The Curse Of The Coyotes

While the image to the left is an actual adult beverage made by the Pueblo Vida Brewing Company in Tucson, Arizona, today's story has nothing to do with Tucson, beer, or a brewing company. It will, however, have to do with what seems to be a curse that the Arizona NHL team inflicts every time it touches something, and that something in question is the city of Tempe, Arizona that finds itself in some hot water today following an Arizona Attorney General's Office investigation according to a report from The Arizona Republic. I'm not saying that this entire Tempe arena debacle hasn't been funny, but things definitely took a turn towards "criminal" with the report filed by The Arizona Republic today.

Unfortunately, the report is behind a paywall, but I did manage to read through it before the newspaper locked down the reporting. The first paragraph of the report, though, seems to sum up the problem quite neatly as the author writes,

"The Arizona Attorney General's Office is investigating Tempe for possibly violating open meeting laws and using tens of thousands of public dollars in an effort to influence the outcome of the Arizona Coyotes election."

Yikes. That seems a little concerning that the city of Tempe used public funds to influence the outcome of the arena referendum in the city - one they still lost despite spending voters' monies trying to convince voters to vote in favour of the arena project.

According to the investigation, Tempe hired Strategy 48, a Phoenix-based consulting firm, three weeks before Tempe added the arena project to the special ballot, and Strategy 48 was paid over $32,000 "for services that are typically used by political campaigns" that included "tracking social media pages" that expressed concern over the project, "tracking social media activity of individuals" to determine location for "micro-target messaging", and "developing a long-term outreach plan in coordination with the Coyotes" in an effort to have voters vote in favour of the project.

When contacted by the newspaper about the allegations, "Tempe did not directly address questions about how the contract benefited residents and whether it was a legitimate use of public funds. The city's official response was simply that former City Manager Andrew Ching created the contract."

Ok, so throwing one guy under the bus may seem like a good idea to avoid any responsibility, but that's a little cowardly. Yes, records show that "Ching hired Strategy 48 and, per state law, contracts under $100,000 do not require council approval," but Ching maintains that he was asked to do so by Mayor Corey Woods and that Woods actually recommended Strategy 48 to Ching. In this case, I tend to side with Ching on this because City Managers rarely act without approval from the guy running the city, but it seems Woods wants nothing to do with that sequence of events.

In a statement to The Republic, Woods said, "I chatted informally with (Ching) last year about the need for a better understanding of public opinion and improving the city's communications strategy. That conversation was not specifically focused on the (Coyotes project), but on a range of issues."

The mayor went on to say he "suggested a couple of companies who I thought might be able to help — but I did not initiate the contract or negotiate the contract. In fact, I never once saw that contract or its scope of work. In sum, the city did nothing wrong here, nor did I."

Oh, what a tangled web the city administrators of Tempe are weaving. If no one approved the city manager to negotiate a contract on behalf of the mayor or council, why wasn't it stopped when reporting began? It's not like these reports magically and anonymously began appearing on the desks of the city administrators, yet Mayor Woods is saying he had no knowledge of the contract nor the scope of the work being done by Strategy 48. If he's your Mayor, Tempe, you may have a number of questions about how city contracts are awarded for any work.

It should also be noted that "City Attorney Sonia Blain's office is responsible for signing off on the legality of such deals," and that the city attorney is also responsible for deciding what topics are discussed as closed-door meetings executive sessions. As per The Republic, "The consultants' findings were discussed with City Council members during closed-door executive sessions — the subject of at least one potential state law violation being investigated."

It seems Tempe will cooperate with the Arizona Attorney General's Office, writing in an email on Thursday, "The city is in the process of reviewing the notice from the Attorney General. We intend to cooperate fully with Attorney General Mayes, and we look forward to the full truth coming out."

According to an email on Wednesday sent to The Republic from Richie Taylor, Attorney General's Office communications director, the Attorney General's Office is investigating complaints related to Arizona's Open Meeting Law regarding the consultant's work and the state statute on "electioneering" that prohibits cities and towns "from using public dollars in an effort to influence the outcome of elections". There are all sorts of nuances when it comes to navigating these legal waters, it should be noted, and I'm not a lawyer of any kind. I'll leave this up to the attorneys who are presiding over these allegations, but it seems fairly obvious that Tempe isn't done with the Coyotes saga despite being done with the franchise itself.

Avoiding the ethical questions of how a city tracks social media of its residents for its own gains, it's rather amazing that the Coyotes continue to leave a trail of problems and bad-faith dealings in every city they've touched in Arizona thus far. I'm not certain there's ever been a relationship between a team and its fans as abusive and manipulative as the Coyotes and its fans have shown, but there are still people who are fighting for this team to remain in Arizona who don't have the last name of Meruelo or Gutierrez. Whether it's Glendale, Tempe, or the next city into which the Coyotes sink their teeth, the problems left by this team after they squat in those communities are numerous and expensive.

What should be noted, though, is that the Coyotes are only indirectly involved in this latest investigation in Arizona. While they did nothing to force the city of Tempe into making these shady deals, it seems the promise of a major arena and entertainment district was too much for some city adminsitrators to pass up regardless of the law. The promise of a "privately-funded arena" was too good to be true for those administrators, and it led them to try and bend the will of the voters to follow their beliefs. Legally, though, they can't do that.

Like a curse, the dark cloud of this Coyotes arena project will now hang over Tempe until the Arizona Attorney General's Office files charges or clears the city administrators. While the Coyotes have moved on and are looking at other communities now, it might be time to cut ties with the state of Arizona altogether and move the team to a place where they can get a fresh start and leave their cursed desert existence behind.

Houston in 2024-25? It could be a reality.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!