Last week, a lawsuit was filed by Attorney Bill Risner on the behalf of Cecilia Cruz seeking the removal of Tucson Mayor Jonathon Rothschild and four city council members.
Cecilia Cruz is the chair of a citizens group named “El Rio Coalition II”, which consists of 12 neighborhood groups concerned about the predicament of the El Rio Golf Course.
Cruz informed the court that Mayor Rothschild along with city council members Regina Romero, Paul Cunningham, Karin Uhlich and Shirley Scott have intentionally violated open meeting laws for the intended purpose of depriving Cruz and the public of information they had a legal right to obtain.
In the executive session that violated open meetings laws, “the Mayor and Council are believed to have directed the Tucson City Attorney to assume the responsibility for the accumulation of all records requested by Cecilia Cruz and to solely, assume responsibility for their disclosure to Cecilia Cruz.”
Cruz’s complaint further explains that “this activity violated the city’s administrative directives, Arizona’s public record laws and regulations and Arizona’s Open Meetings and proceeding laws” and was an unlawful legal action according to state laws.
Various actions of the defendants are described as part of a “joint scheme to circumvent the purposes of the Open Meeting Law.”
Almost three years ago, Tucson was required to respond to Cecilia Cruz’s lawsuit requesting public records related to the city’s plan to sell El Rio Park to a private company for development.
The City Attorney staff subsequently destroyed key documents and lied to Judge Christopher Staring and Ms. Cruz about the existence of records.
Judge Staring later made specific factual findings of the City’s intentional and wrongful conduct. This recent lawsuit deals with the consequences of those intentional lies.
Attorney Bill Risner explains the case: