The sequel no one wanted

Arise, Project Blue! ... Tricks of the trade ... And tensions run high in Tucson.

Call it the contract that won’t die.

Pima County Supervisors Andrés Cano and Jennifer Allen are putting the Project Blue contract back on the agenda. And they’re planning to discuss it with their attorneys for the second meeting in a row.

After the Tucson City Council shot down the data center proposal last month, Cano said it is his responsibility to protect county resources.

“The only reason Pima County considered Project Blue was because it was tied to a proposal with the City of Tucson. That effort has now been rejected by the City Council and the people, but now Beale is looking for shortcuts to keep this project alive,” Cano said. “Our duty now is clear: protect County taxpayers, defend our water, and secure our energy future from an out-of-state corporation.”

Supervisor Andrés Cano

The supervisors are going discuss the contract in executive session. One of the subsections in state law the supervisors cited to allow them to meet behind closed doors is A.R.S. §38-431.03(A) (4) and that last bracketed number is a big hint — it’s contract law. For what it's worth, it’s the same subsection used to talk about Project Blue two weeks ago.

It sounds like Beale still wants the county to sell them 290 acres near the fairgrounds for $20 million.

We’ll have to wait and find out what happens next, but our read suggests the contract the supervisors approved a few months ago was only valid if the annexation into the city went through. And only Pima County can waive that requirement.

With Cano and Allen — who voted against the sale — asking for the item to be put on the agenda, it’s worth watching whether the county will let the deal move forward. While the project is still deeply unpopular, the county might have to take on the daunting task of going to court with a proxy for the world’s largest retailer.

In other business

Other items of note on the agenda include:

• The supervisors will get an update from their finance department about the current fiscal year. It’s a snapshot of how revenues and expenses are matching the projections made before the annual budget was adopted in July.

• They’ll also be asked to commit to put more money in their General Fund Budget Reserve in the next fiscal year. As part of budget compromises earlier this year, the supervisors voted to decrease the amount they keep in the fund from the national standard of 17 percent of their audited operating expenditures down to 15 percent. A commitment would likely lead to belt-tightening in next year’s fiscal budget.

Finally, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher penned a letter to the state land commission opposing the sale of 160 acres to Copper World to be used for mine tailings.

Pima County had previously opposed the proposed development of the Copper World mine upstream of Tucson’s aquifer. But the amount of land used for tailings has changed, prompting Lesher’s letter.

Lesher said Copper World agreed to use only 40 acres in 2023. But the letter identifies that the mine wants to buy 160 acres.

“We continue to share similar concerns regarding the substantial increase in groundwater withdrawals from the Tucson Active Management Area necessary to operate this mine, and the permanent destruction of significant natural and cultural resources, both of which conflict with our locally informed and scientifically designed Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan,” wrote Lesher.

The letter, sent last Thursday, includes local opposition to the land sale from both the Save the Scenic Santa Ritas and the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Want to level up your understanding of Pima County government?

You’ll want to bookmark this website.

It’s a collection of memos, largely written by Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher, covering a wide range of topics and often providing additional background on items from the latest agenda.

Lesher also regularly issues follow-ups to questions raised during meetings that require further research.

For example, on Friday she wrote a memo titled “County Initiatives Addressing Homelessness and Public Safety,” responding to questions from the Sept. 2 meeting.

Lesher’s memos continue a practice started by her predecessor, Chuck Huckelberry. Online, there are thousands of these memoranda.

This is one of the best ways to dig deeper into county business without having to get elected, or devoting your career to journalism.

Tucson Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz took down an Instagram post on Friday that a state lawmaker claimed celebrated the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Santa Cruz adamantly denied the post in any way supported the political assassination of the conservative influencer.

“As someone who grew up in the Evangelical movement of the 90s, seeing people close to me invoke Christ in response to this tragedy triggered a reaction. The post was a personal reference intended for those who know my upbringing,” Santa Cruz wrote. They went on to say, “I unequivocally denounce political violence, gun violence and all forms of violence.”

Republican state Rep. Rachel Keshel, who represents a Tucson-area district, made the private Instagram post public on Friday and demanded that Santa Cruz resign.

Keshel flagged a tweet from a conservative activist calling out Santa Cruz for the Instagram post. The activist referred to “krama,” — likely a misspelling of the word “karma” — and wrote ”God curse you” in Spanish.

Keshel suggested Santa Cruz’s now-deleted Instagram post could lead to more political violence.

“When public officials celebrate political violence, they legitimize it, embolden it, and invite more of it, Keshel said in a press release.

Several Tucson City Councilmembers, as well as Mayor Regina Romero, made statements on Friday, and they largely re-affirmed that they do not support political violence of any kind.

None suggested Santa Cruz should resign.

At the same time as Keshel was bemoaning inflammatory rhetoric, her husband, Seth Keshel, was engaging in precisely that type of rhetoric. He called the left “demon-possessed, hate-filled sycophants for a cause of evil” and said he was done “playing nice,” the Phoenix New Times reported.

And Keshel herself claimed former President Barack Obama somehow motivated the shooter and called for Obama to be thrown in jail, reposting a tweet where he said the shooting of Kirk “has no place in our democracy.”

In addition to Keshel’s demands, there is an active attempt to send complaints about Santa Cruz to the city council and city manager.

Nationally, a website has been set up to build a crowd-sourced database of Kirk-related posts that users find objectionable. They label their efforts as “the largest firing operation in history.”

While the website was not operational as of Sunday, it’s a good bet Santa Cruz’s post will be in there.

Landlord must make repairs: Attorney General Kris Mayes is telling a landlord that he must address serious health and safety issues at four apartment complexes he owns in Tucson and South Tucson, Arizona Public Media’s Danyelle Khmara reports. The letter, sent in late August but released to the press last week, gave owners of Sixth Avenue Suites Apartments, Spanish Trail Suites, Oasis Apartments, and Eucalyptus Apartments until the end of last week to make major repairs to the air conditioning systems, remove asbestos and mold from apartments and address rodent and pest infestations.

Dems elect new chair: On Saturday, Arizona Democrats picked former state Rep. Charlene Fernandez to run the show as their new party chair. She won the gig with 57 percent of the vote at the state committee meeting, giving her the reins through the 2026 election cycle. If her name sounds familiar, it’s because Fernandez has been around Arizona politics for decades — from leading the Democratic caucus in the state House to serving in the Biden administration. Fernandez told us in a recent interview that the most important issue would be to mobilize Democrats statewide ahead of the 2026 election.

Fernandez celebrates shortly after the vote, standing next to a plaque honoring former Rep. Ed Pastor, an early mentor of hers.

The final vote: Whoever wins the Congressional District 7 seat next week could be the deciding vote on whether to release the Epstein files, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. Both Democrat Adelita Grijalva and Republican Daniel Butierez told the Star they support releasing the files.

Not bad for second place: The University of Arizona is creating a new senior vice provost position with a $415,000 salary, the Star’s Prerana Sannappanavar reports. The position will go to Jenna Rickus, who was on the short list for the UA’s provost search this spring, and she will report directly to the woman who ultimately was offered the provost position: Patricia Prelock.

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Bucking the feds: Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed an executive order allowing for state residents to get a COVID shot without a prescription, joining other Democratic governors who are pushing back on a recent federal decision to narrow recommendations on who should get COVID vaccines, the Associated Press reports.

Calls for Lane Santa Cruz to resign were not the only demand made by those offended by that Instagram post.

The Tucson Police Protective League, a group that advocates for Tucson police officers, is one of the groups asking the rest of the Tucson City Council to kick Santa Cruz off the council.

On Facebook, the group posted a letter asking the council to take immediate action.

They should have checked with a lawyer first.

The Tucson City Charter doesn’t allow for the mayor and council to take direct action like a vote to remove an elected official.

The charter allows just one mechanism for the forcible removal of a councilmember: a recall election.

That would be a heavy lift, requiring the collection of thousands of signatures from Tucson residents. Our back-of-the-napkin math puts it at nearly 19,000 signatures.