Pinal Partnership September Government Relations Committee Meeting Recap: Honoring Frank Pratt, Legislation and Water Update
For the September Pinal Partnership Government Relations Committee (PPGRC) Meeting, Co-Chairs Rebecca Timmer with Wilson & Company and Ben Bitter with the Town of Florence, began the meeting by sharing memories of Senator Frank Pratt. The Committee and community will miss him immensely. Senator TJ Shope shared this ABC 15 story: https://www.abc15.com/news/state/frank-pratt-longtime-arizona-gop-lawmaker-dies-at-79 And here is a great picture of Frank from the Coolidge Chamber website: https://www.coolidgechamber.org/images/speasyimagegallery/albums/2/images/24.jpg
A reception to celebrate Frank Pratt’s memory is open to the public and will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at The Property Conference Center.
His obituary: https://www.pinalcentral.com/obituaries/frank-pratt/article_0f350844-239d-5366-b272-e909829656fb.html
Senator Shope followed with a general legislative update, indicating 4 to 5 vacancies in House and 1 or 2 in Senate will likely prevent a call for special session. A priority is filling the seat of Representative Roberts representing the City of Maricopa. He joined the committee meeting from Washington DC where his was promoting, among many things, federal funding for widening I-10.
Mitch Basefsky of Central Arizona Project provided a CAP update: Lower Basin States are exploring solutions for keeping Lake Mead from going lower as the outlook is worse than even 2 months ago with Tier 3 cuts eminent. Budget briefing October 14th will be livestreamed on the CAP website. Impacts on CAP not just on water, but also energy are due to Lake Powell capacity impacting energy production and, water rates/delivery must cover fixed costs.
Tony Smith of Pinal Partnership gave an update on the Redistricting Meeting from September 23rd and indicated the 23-day review concludes October 8th. Congressional Grid Map very good news for Pinal County as the district is dominated by Pinal County with just a bit of North Tucson. Big improvement from existing, competing with multiple counties and geographies. Most comments left to legislative map; state districts. Pinal County is the only county outside of two metro areas to have county split into two legislative districts. Recommending to keep growth communities in Pinal in one district and not split between 15 and 16. Neighborhoods within rural communities should not be divided and violates Item E for ideal district map. More information available at the following link: https://redistricting-irc-az.hub.arcgis.com/pages/grid-map
Ben Bitter shared census data released this week will step up process. Ben indicated Pinal BOS had presentation from Kent Volkmer regarding challenges to census count. Challenge to 10-year Census Data must prove errors were made, omissions not considered. Overall count is set by Census and then reallocate subgroups when challenges occur. County may be better served challenging a population estimate in May 2022 with a shorter process.
Ben announced his career move to City of Maricopa and will be stepping down from co-chairing this committee. Rebecca and the committee thanked Ben for his commitment and service to the Government Relations Committee and Pinal Partnership. He will be replaced by Dale Wiebusch, City of Maricopa.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 via Zoom. Committee meetings are open to all members of Pinal Partnership. Please contact Rina Rien if you would like information to join the committee and/or join as a member of the Partnership
