Santa Cruz County supervisors authorize management to negotiate settlement with GovNet over Red Mountain tower

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 13 authorized county management and information-technology staff to negotiate a settlement with GovNet LLC over a communications tower on Red Mountain and to extend any agreement to allow removal of the tower if county management deems it appropriate.

The action followed a closed executive session the board held under Arizona law. The chair cited Arizona Revised Statutes §38-431.03(A)(3) and (A)(4) as the legal basis for the meeting’s private discussion and consultation with legal counsel regarding "Govnet LLC and Red Mountain matters." After returning to open session, a supervisor moved "to allow county management and IT to negotiate and settle the manner, under the terms discussed in executive session and to extend any agreement for removal of the tower as county management deems appropriate," and the motion carried unanimously.

County staff summarized the background leading to the action. "The county had explored, considered, discontinuing its relationship with GovNet," said Mr. May, a county staff member, describing a roughly 15-year-old plan under which GovNet had erected towers intended to deliver rural broadband. Mr. May said GovNet "put up its tower and facilities, but no broadband was ever provided from that" site and that litigation followed after the county sought to end the relationship; he said the litigation had been ongoing for about a year and a half.

The board did not disclose settlement terms, dollar amounts, or specific timelines in open session. The motion directs county management and IT to complete negotiations and to execute or extend any agreements "as county management deems appropriate," language that leaves discretion to staff about whether and how to remove the tower.

The meeting record shows the board first discussed the GovNet matter in public before moving into executive session; the formal authority for the closed discussion was the Arizona statute cited by the chair. The board adopted its meeting agenda earlier in the session and concluded the special meeting after the GovNet item.

What remains unresolved in open session are the details of any settlement, whether removal of the tower will occur, and any financial or operational terms; those specifics were not disclosed in the public record during the meeting. The board chair said only that management and IT were authorized to negotiate and settle the matter following the closed consultation.

The board voted by voice; individual roll-call votes or a numerical tally were not provided in the public transcript. The special meeting was convened at 9 a.m. and adjourned after the board approved the authorization.