Judge rules against city’s annexation plans

After making the rounds in Pinal County Superior Court and the Arizona Second District Appellate Court, the city of Maricopa’s plan to annex 14 square miles of land running along State Route 238 is no more.

Pinal County Superior Court Judge Gilberto Figueroa signed off on the judgment on Dec. 7, ruling the annexation invalid. This annexation encompassed the area west of Ralston Road to the county line and south to Bowlin and Farrell roads.

“It is dead with nails in the coffin,” said Mesa-based attorney Rand Haddock.

Haddock represented a group of three men — Ricardo Villa, William Domka and David Reed — who began a battle against the annexation more than a year ago. The three originally brought the challenge of the annexation to Figueroa’s courtroom in late November 2008; however without the help of a lawyer, they saw the judge rule in favor of the city through a summary judgment.

In a summary judgment, the court rules without a trial. In the case of the annexation challenge, the court ruled that those challenging the annexation “failed to raise a reasonable fact issue to any of the properties challenged in the complaint,” and “the city had met all the statutory requirements for the annexation,” according to court documents.

“They did a great job representing themselves, but if they had a lawyer from the beginning, this thing would have been over a long time ago,” Haddock said.

Despite the original loss, the three men would not give up on their battle. The men, along with several other residents living in the annexation area, contacted Haddock about appealing the judge’s original decision.

“Looking over the documents, I was able to determine that several of the signatures had issues, and an appeal was likely,” Haddock said.

Arizona state law mandates that for a municipality to annex a property within its city limits, a simple majority of the signatures of property owners in the area, in tandem with a simple majority of the signatures for the total land value, must be collected. In the case of the 14 square miles annexed by the city of Maricopa, 159 signatures were collected, just four more than the minimum needed, as well as 53 percent of the total property value of the proposed annexation area.

The primary signatures challenged by Rand during the appeal were those with multiple property owners. “Relevant court precedence shows that all signatures must be collected in a joint ownership or the signing owner must be given power by the other owners,” Haddock said.

On Aug. 21, the appeals judge ruled in favor of the three men and sent the case back to the Figueroa’s courtroom. After running the numbers on the joint ownership signatures, Rand said it was determined the city was short eight to nine signatures

Rand started talking to all the joint ownership properties and got enough of them to sign affidavits stating they were against the annexation. “I don’t think the city was able to get any of these people in favor of the measure,” Rand said.

With his affidavits in place, Rand sat down with the city’s attorneys and they agreed to a judgment stating they did not have enough signatures. In return, Rand agreed to waive the city’s responsibility for his fees.

The city canceled service to the annexation area when the appeal was handed down in August, but still plans to finish a project with Pinal County, which involves chip sealing Farrell Road between Warren Road and Hidden Valley Road, and on Hidden Valley Road between Farrell Road and McDavid Road.

“This has been a long journey and although the court did not rule in our favor, we recognize and respect the decision of the Court of Appeals,” Mayor Tony Smith said in a statement from the city. “It has been an honor to have worked for and with the residents in the area, and we look forward to a continued positive relationship in the future.”

City manager Kevin Evans said the city has no immediate plans to try to re-annex the area.

To read more on this story, click any of the links below:

– Appeals court rules against city in annexation challenge.
– Annexation area residents file appeal based on signature counts
– Annexation goes through, judge declares challenge invalid.
– City annexation bid barely passes following heated debate.
– The city’s annexation drive is seven signatures and counting from success.

Map courtesy of city of Maricopa