Marana mayor hopefuls split on data centers, ICE facility

Current Mayor Jon Post was appointed in January 2025 after former mayor Ed Honea died in November 2024, and he is seeking voter approval to finish the term through 2028. Post farms over 6,000 acres and owns the Marana Pumpkin Patch.

Post said the data center debate is defining the race, but he thinks the public’s perception of them is skewed by a negative narrative on social media.

“It's easy to sell the doom and gloom, it's harder to sell that something like this could be beneficial for the community,” Post said.

If voters approve, Post said he would focus on job creation and attracting more tech industries to the region.

Mayoral challenger Greg Johnsen is a former accountant and finance executive. A member of an anti-data center slate calling themselves "Marana for the People," he said the current council kept plans of the data center development behind closed doors for too long.

“They were talking about this two years before they finally told the community that it was coming ... I think that they believe that they can dictate what needs to happen without consideration for the community itself,” he said.

Post said he thinks the town was by the book.

“What we did was correct. We have always let the residents know about things coming forward, we've had the same system in place for many years. It's just people don't generally watch that,” he said.

Beale Infrastructure estimates the Marana project will create 4,200 jobs during construction and 400 permanent jobs when the center opens, according to the project’s website. The company is also projecting Marana will receive $145 million during the first construction phase, plus nearly another $1 million in impact fees.

Johnsen said jobs and tax dollars were short-term benefits to the town, but the town’s data center ordinance is missing key environmental requirements.

“Long term, you have pollution, you have noise pollution, you have a heat dome . . . there are a lot of different areas that they’re not looking at," he said.

Johnsen said he hopes members of his four-person coalition are elected in order to “put some teeth” into the data center ordinance.

“We should add another 80 pages to define what they need to do,” he said.

Candidates divided on ICE detention centers

A notice of public comment published by the Department of Homeland Security in June produced renewed concerns over a proposed ICE detention center opening at the site of the former Marana state prison. The new documents claimed the site could bring “expandable capacity to over 1,300.”

Post said the town has committed to holding operator Management and Training Corporation, MTC, accountable in not exceeding the bed capacity beyond 775, but the town’s authority is limited in preventing the takeover.

“The town council believes that they have the right because of what the facility has been in the past, they have the right to do this, and therefore that ends the role of the town,” Post said.

Johnsen is concerned about potential negative impacts on property values and business development if the Marana detention facility opens and would support taking a stronger stance against the federal government.

“Who wants to move and live in a community where there is a prison operating? If you look at it from that perspective, it could be that people are not necessarily going to be happy with something like that,” Johnsen said.

Early voting is underway for the Marana Town Council and Mayor’s Race.

The Pima County Recorder’s Office recommends mailing ballots by Tuesday, July 14, to ensure they are received and counted before Election Day.

Find early voting locations and hours at the county recorder’s website, recorder.pima.gov.