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Inside Track: Marana
faces some imperfect optionsFebruary 14, 2007 |
February 14, 2007
Life is a series of imperfect
options. That is nowhere more clearly illustrated than by
the two candidates running for Mayor of Marana, incumbent
Ed Honea and challenger David Morales.
Mayor Honea — chosen from the council after the indictment and resignation of Mayor Bobby Sutton Jr. — personifies the old Marana he came from and the shaky policies that culture has him carrying. One is the town leadership’s habit of doing real business away from public view, including a collective paranoia about releasing public records or even allowing employees to discuss anything relevant with the media. Another is their club-like loyalty to one another extending to a decision to pick-up Sutton’s legal fees if he beats the rap. Both are sufficient reasons for Marana voters to elect a new mayor. Unfortunately, their only choice is David Morales who totally lacks credibility. Once a council member, Morales has run for and lost a series of public offices including Pima County Board of Supervisors (twice), state legislature, mayor and town council. The latest example of his ineffectiveness was a failed recall drive against the current council. It only required 138 signatures. In a community with over 10,000 registered voters, anyone with a little effort could acquire 138 signatures to bring to a vote changing the Mayor to a hereditary monarch. Morales not only proved his own ineptitude in failing to follow through on that recall, but also proved that he has no constituency. He would do Marana a favor by parking his ego and getting out of the way. Honea believes that low turnouts indicate approval of the way the town does business. He needs to hope that no one pays attention to how the town does business because voter revulsion could be sufficient to elect even Morales. When asked at a recent forum if Sutton beats some of the charges, will the town then pay some of his legal fees, Honea dodged and gave his standard answer that paying officials legal fees has been town policy for years. If he’s correct and that really IS the town policy, it’s a good case for changing the people who support it. Even with that, Honea is the better choice. Changes on the town council could go a long way to keeping him honest. Two incumbents are running for re-election: Bob Allen and Jim Blake. Allen is a recent appointee while Blake was elected in 1999. Both dodged the EXPLORER’s candidate forum, citing some nebulous prior commitment. Challenger and former Councilwoman Roxanne Ziegler zingered both by noticing this was the first forum where the questions weren’t asked in advance and Allen and Blake would have to answer them by themselves. That Blake has been unable to return phone calls from this newspaper while Allen whines about having to act like a candidate and answer questions indicates that they’re both ready for the “delete” function. Ziegler is feisty and has a track record from her prior tenure of not rolling over just to make things unanimous. She should be elected. The other three challengers are Randal Berry, Bret Summers and Russell Clanagan. When Berry finally finishes talking about his education and background, he sounds like an apologist for the incumbents or an incumbent himself. He lost me — and hopefully you —when trying to justify muzzling employees by claiming they could be handing out “disinformation” and is concerned about “creating negativity.” Summers is better on the public records, conflicts of interest and Sutton issue, but like Berry tends to babble a bit and like Clanagan is too caught up in peripheral issues that the town has little to do with like affordable housing. Clanagan is the Marana Planning Commission chairman who got tired of the group think at Town Hall. His issue positions are similar to those of Summers and Ziegler. His broader experience and issue depth outpoints Summers. Clanagan and Ziegler are your best shots.
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