Supes talk Trump today

A two-part problem … Border status quo … And an informally formal greeting.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors will have some tough budget decisions to make, but first they'll have to decide how to deal with the Trump administration.

Two separate items on today's agenda will redefine how the four Democrats and one Republican on the board respond to the various steps taken by the Trump administration in the last few weeks.

Not with words, but actions.

The pairing of an “update on Federal and State Executive, Legislative and Judicial Actions that affect Pima County” and supplemental budget requests for the next fiscal year on the same agenda forces them to make those tough decisions.

Maybe not today, but they can’t kick the can down the road for long.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors. From left, Rex Scott, Jennifer Allen, Matt Heinz, Steve Christy, Adelita Grijalva.

The bottom line for the Supervisors - and to be fair every other local government in southern Arizona - is how to balance its budget when it comes to new uncertainty about federal grants, as many of them are set up with the county paying for the services first and then getting reimbursed by the feds.

To be clear, the money isn’t spent until after the grant has been finalized and approved by the Board.

Take, for example, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s $122,000 grant on today’s agenda.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) approved the grant on Jan. 16 - four days before Trump took office - to reimburse the county for the cost of "incarceration" of "undocumented criminal aliens."

For what it’s worth, the County applied for the grant in July 2024.

While the grant is almost certain to be approved on Tuesday, we’ll have to wait and see if the federal government will reimburse the county. The funds would go to pay the salaries of correctional officers, according to a memo related to the funding for the sheriff’s department.

If the federal monies don’t come in, it would be a $122,000 hit to the PCSD budget, when it is already roughly $4.9 million in the red in this fiscal cycle.

PCSD, the Pima County Health Department, and the Pima County Attorney’s Office are all listed as departments that could face deep cuts if federal funding dries up.

A memo from County Administrator Jan Lesher written last month said they were reviewing $68 million in grant funding that could be impacted by the various executive actions.

But that’s only half of the problem.

The Supervisors are also expected to review $72.6 million in supplemental budget requests made by various County departments asking for more funding in the new fiscal year. Roughly $39 million in requests would come out of the county's general fund, which is the largest pot of unrestricted money the county has to fund its operations.

These requests for additional funds above their base budget were made in January and they come roughly six months after the Board of Supervisors required almost every County department to make a two-percent budget cut.

On Friday, Lesher signaled she would approve roughly $27.6 million in supplemental requests, with $8.9 million in one-time requests and $18.7 million in permanent increases.

The remaining $12 million in requests, Lesher wrote, would be decided by the Supervisors.

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Political hot spot

In the past week, a number of groups have used Presidio Park (and the old Courthouse adjacent to the park) to hold political events.

First, the Tucson Metro Chamber held a press conference with state Reps. Alma and Consuelo Hernandez coming out against Proposition 414.

Last Friday, the Yes on Prop 414 had a press conference featuring state Reps. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton and Betty Villegas, as well as Sen. Priya Sundareshan, leaders from two unions backing the measure and Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva.

Yesterday, a group affiliated with the “50501 Movement” held a protest at Presidio Park, part of a national movement to hold similar protests in every state about the Trump administration's recent actions.

So which one was bigger? It wasn’t even close. The protest yesterday brought in hundreds of Tucsonans (compared to a few dozen at the press conferences) concerned about where the country is going and how actions in Washington will impact their family, friends and neighbors.

As an aside, this past three-day weekend saw several protests related to the Trump administration and each brought in large crowds.

At least one was scheduled at the same time as the protest at Presidio Park, meaning that Tucson likely had roughly 400 or more people protesting the Trump administration at the same time.

As part of our ongoing series detailing how City of Tucson officials want to spend the estimated $800 million that would be raised if Proposition 414 passes next month, today we’re exploring how officials want to hire more Community Service Officers (CSOs) in addition to police officers.

Prop 414, if passed, would allow the city to hire 40 more CSOs at an estimated cost of $5.2 million a year.

The city has found success with the program, which has more than 100 CSOs in the field already. These officers can answer calls that do not necessarily need a fully equipped sworn police officer, such as vehicle accidents, non-emergency calls like low-priority security alarms, locking and unlocking buildings, and securing crime scene perimeters.

The city has found it easier to hire and train CSOs as they take less time to train and are not as expensive to outfit as uniformed officers.

When Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure saw the familiar red and blue lights on the horizon as he left his house one morning, he reacted with concern for the safety of his family. He even wondered if he should go home to make sure his family was safe.

Once he realized it was the lights from a CSO’s vehicle, his attitude changed.

“I immediately had a different reaction of there's no danger in the area. There must be a traffic accident, and they're just, you know, closing down a stretch of road for whatever was happening,” Thomure said.

He also thinks that many in the community feel the same way. They’re more comfortable talking to a CSO than a typical beat cop.

“A CSO is an efficient and effective way for us to get some traditional police work done more effectively and efficiently while expanding our (police department) numbers, but also have a different way to interface with the community in ways that are more appropriate for some members of our community,” he said. “They don't chill the room like a sworn officer does.”

What do you think? Should the city spend $5.2 million every year in Prop 414 money to hire more CSOs?

The poll is only available to paid subscribers. If you want your voice to be heard on this issue, then upgrade today!

Sign of the times: One of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in Tucson removed all references to transgender health services from its website, the Tucson Sentinel’s Natalie Robbins reports. A spokesman for El Rio Community Health Center wouldn’t say whether the removal was a direct response to the Trump administration’s executive order that denied federal funding to organizations that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth. But he did say they are awaiting “further clarification of the judicial process.” A federal judge in Baltimore temporarily blocked the executive order after LGBTQ advocacy groups sued.

A story behind every stat: Ironwood Elementary in Marana saw a big turnaround over the past few years, jumping from a “C” to an “A” in the state’s grading system, the Arizona Daily Star’s Jessica Votipka reports. Remote learning during the pandemic and the opening of another school nearby were challenges for Ironwood, but teachers and administrators launched a curriculum makeover, including a focus on phonics to improve English language arts.

Digging deep: Mobile homes and RVs were the site of nearly one-third of the 114 heat-related deaths that occurred indoors in Pima County over the past two summers. The Arizona Luminaria’s Yana Kunichoff and John Washington pored through medical examiner data to see how those deaths unfolded and what can be done about them.

Taking another swing: State lawmakers pushing the “starter homes” bill are going to have to negotiate with cities and Gov. Katie Hobbs, Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie reports. The bill would pave the way for more small homes on small lots, as well as block city officials from requiring certain design elements, such as fencing. State Rep. Leo Biasiucci, a Republican from Lake Havasu City, tried to get the bill passed last year, but Hobbs vetoed it. He tweaked the bill this time around to exempt areas near military bases, which was a big sticking point for Hobbs last year. Biasiucci said he’s planning to meet with stakeholders this week to iron out any differences of opinion.

Scratching their heads: Defense lawyers in Tucson who handle federal immigration prosecutions aren’t seeing the “tidal wave” of cases they expected as the Trump administration launched a sweeping crackdown, the Star’s Emily Bregel reports. The Department of Justice directed federal prosecutors to prioritize immigration cases, which could lead to harsher penalties and more trials. But not so far.

“I haven’t seen a big difference yet,” defense attorney Cheryl Inzunza Blum said. “To be honest, the numbers seem lower, if anything else.”

Not worried about it: The CEO of South32, the aluminum maker that is building a mine in southern Arizona, said the company’s profits rose sixfold last year and he doesn’t expect the Trump administration’s tariffs to hurt sales in the United States, the Wall Street Journal’s Rhiannon Hoyle reports. The costs of the tariffs will be borne by U.S. consumers, CEO Graham Kerr said.

State Rep. Kevin Volk, a freshman Democratic lawmaker from the Tucson area’s Legislative District 17, appears to be taking his new job in stride.

After he introduced a bill, HB2764, that would make “howdy” the state’s official greeting, he ended up getting some media coverage (we even chuckled about it when we mentioned it the other day). So he put together a four-minute video explaining why he proposed the bill.

Volk said the bill was “meant to be fun, but with some practical benefits,” such as giving the state a tourism boost by making Arizona the “Howdy State.”