Apache Junction residents file lawsuit to stop acceptance of petitions that force public vote on landfill
by Richard H Dyer | Apache Junction/Gold Canyon Independent
Apache Junction City Clerk Kathy Connelly on Jan. 5 looks at petitions filed by the Stop Mount Trashmore group. (Photo special to the Independent by Diane Burns)
Two Apache Junction residents employed by Allied Waste Services of Phoenix have filed a lawsuit to prevent the acceptance of petitions submitted by the Stop Mount Trashmore group against the Apache Junction Landfill.
“The purpose of the lawsuit is to bring to light the numerous violations of law committed by a group of Phoenix lobbyists, politicians and profiteers calling themselves ‘Stop Mount Trashmore’ who are backing the petition drive and to stop these outsiders from taking benefits away from AJ residents to make a fast buck,” Michael Anthony Scerbo of Rose Moser Allyn Public and Online Relations, representing AJ Wins You Win and Apache Junction Landfill, said in a press release. “This outside group wants to force Apache Junction to hold an expensive and unneeded election in order to close ‘The Phil.’ That’s because they own land for a potential landfill nearby in Pinal County. They make millions if ‘the Phil’ closes and Apache Junction would lose. The illegal petitions submitted by ‘Stop Mount Trashmore’ seek to overturn an ordinance unanimously passed by the Apache Junction City Council and endorsed by the AJ Chamber of Commerce.”
The lawsuit, filed in Pinal County Superior Court, lists the group AJ Wins You Win, Apache Junction Landfill and Apache Junction residents Bobby Henson and Ed Lee as plaintiffs. Listed as defendants are Stop Mount Transhmore Community Organization LLC, the city of Apache Junction, the seven members of the Apache Junction City Council, City Clerk Kathy Connelly, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes and Pinal County Recorder Virginia Ross.
