A member of the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names, which stirred a controversy over the naming of Piestewa Peak, wants the board to rescind its action and in five years rename a Flagstaff area site in honor of the slain Arizonan.

Board member Lloyd Clark cast the dissenting vote when the board voted 5-1 to rename Squaw Peak in Phoenix as Piestewa Peak, in honor of Spec. Lori Piestewa, an Arizona Hopi from Tuba City who was killed in March by hostile forces in Iraq.

He said that he favors renaming Fremont Peak, north of Flagstaff, in honor of Ms. Piestewa, but only after five years have passed since her death.

In a letter to board Chairwoman Linda Strock, Mr. Clark also recommends that the board consider adopting its bylaws as binding rules.

The bylaws of the agency became an issue in April when the board took its Piestewa Peak vote. The name change of the mountain generated controversy as the board went against the usual practice of waiting five years after a person has died before renaming a geographic feature in her honor.

Mr. Clark, a historian and journalist, also proposed in his letter to Ms. Strock that the board consider rescinding its action April 17 renaming Squaw Peak as Piestewa Peak.

“It is my intention to submit for this board’s approval five years after the death last March 25th of Lori Piestewa an application to change the name of Fremont Peak [north of Flagstaff] to Piestewa Peak, thereby honoring Specialist Piestewa’s memory in a majestic range revered by the Hopis,” Mr. Clark wrote in his June 4 letter.

Operating Procedures Questioned

Members of the Board on Geographic and Historic Names also learned at the April 17 meeting that, even though it has a two-page set of bylaws, legal counsel for the board determined that the bylaws aren’t binding on the board because it never adopted them through a formal process of advertising them and then taking a public vote.

The bylaws state that the board “follows the principles, policies and procedures governing geographic names published by the United States Board on Geographic Names.” It is the U.S. board that several years ago adopted the five-year waiting period for naming a geographic feature after a person.

As head of the state board, Ms. Strock has the power to set the agenda. The meeting time and date of the next board meeting hadn’t been set as of the Arizona Capitol Times deadline on June 12, but the next meeting is expected to be July 2.

The bylaws of the State Board on Geographic and Historic Names also state that “in the event that both public members are absent from a regular meeting, decisions of the board will be deferred until such time when at least one of the two public members are present to conduct business.”

Both the so-called public members, who are gubernatorial appointees, were absent from the April 17 meeting. Tim Norton, a Phoenix police detective, was chairman at the time and declined to attend the meeting because of what he described as inappropriate pressure from the Governor’s Office to vote for the name change of Squaw Peak. The other public member, Richard Pinkerton, resigned from the board just prior to the April 17 meeting, citing the same pressure from Mario Diaz, an aide to Governor Napolitano. The remaining seven members of the nine-member board are delegates of five state agencies, the Arizona Historical Society and a representative of a geography department from a state university.

Ms. Strock said on June 12, “I think very definitely that the board needs to look at its operating procedures and bylaws, and the statute [ARS 41-835.02, which created the board] needs to be looked at, to see if they’re all consistent with one another.”

Ms. Strock said she hadn’t decided, as of June 12, whether to put Mr. Clark’s proposed rescission of the Squaw Peak name change on the agenda for the next meeting.

“The board doesn’t have a formal appeals process [to rescind its actions] but if anyone has any new information on any past decision we’ve made, we might take a look at it,” Ms. Strock said.