By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings
Note to Southern AZ readers: Feel free to ignore the stuff after the redistricting info; it's mostly Maricopa County-related anyway.
…The biggest meeting of the week is only a rumor at this point, but it is a rather persistent one. There is a strong rumor going around that Republican Governor Jan Brewer is going to call a special session of the legislature to remove the Independent and Democratic members of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC). One of the rumors going around was that the special session would be on Monday, but that seems to be off of the table. It may have been R posturing, or it may have been due to an inability to line up enough votes to do the deed on Monday (they need 20 of the 21 Rs in the Senate to be in attendance and on board to pull this off, if they go the special session route.
Details if/when they become available.
…In a perhaps related development, the AIRC has scheduled a business meeting for Monday at 6:20 p.m. at the Adams House in Phoenix (1100 W. Washington Street). The one action item on the agenda:
Legal advice, direction to counsel, discussion and possible action regarding actions relating to letter from Governor Brewer concerning Commission conduct. Commission may vote to go into executive session, which will not be open to the public, for the purpose of obtaining legal advice and providing direction to counsel (A.R.S. §38-431.03 (A) (3) and (4)).
…The AIRC has a full slate of public hearings scheduled for the week – Phoenix on Tuesday, Cottonwood on Wednesday, Scottsdale on Thursday, Marana on Friday, and Casa Grande and Green Valley on Saturday.
However, stay tuned – if the Governor and her associates in the legislature go through with their craven scheme to ignore the will of the voters and blow up the independent redistricting process, that schedule of public hearings on the new lines for Congressional and legislative districts will change to a schedule of court appearances, dates and times TBA.
– Also on Monday, the Joint Republican "Legislative" Committee on Messing With The Redistricting process and Commission is scheduled to meet at 1:30 p.m. in HHR4.
…In other areas of interest…
– The Arizona Corporation Commission's hearing schedule is here. In addition to the hearings, they are holding two special open meetings for Tuesday/Wednesday and Friday.
– The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is meeting Monday and Wednesday.
– The Scottsdale City Council is meeting Tuesday, both in a special meeting for appointments to City boards and commissions and a regular meeting. One item of interest to political geeks: an item to remove John Washington from the City's Airport Advisory Commission. Recently, the Council has OK the building of well more than 1000 apartments near the Scottsdale Airport, something that Washington thinks is ill-advised and more importantly, a violation of some agreements with the FAA that the Scottsdale airport operates under. Washington has contacted the FAA directly, and because of that contact, Mayor Jim Lane has agendized a motion to remove Washington from the Commission. I can't say for certain how the vote will turn out, but whatever happens Tuesday, don't be shocked if Washington runs for Council or Mayor next year.
– The Tempe City Council is meeting Thursday.
Early notice: On Wednesday, December 7, the Community Involvement Group of the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund Site will meet at 5:30 p.m. in the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. More details as the date gets closer.