PHOENIX β State officials have not acted on various plans to deal with a controversial monument to Confederate soldiers at a state-run cemetery in Sierra Vista, and ignored a council memberβs query on how to get rid of it.
Sierra Vista City Council member Sarah Pacheco wrote to the Veteransβ Services Department in June inquiring about the procedure to have the monument removed.
Pacheco, a veteran herself, also questioned how the stone monument, with a Confederate battle flag and an inscription that the soldier fought for βthe constitutional right of self-government,β ever got placed there just a decade ago.
Pacheco told Capitol Media Services she never got an answer.
Department spokeswoman Nicole Baker does not dispute that no one responded.
βOnce a decision is reached, we will work with stakeholders in the community,β Baker said.
This isnβt a new issue, with debate about the monumentβs future dating to at least 2017. Yet Baker provided no timeline for when review of the issue will happen.
Documents show the department and its director, Wanda Wright, are not making any moves to resolve the issue.
For example, the departmentβs documents said earlier this year it was going to reach out to βproponentsβ of any markers to provide βthe opportunity to recover their markers for safekeeping.β Baker conceded no such offers have been made.
Another plan to reach out to marker proponents to call police urging protection for the markers also never occurred, she conceded.
The lack of action mirrors the practice of Wrightβs boss, Gov. Doug Ducey. For years the governor brushed aside questions about Confederate monuments on state property, saying he has no interest in removing them. βI donβt think we should try to hide our history,β he said in 2017.
More recently, facing increased questions, Ducey said he wants a βpublic processβ to decide the future of any markers or memorials. But his press aide Patrick Ptak acknowledged Tuesday that Ducey has yet to suggest a process, months later.
The Sierra Vista monument is the last of four that had been on state property.
One, across from the Capitol in Phoenix, was removed by the Daughters of the Confederacy earlier this year amid public protests and fear it could be vandalized. The same group also removed a roadside monument east of Apache Junction marking the Jefferson Davis Highway. And a plaque at Picacho Peak State Park honoring Confederate veterans who fought a battle there was stolen.
That leaves the stone marker in Sierra Vista.
Pacheco said the issue came to the council through an inquiry from some residents. She said the city has no direct say because the property belongs to the state. βThere doesnβt seem to be much pressure that has worked,β she said. βIt turns out itβs really the governorβs call.β
That should not end the debate, Pacheco said. βMy personal feeling is that the marker should be removed.
βTo say that the Civil War was about statesβ rights or self governance is totally false,β Pacheco said. βItβs about slavery. Itβs about defense of slavery, period.β
Sierra Vista Mayor Rick Mueller said he is divided on the issue.
On one hand, he said he has no problem noting that there may be Confederate soldiers buried there. Whether thatβs true remains unclear as the remains, dating to the mid- and late 1800s, were moved from a cemetery in downtown Tucson more than a decade ago to make room for a new courthouse complex.
But Mueller said itβs not that simple. βI can understand the verbiage on that may be offensive to some people,β he said.
Mueller also said it is wrong to leave out reference to the war being fought over slavery, saying the monument instead focuses on a βromanticβ vision of the antebellum South.
Pacheco said she believes itβs important to discuss the issue and determine a process to decide whether to remove the monument.
She said itβs important to differentiate between the Confederate soldiers who died β assuming there are any buried in the facility β and the marker erected a decade ago.
She said any remains should be left in peace.
