KINGMAN - One of the two men running against Mayor John Salem in the March primary is challenging the mayor's eligibility to run for office, mere hours after he was himself served with a legal challenge from Salem.
In a filing submitted with Mohave County Superior Court on Wednesday, Art Jones has alleged that Salem's petition for re-election falls below the 216-signature threshold required to qualify for a place on the ballot. Jones filed the answer just hours after receiving Salem's civil complaint, which also alleges that Jones failed to meet the signature requirement, in addition to failing to properly fill out his petition paperwork or show sufficient cause for running.
Jones has claimed as many as 97 of Salem's signatures are invalid, due primarily to the person's name not being on file with the Voter Registration Department, or due to discrepancies in the address shown on the petition versus that filed with the county. Jones also claims at least 10 of Salem's signatures should be thrown out due to the handwriting being illegible.
However, those explanations were not included on Jones' filing with the court, which simply lists page numbers and signature lines on Salem's petition, with little or no accompanying explanation. The filing concludes with a request from Jones that "the above signatures ... be verified that they are registered voters in the city limits." Jones' actual explanations were included in a spreadsheet submitted to the Miner on Monday.
But the spreadsheet itself raises a number of questions, as it contains a different set of page numbers and signature lines from the answer Jones filed with the court. Some entries are also obvious mistakes, as in the case of one "William Goodell," who Jones could not find any record of with Voter Registration. However, the listed address was the same as that of Bill Goodale, a Kingman Unified school board member and husband to Arizona House Rep. Doris Goodale, both of whom are registered voters. In that case, at least, it appears Jones misread Goodale's handwriting and mistook him for "Goodell," whom he was then unable to find.
Salem maintains that many of Jones' allegations are simply untrue. The mayor spent more than four hours at Voter Registration on Monday checking to verify whether Jones' claims matched what he found in the records.
"I went through every one of these to validate them, and he's correct on some of these, but on a lot of them, he's not," Salem said. As an example, he pointed out Jones' claim that Dr. Robert J. Rose's address on the petition did not match the one filed with the county when, in fact, it matches exactly.
It remains to be seen whether Jones' allegations will be considered when he and fellow contested candidate Jason Marino go before Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen on Jan. 5 to defend their petitions against Salem's civil complaints. Since Jones' allegations against Salem were made in an answer to Salem's complaint, and not in a separate civil complaint of his own, Jantzen may choose to disregard them.
In legal parlance, an "answer" is typically used by the defendant to respond to an initial complaint by either admitting or denying the allegations made against them, then setting forth new facts to justify themselves. However, Jones' answer appears only to attack Salem's eligibility, without offering any justification for his own.
Salem said he believes Jones is attempting to challenge him strictly in retaliation to his own challenge against Jones, and not out of a legitimate belief that he actually failed to collect the necessary number of signatures.
"My signatures are not in question - theirs are," Salem said of Jones and Marino. "The complaint is against them, not me. No one has filed a court case against me to challenge my petition, and the date's passed."
Jones' request that Salem's signatures be verified has apparently had no effect thus far, at least according to Kim Stewart, an administrative supervisor for Voter Registration. Stewart said the only way her department would verify Salem's signatures would be if the court ordered her to do so, and the only way to do that would been to file a formal civil complaint by last Wednesday.
"(Jones) could say whatever he wanted to in the response (to Salem's complaint)," Stewart said. "But without proof or a court order for us to check them, we don't check them."
Stewart added that it could be possible for Jantzen to order Voter Registration to check Salem's petition based on Jones' filing, but to do so would be extremely unusual. Salem's attorney, Mark Sippel, declined to comment on Jones' filing, having not had the chance to see it before this report was written.
He did, however, anticipate a fairly speedy hearing process, with Jantzen likely to make a final decision on Jones' and Marino's eligibility the day of the hearing.
"We're going to have a judge tell us exactly what they think fairly quickly. That is how the election timing is done," Sippel said. "We may roll over a day, but I think the judge set the proper time frame and we'll see what we'll see."
If Marino and Jones are removed from the ballot, they will be ineligible to run as write-in candidates due to Arizona's "sore loser" law, which prevents candidates from running as write-ins if their nominating petitions are successfully challenged.
Posted: Monday, January 04, 2010
Article comment by:
Helen
RayK:
By your definition, Ray Lyons and Carole Young are not part of the GOB system, they seem to be satisfied with what they have. From what I see, they want to improve the economy for everyone. They are both retired and aren't looking to increase their job or business ownership status or make significant purchses of land or property for profit. They seem sincere in doing what is best for Kingman and it's residents. I think the Mayor has taken a real beating in his business to serve the City.
Posted: Sunday, January 03, 2010
Article comment by:
RayK
GOB = Educated men who have had positions of power in the community and use such power to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Men such as mayors, councilmen, sheriffs, lawyers, judges, lots of public sector work, etc.
Construction company owners, autoshop owners and most developers are not the good old boys. They are rednecks and cowboys who have succeded in business so they put their money at risk and help develop the City in order make more bucks.
Dont throw everyone in with the generic term GOB
Posted: Saturday, January 02, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
We need judges who have the BACKBONE not to jump through hoops for ANYONE! It is our justice system for goodness sake!!!!!! Remember to ONLY vote for them when they are FAIR and will stand up to people who think that they deserve special treatment. Let us bring EQUALITY back to Kingman. Is anyone ready for an equality march through downtown up to our courthouse? Let's bring justice back into this town! Remember we are ALL created equal, aren't we?
Posted: Saturday, January 02, 2010
Article comment by:
Mature enough to disagree
OK,
so do you have to be wealthy to be part of the Good-Ole-Boy network? How much money would qualify me?
What if I sold a Good-Ole-Boy my used vehicle? Does that make me one also?
Do you have to be friends with a person in office? Or will an acquaintance suffice?
Is an elitist the same thing as a Good Ole Boy?
I would like to think that my realtor and I are a bit chummy, and they are definitely locally famous, so do I belong to this network?
Since most of Mohave County (and I am assuming the Good-Ole-Boy network) is Republican, do I need to be also?
I frequently go to the gym, and I know a lot of people. I see them at the stores and always say: "Hello". They ask: "How are your kids?" Does this mean that I am part of the network? Or are we just being friendly.
Please help, because I don't want to be called a hypocrite.
Posted: Friday, January 01, 2010
Article comment by:
willie
At NNP
Again the Vice Mayor and a certain Supersize have the same last name. Any voting by this certain Supersize towards the City of Kingman's benefit - is a conflict of interest. Just start looking after the first of the year for the RECALL of a certain Supersize. And after he is RECALLED, again if the Naughty (I don't like competition, I am a dictator)Mayor is for some reason re-elected, let's wait 6 months and then we the voters / citizens can RECALL the Mayor. It is time for the citizens of Mohave County to sweep the Good Old Boy's (and Girls) out of office once and for all! Enough is enough.
Posted: Friday, January 01, 2010
Article comment by:
Helen
John Salem,
Happy New Year and good luck in your quest for re-election. Many are pulling for you, probably the majority of Kingman voters. The Council is doing a superb job. At least you know to work on the economy rather than sit and wait for inflation to catch up. I'm sure our small businesses appreciate the encouragement. I thnk the City has been more active in the business community than the Chamber. I hope you can bring in more of a choice for shoppers.
I have watched he new Economic Development Commission on the web video and I think they are all very intellegent. You did a great job in selection. It is amazing that you found so many volunteers that are so energetic and have a variety of ideas. For so long, nothing has been done to recruit business it has been left up to companies who contact the area. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. You have my vote and many others at KRMC and the City.
Posted: Friday, January 01, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
Well if you dont like what is happening you have just 2 simple things to do. 1 MOVE! 2 Shut up and run for office. Everyone is so eager to jump on the band wagon of the GOOD OLD BOYS. I have been here for 26 years and have heard the same bull. If you do not like what you see, then do something about it instead of just talk!
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Salem doesnt care if his signatures are accurate. Thats coruption plain and simple. Its not ok for the other two guys to have inappropriate signature but the mayor thinks its hunky dorey. The officials in the state and federal government know our reps are corrupt, its laughable and sad all at the same time. I challenge the Mayor to have all 3 of them start their petitions all over again. Heck lets add a few more into the competition. Ill bet a lot more people would step forward now. i canT imagine another year with the likes of Salem and the hand picked right wing commisswion. God help us all!
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
Bet he shows up in dress greens
The last 4 nnp's are the same person. C'mon Mr. Jones...Sour Grapes anyone? Art Jones is a fraud.
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
if jantzen jumps through hoops for john salem as well as he does for salems ex wife, jones and marino dont have a chance in hell
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
@Willie,
I watch the council meetings on video after every meeting and I now watch the commission videos. I do not think all the council members are part of the good boy network. If that were the case, you would not have seen the new commision on ec dev created. It would have remained with ETDC with the Chamber doing Tourism and no one working on improving or changeing the eocnomic demograpics in Kingman. I honestly beleive we have some councilmembers who want change from the way it has always been. I do beleive we need more youth involvment and less emphasis place on retirees. I would like to see Janet Watson re-elected, yes, it is rumored she is part of the good ole boy regime, but she speaks her mind and beleives the City, Chamber and Commissionsshould work together.
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
Wonder if the KDM will publish this
HOw many judges do you think are in these candidates pockets? The whole process is corrupt!
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
Wonder if the KDM will publish this.
Geez, first the Mayor challenges the runner's up signatures, now vice versa... politics at its best.... I salute all of the crooked politicians that run this country... they sure do have a leg up on the American sheeple.
Keep in mind also that this newspaper is about as biased as it can be. Most of the time it only prints half truths in order to help cover up the real situation!
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
Justice & Liberty
@ ACE
Well, some good points you make here, ACE. I probably am or was one of those civilians who thought every PD should have an internal Affairs Department. You also give some real good information about how some of the smaller PD’s work. Lots of food for thought.
The suggestion of an outside agency is of course the first thing that comes to mind once you deal with the KPD or the MCSO. Never mind the City Attorney’s Office who is so busy in their possible abuse of power that they completely lose touch with reality. That doesn’t leave too many outside agency, with the exception of the FBI under who’s jurisdiction the oversight of Police Departments and Sheriff Offices really falls, at least so according to the FBI.
While the FBI really seems to be the most helpful and sympathizing of the law enforcement agencies, they understandably say they cannot investigate every minor infraction.
So, we citizens are stuck with our complaints of police misconduct, police abuse, false arrests and imprisonments and the general abuse of power that we in Kingman experience.
I still believe a independent commission needs to be founded to observe, and correct our law enforcement and judicial departments.
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
"My signatures are not in question - theirs are," Salem said of Jones and Marino. "The complaint is against them, not me. No one has filed a court case against me to challenge my petition, and the date's passed."
Just because your signatures won't be questioned in court doesn't mean the people will not question. Shame on you Mr. Mayor, shame on you.
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
It's funny that the only one to challenge anyone's signatures is one of the opponents. He's just looking out for himself and not the city. It's really a shame.
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
I wish we had a mayor I could respect. This is pitiful. Too bad we aren't allowed to make our own decisions.
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Why do we bother with elections if Salem is going to vote for us?
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
C.C.C.
What is stupid!
It is STUPID to have a law that makes a person holding any office to get circulate a petition to run for re-election!
@ Dont be rediculous
I copied from your post, just as you did from mine.
Maybe You can answer these questions for me!
Is the Mayor and City Council governed by the "Open Meeting Law"?
If they are and I believe that is the case. If you have facts that show they are in violation of that law why don't you bring them out? Do you understand that open discussion and debate is the law?
Even the Good Ole Boys that have got caught in violation of the OML, have went down in flames.
Yes if they have the right connections they just move into a better position, however if fair minded people would get involved Things would change!
I regret that you think I am STUPID just because I believe when some one abstains that it shows something about them. In a positive way!
I only wished that I could run for the mayors position! I know who most of the Good Ole Boys are, some of them I know personally! The ones that I know would not want me in the position, due to the fact they could not control me.
That is the only problem I see that John Salem may have,since he is married into the GOB!
People of Kingman wake up and stand up, these three men should not be criticized because they issue challenges to petitions that don't get checked and validated by some one! Get real get this changed!
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
willie
@ Realist.
All you have to do is go to the City Council meetings. The Good Old Boy's and Girl's have been here a long time, or they got hooked up with a certain lodge. You remember the former Mohave County Treasurer is still a member. Also the Mohave County Supersizes and especially our County Manager have been a part of this network. Their door's are alway's open to their good lodge buddies and proment families. As for you and I we are just the open check book that they count on to purchase a vehicle of their choice up to 40,000. The only way to finally let the Good Old Boy network know that you are tired of it all is RECALL. If the Naughty (I dont like competition) mayor is for some reason is relelcted. Just wait 6 months and then under the election laws you can RECALL him. Trust me there are a lot of citizens that cant wait for the first of the year when the RECALL will begin against a certain Supersize. This is how the voters and taxpayers have a voice. After all the US Constitution still begins with "We the People" at least it did last time I checked. I hope this answers your question.
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
If this isn't going to be a fair election then there should be a recall in six months!!!
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
Dont be rediculous
"However John did abstain from an early vote concerning Rattlesnake, due to in laws owner ship of some of the property.'
you dont truly beleive that Salem does not discuss rattlsnake wash and other projects in advance of him "obstaining" from the vote. Thats just too rediculas for words. That entire council has discussed that project at length with one another in private...you can bet that the others know exactly what Salem wants them to do!!!!! Cmon people, dont be stupid!
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
ACE
@ JUSTICE & LIBERTY
Citizens generally believe that all police departments have a squad of officers assigned only to "police the police." This may be true for large agencies, but not for the vast majority of police departments in the country. Eighty-seven percent of police departments in the United States consist of fewer than 25 sworn officers. However, society holds these small agencies just as accountable for the conduct of their officers via the same laws and judicial review process that it holds departments with hundreds or even thousands of officers. So how does an agency with very few officers meet this obligation?
Many Departments do not have an Internal Affairs Dept. Many agencies select an internal investigator based on the allegations of a complaint. However, in most cases, an agency generally handles each matter at the lowest possible level. In small agencies, the line supervisor also may fill this position of second in command, limiting the chief's choices. If a minor rule infraction, such as discourtesy or tardiness, is the nature of the complaint, then a line supervisor would prove an appropriate choice. However, if the complaint stems from a serious breach of conduct, such as an alleged crime, excessive force, bias/discrimination, or a gross ethics violation, then a command-level officer trained to conduct this type of sensitive investigation should undertake, or at least oversee, the matter.
In most small agencies, the closeness of its members, or "family" atmosphere, makes a serious complaint extremely difficult to investigate. Finding a truly objective investigator within the agency may prove impossible. Regardless of an agency's size, the emotional drain of a complex and difficult investigation can have long-term effects. In most cases, it is more appropriate to invite an outside agency, such as the local PD, sheriff's department, state police, or district attorney's office, to conduct the inquiry.
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
Realist
Does anyone really know who the good ole boys are? I'm told there are several groups and they all work against each other. I was also told that most of the developers are main factors in the good ole boy system here. I guess the councilmembers who push for impact fee eliminations are walking a thin line. I am told that the good ole boys don't want growth, so I guess the councilmembers who vote against economic growth is walking a thin line. I'm told the good ole boys don't want downtown improvements, so I guess the councilmembers who block downtown activities are also walking a thin line. Let's see how many councilmembers do we have left that are not associated with the good ole boys? Probably the ones who do not have long term ties. Who knows? I went to their profiles on the City web and found only three that may not be part of the ole boy network, but how can you really tell?
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
Where are your facts?
@Justice & Liberty
You are so full of it!!!!!
First of all, the Mayor cannot get involved with the policies of the Police Department, that is what Jack Kramer is hired to do. If you have specific issues, bring them before council at a meeting, then council can direct staff to look into the allegations.
If you have specifc issues conerning the City Attorney, they should be brought forth to the Mayor and council for investigation.
Otherwise, quit spouting accusations without proof
The current council members are not corrupt and if you have specifics then point them out.
DO NOT make accusations about councilmembers that you cannot back up. Is that not slander?
