Ex-Mesa leader, hiker squabble

Former councilman apologizes after video surfaces

A former Mesa City Council member has apologized after a video of him yelling at a hiker on a trail behind his property surfaced on YouTube, garnering more than 80,000 views and counting.

In the video, Bill Jaffa appears to jump over the wall behind the home he is constructing to a trail in the popular Hawes trail system in the Las Sendas area of northeast Mesa. He quickly moves toward a hiker taking the video from her phone. Jaffa cries out, “What does the trail say?” twice before dialing out to who he says is police.

The interaction only becomes more contentious, as the hiker tells Jaffa she is not on his property, while he tells a police dispatcher that the woman is being aggressive.

Jaffa, who was on the Mesa council from 1998 to 2002, was charged with disorderly conduct and false reporting, according to a Mesa police spokesman. The charges are misdemeanor. He apologized for his behavior after asked for comment. “I just got really, really upset,” he said. “I should have approached it differently, I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

Jaffa and his wife said they are worried about the hazard and liability that part of the city-run trail poses. The city rerouted the trail at their request in February 2017, city spokesman Kevin Christopher said, out of safety concerns.

At no point was the trail on Jaffa’s property, Christopher wrote in an email.

Jaffa is not the first Valley property owner to worry about liability issues from hikers and bicyclists on trails. In 2015, property owners around Phoenix’s Echo Canyon Trail on Camelback Mountain sounded alarm bells over the difficult trail’s liability.

Hikers and mountain bikers who frequent the Mesa trails say Jaffa has become a disconcerting figure, yelling and lodging false trespassing complaints.

The Hawes trail system is such an attraction for mountain bikers and hikers

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To see the video, go online to that it has spawned a private Facebook group with nearly 900 enthusiasts. At several points, the trail touches the Las Sendas community: A short stretch runs parallel behind Jaffa’s home and the other parcels of land along a largely undeveloped block.

Jaffa said he became concerned with the trail shortly after they started building the house, which includes a massive retaining wall next to the house, creating a steep fall hazard along the trail.

An attorney told the couple to do “everything” they could to minimize the liability, Jaffa said.

If someone were to fall along the house’s massive retaining wall, he said it could be a “terrible ... if not lifethreatening injury.” At some points, the wall is 30 feet high, he said.

Jaffa said not all hikers follow the rerouted trail.