Tim Steller's column: Injunction over Tucson parks overrides free speech

They criticize, they cajole, they tilt at windmills, they even make false claims sometimes. And they don't go away. 

We tend to call them "cranks." The problem with cranks is that you can't just dismiss them, because sometimes they're right, or they hide a kernel of truth in a barrel of bluster.

And in any case, they have a right to their views. 

Kemnitz, 57, worked as a groundskeeper for Tucson Parks and Recreation for two years before being fired in June 2025. He went to a City Council meeting on June 17 and spoke against parks director Lara Hamwey's qualifications, and was fired a week later. That firing was upheld by the city civil service commission in January. 

Since then, Kemnitz has been blasting leaders of the parks and rec department on social media, raking Hamwey over the coals and calling out other individuals in leadership. He established a Facebook page called "Tucson Parks are Wrecked" where he documents what he says is wrong about the city's parks department. He's also gone to the parks administration office to take video there and confronted a parks employee at the McDonald's near Reid Park, on video. 

But for now, that's over, thanks to a broad court injunction.

The Tucson city attorney's office applied for an injunction against harassment against Kemnitz on June 12, doing so on behalf of five parks and rec employees, including Hamwey, who makes more than $200,000 per year as parks director. They cited his visits to parks offices and approaching parks employees, as well as the Facebook page. They said monitoring Kemnitz's online comments for alleged harassment and threats had become akin to a full-time job. 

"On February 19, 2026 the Defendant created a Facebook page Tucson Parks are Wrecked, where he has posted daily, multiple times targeting specific staff and the department. From the creation to June 12, 2026 at least 210 target posts have been made. Defendants posts have not been isolated or occasional they have been persistent, repetitive, and directed at the City and individual employees."

A city statement provided by spokesman Andrew Squire said, "The City took action to protect individual employees from threatening and defamatory actions on the part of Mr. Kemnitz unrelated to legitimate criticism of the City, including physical and communicative behavior outlined in our filings. The City takes employee safety seriously and took the necessary and measured steps to address Mr. Kemnitz’s behavior while preserving his right to appropriately criticize City actions or activities."

I met with Kemnitz on Monday. He denied some of what the city alleged in their petition, asserting that he did not intend to cross paths with Hamwey on one occasion at the parks department cited by the city, did not intentionally follow her in a vehicle, and only coincidentally ran into parks employee John Bonillas at the McDonald's where Kemnitz videotaped him.

But he acknowledges he told city officials when he was fired that they would regret it. He told them then and continues to say now he never meant that to be a physical threat, but as a threat to expose what he says is wrong with the parks department. That includes what he says are unqualified people in some leadership roles, veterans of a certain landscaping company taking power in groundskeeping roles, and workplace requirements being ignored, among other things.  

Some of his postings have been based on observable conditions at Tucson parks. He's pointed out deterioration at the Reid Park rose garden, fentanyl smokers hanging out under park ramadas, poor field conditions at Todd Harris Sports Complex, and other problems Tucson residents would probably recognize.

But he's also posted over and over about Hamwey, criticizing her, for example, for the lesser-known college she attended, Ramapo College of New Jersey, and for grammatical errors he said he's seen in her writing and in parks documents. He's also posted about Deputy Director Greg Jackson, Bonillas and others.

You could fairly say he's been obsessive, the kind of person who these days raises concerns about workplace safety. I asked him if he couldn't see why people would view him as creepy or like a stalker.

"I think they're exaggerating," Kemnitz said. "I told them, 'I'm gonna be relentless in exposing what's happened.' So, basically, I'm doing a journalism — quasi-journalism. I'm just documenting and exposing everything that happens, and because they've ruined that job for so many people, I'm going to fight back through the media, through social media."

When Pima County Superior Court Judge Clayton Kamm granted the injunction June 12, he ordered Kemnitz to stay away from Hamwey, Jackson, Bonillas and two other employees. He also ordered him to stay away from the parks administration building, Reid Park and city parks employees at work. 

That's fair enough, in my view. 

But then Kamm also ordered, "Defendant shall not utilize the images of the protected parties in social media posts with the intent or knowledge of using the images for the purpose of alarming, annoying or harassing the protected parties."

Slippery concepts like "alarming" or "annoying" posts should raise a red flag. As much as we want public employees to be protected at work, we shouldn't try to protect highly paid administrators from the annoyance of critical posts.

"I think I have a First Amendment right to criticize public administrators, and in their thing (petition), you might notice they're like, 'Hundreds of times, he's commented.' I can do it millions of times. That's my right, correct?"

That may not be how most of us would approach this. It's a crank's way of thinking. But I don't think he's wrong.