The Daily Agenda: Paving the way to the future

Construction workers are in high demand … A hands-on program for local students hopes to help address the shortage … No recount for Prop 413?

If you’d like to get the word out about your business, event or organization, we have good news! The Tucson Agenda and Arizona Agenda are opening up advertising opportunities. Click on the button to get in touch.

---

The United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona is recruiting for its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which provides free, quality tax preparation for low and moderate-income families and people across the state.

The program’s IRS-certified tax preparers help people access tax credits and maximize their refunds. Volunteers serve an average of 40 hours during tax season and typically commit to one shift per week from early-February through mid-April. There are several different in-person and virtual roles available and United Way provides the training, so no prior experience is necessary.

Learn more here or by clicking the image above.

If you traveled on westbound Interstate 10 last Wednesday or Thursday, you probably encountered some traffic as you approached the Ajo Road exit.

For two days, drivers hit their brakes when they noticed the dozens of pieces of construction equipment and thousands of people in the parking lot of the Kino Sports Main Complex.

They were there for the Southern Arizona Construction Career Days, an annual event that gives thousands of kids and teens from around the state the opportunity for hands-on career exploration in the construction industry.

Now in its eighth year, SACCD has introduced more than 12,000 local youths to the industry by teaching them new skills and putting them face-to-face with workers from more than 150 vendors from the private and public sector, including the City of Tucson, Southwest Gas, Tucson Electric Power, Caterpillar, Asarco, KB Home and more.

The event was created 10 years ago to help increase awareness about available careers in construction and related industries, which are facing widespread shortages of employees, as experienced workers retire and not enough new ones step in to fill their places.

Last year, the event was open to students in 8th through 12th grade but it was expanded to include 6th graders this year, with more than 4,600 kids and teens in attendance from Pima County, Safford, Globe, Nogales, Rio Rico and more.

When it started in 2014, the event was held at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds. But as employer interest increased, it outgrew the space and moved to Kino Sports Complex a few years ago. Vendors are split up into four separate areas based on their area of focus, which includes design and engineering, building and construction trades, heavy civil and mining and utilities.

On Thursday, Caitlin watched as hundreds of students explored each area, taking selfies and talking excitedly with friends about their experiences.

With instruction and close supervision from professionals, kids operated heavy equipment like backhoes and excavators, hung sheetrock and paneling, rode in cherry pickers and lifts, participated in a gas repair leak simulation, worked with cement, made asphalt cookies, bent metallic conduit, helped build a tiny home and dozens of other trades.

This year’s event coincided with Gov. Katie Hobbs’ announcement of a major expansion to the state’s construction apprenticeship initiative.

The BuilditAZ Initiative was launched in August with a $500,000 investment from the state. Last Monday, Hobbs announced an additional $1.25 million investment for a targeted outreach campaign about apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in the state. 

“The hands-on learning experience provided through apprenticeships, while earning a salary and gaining invaluable on-the-job experience, is one of the best tools we have to grow and retain our workforce,” Hobbs said, adding that the demand is higher than ever.

Southern Arizona Construction Careers Day President Ramon Gaanderse said that while the event is clearly impactful, the group knows they need to do more to engage students throughout the year if they want to achieve the boost in hiring the industry needs.

“The number one question I get from teachers (who attend the event) is, ‘How do I get one of these folks into my school to talk to the kids?’” Gaanderse said.

With the two-day event taking more than nine months to plan and all of the group’s members having full-time jobs, that doesn’t leave much time for other types of engagement, he said.

But getting professionals into classrooms is the next evolution and a natural step, Gaanderse said.

“The vendors are happy to (participate in career days), but they need to hire people now,” he said..

Most people who work in construction these days either have a family member in the field or just happen into it, said Randy Harris, managing director of Western Technologies.

Harris found his way into the industry with little direction, but that often isn’t the case. A student who enjoyed math and science, Harris followed his brother’s footsteps in college and majored in electrical engineering. He quickly realized that wasn’t the right fit, but was able to shift his studies to civil engineering.

And while many workers now enter the industry right out of high school, he’s also seen an influx of people who come to it later in life, after already having a first or second career.

“A lot of people working in construction today have started in other careers before ending up here,” he said, talking about coworkers who previously worked as landscapers and emergency medical technicians.

Harris has been involved with the event since its first year, when Western Technologies demonstrated concrete testing for students. This year, they taught attendees how to make asphalt cookies, with edible ingredients meant to simulate the various components of asphalt.

While the event has grown exponentially over the years, hosting less than 700 in its first year and more than six times that amount the next year, it’s important that students think about these types of career options for more than just a day or two out of the year, Gaanderse said.

“There will never be enough workers in the industry ever. It will always be an uphill battle,” he said. “That’s never going to change. But if we can plant a seed in students, that’s a start.”

Our goal at the Arizona Agenda and Tucson Agenda is to make politics and government accessible to everyone. And that means we want to meet you where you are, in formats that resonate with you.

The 2024 election is coming up fast, and we are overflowing with ideas about covering it through new formats and platforms. We want to build a podcast, make videos for TikTok and Youtube, and find new ways to tell stories and reach people through Instagram, Facebook, virtual meet-ups.

But we don’t have the bandwidth to pull it all off alone. We need your help to bring these visions to life.

So in the spirit of Giving Tuesday, we’re asking for your support to hire a part-time digital storyteller who can produce podcasts and short videos and craft engaging narratives on our social platforms.  

Your donations are tax-deductible, thanks to our partners at the Local Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that allows independent and family-owned news organizations to solicit tax-deductible donations from their communities for journalism projects. 

Still not convinced? Watch this short video Curt and Hank put together to pitch the whole idea!

Our fundraising campaign will run through the end of the year, but don’t delay! 

The sooner we raise the money, the sooner our digital storyteller can get to work.

No recount: Tucson officials said late Friday they would not conduct a recount of the Prop 413 votes, the Tucson Sentinel’s Dylan Smith reports. The proposition would give big pay raises to the mayor and council. The last count showed the “yes” votes leading by 289, out of more than 94,000 ballots cast. That’s within the margin that generally would trigger a recount under state law, but Tucson officials said state law doesn’t apply to this type of election. The city council is going to meet on Tuesday at 4 p.m. to declare the results of the election. The public can livestream the meeting.

Enough to go around: The blame for the University of Arizona’s financial crisis should be shared by the Arizona Board of Regents, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes. The regents oversaw the spending that led to the crisis, after all. They should act “less impressed and more skeptical” of claims from UA’s administrators and make sure they get to the bottom of which decisions led the UA into crisis, which units are losing money, and the accuracy of the UA’s financial forecasting. 

Some answered, some ignored: City of Tucson officials ignored many conservation concerns city residents brought to their attention as part of the One Water 2100 plan, the Star’s Tony Davis reports. It looks like business advocacy groups found a more welcoming ear than many city residents commenting on their own or conservation advocacy groups. 

Professors suspended: Another audio recording of a University of Arizona class is causing trouble. A recording of a class discussion about the Israel-Hamas conflict went viral on social media and led to the suspension, with pay, of two professors in the College of Education, Arizona Public Media’s Paola Rodriguez reports. The audio was posted on a pro-Isreal account with 260,000 followers. 

Return the money: Pima County officials and lobbyists need to advocate for the state to restore the full $10 million for the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund, County Supervisor Rex Scott wrote in a memo to the board. The state cut the normal allocation down to $6 million this year. That money is used for all sorts of outdoor recreation and education projects in Pima County and throughout the state. Scott asked the other supervisors to consider adding the item to the county’s legislative agenda at Tuesday’s meeting. 

New county department: Pima County may establish a Conservation Lands and Resources Department to oversee the 250,000 acres the county acquired over the past 25 years through the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in a memo to the Board of Supervisors. 

4%: The nationwide unemployment rate for the construction sector, the Arizona Republic’s Laura Gersony reports, which chief economist for the Associated General Contractor Ken Simonson called an “exceptionally low” figure.

We can’t fix the construction industry’s worker shortage, but we can help with the local news crisis and bring on more reporters to keep you informed about Southern Arizona. We need your help to do that.