On Jan. 30, 1976, a Friday, the Arizona Daily Star ran a front page article about a consultant’s recommendation to raise water rates in some cases by as much as 400 percent. The consultants said the water utility needed to bring in 45 percent more revenue.

City officials immediately leapt to defense of the recommendation but insisted the newspaper article had overblown the rate increase and said “a typical” water user’s bill wouldn’t go up anywhere near that amount.

Two days later, in the Sunday edition of the Star, Bill Waters, the newspaper’s ombudsman (forerunner of its reader advocate), wrote a column saying that while the front-page article was technically correct it had overstated the case.

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Still, though, council members started hearing from angry residents. Nevertheless, in June that year, the Tucson City Council approved water rate increases that also included varying rates for different zones and lift charges for water that had to be pumped up hill.

In July those rate increases showed up in the water bills. And in August an effort was started to recall the four council members who had supported the rate increases.

It may have been a hot August in Tucson in 1976 but the snowball effect of the recall was amazing. In no time at all, enough voters had signed petitions for the recall to proceed.

The council members who had supported the rate increases quickly backed off the lift charges and voted to rescind them in September.

But the council members flailed away defending the rate increases as necessary. They held seminars to try to “educate”  voters but hardly anyone attended. The Star even gave the council members space to defend themselves.

As weak politicians tend to do, the council members wanted to put the rate questions to the voters in an election.

Robert Cauthorn, one of the council members up for recall, predicted in September that he and his colleagues would go down in defeat. As it turned out, Cauthorn quit in December and took a job in Florida.

On Jan. 18, 1977 — 12 days shy of the one-year anniversary of that front-page newspaper article — four new members were elected to the Tucson City Council. And Cauthorn had been right in his prediction: no incumbent came within a 23-point margin of winning. Landslides on all fronts. With Cauthorn out of it, the race for his Ward 3 seat involved six candidates but the candidate the recall movement supported easily won.

To this day, that election is the only time in the City of Tucson’s history there has been a recall of council members.

How is it that I happen to remember that Jan. 30, 1976, newspaper article? I was the reporter who wrote it.

Why do I bring this up now? It’s June and this city council is making the same kinds of decisions. Next month, new and increased fees and taxes will start showing up. I’m just saying, it could make for a very interesting August.

There is one major difference this year compared to 1976; three seats on the council are already up for election this November. 

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Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.