EV band stage-bound / P. 23
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Pinal snafus muddy outcome of QC council races
INSIDE
BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer
A
mid yet another snafu by the Pinal County Elections Department, at least one of the three Queen Creek Town Council seats could be headed for a November run-off following the results of Tuesday’s primary. With some ballots countywide still being counted as of the Tribune’s print
NEWS..................... 4 Council discusses QC road median headache.
BUSINESS............ 18 QC women run unique Lego store.
SPORTS................ 22 QC dad, son cherish last season together.
COMMUNITY.........................16 BUSINESS...............................18 OPINION..................................20 SPORTS....................................22 GET OUT..................................23 CLASSIFIEDS.........................26
QC an exception amid big pension debt BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor
E
ast Valley municipalities in the last fiscal year took advantage of unanticipated general fund revenue increases to make big additional payments on their debt to pensions earned by thousands of retired police officers and firefighters. But Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler and Scottsdale still have a long way to go before they erase their huge unfunded liabilities. Those five municipalities still owe a total $1.4 billion for pensions covering 955 retired firefighters, 1,471 retired cops and
see
PENSION page 10
deadline Friday, results from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Officer showed incumbent Dawn Oliphant with 27% of the vote; Bryan McClure, 25%; Travis Padilla, 25% and Matt McWilliams, 23%. The Pinal County results had Oliphant with 27%; McWilliams, 25%; McClure, 24% and Padilla, 23%. According to the latest available data, Pinal reported that a total 2,559 ballots had been cast in its portion of Queen
Creek while the Maricopa portion saw 10,482 ballots. The threshold for an outright win involves dividing the total number of votes by the number of available seats, then dividing by 2. As of Friday, the whole numbers put Padilla ahead of McWilliams, 6,100-5874. But the math may be further compli-
see ELECTIONS page 6
The plane is on the way A jet engine may seem a bit of an unusual sight at a high school, but a plane may soon be on the way at the new American Leadership Academy campus in east Mesa. The sprawling 223,000-square-foot charter school is taking a new approach to vocational education, as you’ll read on page 8. (Enrique Garcia/Tribune Contributor)
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