Council decision to join MAG contentious

In a 4-3 vote Tuesday, after a lengthy and heated discussion, members of the Maricopa City Council approved joining the Maricopa Association of Governments, a municipal planning organization that serves the greater Phoenix area.

Mayor Christian Price, Councilmembers Julia Gusse, Peggy Chapados and Bridger Kimball voted to join.

Vice Mayor Ed Farrell and Councilmembers Leon Potter and Marvin Brown voted against joining MAG, wanting instead to join a Casa Grande group known as the Sun Corridor group.

The debate lasted nearly an hour.

“Personally, there is large amount of people in the city of Maricopa who are traveling to Maricopa County on a daily basis and they see this as an opportunity to bring transportation back,” Gusse said.

Brown disagreed, arguing Maricopa would be dwarfed by the other members of MAG.

“The city of Maricopa is in Pinal County,” Brown said. “I see no real gain in being a small fish, a minnow, with MAG.”

“However, if we became a member of the Sun Corridor (group), we would be a major player. It makes absolutely no sense to pretend that we belong in MAG.”

Chapados stressed the choice was “the biggest decision this body is going make.”

“We’re not deciding tonight what’s going to happen tomorrow, we’re deciding tonight what’s going to happen for our future,” she said. “So I also have to look at the economic development impact, that’s been a huge priority of every council since I’ve been here.”

The city could fulfill its county obligations by continuing to be an active member of the Central Arizona Governments council, Chapados said.

The city would not be a small fish in a big pond, she said.

“The role that we take at the table is up to us,” Chapados said. “If we want to come in as a shark, we come in as a shark, if we want to come in as a minnow, we’ll be a minnow.”

Price agreed, pointing out that on MAG’s regional committee, which is a decision-making board with elected members, three of its members represented the smaller communities of Queen Creek, Youngstown and Litchfield Park.

Price also said MAG has a storehouse of useful data that would be at Maricopa’s fingertips, but the Casa Grande group is too new to have gathered much information.

“I’m not sure the (Sun Corridor group) is what we can afford,” Price said.

Kimball said the city wouldn’t be seceding from Pinal County.

“We will always be a member of Pinal County and I will always support Pinal County projects,” he said. “But given the resources and especially the traffic-signal planning, I’m going to…support us joining MAG.”

Farrell said while MAG had plenty of resources, “they’re resources we don’t need right now.”

“I’ve not heard, with the exception of one resource, how we’re going to benefit from all these resources,” Farrell said, referring to MAG’s ability to help the city with future air-quality issues.

Parts of Pinal County were recently deemed nonattainment areas by the Environmental Protection Agency for having too much particulate matter – PM10 and PM2.5 – in the air.

“The only thing we have related to Maricopa County is State Route 347, and if you think you’re going to get that widened, good luck, because it’s all on the Indian reservation,” Farrell said.

“And it ain’t going to have nothing to do with MAG, and it ain’t going to have nothing to do with Casa Grande MPO (Municipal Planning Organization) or a border MPO, it’s going to have everything to do with that tribal community.”

Potter said he shared that skepticism. 

"I have a hard time believing an entity as established as MAG is going to change direction for us," Potter said. "I doubt how many of those resources we can tap into."

Farrell also said Maricopa needs to pay attention to where it’s growing to the east.

“We will soon butt up against our neighbor, our sister city Casa Grande, which is why we’ve already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on the east-west corridor, we’ve already invested money in the widening of the Casa Grande Highway,” he said.

During Tuesday’s council discussion, Supervisor-elect and former Mayor Anthony Smith endorsed the Casa Grande group.

Becoming part of the fledgling Casa Grande Municipal Planning Organization was in keeping with “the long-term vision” for Maricopa.