Tucson City Attorney Mike Rankin told Tucson City Councilperson Karen Uhlich that the vast majority of resolutions passed by the Tucson City Council include an “Emergency Clause.” Uhlich had asked the attorney to clarify why the City uses the device “99 percent of the time.”
At last night’s Council meeting, Rankin said he could not speak to the matter because it was not on the Council’s agenda; however, it is well-known that Arizona cities and towns have used the device too frequently in order to limit public discussion and public notice normally required by governing body actions.
The issue arose when the public turned out en mass to object to resolution the City Council passed in on February 20, 2013 in favor of military action allowing the U.S. Air Force to “make appropriate decisions when balancing National Security and community needs when it comes to their existing and future military mission and assignments.”
The vast majority of the speakers seemed to believe that the “Emergency Clause” employed by the City gave the resolution a sinister motive, however long time City council watcher noted that “almost everything the City Council does is in secret and most of it is just plain stupid, not sinister. This is a move by the jokers who are up for re-election to look like they support the military and nothing more.”
Still others say whether the City Council members intended to or not they basically approved Martial Law. One member of occupy Tucson, Lee Stanfield, “Without any approval, discussion, or even knowledge of its existence by Tucson’s voters, this document gives the Air Force unconditional approval to use its own discretion (which historically has proven to be entirely lacking) to go ahead with their dangerous plans for Tucson.
This resolution will allow DM to increase by at least two-fold or more, the number of over flights of the very densely populated midtown Tucson, and allow round-the-clock over flights, and the introduction of whatever aircraft they wish, in whatever numbers they wish.”
While conspiracy theorists pined about the Martial Law coming our way, the Council was told that the operating cost of the trolley would be four times higher than what anyone was led to believe. The costs which had raised eye brows at $2.9 million are now estimated to be around $5.2 million in 2017 and $5.4 million in 2018.
“As always, the City Council appeared to be a surprised by the news. As with all City business it is hard for observers to know if the City Council is really oblivious to the facts or play the part of rubes,” said one long time City insider.
According to the Goldwater Institute, cities “sometimes propose measures declaring an emergency as a matter of routine. They may do so to prevent citizens from taking out a referendum on an unpopular or controversial action that they don’t want, reversed, like a tax increase, or they may do so to speed up the effective date for a project that the council should have considered and approved before, like an important contract that wasn’t negotiated on time. The only requirement is that a supermajority of councilmembers – typically three-fourths – vote in favor.”
“Supermajority vote or not, taking away the citizen’s voice in local matters and rushing projects through the legislative process should be a rare exception to the norm,” according to Carrie Ann Sitren of the Goldwater Institute. “Cities should use the emergency clause only during real emergencies when the risk to the public health or safety is high. For everything else, cities should follow the normal process for doing public business.”
Rankin, who is frequently referred to as “Tucson Shadow Mayor,” told the Council that he “would prepare some clarification” on the issue at a later date.