SAFFORD — A group calling itself Respect The Will Of The People: Graham County Voters & The Arizona Public Integrity Alliance Encourages A No Vote On Massive Marijuana Expansion In Our Area issued a press release Tuesday touting its submittal of signatures to place a referendum on the ballot asking voters to overturn a re-zoning decision by the Graham County Board of Supervisors.
The proposed referendum seeks to overturn the Board of Supervisors vote to re-zone Sites 5 and 6 of the NatureSweet greenhouse complex in Bonita, from A (general land use) to M-X (unlimited manufacturing land use) so NatureSweet may sell those sites to Bayacan for a medical-grade cannabis grow.
Hannah Duderstadt, director of elections for Graham County, confirmed that 2,288 signatures were submitted to the county at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 27. The group needs 1,064 valid signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot.
Duderstadt said she was not sure how long it would take to confirm if there are enough valid signatures but, if there are, the issue would likely go before the voters in November 2022.
The press release was issued by George Khalaf, who is a managing partner of The Resolute Group. The Resolute Group’s website states it is a “public relations, campaigns, strategic consulting, direct mail” company that is “advancing conservative values.”
The Resolute Group is located in Phoenix and he told Gila Valley Central his group is “leading the ‘no’ effort.”
“Graham County residents already spoke about marijuana and legalization of recreational marijuana, they spoke at both Planning and Zoning meetings, they spoke when the supervisors voted to rezone this property a handful of weeks ago, and so I think this is just a response of the will of the people,” Khalaf said.
Khalaf would not say who hired his firm, only that his firm “keeps track of these issues.
“We work closely with people — they’re not involved anymore in this referendum effort — but we work closely with people in Graham County to oppose (Prop) 207, so we reached out to some of our coalition folks in Graham County when we got wind of the issue, and worked with them during the Planning and Zoning fight, during the Board of Supervisors fight and we continue this effort through the petition signatures that we just discussed,” he said.
When asked if his firm was seeking to stop growing of marijuana in all 15 counties, he said, “As things come up, we investigate it. Obviously, Graham County has been the focal point since the election in November, but yeah, we’re tracking it all across the state.”
He said his firm is not affiliated with the group Protect Graham County No to Drugs, which applied to Graham County July 6 to gather signatures for a referendum also seeking to overturn the supervisors’ vote on the Bonita re-zoning.
Fox 10 in Phoenix reported the Resolute Group was somehow involved in a failed referendum attempt in Mesa earlier this year.
In a May press release announcing the group United for Mesa was withdrawing signatures seeking to overturn Mesa’s nondiscrimination ordinance, the contact information was for Resolute Group.
