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Earlier today, 350,000 signatures of Arizona supporters of a move to improve the process to conserve/or preserve State Land Department acreage were filed with Secretary of State.

Pat Lamer came before the Scottsdale City Council Tuesday with a simple request.

He asked our leaders to take a stand – now – on a developer's plan to plop an ugly electrical substation next to his neighborhood.

It was a smart thing to do and really the only thing, given the events of this week in which the city passed on buying state land next to Pinnacle Peak Park, thereby clearing the way for a certain developer to buy it for the minimum bid.

What, after all, is the average citizen to do? Developers hold all the cards but one in this city. They have the entree at city hall and they have the cache. (Also spelled c-a-s-h.)

Folks like Lamer and Mike Levy and Kim Edwards? The only power they, and the rest of us, wield is at the ballot box.

So it makes sense that they would want to know where the City Council stands on sticking it to their neighborhood. Just as it makes sense that the developer who is doing the sticking would want to delay a city vote, oh until about September.

That is, after Sept. 2, when four council members are on the ballot.

Confused? Thought so. Let me line up the dots.

A group called Scottsdale Canal Development LLC has been working for 18 months on Waterview at Scottsdale, a plan for hotels and condos northeast of Scottsdale and Camelback. But there's a problem: Salt River Project's ugly substation, right where they want their hotel to be.

The developer tried to move the substation a few blocks north, into a 50-year-old neighborhood but that plan fell flat. So now, the plan is to move it to a 1.4-acre commercial lot on the northeastern corner of 68th and Indian School.

Developers Mark Madkour and John Wanninger have said the substation won't impact Lamer's neighborhood, being several hundred feet from the nearest house and masked by “thought-provoking architecture.”

SRP spokesman Dick Hayslip says the utility had no particular desire to move but agreed to do so at the urging of then-Assistant City Manager Ed Gawf. But Hayslip says SRP won't go along with the deal unless the City Council gives the nod. In any case, the council would need to abandon the alley behind the 68th Street site for the substation to fit.

The plan was to be voted on Tuesday, but in May the developer asked for a delay. As a result, it won't reach the council until – wonder of wonders -- September.

Neighbors, of course, are less than thrilled at the prospect of an electricial substation plopped on their doorstep – even one with “thought-provoking architecture.”

And they're even less excited at prospect of an electrical substation being plopped on their doorstep by people they just voted into office.

Given that, you can imagine how they greeted the news Monday that the developer who bought the land next to Pinnacle Peak Park – some of which the city badly wants for parking -- is none other than Wanninger, one of the Waterview partners.

Are those dots lining up yet?

They have for Lamer, who figures it's just a matter of time before Wanninger offers up the land the city wants for parking at Pinnacle Peak in exchange for the go-ahead to put the SRP substation at 68th Street.

That's why he and about 500 of his neighbors petitioned the City Council this week, to put the issue on its agenda next Tuesday -- the last meeting before their summer break.

"I want them to vote yes or no. Do you support the neighborhood or do you support the Scottsdale Canal development?” he told me. “If they tell us that no, they're not going to decide then they're answering by not answering. If that's the case then there's going to be some people that express some hostility at the polls.”

I couldn't reach Wanninger but Waterview attorney John Berry dismissed the idea the developers would intentionally delay a vote or that there's a swap in the works involving the Pinnacle Peak land.

“I wish there were a grand conspiracy there, but there isn't and the city's got lots of ways they can get what they want out Wanninger, out of Pinnacle Peak,” he said.

The City Council met privately Tuesday to discuss the Pinnacle Peak land – its second meeting in as many weeks. Councilmen Jim Lane and Bob Littlefield told me Wednesday that there's been no talk about a parking-for-substation deal.

“The developer hasn't come to us yet,” Littlefield said. “But how naïve would you have to be to not know that that's coming?”

So will our leaders take a stand on the substation Tuesday or will they come up with some excuse about process that will, just coindentially, allow them to delay until after the Sept. 2 election? Stay tuned.

Lane, who is challenging Mayor Mary Manross, told me Wednesday that while he's been open to the idea of the substation move, he's changed his mind. “I'd have to say at this point and time I'm probably opposed to it,” he said. “I'd like to see the developers bring it back to their site.”

Manross, meanwhile, did not return a call for comment. Hmmm.

(Column published July 3, 2008, Scottsdale Republic)

One of the more puzzling stories of the year comes today, as two of the state's biggest illegal immigration foes -- Rep. Russell Pearce and former gubernatorial candidate Don Goldwater -- failed to gather the necessary signatures to put their latest battle plans on the ballot.

Pearce and Goldwater foes will no doubt proclaim victory and say this signals a shift in turning point in Arizona's ongoing fistfight over illegal immigration. 

Me? I don't think so.  I'm guessing it was a failure of organization more than any chance in voter sentiment. (Don't believe me? Try crticizing Joe Arpaio and see what happens...)

I'm not so surprised that Goldwater's proposal to strengthen employer sanctions didn't make it.  The state's employer sanctions law just went into effect this spring and I can see where voters might want to give it some time, to see if it works. (So far, it doesn't, as not a single employer has been charged.)

But Pearce's proposal to require the cops to ask about immigration status?  Yeah, I'm shocked that that one didn't make the ballot.  You?

I'm told GM Rod Graves and Kirk Wood, Karlos Dansby's agent, finally made contact this week with more discussions on the way.But I wouldn't say that negotiations are progressing.

A wide gulf still separates the two sides, and I would be surprised if they can reach a long-term contract by the July 15 deadline. After that, Dansby, the team's franchise player, can't sign a mulit-year deal with the team until after the season.Neither side is saying much about negotiations, but here's the situation from each side.Dansby: He is guaranteed to make $8 million this year.

If he's franchised in 2009, that number will increase to around $9 million. That's $17 million over two years, so Dansby's not going to sign a long-term deal for substantially less in guaranteed money. Dansby think he's at least as good, and probably better, than Calvin Pace, who is getting about $27 million in his first three years with the Jets.

Wood has made the Cards an offer that's worth an average of $9 million a year. But Dansby knows that the $9 million franchise number next year is not a sure thing. If he is injured this year or doesn't play well, he might not see that kind of money, nor would he command as much on the open market. That's incentive for him to do a deal now, even if it's for less than what he could get in 2009.

The Cardinals: They think Dansby is a heckuva player, but there are people in the organization with long memories. They remember that under coach Dennis Green Dansby had a tendency to miss practices and play on Sundays. For the amount of money the two sides are talking about, the Cardinals want a player who is going to set an example in practice.

The Cardinals and many other teams think the Jets vastly overpaid for Pace, who played well last year. I haven't heard what the Cardinals are offering, but my guess is it's more in the range of what Lofa Tatupu received from Seattle (six year extension, $40 million of new money, $18 million guaranteed), or that Lance Briggs received from the Bears (six years, $36 million, $13 guaranteed, $21.6 million over the first three years).

The gamble for the Cardinals is that while the figures currently under discussion seem outrageous, they might not appear that way next spring. The cap figures to increase another $9 million. Salaries will escalate. If Dansby plays well, as Pace did last year, his price tag will increase.

Athletic trainers work in near anonymity. Aside from the camera time that comes from caring for a player on the field, or helping one off it, they are household names in only one house - theirs.

That's what made last week ironic for the Cardinals' John Omohundro. He received more attention in leaving his job as head athletic trainer than he ever did for doing it.

After 41 years with the team, Omohundro stepped down. And the phone's barely stopping ringing since.

"I was telling somebody this is like an above-ground eulogy," he said. "I've been getting more compliments and calls than I have in a long time."

Omohundro had planned to retire for good after the 2008 season, but a personal matter accelerated the time frame.

When he came to the Cardinals in 1967, Omohundro was fresh out of the Army with a crew cut. The hair gradually left, but Omohundro didn't. From quarterbacks Jim Hart to Matt Leinart, Omohundro's been there. From coaches Charley Winner to Ken Whisenhunt. From St. Louis to Arizona. From buzz cuts to dreadlocks.

What Omohundro didn't experience was a lot of success on the field. He worked 814 Cardinals games. Only one of them was a playoff victory. That's bothers him, of course, but it hasn't made him bitter.

"There's a lot of good things that have come out of this," he said of his career. "Number 1, I've been able to raise a family without critical needs or wants. We've lived a good life in a nice area. We've been able to have some nice things, and I've met a lot of very good people who I value and cherish. I don't have much in the way of negative to say."

Through those years, Omohundro has been almost as big a fixture with the team as the Cardinal on the side of the helmet. Those close to him will miss the jokes, the corny puns and the observations that usually cut to the heart of a situation.

One year at the NFL's annual scouting combine, Omohundro took a look at Michigan guard Steve Hutchinson and said, "We need more guys who look like that."

For 41 years, the least-used piece of equipment the Cardinals had was Omohundro's first name, John. It was always "Omo" or "Johnny O" or "Trainer!"

But they called loudly, often and at all times of day and night. Fans saw Omo when he went on the field to help a player, but the real work went on behind the scenes. Like the time in Denver in 2002 when guard Chris Dishman and fullback Joel Makovicka, roommates on the road, came down with a virus. It was Omo who had to go to their room to care for them.

"It smelled like a barnyard," Omo said at the time.

There are lots of stories he could tell. Like the time a team flight was delayed when a baggage car bumped into the plane.

"Good thing that didn't happen in the air," a player told Omohundro.

Memory lane

"Oh, gosh. How sweet was it in the San Diego game when that ball went through the uprights (to clinch a playoff berth in 1998). Then when we weren't going to have any chance at all in Dallas, and we pulled the rabbit out of the hat. What a marvelous thing it was to walk off the field amid silence. There's nothing quite so humble as a Texan with a sock in his mouth."

"I'm not going to miss being called up at 2 in the morning to come over to the facility because their ankle is swelling more or because they are throwing up and have diarrhea. It's nice that you have that capability of being able to help people, but you'd like it to happen more when the sun shines than when the moon shines."

"The pressure to win and the dollar amounts are so huge today. There are so many people involved in the management and the care and what surrounds each player. I didn't wake up in the morning, saying, 'I get to go talk to their agents today.' But they have a job, too, I recognize that."

"Probably the most disappointing or unfulfilled part is not being able to see a championship trophy displayed in the lobby. Mr. B (Bill Bidwill) and I go back a long way. I always thought how nice it would be for both of us to be able to take a little sip of the championship wine and hoist one up together in celebration."