Tempe officials called arena opponents “CAVE people” when they thought no one was listening

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods and the city council have not been coming out looking good after their failed campaign to give Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo about $500 million in tax breaks for a new arena: After Tempe residents resoundingly voted down the plan, the state attorney general found the city officials had illegally conducted private meetings with a consultant that it paid $32,258 to investigate arena opponents. And now that it’s been ruled those meetings should have been public, recordings of them are subject to public records requests, and the results have really made Woods and the councilmembers not look good:

The Tempe City Council assumed it was protected from prying ears when it went into a closed-door meeting on Dec. 15, 2022. According to the minutes from the meeting, councilmembers needed secrecy to discuss “their personal observations of Tempe residents conveying support” for a new arena for the Arizona Coyotes. What the councilmembers and Mayor Corey Woods actually said was a bit more colorful than that.

According to an audio recording of the meeting, the officials used their shroud of secrecy to disparage arena opponents. Citizens who campaigned against the arena were “cave people,” while arena opposition ringleader Ron Tapscott was a “crazy uncle.”

Further down, the Phoenix New Times reveals it was actually the consultant, Troy Corder of Strategy 48, who called opponents of the plan “folks who just like to yell at each other” and “cave people” — something New Times described as a “belittling acronym,” though it didn’t explain for what. (“Citizens Against Virtually Everything,” presumably.) Still, Vice Mayor Jennifer Adams then responded by saying, “Yes, exactly,” though, so she deserves credit for the phrase as well.

This, apparently, is how elected officials talk when they think no one can hear them. There were two other illegal closed meetings that weren’t recorded — the one that turned up was only recorded because a fill-in clerk wanted a way to check her notes — so unless someone else present decided to take advantage of Arizona’s status as a one-party consent state, we’ll probably just have to imagine what was said there.

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13 comments on “Tempe officials called arena opponents “CAVE people” when they thought no one was listening

  1. What lie will they try first? That they were misquoted, that their quotes were taken out of context, or that it was all just harmless locker room talk?

  2. “councilmembers needed secrecy to discuss “their personal observations of Tempe residents conveying support””

    So, no observations of residents and taxpayers conveying opposition then?

    It would be appropriate for the entirety of this council to resign immediately, triggering new elections. Let’s see how the voters feel about your six figure salaries after reading your comments, shall we?

    1. It would be great if voters actually responded to poor conduct by their local elected officials in this way, but they rarely seem to.

  3. These idiot politicians gulped down the Koolaid Nick Wood and Xavier Gutierrez handed out about Meruelo, while ignoring resident’s concerns. Fortunately Tempe residents were able to vote down the ill conceived “Tempe Entertainment District “. Phoenix residents aren’t so lucky, watching billion after billion of taxpayer dollars go down the light rail rathole. Phoenix Mayor Gallego has already squandered $1,400,000,000 on a light rail line to South Phoenix, and has slated another half billion for a one mile extension to near the State Capitol. Now she intends to throw untold billions at building two light rail lines to fabulous Desert Sky Mall. Don’t go there after dark, better yet, don’t go to Desert Sky Mall, it’s one of the most dangerous places in Phoenix. These politicians are real experts at wasting our money and ignoring us and calling us names when we point out their foolishness.

    1. I don’t know about the specifics of Phoenix, but public transit is one of the best investments of taxpayer money. It can lead to a 500% return on investment. It reduces traffic, which decreases pollution and increases safety. Helping residents travel without cars lowers the cost of living. More disposable income leads to different spending which is more likely to stay in the local economy (a low % of loan, insurance, and gas payments stays local). Increasing zoning density around transit leads to more housing units, which lowers prices.

      https://www.apta.com/research-technical-resources/research-reports/economic-impact-of-public-transportation-investment/

      1. The problem with Phoenix light rail is how few use it. There is a stop at the airport, and essentially no passengers and a handful of employees use light rail. The most embarrassing diversion from light rail is that it crosses both the ASU Tempe and ASU Downtown Phoenix campuses. ASU runs their own shuttle between campuses, parallel to the light rail. Phoenix desperately needs to upgrade it’s hideous bus network instead of pouring billions into light rail.

        1. It’s boardings per mile are much higher then more established light rail systems and the public seems to want to expand it.

          More importantly- alone the line there’s been more growth/density.

          As far as the expansion west- this is where a lot of Valley’s growth has been this century. It’s about time it got better transit options. Desert Sky Mall is a good location for a transit station,

      2. Obviously you never look back after light rail has been installed in other cities. It’s been a tax payer boondoggle. Cincinnati has sucked tax payer money since it started. Milwaukee has been messy and few use it after dark. “It can lead to 500% ROI”. where? Give one example of that. Obviously the important word in your sentence is “can”. Never does but it just might, maybe, can, hopefully, etc. etc. etc.

        1. Both of those are streetcar lines. They share right away with cars. Most of the Phoenix light rail has its own right away and serves a different purpose.

          There’s a discussion to be had about the Obama era program doling out cash to street car projects. Some have been successful, some haven’t. But it’s silly to compare Milwaukee and Cincinnati’s streetcars to the Phoenix Light rail

        2. Although light rail in Phoenix uses a separate lane, almost 100% is in the middle of busy streets with an average of 5 stoplights per mile. Ability 360 begged for an infill stop at 50th Street, and nobody from Ability 360 uses the light rail. One time we stopped for 5 minutes while it took 4 fare inspectors to remove a fare evador. East Camelback and Scottsdale refused to allow light rail, and even the business community along South Central Avenue was opposed. Just look at either end, Metrocenter, a dead mall, and the dead RV dealer lots at Main and Gilbert.

  4. “Councilmembers needed secrecy to discuss ‘their personal observations of Tempe residents conveying support’ for a new arena for the Arizona Coyotes.”

    No, secret or not, councilmembers should not need to discuss their personal observations of Tempe residents, full stop. That’s a classic ad hominem error. The intellect or character of the loudest people on either side of the issue has no bearing on the merits of the proposal.

    Of course, it can be a useful way to check oneself. As Steve Albini (RIP) said, (paraphrased), “when the dumbest person in the room is on your side, you’re on the wrong side.”

    But in this case, it should not have come down to that. The economics of this deal were clearly not good for the city.

    And yet, as far as I could tell, the “no” campaign did a poor job of explaining that. So I was surprised that the vote went the way it did.

    My impression is that the majority voted against the deal simply because they just did not see how that development was going to make *their* lives better or easier and with all of Arizona’s infrastructure challenges, they have become suspicious of big developments in general.

    No doubt, a lot of the comments and calls they got from constituents were unhinged from reality, but a real leader should be able to filter that out and do what is best for the community anyway.

    But many local politicians love development and listen to developers and their consultants. Anecdotally, it feels like that is particularly true in the west and south, but that might just be a personal prejudice.

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