I once made a comment concerning what was going to happen when citizens opposed the proposed open pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains and the Coronado National Forest. Copper Companies, for decades, have been known for their dirty and rough tactics. Remember the strike of 1983 with Phelps Dodge? It was my first learning experience of how copper companies work the media.

Four years ago at  Patagonia during a Forest Service Meeting with the public and representatives of Rosemont copper at least five law enforcement agencies were dispatched in response to a “man down” call. A dispatch that was erroneous to use the kindest word possible. Border patrol agents showed up with fully automatic weapons, a sheriffs deputy arrived with a attack dog, forest service law enforcement agents, municipal Marshall and others that I cannot recall the names of just right at the moment. I would research it and give you more information but right at the minute time is too valuable. In addition to that my blood pressure is soaring concerning a story being released concerning candidate, Sean Collins. A candidate for district 4 Board of Supervisors and a candidate that I find in my research that has a more than a few problems.

I am researching the complaint and there are some truly interesting facts concerning it. I just got off the phone with the sheriffs department trying to verify that a call had been made by the Collins camp concerning the incident. On his website he “suggested” that anyone with information about the incident should call the sheriffs department.

Mr. Collins, I have some information about the incident, the timestamp on your camera seems to be pointing to a different day than when you say it occurred. The timestamp shows to be

01  03             08 31 30.

The number 30 is an incremental (second display). You can see it increment in the short video.

Personally, if I were interested enough to play detective and plant a camera to catch the so-called “vandals” I would ensure that it had the correct date and time on it. I have a tendency to believe that this is a made-up incident trying to gain sympathy for a losing campaign. At the moment I’m working on editing and clarifying the image of the so-called vandal and when I get it more recognizable I will post it. Perhaps we really will find out who the person is.

The information I have available right at the moment concerning an  individual who was running around town distributing copies of this “scandalous activity” is none other than Randy Graf. The man who is a paid employee of Rosemont copper, or at least a paid consultant, and happens to also be one of your staff members helping you on your campaign. Isn’t that just so sweet of Rosemont copper to help out. Sean Collins claims this incident occurred at mile 47.5 on Highway 83.  Is it possible that this video was furnished by Rosemont Corporation? Is it possible that it was done in advance, in preparation for using it another day? I am not “saying” that it was but what I will say is the timing seems to be perfect. To repeat again, my information for the sheriffs department is they should look at the timestamp that is registered in the lower right-hand corner.

Mr. Collins, if you want to truly help catch the so-called perpetrators furnish me with a complete copy of the video file and I will find you more information. That is, if you really do want more information about it. So far, in addition to the fact the  timestamp is wrong, I believe it was more than one individual in the pickup, a pickup which has an extended cab and equipment in the back of it that I’m trying to ascertain more information on.

The following excerpt is from Mr. Collins website. I’m sure he would like for me to tell all of you individuals in Tucson and the surrounding communities how his property is vandalized. Personally Mr. Collins. I really don’t believe it. Perhaps others will.

Quote

SMILE, YOU’RE ON THE COLLINS CAMERA

Tucson, AZ – August 3, 2012. On August 1st at approximately 10:00pm —at MP 47 ½ on State Route 83— footage was taken of an unidentified male removing a “Sean Collins for District 4 Supervisor” sign which was captured on the attached video. The Collins 4 Supervisor Campaign is issuing a $500.00 reward for any information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person responsible.

Sean Collins made the following statement: “A fair election process is one of our fundamental rights as a US Citizen. I am releasing this video with the full intention of prosecuting this person to the fullest extent the law allows.”.

End Quote

Chapter 3 of the convoluted story concerning Rosemont Copper Corporation and their attempt to manipulate Elections.

I have researched Mr. Sean Collins and found  a background with discrepancies in relation to the comments he  makes during his campaign. The largest plank in his platform is there is too much government spending and too many government handout programs. He complains that five of the biggest six employers in Pima County are government entities and there are too many federal handouts and programs giving money to the citizens.

His website has changed lately, but something is still on  that bears note:

Quote from website

Sean Collins, a Vail businessman and “2000 recipient of the Military Hero of the Year Award”, is challenging 15 year incumbent, Ray Carroll, in the Republican primary election on August 28th.

Quote ends

Military hero of the year award, how can one get much better than that?

The first time I read that, it gave the impression that I was researching the background of a man who must’ve charged a machine-gun emplacement with a grenade in each hand. Then I found out that the military hero of the year award 2000, was given by the local Red Cross for pulling a woman from a wrecked car. I checked the latest hero awards for 2012 and one of them was for a lady who rescued someone because they were choking on their dentures. Mr. Collins changed his website and if you continue to read, you will find that it says that the award, Mr. Collins received was by the local Red Cross. I do find the statement somewhat self-serving and misleading. As a matter of fact I found it downright deceptive!
I had a communication with Mr. Collins and asked him several questions:
1     Did you retire from the United States Air Force and now have government retirement?
2    Did you file bankruptcy?
3    Did you go over budget on your Dairy Queen?
4    Did you take a special loan from the United States government for veterans?
5    Did your Dairy Queen cost approximately $600,000?
6    Are you taking donations from Rosemont copper?

The answer to all  of the questions is yes. This seems a rather strange background for someone who claims to be fiscally conservative, and concerned about the people in district four. An individual who has trouble running a Dairy Queen does not seem to be fiscally conservative enough to be involved with tthe $1.2 billion budget of Pima County. Mr. Collins  expounds upon the excessive government and excessive government spending. He promises to curb the spending, reduce the budget and  ensure  we have plenty of water.

Well, the facts sometimes are a little different than the promises. He complains about Davis Monthan and all the government employers in Pima County. He retired from the military at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, the base which he says is carrying too much of our employment.

When he went over budget on his ice cream parlor (Dairy Queen),the only thing that saved him was a special Federal Government Loan program that covered loans that were high risk and lower interest rate. Ah yes, he was the first one in Pima County to get that type of loan.

He filed bankruptcy, blaming it on his first wife. He divorced her and remarried.

He is now working at Fort Huachuca military base on a government project and contract.

He is taking contributions from Rosemont copper for his campaign,  yet I don’t know of any meeting that he  had with the opposition to the mine. Many of his desired constituents are very much against the proposed open pit copper mine in the Coronado National Forest.

I have repeatedly asked Mr. Collins for an interview and have been ignored. I suppose I must fall back on the age-old journalism response of, “we offered him an interview and he did not respond.” Perhaps everyone does not find this behavior unusual for a politician but I find it unusual for someone who wants to be my representative. So for a man that derides the federal government and its programs, he does seem to utilize many of them.

On Mr.  Collins website, collins4supervisor.com, there is a paragraph related to an organization named “Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities” (TREO). The following is an excerpt from that web site.

Quote from the Collins website

The economic development organization of the area, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (TREO), is primarily funded by the City of Tucson and Pima County. Since TREO’s funding is primarily through these government entities and the County opposes the Rosemont Copper project, they are unable to support Rosemont Copper and the $700 million in economic development the operation will bring to Pima County.

End of quote

Reading the paragraph would lead one to believe that (TREO) feels they must knuckle under and kneel before the County Board of Supervisors, so they will not lose their financing when in actuality the paragraph is a contrived and untrue statement. The organization is a public and privately funded organization. Their policy is they do not “endorse” any specific project. They receive 58% of their money from private donations and 42% from various public organizations. Stressing the word various, Pima County contributes only 18% of their finances.

Mr. Collins almost makes you believe that the organization (TREO) is ineffective primarily due to a cut in funding. Nothing could be further from the truth. The following are some of the accomplishments of TREO for the year.

Metrics                                  one year 7/11 – 6/30/12

total new direct and

indirect job supported      2,964

capital investment             $63.7 million

total economic impact      $350.7 million

number of companies       15 companies

national earned media      3.5 million

These are hard facts, not half true one-sided campaign statements. Mr. Collins should be regretful for his statement concerning such a a hard-working organization.

Another comment from Mr. Collins website is the following:

Quote from Website

Add to this the recent report that Arizona has the second highest average sales tax rate in the nation and it is easy to see why it is too expensive to do business here in Pima County.

End of  quote

Actually, this is an untrue statement as it’s only half true. Arizona is number nine in the nation concerning sales tax, not the second. The following charts will illustrate total tax in Pima County. It can be agreed that the tax is higher than the average citizen would like it to be but what is misleading is to use the term Pima County. Actually Pima County’s tax rate is quite low concerning the sales tax.

Pima County, state and local retail sales tax.

State       County      Tucson      total rate

6.60        .50               2.0        9.1 %

Maricopa County

state       County      Tempe       total rate

6.60        .70                2.0         9.3%

Santa Cruz County

state       County      Patagonia   total rate

6.60        1.00             3.0        10.600%

Tucson as an example, has a combined total rate of 9.1% of which only .5% is County tax. Mr. Collins has grandiose statements concerning balancing the budget, one wonders what he intends to change about the sales tax to accomplish that

Quote from campaign website

Learn more about my involvement with the Vail Community Action Board

VCAB Statement

I have been asked a few times about my participation in the VCAB

(Vail Community Action Board)

and I would like to clear up any misconceptions regarding my membership.

After I saved a pregnant woman from a catastrophic accident, I hurt my back, requiring surgery and physical therapy. The physical therapy and recovery time from this surgery prevented me from being able to attend the requisite number of meetings as required in the by-laws of the organization. As a result of these missed meeting, I was not able to sustain my membership but was told, once ready I could return to being a full time member. The VCAB is very important to me and I look forward to returning as mutually agreed at some point in the future.

End of  quote

Now for the analyzing of the statement; this incident occurred, as far as I can research, in the year 2000. When he pulled a woman from the wrecked car the local Red Cross and I stress the word local, awarded him Military Hero of the Year 2000. The reason being military hero, is he happened to be in the military at the time working in the weather department.

The surgery and physical therapy, as far as I can tell and research, since Sean Collins will not give me an interview, occurred last year. Over a decade after the incident he has to have surgery and therapy. Not to make light of it but I would’ve understood it better if it had occurred closer to the time period.

Now we get to the Vail Community Action Board: Mr. Collins only attended two or three meetings, and he was told that he would have to reapply for membership, but it was not the guaranteed return that he tries to imply. He failed to attend the meetings and he failed to perform his duties. The bylaws of the Vail Community Action Board are quite specific about missed meetings, either excused or not.

Chapter 2 of the convoluted story concerning Rosemont copper Corporation and their attempt to manipulate County, State and Federal Government Elections. More unusual than it would seem,  the positions of County supervisors are very important in monitoring the Rosemont copper (Augusta resource) permit applications. Understanding this it appears that the Rosemont copper mine’s intention is to try to remove Supervisor Ray Carroll from office because he will not bend to their will.

It’s amazing how the children’s game of “rumors” can be applied so closely to real life.

The rules of the game are:

Rumors

The first person has a rumor of 3 to 4 sentences whispered in his ear.  he whispers this rumor in the next players ear and this is repeated several times. What is the outcome after all players has gotten the rumor? The resulting story is always different.

The PR work being spread and performed by the representatives of Rosemont copper are somewhere in the same pattern. Spread a rumor, watch it grow and mutate as it goes from organization to organization.

I will give 2 simple examples:

1. Rosemont pays for advertisements that  tries to convince the public that Rosemont copper is the number two tourist attraction in Arizona.

2. Rosemont claims 2100 jobs will be produced from the proposed open pit mine.

Who amongst the organizations has tried to verify that number? Large major corporations operating mines in the Tucson area (Sierrata) claim a number of less than 2.2 indirect to direct. Rosemont copper is claiming in excess of 4.18. How is it that a working mine (with accounting procedures in place) is only able to produce a little over 50% of the percentage Rosemont claims?

My answer to those two examples has to be the organizations really don’t want to admit the truth to those they are responsible to. Union leaders hang on the number, like magic they believe that it will hold the members in the union. Those whose jobs it is, and responsibilities it’s supposed to be, to generate new employment for Pima County jump on the number and then point at the Pima County Board of Supervisors and say, “it’s their fault, it’s their fault. If it weren’t for them we would have these jobs” …. Misdirection, half-truths and sometimes just a lie.

Rosemont Copper Corporation, child company of Augusta resource has on file at this moment in time over 3000 job applications. Does everyone think they’re going to run out to the National Forest and get a job with Rosemont Copper? On the other side of the coin, Sierrata Mining has at least 40 jobs open. This is employment they cannot find qualified workers for.

In today’s marketplace of advertising it appears there is someone, somewhere who will take money to spread these rumors. I don’t really believe I need to list every Corporation that is doing so, either information radio or news broadcast who are slaves to the Rosemont PR dollar.

In District 4 of the Pima County Board of Supervisors we have a representative in Ray Carroll who honestly cares about his constituents and the effects of some of this misleading advertising. Because of this, and because he truly wants to represent his constituents Mr. Carroll is being ambushed and attacked by coalition after coalition. These groups are the same organizations and coalitions that will not take the time to actually research out the Rosemont copper project.

One example of this attack and ambush is from the radio talk show on KNST during the morning of the 25th. One small part of the audio was utilized on the 27th during the talk show with Southern Arizona Business Coalition organizers Rick Grinnell and Bill Assenmacher. That portion of the audio from the 25th was edited by the talk show host to make it appear that supervisor Carroll was more contentious and rude than he actually was.

When I started this blog in the Tucson citizen. I was told one of the primary rules was not to edit comments, I could delete a comment, but I could not change it. I would have thought the talkshow host, Garrett Lewis, would have also been under the same restrictions. Garrett Lewis is scheduled to be the moderator of a debate between supervisor Ray Carroll and challenger Sean Collins on August 2. From what I’ve seen so far, Mr. Lewis will not be what one could consider neutral.

Supervisor Carroll, thank you for representing your constituents and thank you for being an honest politician.

Among the tens of thousands of documents submitted To the National Forest Service are a group of documents known as the “Reclamation Plan”. The reclamation plan for the Rosemont copper project in Pima County Arizona was prepared by tetra Tech, Incorporated under the direct supervision of David R Krizek, Arizona professional engineer.the report was submitted September 2008. . During September 2009 heavy equipment was used to reshape three parcels of land and phase 3 of the reclamation testing began.

The Arizona State mine inspector, Joe Hart, approved the reclamation plan in July of 2009. One interesting fact concerning the approval of state mine inspector Joe Hart is that he only has authority over the private property. He cannot control or approve a reclamation plan for federal or state public property. This means that his approval of the reclamation plan covers the area where the open pit will be and at the present time the reclamation of the open pit will be to simply leave it as an open hole eventually being approximately 2600 feet deep and a drain hole evaporation point for the local aquifer.

On May 20, 2010 the Rosemont copper EIS cooperating agency coordination meeting was held to discuss the reclamation vegetation studies. One of the attendees  at the meeting, newly hired and representing Rosemont copper was Holly Lawson, a research assistant for Dr. Jeffrey S. Fehmi, the assistant professor commissioned by Rosemont copper to research alternative revegetation procedures. The length of the project has been described as seven years in some paperwork and 10 years in others As of today August 24, 2011 she is still listed on Dr. Jeffrey S Fehmi’s website as a student researching the native species and techniques to best reclaim mine lands in the American southwest.

Following is a photograph presented by Rosemont copper and Holly Lawson to the national forest service as an example of vegetation growth.

picture source is Rosemont presentation to national forest service

Following is a photograph taken in June 2010 by a private individual showing the same relative position, the difference is quite dramatic.

dead grass after nine months

Following is a photograph taken in May of 2011 showing the minimum vegetation growth on the test plot.

lack of growth after almost 2 years

The report, written in July of 2007, is quite specific on the cost estimates for revegetation. In part two of the reclamation plan are the cost estimates for the revegetation.

Dr. Jeffrey Fehi’s research project final results concerning revegetation of the mine property are not due to be completed for possibley another five years. The point that I’m trying to hammer in is that the reclamation plan cannot truly be completed until the requirements for the revegetation are known.One of the conclusions reached during the research concerns the agave plant it is widely acknowledged that agave seedlings in the wild are extremely rare; Nobel’s (1977) research on A. deserti concluded that only one in 1.2 million seeds survive to maturity.

Latest photograph taken Aug 16, 2011 after the monsoon season started

Latest photo after rain fall

The two primary questions related to the reclamation project are:

number one:

How can an uncompleted research project which has a forecast finished date of 10 years from the beginning possibly influence decisions concerning the validity of a reclamation proposal?

number two:

How can the Arizona State mine inspector approve a reclamation plan which basically covers nothing except the pit which will be left as an empty hole?

Welcome to the other side of the coin.

Welcome “The Other Side of the Coin,” a discussion blog for opposing views concerning some southern Arizona issues and developments. Many times in life “we flip a coin to make a decision” but in this circumstance the term is not used to determine the outcome of the situation by luck. It’s to present to you “the Southern Arizona residents” the alternatives to statements presented by others, those alternatives consisting of verifiable facts and data.

An example of an important issue that concerns many people in southern Arizona is the proposed “open pit copper mine in the Santa Rita mountains.”

One of the latest articles concerning Rosemont copper portrays the local residents and landowners as rabble-rousers exaggerating the effects of the proposed open pit mine. The other side of the coin would be the residents endeavoring to educate and disseminate information to the general public.

One example of that information would be the amount of acreage placed under non-patented mining claims. One side of the coin is Rosemont’s statement they will require approximately 4000 acres of national forest for tailings and waste rock. The other side of the coin is Rosemont copper has placed approximately 14,000 acres of non-patented mining claims in the Coronado national Forest. 14,000 acres is approximately 20 square miles of national forest that is supposed to be under the protection of  The National Forest Service.

The second issue for this article concerns water use , Rosemont is quite willing and proud to discuss the “CAP water recharge in the Tucson AMA ” , the other side of the coin deals with the water used on the East side of the Santa Rita Mountains where the pit will be located. If Rosemont copper is granted permits to develop the open pit mine there will be a factor involved called pit dewatering which involves pumping the water out of the pit that seeps in through the walls. It has been estimated by Rosemont studies as  500 gallons per minute as the amount. The proposed Rosemont open pit mine sits in the Cienega Aquifer which is supposed to be a protected water source.

Some are quite proud of a legal document protecting approximately 100 homeowners in the Sahuarita area but that document does nothing to protect the people who are closest to the proposed mine. It also does nothing to mitigate the loss of water in the Davidson Canyon.

Those examples should be enough to illustrate the function of “The Other Side of the Coin.” Welcome to the blog, its biggest function is not to educate or propagandize but its major function is to get you the residents of southern Arizona to explore, ask questions and make your own decisions.