Local opinion: Council fixes 'another fine mess'

and analysis of the writer:

“This is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.”

Oldsters will remember that line from Oliver Hardy to his comedic partner, Stan Laurel, in many a movie and many a mess from decades ago.

It’s what politicians ought to be saying to some of the bureaucrats who work for them in city of Tucson and Pima County governments. The “fine mess”? Bureaucrats signing nondisclosure agreements that kept the public’s business from the public.

The Tucson City Council made a correction Aug. 6 on behalf of city residents and those bungling bureaucrats. The council’s vote was unanimous, as the Star’s Charles Borla wrote, “to kill (city government’s) role in the controversial effort to open massive data centers here.”

Two bravos to the City Council. First, for washing its hands — with “reclaimed” water, perhaps? — of Project Blue. Second, for listening to the public outcry, thanks to Mayor Regina Romero’s insistence on public forums, which led the council to act appropriately.

Bravo also to Tucsonans who turned out en masse at two in-person forums and one online forum to vent their rightful anger over the secrecy and the water giveaway at the genesis and heart of this matter.

One could conclude that Project Blue’s demise in the city was due as much to public officials signing an NDA as to the attempted sleight-of-hand with our water.

One lesson, and a topic for a separate discussion, is why keeping the public out of the details and conversation should even be allowed. Perhaps NDAs involving public entities should be limited to matters of national security.

Will the Pima County Board of Supervisors be courageous enough to duplicate the City Council’s action, which would amount to the supervisors chastising their non-elected officials for starting this in secret? Stay tuned.

No doubt that business leaders favoring Project Blue – from the Chamber of Southern Arizona to the Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association – will dredge up the tired old criticism that city government and its elected leaders are anti-business.

Full-throated support for business is their mission, so expect criticism. Yet, they know that economic development will come only with elected officials as partners. They must acknowledge that we, the people, chose the politicians, and their Project Blue decision was in response to what we wanted. City elected officials are pro-Tucson, not anti-business.

Chamber of Southern Arizona CEO Joe Snell said in his July 29 op-ed that Project Blue was “about making Tucson a major player in the digital economy ... ” But would it?

That would take a bigger leap of faith than what we were ready for, as City Council member Lane Santa Cruz pointed out at the Aug. 6 meeting: “ ... our people know if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Tucsonans and the City Council responded with disbelief that this profit-driven company could produce more water than it uses, would pay millions for a pipeline and give it to the city, would not hijack our electrical grid and would not despoil the environment.

The council’s decision to get us out of “another fine mess” was spot on politically and was unequivocally forward-looking to what comes next as the people of Tucson steward our water, business and the environment.