By George Fallar 
November 10, 2012
We briefly discussed the reappearance of Ken Jones and his repeatedly stated intent of derailing the Coyotes deal. He and his then partner, Joe Cobb, tried once before waaaaay back in June of 2012. This blog is full of descriptions of their antics and those of their compatriots, the Goldwater Institute (GWI) who “represented” them in their cause. The snotty quotation marks indicate that the assistance of GWI was nothing short of invisible once they lost in court, certainly ineffective.
We have stated that there is a multi-pronged effort afoot to quash the carefully negotiated and approved through democratic process arena lease deal. One prong may be Ken Jones. He seemed more than a little annoyed at his bud Joe Cobb and was visibly upset with his GWI handlers after his final press conference. We’ve chosen to not publish that footage out of respect for Mr. Jones. We’re not sure if the legal bills run up by Ken and Joe were eaten by GWI or not. They should have been considering their utter amateurish nature. Any other citizens recruited by the GWI crew to further their plans should probably demand some sort of performance guarantee, maybe model it on the performance guarantee that Glendale will have in writing from Hockey Partners for the arena lease.
However, as Mr. Bumble says “The law is a ass – a idiot” (sic) so a re-visitation of the entire petition for referendum process may occur, but only after the arena lease agreement is voted in on November 27. Even assuming that the people who “pull the papers” read the directions this time (their last effort was very poor), they still need to gather the requisite number of signatures. That number, by the way, would be significantly higher than the last threshold because it would be based on the number of people that voted in THIS election. Many more people vote in a Presidential election year, so the bar would be set higher for the parties involved.
If they managed to gather the correct number of signatures AND managed to complete their applications correctly AND met all the necessary deadlines, their referendum could come up for a vote. It’s quite possible that they would garner more support from the Glendale Tea Party “Patriots” this time than they did the last time for a couple reasons. The first is, of course, their embarrassment at being defeated soundly with their support of Proposition 457. Secondly, even after being exhorted by Phil Lieberman in an email to get out of Denny’s and help Ken and Joe accomplish their goal, they did not help much at all.
If they do manage to gather the necessary certified signatures, the lease agreement WOULD go on the ballot. In, I believe, 2014. Of course there would then be legal challenges from the City and from Hockey Partners, so the likelihood of them going that route is slimmer unless they would be assured of having the deep pockets of GWI backing them.
They MIGHT even tout their Phoenix Monarch Group (PMG) buddies (also Sam Chavira and Norma’s buds and relatives) as potential arena managers just like they did the last time in an attempt to justify a “lack of competitive bidding”. Can you spell nepotism? Click here to read that case. You will also notice the GWI clerks cannot spell “consolidation”. I’ll be revisiting the recent re-emergence of the PMG guys later, by the way.
What they might do, instead, is what they tried the last time. GWI managed to piggyback the Ken and Joe complaint on their existing (since 2009!) civil complaint (CV2009-020757) against the City of Glendale. They just had another court event yesterday (Nov. 9) in that civil action, by the way. I’m sure the donors to GWI are ecstatic about the disposition of their donations, there are pages of docket entries already with no end in sight. Or maybe they are less than ecstatic.
Anyway, we might expect “them” to file some sort of plea for a restraining order same as they did last time. Of course their gambit failed, but different judge, different day ah what the heck let’s sue ’em! There are enough Glendale citizens around willing to act on the behalf of GWI (although technically it’s vice-versa) in their quest to ensure the Coyotes leave town. Perhaps someone like Tea Partier Francine Romesburg?
They would do this some time after the City Council meeting on November 20. They might even wait until the last minute to file something, to give them a better shot at delaying the vote on November 27. If they think their judge wouldn’t grant them a stay long enough to delay past the vote date, they might gamble and wait until as late as Monday, the day before the meeting.
The validity of their request wouldn’t even be that meaningful. It would probably be full of references to the citizens not having enough time to review the documents, even though the current period of review days was recently mandated by the court. There would be plenty of other spurious shots in the dark in the complaint as well, essentially abusing the legal process in the hope that the judge would see something that interested him or her.
Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it? I do, actually, believe we have the best overall system in the world. The process is often made ridiculous, however, by overly litigious people looking for headlines, donations or JUST A FEW DAYS DELAY TO SUIT THEIR NEEDS. Ironic that OUR law would be made “a ass” by a group of people holding themselves up as the arbiters and defenders of our Constitution. It’s one of those things that makes you shake your head and wonder why the perpetrators of the craziness look so gleeful in their machinations instead of sheepish from the embarrassment they should feel. One can only hope that potential donors will re-examine where their donations would be spent and go elsewhere to people that more closely follow their stated objective.
The likelihood of any of this working is fairly slim, in my estimation. That doesn’t mean they won’t give it a shot, if there’s anything that makes the crew at GWI sing, it’s suing the City of Glendale!
Semper Fi and stay unfiltered, my friends.