Posted on 12/18/2003 10:48:21 AM PST by hsmomx3
PHOENIX -- House Republicans upset with the handling of the renaming of Squaw Peak are moving to strip Gov. Janet Napolitano of her power to appoint most of the members of the State Board on Geographic and Historic Names. The legislation would require that all six of the nine members be appointed by lawmakers, four by the majority party and two by the minority. The remaining choices would be up to the Arizona Historical Society, the Arizona Association of Counties and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns.
Potentially more significant, it would prevent any state employee from sitting on the board. Four of the current board members represent state agencies that report to the governor, on top of the two people the governor herself names.
Rep. Phil Hanson, R-Peoria, who crafted the legislation, said the issue isn't specifically that the board voted earlier this year to rename the mountain in Phoenix after Pfc. Lori Piestewa who was killed during the invasion of Iraq. Piestewa, a Hopi living on the Navajo reservation, is believed to be the first Native American woman serving in the U.S. military killed in combat.
What is an issue, said Hanson, is the way the panel "ramrodded the thing through the board." The April 17 vote came under fire for various reasons including questions about the adequacy of the meeting notice.
Of particular note were efforts made by gubernatorial aide Mario Diaz to pressure then board Chairman Tim Norton to consider the issue. That included a call to Norton's supervisor at the Phoenix Police Department where Norton works as a detective.
Hanson also pointed out that the board ignored the rules of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, whose policies the state board generally follows, which precludes the naming of a geographic feature after someone until they have been dead for five years.
In the end, the board voted 5-1 to back the petition filed by the governor to change the name. Only Lloyd Clark, who represents the Arizona Historical Society, voted against the move; Norton was absent.
Hanson said he believes the pressure to approve Napolitano's request went beyond Norton.
He said that the state employees on the board were in no position to vote against what the governor wants. Hanson said that includes not just the four direct state workers but a fifth board member who current law requires be a representative of the geography department at one of the state's three universities.
Hanson already has the backing of 37 of the other 38 House Republicans; the 38th, Rep. Ted Carpenter, R-Phoenix, has been out sick and was not available to review the bill.
Napolitano has defended her push for the name change both as a method to remove an offensive word from a prominent mountain and to honor Piestewa. But she refused to comment Tuesday about Hanson's bill -- or even whether she would veto it.
"That's a risk," Hanson acknowledged. But he cited the barrage of criticism Napolitano took at the time.
"She may not want to take that on again and get all the negative publicity again," he said, and let the measure become law without her signature
She will just Veto it
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