I read the plan and wondered: "Why isn't the CAP Water Board trying to block this development, which will require 860,000 gallons of water day? The Colorado River is already over-allocated, which has led to us being under a Drought Contingency Plan."
Two conflicts of interest uncovered
Oh. Lisa Atkins is the Board President of CAP (Central Arizona Project) as well as Commissioner for ASLD. That would explain it. Although her position at CAP is not a paid position, she does have a conflict of interest as Commissioner of ASLD and CAP Board President. Ironically, Atkins said at "sunset" meetings for the ASLD that any attempt to merge ASLD with another related State department would inevitably lead to conflict of interest because control over different but related natural resources inevitably leads to conflict of interest!
So who is her Deputy Commissioner, I wondered? It’s Wesley Mehl of Tucson. According to the Tucson Sentinel in an article from July 2015, "Mehl is the son of developer, David Mehl, who along with brother George built the La Paloma resort in the Catalina Foothills, and the Dove Mountain development in Marana." That would explain why we are continuing the residential housing boom during deepening drought.
Sacrificing water and ignoring conflicts of interest
But maybe it's all worth it if it improves funding for K-12 education. That's what they said at the public meetings. In fact, they justified the whole project on the basis of a constitutional mandate to sell Trust Land for the benefit of K-12 education.
So I checked that out. Arizona ranks 48th out of 50 in public education funding, and K-12 education is by far the biggest single expenditure in the State budget. The Trust Fund has billions in it, but it costs billions every single year to fund public education. Maybe we need to sacrifice water and look the other way at conflicts of interest if it will help K-12 education.
The math doesn’t add up
So I estimated that the Trust land might sell for something like $100 million, which would perhaps yield 3-4% ($3-4 million dollars per year) on the $100 million. But the plan adds 1,767 K-12 students, at a cost of about $15 million per year (to stay in 48th place), for a net loss of $11-12 million per year.
Why is the Marana School District (where the Oro Valley annexation is taking place) allowing this? Because they will get their $8500 per year per student from the General Fund, even if those students drain the General Fund at $11-12 million per year. State taxes will have to be raised or other services curtailed, to make up this deficit. What an irony, given that the whole point of Trust Land sales was to provide enough money so that K-12 education would never cost taxpayers a dime as Arizona moved from Territory to State!
Marana School District CFO never reviewed the site plan
I contacted Don Contorno, Chief Financial Officer of Marana Unified School District, who wrote a letter of approval to Oro Valley for taking on the students. He wanted to know where I got the outlandish number of 1,767 K-12 students, and I told him that it was from the published Site Specific Plan. He sheepishly confessed that he never read the plan and assumed the area would be developed like Sky Ranch.
A “Model” for future development
ASLD and Oro Valley have not publicized that this is a pilot project to be rolled out for the entire 9.3 million acres of trust land, with a stated goal of speeding development by transferring zoning rights from citizens to developers via "zoning banks."
LOVE readers and residents of Sky Ranch, Tangerine Crossing, and Dove Mountain need to present a united front now and in the future.
You can view a detailed slide presentation HERE
Please visit my Facebook page (MyLand.YourLand.AZ) HERE
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Jim Tripp has a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Oregon State University. Prior to retirement, he was employed as a Federal Regulations Analyst for Wisconsin Power and Light and as a Research Scientist at UC Santa Cruz and Berkeley National Labs. He has over 30 scientific publications to his credit.
