The Daily Agenda: South Tucson votes on Gaza, 'zombie' golf course, and much more

Officials in Oro Valley, Marana, and South Tucson have a lot on their plates ... Crisis looms for asylum in Nogales.

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In today’s newsletter, our intern Sam Parker, who keeps an eye on elected officials in some of the smaller towns in the Tucson area, rounds up the decisions they made at public meetings last week.

Sam’s reporting is funded by a Jamieson-Metcalf Fellowship through the University of Arizona School of Journalism, which supports our reporting fellows in the spring and fall semesters. If you appreciate this reporting on some of our smaller local governments, please consider making a donation so that we can hire an intern to continue this coverage throughout the summer.

The City of South Tucson became the first city in Arizona to pass a resolution supporting federal ceasefire legislation at their March 5 council meeting. The council’s resolution conveys their support for House Resolution 786, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Support for the resolution was overwhelming throughout the meeting, with most of the people who spoke at call-to-the-public advocating for a ceasefire. However, a few community members opposed the resolution; Tucson attorney Douglas Levy spoke against the resolution and asked the council to postpone a vote until more members of the Jewish community could be present at the next council meeting. Council member Brian Flagg noted the importance of a ceasefire to the people of Tucson, referencing the financial situation of the city as an argument. 

“The biggest private employer [in Tucson] is Raytheon. They’re raking in huge amounts of profits by bombs that are going to kill tens of thousands of people in Palestine, and so that has gotta change,” Flagg said.

“Hopefully tonight is a first step towards changing where the resources are going so that our places, like our barrio, get served and get justice and get equality and get human rights,” he said. “It’s about resources and money…it’s all about South Tucson.”

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The Marana Town Council has some important funding decisions to make in the coming weeks. At the council’s March 5 meeting, Marana’s Public Works Deputy Director Fausto Burrell presented the town’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan, the total of which amounted to $569 million, nearly half of which is transportation. Most of the capital projects coincide with revenue sources dedicated for their particular area, like transportation funds, impact fees, federal and state funds, and water capital funds, Burrell said.

However, he presented a list of projects for fiscal year 2025 that don’t have a specific funding source and would need to be financed through the town’s general fund. The council members will have to choose which of those projects to fund, such as remodeling Courtroom Two, the construction of the Tangerine Sky Park Splash Pad, the Honea Heights Park East project and the Tangerine Farms Road Extension. All told, the cost of those projects would use $5.77 million of the town’s $77 million general fund, Burrell said. The general fund amounts to roughly one-quarter of the town’s total budget. The council is set to debate which projects get funded over the next few weeks. 

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Over in Oro Valley, a wet few months could lead to higher water bills. The town council spent a big chunk of their March 6 meeting discussing a report from the Water Utility Department that showed a revenue shortfall of about $843,000. Water Utility Director Peter Abraham told the council the shortfall was primarily due to a wetter fall, winter and spring in fiscal year 2023, which led to residents using less water. Council member Timothy Bohen said he was frustrated at the late notice of the shortfall and the inability of the department to predict it. The council is now discussing whether to raise base rates and commodity rates to make up for the shortfall. They voted unanimously to set the process in motion, with a public hearing scheduled for June 5. The council will decide at the hearing whether to raise rates, which would take effect 30 days later.

The Oro Valley Town Council also continued their long-running discussion about restoring the Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve. In 2018, the water was officially turned off at the old Vistoso Golf Course. Since then, the council passed a series of motions to begin the process of preservation on the former course. In February 2022, the Conservation Fund purchased 202 acres of the old course for $1.6 million, money which was raised by Oro Valley residents, and then later that year transferred those acres to the town.

However, the preserve is, as one resident in the lengthy public comment section on this resolution noted, “a zombie golf course” that is overrun by weeds. Vice Mayor Melanie Barrett and Council member Josh Nicolson, who presented this item, noted that the current allotted funds of $200,000 weren’t enough to cover the modifications town residents wished to see on the preserve. Residents want to turn this area truly into a nature preserve, like what was promised when they invested nearly $2 million into the project, an action Nicolson claimed was “unprecedented.”

Following public comment and council discussion, Nicolson introduced a motion for the town to allocate $2 million for revegetation and beautification of the water, and also pursue grant money to continue funding the project. That’s enough of an investment to get the ball rolling, Barrett said, but the town will need to invest even more. Initial estimates from the master plan put additional investments for the pond at $1.5 million, same with revegetation, which the council members said they’re hopeful can come from grants. Nicolson’s motion passed unanimously. 

City facelift continues: A new apartment complex is going up on the site of the former Foothills Mall, the Arizona Daily Star’s Gabriela Rico reports. The 157-unit complex, valued at $500 million, is the first of many projects planned for the mall, and it’s the third major mixed-use project from the Bourn Cos., along with The Bridges near Park and Interstate 10, and the Landing, on Irvington and Interstate 19. 

Worth reading: The Arizona Luminaria’s Kiara Adams spoke with author Edwin Raymond about his book, “An Inconvenient Cop,” which Raymond presented at the Tucson Festival of Books last weekend (including on a panel moderated by Curt). Raymond is a 15-year veteran of the New York Police Department. He blew the whistle on a quota system that led police officers to hassle non-white residents on a daily basis for trivial infractions, needlessly disrupting lives and ensnaring thousands of otherwise law-abiding people in the criminal justice system. In their wide-ranging Q and Q, Adams asked Raymond about the NYPD creating a full-time position in Tucson and what that could mean. 

“If there’s any good that can come from those relationships and having those posts, great. But unfortunately, nonsense comes with it,” Raymond said. “A lot of police departments, when they are looking to hire new leadership they often hire outgoing or recently retired NYPD leadership. And what have they done? They’ve literally just recreated what they know in New York, and that’s how the cancer spreads.”

Crisis still looming: Just like Tucson officials who’ve spent the past five years supporting thousands of asylum seekers, officials in Nogales and Santa Cruz County are bracing for what might happen when federal funds run out at the end of the month, the Nogales International’s Angela Gervasi reports. Just across the border in Nogales, Sonora, asylum seekers are spending months waiting for their turn to ask for asylum at the legal port of entry, rather than crossing through the desert, the Luminaria’s John Washington reports.

New housing rules on deck: The Arizona Senate approved legislation Wednesday that would limit the ability of large cities (70,000 or more people) to mandate everything from lot sizes and setbacks to design standards, Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer reports. The “Arizona Starter Homes Act” provides more latitude to developers to override local regulations, opening the door for the creation of more affordable housing options. An aide for Gov. Katie Hobbs said he had no comment on whether she’d sign or veto the measure.

Better way to get straw purchasers

While I applaud the recent action by the Board of Supervisors to address the “straw purchase” issue in Pima County, I continue to wonder why local law enforcement is not enforcing ARS 13-3102 A 5 — which makes it illegal to sell or transfer a firearm to a prohibited possessor (someone who cannot legally own a firearm). In my opinion, this would be a more direct and impactful way to reduce and discourage “straw purchases” in our community and by so doing, make it tougher for prohibited possessors to obtain firearms to do harm.

Mike Humphrey, Pima County resident and member of the Pima County Board of Health

Send letters-to-the-editor to Curt at curt@tucsonagenda.com.