Now that the Tucson City Council has won a do-over on a court case challenging the constitutionality of the city election system, it wants to hold off on asking voters whether to change the way city council members are elected.
As recently as April it seemed likely that city voters would be asked whether to hold both primary and general elections by ward only.
Currently, the city elects its council members by ward only in the primary and then citywide in the general election — an unusual system a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel deemed unconstitutional.
The split decision in November 2015 said the election system violates the 14th Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause, known as the “one man, one vote” protection, by excluding some voters from the primary election based on which ward they live in.
But now the city gets a chance to argue the case before a larger panel of 9th Circuit judges and the council doesn’t want to make changes to the election system until the court rules.
So no ballot question this year. Maybe next year.
“I just don’t see why we’re in such a hurry to do this right now,” Council Member Paul Cunningham said.
His motion to “postpone indefinitely” any discussion of election system changes was approved unanimously by the council Tuesday. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said he’s hoping for clearer direction from the court.
In April the mayor said he hoped a new election system would be in place in January, when candidates will start campaigning for the 2017 city council election. But that was before the 9th Circuit announced it would consider the case again.
The 9th Circuit hearing is scheduled for June 21.
Putting the ward-only election question on the ballot was one reason Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash brought the legal action against the city in the first place.
If ward-only elections were in place today, the council likely would look different.
In 2015, Republican candidates in wards 2 and 4 won the majority of votes in their respective ward but lost citywide. With the proposed system in place, they would have won. Instead, Democrats Cunningham and Shirley Scott won.
Century movie theater
sign approved
The council also voted to reverse a decision by the Sign Code Advisory and Appeals Board to deny a special permit to Cinemark to build a 100-foot-tall spire sign at its planned Century movie theater at 1300 E. Tucson Marketplace Boulevard, near Interstate 10 and South Kino Parkway.
“The spire is Cinemark’s modern take on an architectural feature common in historic theaters of the mid-20th Century: the vertical marquee,” attorney Rory Juneman said in a letter to the city.
Council Member Richard Fimbres said the special permit does not set a precedent for other businesses to build tall signs.
Injury lawsuit settlement
In other action, the council agreed to a $45,000 settlement in a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed Tucson Police Department Officer Donald Jones used excessive force when he arrested her in 2013.
Jones stopped a car near East Broadway and South Kolb Road during a DUI investigation. The alleged drunken driver tried to go back to the car and fought with the officer, who used a Taser to subdue the man. Alexis Thomas, now 30, who was a passenger, got out of the car and walked up to the officer yelling. He used a takedown maneuver and handcuffed her. Thomas said her leg and hip were broken in the incident.
