Arizona Coyotes: Glendale City Council’s Official Arena Lease Vote

By William Grigsby | Jun 16, 2015

The Saga Continues, With The Glendale City Council Holding An Executive Session Pertaining To The Cancellation Of The Gila River Arena Lease With Arizona Coyotes

This session is closed to the public and the press, so getting any information after the meeting will be like Mayor Weiers not feeling the pain of the taser gun shot at him by Coyotes’ supporter, Ronda Pearson at a charity fundraiser recently.

The city council may discuss the errs of the their ways at this meeting, and finally take some smelling salts to wake up to the real world where agreements are honored and fulfilled to their term. The big question is IF that happens, what will the Arizona Coyotes reaction be? They have already won round one in court by obtaining a restraining order against the city’s abrupt actions, and plan a $200 million lawsuit claiming injury to their team, and it’s future.

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The city does have to disclose what it is meeting to discuss. In this situation “The Mayor of the City of Glendale has called for an Executive Session meeting…The executive session is being called to discuss the city’s management agreement with the Arizona Coyotes.” (Press release June 12, 2015)

Except as provided in section 38-431.02, subsections I and J, a public body shall not discuss any matter in an executive session which is not described in the notice of the executive session.

We may or may not hear what the executive session covered, but according to KTAR 620 News:

No “legal action involving a final vote or decision shall…be taken at an executive session.” A.R.S. 38-431.03(D) Therefore, should the Glendale City Council decide to back out of their vote instructing the City Attorney to cancel the Agreement with the Arizona Coyotes, they cannot officially vote for it until they have a public meeting.

UPDATE:

Nicole Garcia Fox10 ✔@Fox10_NicoleG
Glendale officials meet behind closed doors- say they want to negotiate with Coyotes, but aren’t backing down on conflict of interest claim
2:39 PM – 16 Jun 2015
2 2 Retweets 2 2 favorites

More per FOX 10 News:

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The NHL season officially ended on Monday, but here in the valley, things are heating up on the ice as the city of Glendale is refusing to back down in their fight with the Arizona Coyotes.

City leaders met Tuesday in an executive session, deciding they will press forward with plans to cancel the hockey team’s lease agreement unless the team wants to renegotiate and right now, that doesn’t seem likely.

This is a developing story. Stay with FOX 10 News for updates.
Statement following Glendale City Council executive session:

The Glendale City Council held an Executive Session meeting this afternoon to discuss the city’s management agreement with the Arizona Coyotes. Following the meeting, Glendale Interim Assistant City Manager Tom Duensing said,

"“Let’s be clear. This isn’t about hockey. We want the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale and we want to see them succeed. As we’ve consistently indicated to the team, we are prepared to negotiate a mutually beneficial approach to address concerns.”"

Duensing went on to say “This issue is about the law and the process to ensure the law is followed. We have an obligation to the law and to the citizens first. We continue to believe in the strength of our case which is rooted in facts. Over time, those facts will come out. But they’ll only come out in the appropriate venue, and that’s a court of law.”

“Please know, we have not and will not litigate this case in the media,” Duensing said.

SO… Arizona Coyotes fans, that pretty much wraps it up for the City of Glendale, who is insistent that they are right in canceling a lease agreement after the first two years of the 15 years pact. I am not surprised, as the city thinks they have every right to use some flippant loophole in their by-laws to cancel a binding agreement.

Get ready now, the lawyers are now going to make some money, and all you Glendale residents might want to contact your city council and ask them how much will this whole fiasco cost you the taxpayers?

Next: Arizona Coyotes Lease Cancelled By Glendale City Council

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