available to, essentially, anyone that requests them in the proper fashion. So, we might expect that somebody will be prepared to verify the petitions and challenge any shortcomings. Then, the referendum will either fail or pass in fairly short order. My contention is that this is NOT the ultimate goal of the petition for referendum and is, perhaps, the LEAST likely scenario.
This should be the only scenario, their signatures are due on the 9th so they should be turned in. If they don’t, it could still have a couple meanings, both of which might not culminate until a week later on the 16th. I don’t believe they are required to notify anyone that they have not managed to gather enough signatures, however if they do NOT turn them in on the 9th, CoG has already indicated that their petition signatures will no longer be accepted.
Once close of business July 9 comes and goes without the appearance of the petition signatures, the arena lease deal can be signed, the NHL can close their sale of the Coyotes and we can go back to talking about hockey instead of inane things such as this.
Both Joe and Ken have threatened to not turn in the petitions on the 9th. Emails sent to Tea Party members requesting support for Joe and Ken actually mention July 12 as the date the signatures are due. This could go a bunch of different ways, none of which other than simply turning the signatures in with enough valid signatures to force a referendum really matter because they’re moot.
Mind Your Manners
By the way Mr. Jones, I don’t appreciate your mocking of MY Bea when she headed for the shade after just a little while in the heat today. Do you know whether or not she might have a health problem that make heat dangerous for her? Do you know whether she is working 14 hours a day or not? Did you have any rational thought before you decided it was hilarious? Did you consider what your reaction would be should someone behave in the same manner toward your wife? My daughter helped you retrieve your gear from your truck AND helped you set it up without complaint, only to be rewarded some time later with you yelling at BOTH my daughters “Get out of my face!”. We have tried to teach our children to respect everybody, not just their elders, and I have complete confidence that none of the five of them would have behaved in the fashion you did today. My parents taught me to be polite and respectful to ladies, to not laugh and mock them, I’m sorry that yours didn’t do the same or you have chosen to simply ignore your manners.
Tuesday, July 10 – Sunday, July 15
Another possibility is that Goldwater will make another trip to court demanding that a judge force CoG into allowing Ken and Joe an extra week because of one thing or another. Their argument, in the letter they wrote to CoG even though they don’t represent Ken and Joe, is that the necessary paperwork wasn’t available for them until June 15. We have, in earlier posts, hopefully demonstrated how ludicrous this claim is. They could conceivably do this any time between Monday and Friday, we’re assuming that their gamesmanship would have them delay until at least Tuesday so that all of the other interested parties would be stressed waiting for something to happen on Monday while they sit in a conference room eating delicious cupcakes.
No worries, my friends, just relax on Monday. Anything that happens isn’t unexpected, although there are too many options to say with any certainty that any one option will be the one that occurs. I can assure you, however, that if I can deduce this stuff as a layman there are much sharper Jamison and NHL and CoG people that have it all in hand.
Of course we’re also all aware that Doaner and his agent have mentioned the 9th as the day they will start listening to offers from other teams. We know Shane as our Captain, we’re aware of his loyalties, leadership and sensibilities. We’re also aware he has to do what’s best for himself and his family. Doaner isn’t going anywhere without seeing this thing through. The season begins in October, Shane Doan will be our Captain on the ice at that time.
Monday, July 16
If Joe and Ken STILL don’t have enough signatures on their petitions by the 16th, it would be foolish of them to turn them in. If they simply hand in their petition signature sheets AND the City of Glendale accepts them, the validation process begins and everything will be over shortly thereafter. We have a great deal of confidence that when the petition signatures are turned in, whenever that is, the petition for referendum will fail and the arena lease agreement will be effective upon signatures hitting documents. While it does NOT suit the delaying tactics of Goldwater, people opposing the petition should be rooting for CoG to accept the petition signatures for verification, no matter if it’s late.
If they turn in their signatures without Goldwater having filed anything, however, CoG is likely to reject them outright, having already warned them (via their response to the Goldwater letter on July 3) of the signature gathering expiration date. Accepting the petition signatures at the later date would be advantageous to us, but would set a bad precedent for the City. So, they will undoubtedly reject them.
We assume that Goldwater will take that act of rejection as their trigger to initiate litigation against CoG, they’ve probably already written the complaint. At that point, the delay process begins yet again and Goldwater, while not really expecting that they have ANY chance of success, will be happy because they have potentially injected more time into a tortuous negotiation process, maybe enough for the NHL and/or the Jamison group to run out of patience and give up.
My opinion, uneducated as it is, has both Jamison and the NHL very aware of what is going on in Glendale and have no intention of giving up at this point. I am not sure whether they have been looking at the possibility of filing a civil complaint against Goldwater for tortious interference or not, you could make an argument that one last complaint filed by Goldwater against CoG with the intent of delaying the sale of the Coyotes might just be the last piece of the puzzle that they need to make their case. I don’t know, but it’s possible.
Joe Cobb has lately been telling Canadian media that Goldwater is simply waiting for CoG and Jamison to sign the arena lease agreement before they file an actual “gift clause” suit against them. I believe you can be certain that the Jamison group and the NHL, neither without extensive resources and talented legal staff members, have examined the deal from top to bottom to eliminate any chance of Goldwater succeeding in a bid to use the gift clause. Goldwater foolishly tipped their hand the LAST time they killed a Coyotes sale deal with threats and intimidation and cupcakes. Perhaps there are a cadre of NHL and Jamison financed lawyers chomping at the bit for Goldwater to predictably file another suit so they can recover some of the millions they have wasted because of their interference.
Wait And See
So, yes, there’s undoubtedly more “wait and see” to deal with in the Coyotes saga. All evidence at this point in the end game, however, indicates success is in the near future for the Coyotes in Glendale and for the next 20 years.
Keep the faith, my Coyotes brothers and sisters, they’re wobbly already and are going down soon.
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