Santa Cruz County, AZ, October 22, 2025 - Representatives from Santa Cruz County, Nogales, Patagonia, and South32 are continuing to work together to develop a Community Protection and Benefit Agreement (CPBA) for the Hermosa project. Through regular working sessions, the group is focused on creating an agreement that facilitates transparency between South32 and the communities, ensures that the project protects the local communities and environment and provides for financial benefits of the mine to be dispersed to the communities. The agreement also looks to ensure the mine is developed, operated, and closed with sustainable protections and benefits for the community.

The signatories are considering supplemental protections in a number of key areas in the CPBA, including but not limited to groundwater, air quality, biodiversity, soil and public health.  

The signatories are considering the following in the CPBA

• Governance
• Protections, including monitoring and mitigations
• Benefits
• Data and third-party input
• Community feedback mechanisms
• Dispute resolution
• Evolving changes and updates to community needs

The CPBA is designed to complement—rather than duplicate —existing regulatory requirements.

Progress since our last press release (May 2025) includes:

• Completion of a Community Needs and Capacity Study by the University of Arizona (U of A) to guide CPBA priorities. This study included an assessment of current assets, infrastructure, service capacity, and existing gaps at both the county and community levels. It provided recommendations on short-term needs that warrant more immediate investment considerations to guide decisions on which benefits should be prioritized under the CPBA.
• Formation of an Engagement Team, with representation from each of the four signatories, to develop and lead an Engagement Strategy. This included updates to the CPBA website and FAQ page available at: https://cpba-hermosa.org/. The purpose of the Engagement Strategy is to guide the signatories and their representative Engagement Team to plan and execute opportunities for sharing and obtaining feedback on the CPBA development process and contents. 
• Ongoing community engagement, including the launch of Topic-Specific Feedback Groups in late September / early October to review and provide recommendations on the draft early action benefits.
• Drafting of prioritized “early action” benefits to be funded – based on signatory input, findings from the U of A Capacity Study, and community feedback and focus groups. Specifically, the Capacity Study identifies early action, needs-based benefits in the following key areas:
  • Education - Support and resources that ensure accessible, high-quality care and early education for children.
  • Emergency Management - Actions and programs that strengthen response times, decrease fragmentation of systems, and improve or replace outdated equipment.
• Health Care - Initiatives that improve limited access to health services. The development of commitments for enhancing local employment and workforce development, as well as local business development.
• The adoption of a phased approach to the CPBA. This allows for the initiation of certain actions (benefits) that will help address immediate and significant needs in the region while the current Federal permitting processes are underway. Phase 1 also commits all parties to continue developing additional protections and benefits through further planning, discussion among signatories, and incorporation of community feedback. At the conclusion of Federal Permitting, supplemental environmental protections can be identified and included in Phase 2.
• Appointment of independent technical environmental experts, Spheros Environmental (https://spherosenvironmental.com/), to assist with the definition of Phase 1 protections and help develop a protections roadmap. This roadmap will be a step plan and timeline for developing commitments for monitoring requirements and other protections needed for definition in Phase 2.
• A draft of the Phase 1 agreement is now under review by attorneys from all four signatories.

We are preparing for broader public engagement, which will be announced via additional press releases and updates on the CPBA website: https://cpba-hermosa.org/.

The CPBA group is working toward finalizing and signing a Phase 1 CPBA following these engagement opportunities.

Residents of the County are encouraged to visit the CPBA website to take the survey or leave a comment. The survey asks which Hermosa project protection and benefit topics people feel should be explored, and what types of engagement (e.g. public notices, listening sessions, focus groups) they prefer. Your input will help CPBA group representatives ensure community feedback is fully considered in further development of the agreement.

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The Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is a vital framework designed to reduce wildfire risks within Santa Cruz County. Established under the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act, the CWPP encourages communities to develop comprehensive plans that facilitate state and federal funding for fuel reduction and fire mitigation projects. The primary goal is to foster collaboration among local and state agencies, residents, and stakeholders to implement effective wildfire prevention strategies. 

Santa Cruz County Emergency Management is leading this effort under a grant from the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.

For get on the email list for updates send your name and email address to
Dave Richins - with this note:

Please ad me to the email list - name and city
dave@southwestpolicyadvocates.com 

Facebook page :SEARCH  -Santa Cruz AZ wildfire planning-

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Nogales, AZ - The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is reaffirming its unwavering commitment to election integrity and voter privacy following a multi-year legal effort to protect sensitive voting data from public disclosure.

In 2022, the County received a Public Records Request from Audit USA, a nonprofit group led by John Brakey, seeking access to Cast Vote Records (CVRs)—digital data derived from ballots cast on Election Day. Concerned that releasing CVRs could compromise voter anonymity, especially in a small county like Santa Cruz, the Board sought legal guidance by filing a Declaratory Judgment action in Pima County Superior Court (Case No. C20223426).

The County’s position is rooted in the Arizona Constitution, which guarantees a voter’s right to cast a ballot free from identification, harassment, or retribution. With the rise of advanced digital tools and artificial intelligence, the risk of linking CVRs to individual voters has grown significantly.

While the County initially denied the Public Record Request for CVR’s, the County pursued a legal ruling to clarify whether CVRs must be disclosed under public records law in hopes of resolving the issue with an early decision by a court and avoid potential significant penalties from other litigation. The Superior Court dismissed the case on technical grounds, and the Court of Appeals later upheld the dismissal, citing a lack of legal controversy.

Despite these procedural outcomes, both courts acknowledged the County’s good faith efforts to seek clarity on a complex and evolving legal matter.

More recently, in Maricopa County, a Superior Court ruling in Hudson v. Heap (CV2025-000118) affirmed that CVRs are protected under Arizona election law. The Court of Appeals also referenced a 2023 case in which Audit USA was denied access to digital ballot copies, reinforcing the legal precedent.  (AUDIT-USA v. Maricopa County, 254 Ariz. 536, ¶ 7 )

Still, Audit USA continues to pursue CVR access through public and media channels. The Board notes with concern that misinformation has been circulated in the press, further complicating public understanding of the issue.

Board of Supervisors’ Position

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors believes that voter privacy is a constitutional right that must be protected. The Board maintains that CVRs, particularly in small counties, pose a real and growing risk of voter identification due to the increasing sophistication of digital tools and artificial intelligence. Based on current case law, including the recent ruling in Hudson v. Heap, the County will continue to deny all requests for CVRs. While the Board supports transparency in government, it does not believe that transparency should come at the expense of voter anonymity. The Board remains committed to defending the right of every voter to cast a ballot freely and privately, in accordance with the principles of the Arizona Constitution and the democratic values on which the County and the nation were founded.

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October 23, 2025

Shannon Hall

shall@santacruzcountyaz.gov

520-375-7643

Nogales, AZ - Actions initiated by a previous Board of Supervisors have concluded with the court-appointed receiver transferring the Lochiel chapel and cemetery property to the De La Ossa Family Foundation. The current Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors has formally accepted the completion of this process.