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The Superior Town Council will meet this Thursday night Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall and I am encouraging all townspeople to attend. Mayor Valenzuela has not stepped down, despite repeated entreaties for him to do so. The cost of a recall election will cost the Town (and that means us taxpayers) $2.50 per registered voter. As of June 2015, Superior town had a total of 1435 voters and this means a loss of town revenue of $3,587.50. The mayor could save the town this money if he would just resign. But he hasn’t. Why?
The mayor is employed as a special unit by Sheriff Paul Babeu in the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office through a law that was passed in 2009 that gives Sheriff Paul sole discretion in who is hired and who is fired. So far, even though Sheriff Paul is running for the 1st District of Congress, he hasn’t deemed it important enough to fire his Jail Commander who has committed a felony offense in Superior. I think it means the Sheriff is willing to let his Congressional votes in the August primary go to somebody else up here in Superior.
The Sheriff is also in partnership with the Pinal County District Attorney, Lando Voyles, who has repeatedly told interested citizens when they have called his office that he will not investigate Mr. Valenzuela’s use of town money for personal use.
Jan. 14 at the last Town Council meeting, the Town Council voted to ask Arizona Department of Public Safety to investigate the mayor. The next day the Town Manager quit and the letter didn’t get sent from the town until January 20 when the town lawyer Stephen Cooper finally wrote to the DPS. DPS notified the lawyer February 2 that they would be unable to conduct the investigation because they “do not have the resources available to conduct such an investigation.” They said they would turn the matter over to the Attorney General’s office. We learned that the AG’s office got the letter from DPS on Feb 3 and it was going to be turned over to the chief agent in charge of special investigations. We shall see what is forthcoming there. With a word, they could demand the mayor resign and that is what we are hoping will happen to save the town a cost of a special election. The one thing that may stop this investigation in its tracks is that the Special Assistant Attorney General is a Mr. Chris Derose. And Mr. Derose was Paul Babeu’s counsel and campaign manager in his last bid for Congress in 2012.
I think the citizens of Superior need to know how tied up our government is by one man and how it is of paramount importance for us to assert our rights. Maybe it’s too late and we can’t extricate ourselves from this ‘political machine’ we find ourselves immersed in. Come to the meeting Thursday night and express yourselves!
/s/ Nancy Vogler
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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