Orgeron files legal complaint against Quartzsite Council

Quartzsite Council Member-Elect Mark Orgeron has filed a legal complaint against the Town of Quartzsite Common Council challenging their refusal to seat him after he was elected to the Council in May.

Orgeron alleges that the Council voted to disqualify him from taking office – even after some of them had been voted out – on the basis that he had not resided in Quartzsite for over a year, as required by Arizona law. He provided proofs to the court that he had resided in Quartzsite since July 2009 and therefore was disqualified wrongly, including receipts and invoices from Holiday Palms RV Park showing that he had resided there for at least one year (including his space rent and utilities usage).

Orgeron’s complaint alleges that Quartzsite Town Attorney Martin Brannan told the Council that since Orgeron had not registered to vote in La Paz County until June, 2011, he had not ‘resided’ in the town for over one year as of the May election.

Orgeron is asking the court to declare that the Town violated his rights disqualifying him illegally, to declare that the Mayor and Vice-Mayor are “no longer the [Mayor and Vice-Mayor] of the Town or a member of the Town Council and cannot legitimately exercise the powers of office”, and to order them to recognize the authority of Mayor-Elect Ed Foster and himself to exercise the powers of office in their place.

Ed Foster is reportedly pursuing his own legal opposition to the Council’s vote to refuse to seat him.