This morning Pima County Superior Court Judge Gus Aragon ruled in favor of the Town of Oro Valley in the matter of a request for an “Order to Show Cause” by residents, who sought to put the purchase of the El Conquistador Country Club before the voters.
UPDATE: Residents appeal Oro Valley El Conquistador purchase referendum decision
The judge heard the case on Tuesday.
The plaintiffs, Debra Arrett, and Shirley Lamonna filed for Statutory Special Action, through their attorney Bill Risner. The defendant Julie K Bower, Oro Valley Town Clerk, rejected over 3000 signatures due to a small clerical error.
In his ruling, the judge found that the plaintiffs failed to put a serial number generated by the Town in the bottom corner of each petition.
The ruling reads:
“Plaintiffs argue that this omission is not significant and it should not have resulted in rejection of the petitions.
The Court finds that A.R.S. § 19-111(B) requires that each petition submitted by Plaintiffs contain, on the lower right hand corner on both sides of each copy, the assigned official serial number. The official serial number had been assigned and provided to the Plaintiffs as required by law. The Court finds that Plaintiffs failed to comply with the plain language of the applicable statute, and the petitions were not legally sufficient under A.R.S. § 19-111(B). The Court finds that Plaintiffs have failed to satisfy their burden of proof. The Court further finds that Defendant’s actions being challenged in this matter complied with Arizona law.”
The Town’s Mayor Satish Hiremath, has pushed the deal claiming that opposition to the scheme consisted of only a “few people, who were engaging in hype and rhetoric.” However after the Town Clerk notified residents that she would reject their petitions due to a clerical error, residents circulated corrected petitions and were able to gather over 1000 in only a few hours.
Last month, Art Segal, co-founder of the popular website, Let Oro Valley Excel, wrote on the site: “hopefully, we the people will “take the bull by the horns,” and initiate a recall petition to rid ourselves of these four,” referring to Hiremath, and Council members Lou Waters, Mary Snider, and Joe Hornat.