Ducey condones breaking windows before it’s legal

Mark your calendar ... Gov. Doug Ducey jumped the gun — or in this case the nearest window-smashing tool — on a new state law this week.

The Governor’s Office sent out an email blast with an article from a northern Arizona newspaper explaining a new state law “allows” good Samaritans to break a car window to rescue a child or pet from a hot car “without fear of legal liability.”

But neither the governor’s news release nor the article mentioned that the law doesn’t actually take effect for another month — on Aug. 9, to be precise. More than an hour later, Ducey mentioned in one of a series of tweets that the law is not yet in effect (but he didn’t say when that will happen).

And the new law isn’t absolution from all legal liability in all situations, just civil liability in very specific instances.

With the temperatures heating up, those might be important pieces of information for a would-be do-gooder to know before they start smashing windows all over town to save Fido.

When the new law goes into effect, any individual who believes a child or animal in a hot car is in “imminent danger” of suffering injury or death can break the vehicle’s window to rescue them without fear of being sued by the owner.

BUT FIRST: The person must check to see if the car is actually locked and call law enforcement or animal control. Only then would the person (starting Aug. 9) have the legal protection to smash the window and rescue the child or animal.

» It was awful, but we’d do it again ... The party was over long ago for the Independent Redistricting Commission (its last meeting was in April) but the official “closed” sign went up in late June, at the end of the state’s fiscal year. So, how did it all go? “You know what the Brits say?” said Ray Bladine, the commission’s now former executive director. “It was a bloody confusing time.”

The panel split almost immediately over disputes about appointing a vice chair, hiring attorneys and, of course, drawing political boundaries. There were tense public meetings, attacks on commission chairwoman Colleen Coyle Mathis and lawsuits — five of ‘em.

“It took its toll on the commissioners,” Bladine said. The efforts to discredit Mathis and paint her as a Democrat disguised as an independent were particularly venomous, Bladine said.

“They were just cruel to her,” he said of the push back she got from Republican activists.

But for all the turmoil, including her removal as chair (and the Supreme Court’s reinstatement), Mathis said she’d do it all over again “in a heartbeat.”

“It’s such a wonderful opportunity to give back to the state,” she said. “You learn so much about people and the things they care about. There’s no better volunteer gig.”

Ditto for Scott Freeman, a Republican commissioner who was so dismayed with the commission’s final maps that he refuses to show off his copies.

Still, he, too, would do it again. (Note: Commissioners can’t do repeat performances; the state Constitution forbids it).

For those looking for this type of fun, applications open early in the next decade.

» No more excuses ... Attention all paid lobbyists: Phoenix doesn’t want to hear that the dog ate your registration forms.

That’s the not-so-subtle message of the city’s tougher lobbying ordinance that took effect July 1. The law creates penalties, including fines and possible jail time, for lobbyists who flout the city’s regulations.

To help roll out the new rules (and avoid excuses that strain reason), the city installed an electronic registration kiosk in the lobby outside the offices of the mayor and City Council members.

For emphasis, a placard near it reads: “Paid lobbyists must be registered with the City Clerk.” Twelve new lobbyists have registered since the ordinance took effect.

Phoenix’s lobbyist crackdown follows a report in The Arizona Republic that showed the city’s rules were useless.

The Republic reported that a high-profile law firm had violated the city’s lobbying law and filed falsified documents (the incident is under investigation by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office). But nobody could face penalties under the city’s old lobbying ordinance because, city officials said, it was toothless.

That led to a May council vote to put some bite in it. They made it enforceable, specified penalties and tightened the rules in other areas.

Now, forgetting to register should be difficult, unless Clifford the Big Red Dog manages to get inside City Hall and eat the kiosk..