Our good friend Phil Richardson who knows "a little" about Oro Valley past legal involvements, has a few worthy comments concerning the latest foray involving the "crematorium issue."
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Sung to the Tune, “Back in the Saddle Again” (See Autry, Gene)*
“We’re back in the courtroom again,
We’re back fighting Miz Garrahan
Where the lonly builders feed
On more’n they’ll ever need -
Back in the courtroom again.
Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rocking, rolling, here we go,
Back in the courtroom again.”
April 23, The Taxpayers of Oro Valley will once again be making contributions to the Local Lawyers Retirement Fund, as a Pima County Superior Court Judge will start trying to decide whether Oro Valley residents who oppose a crematory in their neighborhood had their constitutional right to due process denied.
This essay does not propose to argue either side of that issue, although we cannot resist making an aside that none of the people in town hall have yet to volunteer to move next door to the smokestack.
We only wish to pause to lament the undeniable fact that the Oro Valley Town Council is involved, non-stop, in one litigious issue after another. The grand irony of this is that we taxpayers are footing the bill for all this litigation. We are are being soaked big bucks to fight ourselves!
Why do so many individuals, factions and divisions feel put upon – so much so, they are willing to risk their personal savings, not to mention their peace of mind, fighting Oro Valley Town Hall?
Someone, or some thing has to be to blamed for all of this continual controversy. Why is there such a great disconnect between the governors and the governed in this pretty town?
It cannot be greed; the lust for unending power, since everyone of our chosen leaders claim continually that all is being done, at no little sacrifice on their part – for our good!
It could be caused as the “Singing Cowboy” suggested, by the “lowly gypsum weed, out where the longhorn cattle feed,” or perhaps some yet undiscovered pernicious element washing down into the Canyon del Oro.
-Phil Richardson
*Gene Autry – The signature song of the mellow-voiced star of 65 “horse operas” Orvon Gene Autry 1907-1998. Founded Major League baseball team, “Los Angeles Angels” and owned a chain of radio and TV stations, including KOLD AM/TV, Tucson.
9 comments:
We certainly agree with Phil.
It is worth noting, in the April 12 issue of the NW Section AZ Star, they quote C Brad Woodford, Oro Valley Tempe-based attorney, who is evidently representing the town in their litigation defending the "crematorium issue."
This may lead one to ask, why do we need a room full of attorneys headed up by Ms. Garrahan, if we hire outside legal council every time there's a problem? Might it not be prudent to just have a legal team on retainer?
On second thought----maybe not, considering the number of times the council finds itself defending their actions!
artmarth
Enjoyed the song!
Perhaps the only solution is to have two attorneys, one for the people and one for our town council
yip yip yip
I'm feeling less than sorry for those homeowners. Did they think the land would stay vacant forever? NIMBY groups don't think about anyone else, or the $$$ they're costing the rest of the town.
I'm sure the neighborhood group around Magee and Northern will be glad to pitch in and help.
Of course the homeowners knew the land would not be vacant forever. They did hear about the memorial chapel, but despite the claims of TOV Council, notification of a crematorium, was at best very weak or nonexistent. I do feel sorry for the owners of the land and their good faith effort to start their business. However, they should have realized that putting a crematory in residential neighborhood was not going to be accepted with open arms.
I think, more than anyone, the TOV Council is at fault. The owners should be really upset with them. You see, they seem to really try and put things over on us. But we now know the “true colors” of many of the council members and feel we cannot fully trust them! We are on the watch and can hopefully avoid issues like this in the future including costs of delays and legal fees.
Good business is making sure you are a good neighbor. Even our church had to redo plans several times and get neighbor approval for a small one story multipurpose building and a parking lot. Not just the lots directly adjacent, but quite a wide area of the neighborhood. And this wasn’t even in a Planned Area Development (PAD) only county land. (Which brings up the Vistoso HOA who are suppose to represent, surprisingly, the homeowners, but that is another can of worms!)
I know there are two sides to the story, and there has been a lot of emotion going back and forth. The members of NIMBY are good people and they are looking out for the children and the health and welfare of others! This, despite the opposition’s attempts to make us out as, “fanatics with too much time on our hands” or “Retirees that need to get a life!” Do some research on your own or go to Speak up Oro Valley and read about the emissions and pollution. You and your family are at risk too.
The TOV put the property owners in a bad situation they didn't accept the appeals; they kept changing the wording to try and justify the zoning change and more. You can read the rest on the web site for more.
I have to say that we are not going to give up!
We live in a litigious society. Unfortunately our court system doesn't have a filter system that weed's out bad lawsuits. And to carry the point even further, folks who bring lawsuits many times don't consider the far-reaching outcomes of their actions. I wonder if the SOVOG folks ever considered what the result of the election they sought would be. I, for one, supported putting the action to a vote, but long predicted the outcome of the election. In retrospect, I would hope folks would objectively examine if the costs were justified. Thousands of dollars were spent lining the pockets of attorneys. In the end we are exactly where we would have been without the lawsuit except we are nearly two years behind schedule on the Marketplace project and the Town of Oro Valley is out several thousands in tax revenue. I submit to you that if the sales tax revenue from Market Place were 18 months to two years closer would we now have a 2% utility tax? Sure would have made a strong argument against it.
Once again OV citizens are suing OV. Let's make an assumption that they win and the issue goes to the Board of Adjustment and is denied. What will the people have gained? I submit the answer is NOTHING.
Mr. Richardson makes a very valid point. You are costing yourself double when you sue the Town over something that will probably occur in the long run.
Winning a skirmish and losing the battle is one of the chapters addressed in one of the shortest books ever published.....The French Guide to Battlefield Victory!!
Take heed!!!
Hi Thinker. Welcome back.
You know what they say "freedom is not fee". So we should all just accept any decision made by a public official or public entity. I don't want to think that you really feel this way.
You are known to speak up, out and --, so I think if you disagree with something you would do your best to change a decision.
If the town had accepted the group's appeal to the board of adjustment we would not be using our $$ to litigate this.
It is sad that the average citizen here and everywhere feels that they have no voice in the process and hopelessly states everything is a "done deal"
There is no shame in trying, but there is some shame in just blind acceptance!
Remember we put these people in power we can put them out of power!
Lots of people are suggesting recall, I would sign for recall's for some on council, but think it might be better to just pressure them to represent us.
About SOVOG, its a shame the town did not just accept the referendum, and then the whole litigation process would have been avoided
Instead of encouraging citizen participation they discouraged it.
So did you sign the referendum for putting the issue to ballot?
Did you sign the pledge for ov1st.
Go ahead you can do it!!!!
Good Morning Ms. Coyote!!
In private business rules can be bent more easily. In this instance the Town was in a position where they simply could not accept the challenge because of specific time requirements. Let's assume they would have bent the rules and referred the matter to the Board of Adjustment. The property owner would have simply appealed the decision and won. There is very little give in the Court system which is where Board of Adjustment appleals are filed.
Having said that there was time for interested citizens to appeal the decision after the Development Review Board approved the matter as did Town Council. Because folks didn't not pay attention and appeal in a timely fashion will, I believe, not be looked upon favorably by the Court. I think the permission given to proceed with the grading permit is a clue to the outcome.
I do not profess blind acceptance. But I do believe that once "the horse is dead, it is time to get off". This is an emotion driven protest. There is more pollution placed in the air each day by cars driving down Oracle to Tucson than this crematorium will put out in a year. That combined with the unseemly comments made by some protesters makes this a bad move to support.
I'm going fishing. :-)See you in a few days!!!
OV OBJECTIVE THINKER
OV Objective Thinker submits that if SOVOG had not delayed the building of OV Marketplace, then we would have begun collecting the sales tax revenue from the mall much sooner and probably would not have been hit with the 2% utility tax. Hmmmm...so are you suggesting that when the mall is built and OV starts collecting all those sales taxes, that the 2% utility tax will be revoked?
Good Morning rto both Cowgirl & Thinker.
Yes I do agree that perhaps action should have been taken sooner. But feel that its a shame that citizens must always be watching our officials, why can't we trust that they will be doing the right thing.
The Horse is dead when citizens just relinquish their thoughts idea's and will to demand that officials work for us not against us. So I don't think the horse is dead just yet!!
Have a nice fishing trip .
Cowgirl, I think the tax will go up or continue, the money will just burn a hole in the council's pocket.
Unless we citizens are unaware of some major crime wave why are we in such dire needs of more police.
Could it be they are anticipating that much more crime due to the shopping center and movie theatre?
Again this will cut into the town's cut of sales taxes coming in.
Developer should be paying for the additional police that most likely will be busy with calls from the new shopping center, especially the Wal Mart.
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