Colorado River District urged for representation

The attendees of a public hearing with the Independent Redistricting Commission Saturday afternoon demanded the creation of a Colorado River District including Yuma, La Paz and Mohave counties, as well as independence from the Tucson area.

Yuma County currently resides in Congressional District 7, which is represented by Congressman Raul Grijalva.

The attendees also insisted the IRC maintain transparency and fairness during the process of mapping out the new legislative and congressional district boundaries as required by federal mandate to reflect the 2010 census.

The public meeting was held at Arizona Western College's Yuma campus with live remote feeds to AWC satellite campuses in San Luis and Parker.

“Take us out of Tucson,” said Bob Lovelace. “We have nothing in common with Tucson. For crying out loud, you start with Yuma and just go straight up along the Colorado River. We depend upon the Colorado River, and we need a river district.”

George Reiners said Yuma County has much more in common with La Paz and Mohave counties than it does with Pima County.

“Three counties along the Colorado River share the same goals, the same thoughts. They (should be) all combined into one area and one district that is going to think alike.”

Ed Foster, mayor of Quartzsite, said a Colorado River District would give the river communities better representation in the federal government.

“The communities of the river valley and the river zone of western Arizona need a consolidated voice in Congress. We are ignored in Arizona by our state government and by the federal government by virtue of our district right now. This is not a political issue. This is a socioeconomic issue and we need someone who represents the western Arizona communities, to listen to our concerns (and) to act on our behalf.”

Marvin Marlatt, vice president of the Wellton Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District, said he would like to be part of a congressional district stretching from Yuma County up the river to the Utah border and reaching east as needed to include some of the population of the west side of the Phoenix metro area.

“This would enhance the likelihood of us having a representative who would develop an intimate understanding of the issues and concerns of those of us who live near and depend upon the river and who could effectively represent our concerns in congress.”

Yuma Mayor Al Krieger also wants a direct line of communication to the federal government through a new river district.

“For too long we have been just ignored. The fact is that currently, our representative in Congress has not really been favorable to Yuma. That is the situation we are facing. I want to make sure that Yuma, Arizona, has representation that it deserves so we can move forward.”

Joe Harper, who spoke via live remote from the AWC San Luis campus, wants to be in a district that doesn't include Tucson so the representative in Congress would solely concentrate on the San Luis port of entry.

“We are always competing with Nogales, so I would like to get away from Nogales and get our own representative.”

San Luis Mayor Juan Carlos Escamilla would also like to see the creation of a Colorado River District.

“We have always had a great working relationship with our sister cities (and) Yuma County as a whole. I feel that we need a district that represents this region and also a region that will represent the border communities. We do want a district that will represent all of us.”

Russ Clark, Colorado River Tea Party chairman, brought up the issue of transparency during the hearing.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is currently investigating whether the commission violated state procurement and open meeting laws.

“We have reports of closed-door meetings,” Clark said, “reports of shredded documents.”

State Sen. Don Shooter spoke up about the hiring of what many conservatives see as a liberal-leaning company to draw up the new boundaries. That firm, Strategic Telemetry, has done campaign work for both Barack Obama and John Kerry.

“It is well known to have a certain bent, so we don't appreciate that,” Shooter said. “We don't think that is the way you do business. If you are supposed to be an independent commission, you had better start being independent.”

The members of the commission could give no response as that issue was not on the agenda.

Shooter sternly told the commission both he and his constituents would be keeping tabs on the redistricting process.

“I just want you to know we are watching like a hawk, and you may have gotten away with some things but there better not be any gerrymandering districts to take people out. All I'm telling you is ... you had better be independent and you'd better give us a river district.”

At the close of the meeting, commissioner Linda McNulty promised she and the commission are making a supreme effort to respect the needs of Arizona as a whole. “I'll give you my pledge that I am not doing this for any purpose other than the best interests of the state.”

Commissioner Richard Stertz said he will do his best to keep the process transparent.

“Sunlight is a pretty incredible disinfectant and as we move this forward, for us to be able to be trusted, sunlight is going to have to be a significant component of everything that we do.”

The commission is hosting several public hearings throughout the state to gauge the needs and wants of communities before designing preliminary boundary maps.

For more information about the process or to submit electronic comments, log on to www.azredistricting.org.

Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.