According to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, a political consulting firm with ties to APS paid Sign Here Petitions to collect survey signatures, but only on the condition that
signature gatherers sign a non-compete clause, promising not to work on the pro-solar petition.
Anticipating underhanded tactics that both sides might use, the regulations ordered that
signature gatherers, the district, and its staff should be neutral, so that parents would be «free from harassment, threats and intimidation related to circulation or
signature of a petition or to the discouraging of
signing a petition or to the revocation of
signatures from the petition.»