Coyotes vote spurs Glendale council recall push

Four Glendale City Council members who voted last week to rescind the city's $225 million agreement with the Arizona Coyotes are being targeted for recall.

Glendale real-estate agent Larry Feiner on Monday requested documents to begin recall efforts against Vice Mayor Ian Hugh and City Council members Jamie Aldama, Lauren Tolmachoff and Bart Turner. All four voted last week with Mayor Jerry Weiers to terminate the Coyotes' lease and management contract for Gila River Arena.

Weiers is not being targeted because it would require roughly 18,000 signatures on petitions to recall the mayor, while it takes only about 1,000 signatures for each of the council members, Feiner said.

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"The council members are acting so irresponsibly with trying to hardball the team into renegotiating a 15-year deal that is not even 2 years old," Feiner said. "My city is going to be irreparably harmed by the horrible decision to cancel the contract."

The recall effort is the latest fallout from the 5-2 vote Wednesday to instruct the city attorney and city manager to cancel the Coyotes agreement.

On Friday, Coyotes attorneys obtained a temporary injunction in Maricopa County Superior Court to keep Glendale from killing the arena deal. The legal team also said in its complaint that the Coyotes would eventually seek damages that already exceed $200 million.

A successful recall effort would force the council members to either resign or run in an election Nov. 3.

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Feiner, a Glendale resident since 2004, has not yet filed political-committee documents that would be required for each of the recall efforts. He did meet with the city clerk and requested the paperwork to start the process.

Aldama said, "Individuals have the right to recall their leaders ... but I don't know if it is merited."

Hugh had no comment on the potential recall effort, and Turner was unavailable for comment.

Tolmachoff said she stands behind her decision and is "still hopeful we can come to a solution on the arena-management agreement."

The City Council is scheduled to meet in a closed-door session at 1 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall to consult with the city attorney and consider its position on agreements for the arena and with the Coyotes.

Weiers did not return calls seeking comment on any negotiations with the Coyotes before Tuesday's meeting. Glendale announced last week that acting City Manager Dick Bowers was planning to set up a meeting with the Coyotes.

City Attorney Michael Bailey said late Tuesday that the city was not going to "litigate in the press" but it will be releasing more information to bolster its conflict-of-interest allegations.

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At Tuesday's meeting, the council could either proceed with sending a letter to the Coyotes to terminate its agreement or back off of its decision, perhaps saying it got bad legal advice or had learned new information, said Councilman Gary Sherwood, who voted with Councilman Samuel Chavira to oppose terminating the contract.

"I don't know how much we'll be able to say after the meeting," but Glendale will probably issue a statement, Sherwood said.

Glendale has refused to disclose details of its legal reasons for ending the deal.

SAGA OF COYOTES ARENA DEAL

Bailey at the council meeting cited a state conflict-of-interest law as its legal justification without explaining which former employees it alleges violated the statute.

"The facts support a conclusion ... this statute was violated when former employees who now work for the Coyotes heavily influenced and quietly assisted in the final negotiations of the (Coyotes) contract," Bailey told the council. "You have the right to terminate this contract if you believe the former employees violated the public trust."

The state law is intended to prevent a city employee from a creating or negotiating a heavily favorable contract for a company that subsequently hires him or her.

In Maricopa County Superior Court on Friday, Bailey said former City Attorney Craig Tindall and former Assistant City Manager Julie Frisoni had conflicts of interest involving the Coyotes.

The Coyotes' attorneys in their complaint disputed any conflict of interest because Tindall and Frisoni were not involved in the Coyotes deal. They said the city has not presented any evidence to prove its claim of a conflict of interest.

Glendale hired Tindall in August 2001, and his termination date was Oct. 2, 2013, according to city records.

He was promoted to city attorney in 2005. Glendale approved a separation agreement with Tindall in April 2013, three months before the City Council approved its agreement with the Coyotes.

Tindall stayed on the city payroll through October and was available to work up to five hours every two weeks, according to his separation agreement. His salary was $174,296 annually.

He went to work for the Phoenix law office of Fennemore Craig in July 2013, and the Coyotes hired him a little more than a month later as their general counsel, the Coyotes complaint said. Tindall is still the team's general counsel.

Frisoni, who was communications director when the city approved the Coyotes deal in July 2013, said last week she had no involvement in the pact.

Frisoni resigned from Glendale in March and left the city April 22 to start a public-relations company.

The Coyotes hired her as a consultant to work on a bid to bring the 2018 World Junior Championship hockey tournament to Gila River Arena, she said.

That bid has been dropped because of the legal dispute with Glendale, according to the Coyotes.

"It's amazing to me that this would come up working on an event that would have brought millions of dollars to Glendale," Frisoni said.