Squire, Sanders LLC was hired in May to look after the Town’s interest in environmental studies related to the application process with the Forest Service for Stilo’s controversial development which would add three million square feet of commercial space to the area. The reason for hiring a law firm is simple. Stilo has its interests and the Town has its concerns and sometimes you need a good lawyer to make sure the people of Tusayan are protected from developers who might put profit over people.

Here is a link to the minutes in which Squires, Sanders LLC was hired. http://tusayan-az.gov/v1wp812/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Council-Meeting-Minutes-2014-05-21.pdf

It turns out the same firm represented Stilo when it donated funds to the Grand Canyon School District to mitigate the impact the Stilo development would have on local schools. The law firm representing Stilo at the time was indeed Squire, Sanders. Here is a link to the agreement with the district.

http://www.grandcanyonschool.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1630079/File/Cash%20Donation%20Agreement5v3.pdf?sessionid=2e7f84048f8d1a792d7d3ad737dedaf9

There are lots of law firms in Arizona and certainly, the Town could have found one without such a conflict of interest.

As the minutes of the meeting reflected, Councilman Fitzgerald asked for a formal presentation from Squire, Sanders before they were retained. That didn’t happen. If it did, the conflict may have been discovered.