Today at 1:30 p.m., Bill Risner will be in front of Judge Christopher Staring, who has set a hearing on the public-records lawsuit regarding the City of Tucson and El Rio Golf Course.
According to activist John Brakey, “It’s been two years since Ceci Cruz of El Rio II coalition filed this lawsuit, and in spite of the fact that the Judge has consistently ruled in our favor, the City is still orchestrating strategies to keep from releasing documents it is legally obligated to release, and that the judge has ordered it to release.”
In May of 2013, Tucson resident Celia Cruz requested public documents concerning the City of Tucson’s proposed sale of El Rio Golf Course to Grand Canyon University. Cruz received no documents and it appeared her request was all but ignored.
Finally, over one year later, after Cruz was forced to sue the City of Tucson for the documents with the help of attorney Bill Risner, Pima County Superior Court Judge Christopher Staring ruled in favor of Cruz against the City on May 16, 2014 . Officials must now turn over the entirety of the documents described in Cruz’s May 12, 2013 request for public records, on or before June 4, 2014.
The judge found that the City misrepresented its action to the Court, when attorneys claimed in their July 8, 2013 Motion to Dismiss: “The City has now fully responded to Plaintiff s public records request, except that it has withheld approximately seven documents from release.”
Staring wrote, “It is now clear that the July 8 representation was not remotely accurate. In fact, the record supports the conclusion that COT either knew the July 8 representation was false, or knew its efforts in response to Ms. Cruz’s request were so inadequate it could not have had any confidence in the accuracy of the representation. As discussed below, COT’s actions, including the July 8 representation, unreasonably expanded and delayed these proceedings to an extent necessitating sanctions pursuant to A.R.S. § 12-349(A).”
Staring found, “Clear and convincing evidence exists that COT engaged in “misconduct” sufficient to warrant relief pursuant to Rule 60(c)(3).”
As a result Staring awarded attorney fees to Cruz in the amount of $15,800.00. Read the ruling here.
In his ruling, Judge Staring noted that it was “important to reiterate that this case is about whether COT has complied with the access obligations imposed by Arizona law. It is not about the pros and cons of conveying El Rio to GCU. This is because the public records statutes impose transparency obligations in plain, neutral language.”
According to author J.T. Waldron, records that the plaintiffs did receive, “indicate the need to fully understand the extent to which city officials were forfeiting valuable assets for the benefit of wealthy investors. Using a dubious appraisal that ignored existing development and infrastructure of El Rio’s land, the city’s offer would have yielded a purchaser’s windfall of around 45 million dollars for a quantity of land that is five times the space needed to construct the university.”
Per the judge’s order, the hearing will last only an hour. Brakey is encouraging members of the public to attend the hearing in Pima County Superior Court Building, Room #586, 110 W. Congress St., in Tucson.