Pinal Partnership addresses development issues with sold-out crowd

The newly-created Pinal Partnership enjoyed another full house at its second breakfast meeting, which was held November 3 and focused on development in Pinal County. The organization was created earlier this year to improve research, planning and coordination of private and public efforts related to infrastructure, natural resources and community development in Pinal County.

A panel of municipal leaders that included a Maricopa city councilman, city managers for the cities of Apache Junction, Casa Grande and Coolidge and the mayor of Florence led a “round table” discussion on various development-related issues. Mayor Byron Jackson of Eloy also participated in the discussion.

The panel included (from left), Florence Mayor Tom Rankin, Apache Junction city manager George Hoffmann, Coolidge city manager Bob Flatley, Casa Grande city manager Jim Thompson, Maricopa Councilman Edward Farrell and moderator Jordan Rose of Rose Law Group, pc.

Pinal County Supervisor Sandie Smith welcomed attendees and said “your investment in this group is an investment in Pinal County.”

Jordan Rose, a founding member of the organization and the event’s moderator, began the Q&A session with Maricopa Councilman Edward Farrell, asking him to tell the story of how the incorporation of “one of the fastest growing cities in the United States” came to be.

Farrell was attending a Project CENTRL seminar about city government in Casa Grande in 2002 when, according to Farrell, “Maricopa had 300 homes in Rancho El Dorado and more on the way.” At the seminar’s conclusion, Casa Grande Mayor Chuck Walton told Farrell, “You have got to incorporate that thing out there, or you’re going to be sorry.”

“I didn’t know anything about politics and practically had to look up ‘incorporation’ in the dictionary,” Farrell recalls. Nonetheless, he decided to tackle Maricopa’s incorporation as his internship for the state-wide rural leadership program, and, as a result, Maricopa became Arizona’s 88th city on October 15, 2003.

When asked to describe the character of his community six months ago, Councilman Farrell responded, simply, “Deer in headlights.”

“It was overwhelming,” he continued, “but staff has grasped it and has it under control.”

A crowd of approximately 300 packed the Holiday Inn ballroom in Casa Grande.

The panel addressed the differences between good and bad developments and provided the myriad developers and homebuilders in the audience tips on how to work with municipalities.

Florence’s mayor Tom Rankin offered both political insight and comic relief throughout the breakfast. Reflecting on his days as chief of police for the city known for its federal penitentiary and the changes that have occurred in Florence since, he quipped, “We had a saying: ‘Half the people were behind bars, half were in bars.'”

The City of Casa Grande’s Jim Thompson epitomized the purpose of the meeting and mission of the Pinal Partnership organization when he stated, “If we as individual cities succeed and our neighbors fail, we fail.”

Pinal Partnership is funded in part by the following Platinum-level sponsors:

• APS
• Brooks Engineers and Survey
• Carter Burgess, Inc.
• CMX, L.L.C.
• Coe & Van Loo Consultants, Inc
• Commerce Realty Advisors
• DR Horton
• Evergreen Devco
• Jason Barney
• Langley Properties
• LeSueur Investments
• Pulte Homes
• Rose Law Group, pc
• Ryley Carlock and Applewhite
• Sandia by Pivotal Group
• SRP
• Waste Management
• Westcor

Rose Law Group’s Heather Hedelius, left, and Gayla Mead organized the event.

Next month’s Pinal Partnership meeting will be held December 9 at the Casa Grande Holiday Inn. Victor Mendez, the director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, will be the guest speaker. Tickets and additional information are available at www.PinalPartnership.com.