The Town of Marana has determined that the petitions filed to put a proposed data center to a vote does not meet the requirements set forth in Arizona law.
Officials said that the filed petitions did not include the legal description of the involved properties required for zoning ordinances, in a press release published Wednesday.
The two petitions were submitted on February 4th by Arizonans for Responsible Development – a group sponsored by the advocacy group Worker Power and contained about 2,800 signatures each, surpassing the requirement.
Marana officials said that two referendum petitions were filed because the data center project spanned two separate properties.
The announcement came hours after the No Desert Data Center Coalition – another advocacy group involved in the process to obtain signatures from Marana residents – announced that Worker Power had attempted to withdraw those petitions.
In a statement on social media, the Coalition said:
Worker Power, the organization that filed the referendum paperwork to put the Marana data center rezoning on the ballot for Marana voters to decide, has chosen to try and withdraw the petitions that more than 2800 of you signed…This is a betrayal of our trust, and we promise we’ll get into the why over the coming weeks…”
Vivek Bharathan, a coalition member, told AZPM that they are devastated that Worker Power’s leadership would do this after working together to obtain signatures.
“Their leadership is saying to thousands of Marana voters that their voices don’t matter. They are betraying working families and abdicating their responsibility to follow through with their commitments. With the overwhelming opposition to large-scale data centers, we could have done this without them, but gladly accepted their help because of their enthusiasm at the time,” Bharathan said. The petitions aimed to overturn a rezoning decision that the Marana Town Council approved in January, that would allow a data center campus to be built in Marana by the developers of Project Blue.
Marana officials said that on Tuesday, Feb. 17, a representative from Arizonans for Responsible Development had submitted a written request asking for the petitions to be withdrawn.
The request that was filed by a Barton Mendez Soto PLLC – an employment and election law firm – representing the group states, “the Committee retracts the petitions signatures it submitted in support of both of these measures and no longer supports placing these measures on the ballot.”
The email also said that the committee bears responsibility for circulating an invalid petition because it failed to attach the title and text to petition sheets.
Marana officials said that the town does not have statutory authority to withdraw referendum petitions that have been filed and is legally obligated to complete the administrative review process.
The Marana Town Clerk had 20 business days to verify that a minimum requirement of eligible signatures had been met before forwarding the petition to the Pima County Recorder’s Office for review.
Under the Town of Marana Code, referendums challenging a town ordinance or resolution must be filed within 30 days after adoption by the Town Council.
The Marana Town Council on Jan. 6 unanimously approved the rezoning of two adjacent parcels of agricultural land.
Therefore Marana residents who are opposed to the data center project cannot attempt to refile a referendum petition challenging the Marana Town Council’s decision.
AZPM has attempted to contact Worker Power five times since Friday, Jan. 16, regarding the Marana referendum petitions and has not heard back.
