Flashes

Forked Tongue

The Flash has uncovered a potentially explosive voice-mail that surfaced during a Proposition 302 records search.

The document is a transcript of an August 10 voice mail from Jim Grogan, chairman of the Tourism and Sports Authority, to Jay Ruffner, the TSA’s attorney.

The message addresses an inquiry the TSA received from the Fort McDowell Indian Community, which is interested in providing a site for a new stadium for the Arizona Cardinals. To wit:

“Hey, Jay, Jim Grogan here . . . I wanted to give you a heads up. Some guy, I think his name was Taylor, but he represents the McDowell Indians, and he said that Clinton Pattea, who’s, I guess, their Tribal Council leader, and he would like to come in and chat about a potential site. I told him that, at the meeting today, we were creating a protocol and a process and that he should call you and that if he had any ideas on how that process might work most efficiently, but I have been tipped off that these guys probably aren’t worth meeting with, so I did the unthinkable and pawned them off on you, but I wanted to give you a heads up and let you know that you’ll be getting that call.

“If you want to meet with them, that’s fine. We probably should give them that courtesy, but I don’t want to meet with them, particularly. Talk to you soon. Thanks.”

Since Grogan’s potentially insulting dispatch, the tribe has emerged as a quasi-serious player in the stadium machinations, which, by the way, are akin to rearranging the torpedoes aboard the Kursk.

Grogan could not be reached for comment, but Ruffner suggests the TSA chief was not speaking about the credibility of the tribal envoys.

He says Grogan’s statement is a reflection of concerns about the accessibility of a stadium site on the rez, as well as questions about whether a stadium could even be located on a rez.

Whatever.