Eight Days A Week For Coyotes

The next eight days are important to the future of the Coyotes in Glendale, culminating in a likely Glendale City Council vote on Tuesday, July 2.

This time last year, we had our annual family vacation plans all worked out. We were worried we would miss the victory party for the consummated sale of the Phoenix Coyotes. Ironically, we have the exact same concern this year.

Deal Becomes Public

There is a Glendale City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 25 at 7 pm. This meeting was rumored to be the decisive meeting for the Coyotes because of it’s proximity to the NHL Board of Governors meeting on Thursday the 27th.

Because of the legal constraints of running a municipality, the NHL seems to have realized the alleged time constraint should be stretched just a little to allow for the democratic process to work.

It’s also likely that, should one have an RSA account or something, you’d find lots of calls between all of the interested parties over the past days. They weren’t talking about the weather. Okay, maybe a few weather sentences, but that wasn’t the main subject.

I mean to say everybody that should be in the loop is without a doubt completely up to speed on what the other principals are doing and thinking. It’s the only way to make progress as rapid as we’ve seen.

So, the published agenda for this upcoming meeting does not have an item for discussion of an arena agreement.

From all reports, it’s likely the details of the proposed agreement between Renaissance Sports and Entertainment (RSE) and the City of Glendale will be made public tomorrow (Monday, June 24), Tuesday before the council meeting or early Wednesday. My guess is they will be seen tomorrow.

Despite rumors to the contrary, publishing of these details is only required 72 hours prior to a voting meeting, yet Glendale and RSE want to get it out there for public review a week before the July 2 meeting.

72 Hours Or A Week (or NEVER)

The Glendale City Charter language seems to contradict itself by requiring publication 72 hours prior to a vote while also allowing it to simply be read into the record at the voting meeting. See what you think by reading Article VII, Section 6 below:

All proposed ordinances and resolutions shall be subject to the following requirements for passage at any meeting of the council:

(a) Copies of a proposed ordinance and proposed resolution shall be in possession of the mayor and council at least seventy-two (72) hours prior to the meeting and shall be posted in compliance with the provisions of the laws of the state.

(b) By request of the mayor or any member of the council, a full reading of the proposed ordinance or resolution shall be ordered, otherwise such ordinance or resolution heretofore mentioned shall be read by number and title only. The measure may be passed and adopted at any time after such reading.

(c) Copies of titles of proposed ordinances and resolutions heretofore mentioned shall be available to the public for examination and posted at city hall seventy-two (72) hours before the hour the city council convenes to act upon the ordinance or resolution.

Should copies be not so available, such ordinance or resolution must be read in full before the vote thereon.

Doesn’t the last “Should copies be not so available…” sentence completely remove the 72 hour requirement as long as the ordinance and/or resolution are read in full before the council votes? Sounds like that to me.

So, while there have been objections (including some from me) about closed door meetings and privacy, it now appears that the City of Glendale will be going the extra mile to provide more transparency than is legally required in this case. The likelihood that they get any credit for that is miniscule.

Between June 24 And July 2

There will be a press conference tomorrow for the announcement of the re-signing of Dave Tippett as the Head Coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. Obviously, Coach is another important piece of the Coyotes puzzle that’s fallen into place.

Once the details of the deal are released, a barrage of press releases if not press conferences should follow from all the principals or their representatives.

As the deal points are public and discussion can begin, the principals will finally be able to speak freely about everything. I don’t expect the facts to get in the way of a spate of negative stories that will undoubtedly follow, selective points will be highlighted and trumpeted. Hopefully people will find the information where it’s published in it’s entirety with an easily digestible summary. You can expect a gluten free set of facts and comments right here on this set of electrons as I get time to push them out.

The deal will be presented to the Glendale City Council for their vote on July 2. I imagine Coyotes fans will once again troop into the Council chambers as will the usual opposition members. People will talk and the deal will be approved without using the emergency clause provision.

Could this all go south and the Coyotes move north to Seattle? Of course, anything is possible. You won’t find many people to bet on that happening, though, and even fewer for them moving to Quebec.

After July 2

The question a lot of people are asking already is whether another referendum attempt will be filed. Nobody knows, it happened both times a deal was approved before.

Both attempts failed. There is no reason to believe one more wouldn’t fail.

• The paperwork has proved impossible to complete for two referendum and one initiative attempt despite clear directions.
• Nearly 7,000 legitimate (voters registered legally in Glendale) signatures would be required. Nowhere near that many has ever been gathered.
• It will be roughly one million degrees in all the locations petition circulators would be attempting to gather signatures.

I wrote “Watch Your Six – Tea Bagger Edition” back in December the last time this came up, read it and you’ll get a better idea of what a daunting task it would be to make a success of such a referendum attempt. The Prop 457 people, very well organized and financed, managed to gather something like 4100 signatures with 2700 that were “good” to get their initiative on the ballot. They spent a ton of money with paid circulators, reportedly up to $4 per signature near the signature gathering deadline.

That’s extremely unlikely to happen in this case.

If it does happen, you can expect yet another throwdown on the mean streets of Glendale between the beautiful and/or devilishly handsome, witty, smart and well hydrated Coyotes fans and whoever the other side is.

Hockey the Hard Way is something we’re all used to by now.