From tip@mercury.aichem.arizona.eduSun Mar 10 14:31:06 1996
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 95 04:11:36 0400
From: tip <tip@mercury.aichem.arizona.edu>
To: shmit@meathook.intac.com
Subject: Marana, Az


You mention the band Spork, whihc can be seen in Marana.  Have you ever 
been to Marana?   I used to live 1/8'th mile from Marana.  And Senator, 
you aren't Marana...

Marana is an excuse.  It is a plot to subvert the zoning regulations of 
the county.   Maran is the 3'rd largest city in Arizona by square miles, 
but one of the smallest in terms of population.   It takes you almost 30 
minutes to drive from the North end of Marana to the South end ON THE 
FREEWAY.  Marana starts at the county line...  it would have annexed 
further, but the state won't allow that.  It goes all the way to Tucson.  
It butts up against Oro valley to the east, and peters out into land so 
far away from anything that no-body wants it, in the west.   Yet Marana 
has a voting population of about 2000.  Yes, thousand, not tenthousands.

Marana has been growing by gobbling up vacent land, and land that only 
has businesses on it.  This gives it a lot of freedom to change zoning, 
since those nasty residents who might care, don't exist.  This is why 
Marana has some odd jerrymandering.  For example, it has extended a long 
tendril around a populated part of Pima county to enclose priceclub, 
Kmart, and target.  Nice income from sales tax, but count the voters....  
none.  Doesn't threaten Mayor Harn's "old X club".

Mayor Harn is known as Mammie Yokum in the local papers...  she has 
about as much sense as Mammy Yokum, and all the polish.  the only 
politicians of lower stature in Marana are the creatures who sit on the 
planning board.  These people don't simply ignore Roberts Rules of 
Order,  they purposefully hunt out ways where no desecration has gone 
before.  Moving public meetings 1 minute before the meeting starts, 
ignoring published agendas, giving industrial representatives unlimited 
speaking time while giving citizens 3 minutes, violating state laws on 
open meetings, taking money from developers to pay a lawyer to sue their 
own citizens, etc...

The citizens put out a petition to block a development...   the petition 
gathered the required signatures, BUT the city had an answer... Since 
the petition had been printed with 12 point text (as per the law), but 
since the photocopier reduced the text by 1/72'd in the horizontal 
direction, the text was below the legal size limit and thus the petition 
was declared invalid!  When the petitioners asked for state help, the 
state attorny general declared that since this was a voting matter in 
Marana, the Marana city attorney should represent the citizens... 
apparently he forgot that the city attorney was also representing the 
defendant?   Eventually the supreme court overruled the "too small" 
order, and allowed the petition.

Marana...





