The Daily Agenda: Everybody's got one

Opinions galore on pay raise for Tucson's mayor and council ... Hard to find the sweetspot ... Chinese chorizo takes center stage.

Democracy can be so much fun sometimes.

Tucson’s mayor and city council members could get big pay raises next year, depending on what voters decide in November. In the meantime, we get to hear all the different opinions Tucsonans have about their elected officials.

First, some quick background info. The Citizens Commission on Public Service and Compensation recommended the mayor and council’s salaries be tied to the salaries of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

By 2025, when the supervisors get their own pay raise, that translates to $121,000 for the mayor, up from the current $42,000. Council members’ salaries would jump from $24,000 to about $96,000.

Tucsonans will decide whether to go with that recommendation when they vote on Prop 413, which we wrote about two weeks ago.

We were curious about how these votes played out in the past, so we went down to the Clerk’s Office to look over the binder prepared by city staff for the commissioners. The binder includes a history of how past commissioners tried, and repeatedly failed, to find the sweetspot for the mayor’s salary.

• 2001: $48,000 salary for mayor, rejected by 51% of voters

• 2003: $55,000, rejected by 62%

• 2005: $52,000, rejected by 51%

• 2007: $48,000, rejected by 52%

• 2009-2013: The commission didn’t recommend a salary increase during the worst years of the financial crisis.

• 2015: $48,000, rejected by 59%

• 2017: $69,000, rejected by 71%

• 2019: $63,000, rejected by 59%

• 2021: $54,000, rejected by 47% to 46%.

• 2023: Initially $96,000, then $121,000 in 2025. We won’t know what voters think until November.

So how is the current recommendation being received this year?

The “Choice is Yours” pamphlets went out to Tucson voters this week, with 12 arguments in favor of approving Prop 413 and two against.

The “approve” side of the argument certainly has some hefty institutional support. The Tucson Fire Fighters Association, the Tucson Police Officers Association PAC, the Tucson Metro Chamber, and the YWCA of Southern Arizona all came out in support of Prop 413.

Support also came from former Council member Karin Uhlich, County Supervisor Matt Heinz, Pima Community College Governing Board members Theresa Riel and Maria Garcia, and Laura Dent, a salary commissioner who is also director of Activate 48, among others.

They argued Prop 413 would lead to “more leaders of diverse experiences and backgrounds,” a pay increase would “pave the way for a diverse range of talented individuals to step forward,” “everyday Tucsonans cannot currently afford to run for office,” and a pay raise was long overdue.

The fire fighters and police officers associations both noted the mayor and council have made pay equality a priority for city employees.

In the “against” column, Janet Wittenbraker, the Republican candidate for mayor, said Prop 413 is “unacceptable” because it is a huge pay raise without any measurable expectations, such as making the positions full-time and prohibiting them from holding outside jobs.

Dave Smith, chair of the Pima County Republican Party, said “incompetence does not deserve a pay increase.” The mayor and council shouldn’t get a pay raise until they deal with homelessness, crime, and fix the streets, he said. He then plugged Wittenbraker and the Republican candidates for city council as the ones who can somehow solve all those problems.

To get a broader view of how Tucsonans think about the salaries of their elected officials, we checked out a survey the salary commission conducted earlier this year.

They got responses from 177 people. About half of the respondents said they didn’t know how much the mayor and council were paid before they took the survey.

The commissioners sent out the survey before they hit upon their final recommendation, but they did ask about other salary options. When asked whether council member should be paid $56,000, the survey showed 106 said “leaning yes” or “definitely yes.” As for the mayor being paid $70,000, the survey showed 98 saying “leaning yes” or “definitely yes.”

But the real kicker came when they were asked if they had any other thoughts the commission should consider.

We’ll leave you with a few that show just how much local opinions vary when it comes to raising the pay for the mayor and council.

• “I think it is horrible that our council and mayor wages are not livable for a "regular" person. The wages are such that only rich, retired, and married rich can do the job without putting themselves and their families in financial hardship. That being said, the voters don't like seeing wages that are higher than their own.”

• “They go into these positions just like the everyday Jo, Joe so they know it doesn't pay much or they are aware of what it pays.”

• “Honestly, $56k and $70k still feel low to me. If we want qualified policy makers (rather than PE teachers and UA sports facility managers), we need to pay our Mayor and Councilmembers competitive wages.”

• “I most definitely feel/have the experience that our local government is not listening to the people or trying to help us. Sometimes it seems to me that the only way to be heard is through voting no on a salary increase.”

• “We have to pay city council and mayor more than a living wage - we should be paying them so competitively it will attract high qualified individuals to run.”

• “I do not understand why the salaries are so low, or more to the point, I don't get why citizens think our public servants can do a great job on such low salaries. Given what the Pima County Administrator makes (or made), Tucson's M&C wages are shamefully low.”

• “You all need to resign.”

• “The mayor and council get many perks that are never mentioned , that many regular employees don't have.”

• “I don’t believe the folks in these positions work 40 hours a week…..maybe the Mayor does, but I doubt the Council Members do. I’d need a lot more info about how much they actually work, what they do in a typical week, proof they are working at least 40 hours every week before I’d feel comfortable with them being paid more.”

• “I see this as an equity issue. In order to be a mayor and council you have to be independently wealthy which means only a select group of people can participate in government OR you have to maintain a day job which is nearly impossible to expect. If we want Tucson to be run more professionally we need to pay professional salaries. I would suggest $80,000 for each council member and $200,000 for the Mayor.”

Looking back: State Sen. Priya Sundareshan broke down the biggest accomplishments, disappointments and missed opportunities during her first year in office in a Q&A with the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel. Sundareshan said that while the tax-cut legislation approved this session and in previous sessions didn’t get a lot of attention, it will deeply impact the state in the future.

“Because of the new flat tax that the Ducey administration signed, our state revenues are drastically reducing for coming years and we will no longer have a surplus to pay for our needed government services,” Sundareshan said. “We will be entering a highly constrained and sobering state budget era unless we can overturn the myriad tax cuts of the last few years.”

Thinking ahead: Oro Valley’s town council approved an agreement with the Arizona Water Banking Authority, which will allow the town to access banked water stored by the state since 1996, University of Arizona journalism student Erika Howlett¹ writes. The previous agreement allowed the town to get water from the City of Tucson, but the new plan will provide access to more water and more control.

Up in smoke: The city’s planning commission is recommending changes to the city code regarding smoke shop zoning, based on concerns about clustering and the overall impact of the shops on nearby schools, UA journalism student Taylor Dykstra² reports. The new code would require smoke shops be separated by a minimum of 1,000 feet from other smoke shops and schools, and be at least 500 feet away from parks. It would also limit hours of operation to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The city council will hold a public hearing before they vote on the amendment, but a date has yet to be set.

Here, kitty kitty: A rare jaguar sighting was caught on trail cameras in the Huachuca Mountains, in the Sierra Vista Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest, Arizona Public Media’s Katya Mendoza reports. The cat is believed to be jaguar 3, nicknamed Sombra, and was spotted in March and May this year, for the first time since 2016. Fewer than 10 male jaguars have been known to roam roam north of the US Mexico border in Arizona over the last 20 years.

Clearing things up: A new rule adopted by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission requires that political commercials disclose the three largest funders, Capitol Media Services Howard Fischer reports. Previous laws required the ads to disclose who bought the airtime or paid for the ad, billboard or mailer, but with groups that have names like “Arizonans for a Better Arizona’,” people were often left wondering who was actually behind the ad. The rule also dictates how big the disclosure must be and how long it needs to stay on air.

Building community through food: The Tucson Chinese Chorizo Festival is kicking off its second year Sunday, with more than 40 restaurants, food vendors and organizations set to participate, Tucson Weekly’s Laura Latzko writes. The festival was started by Feng-Feng Yeh to showcase the solidarity of Chinese and Mexican immigrants in Tucson from the early 1900s to the 1970s. It runs through October 29.

103: The record-setting high temperature on Wednesday.

1. Howlett is a student in Caitlin’s reporting public affairs class at the University of Arizona. As part of the curriculum, students are following local boards, commissions, councils and committees throughout the semester and will be reporting back on their actions. Read more about that here.

2. Dykstra is also in Caitlin’s class.