The Daily Agenda: Working amid the whirlwind

The Tucson City Council can't do much more than watch what the Legislature does ... Here's what they're keeping an eye on ... Conover pulls out of Louis Taylor case.

The Tucson City Council may be in charge of the city, but there’s still a lot they can’t control.

They have to adapt to a whirlwind of state laws as the Legislature tells cities what they can and cannot do, often with rules specifically designed for Tucson. So the city council, like many other local governments, is always watching to see where the next blow will come from, or where an idea they value can take the next step.

It’s one of the many little things that often go unnoticed during the council’s hours-long study sessions. But if you stick around until the end (or skip to it in the video on the city’s YouTube channel), you’ll see Deputy City Manager Tim Thomure update them in great detail on what state lawmakers are up to.

At the same time, the council directs their lobbyists and staff to support or oppose certain bills, often based on how they see Tucson’s values, as Mayor Regina Romero noted at the Feb. 21 council meeting.

“There are bills that we’ve taken a position on, that we’ve historically taken positions on, that are not related to our budgeting or our work in the city of Tucson, but that we care about,” Romero said.

So what were they keeping an eye on at last week’s meeting?

They’re trying to maintain the authority to restrict what can be sold at gun shows, which a local lawmaker is trying to undo.

“Unfortunately, SB1189, which is Senator Wadsack’s bill that would preempt our ability to regulate gun shows, passed through committee. So we’ll continue to monitor and oppose that bill as it moves forward,” Thomure said. 

They don’t want to see any anti-trans bills become law, as Council member Lane Santa Cruz requested at their Feb. 6 meeting. Thomure listed five such bills that were making their way through the Legislature.

They don’t want lawmakers to pass HB2748, which would make it a state crime (it’s already a federal crime) to cross the Arizona-Mexico border anywhere but through a legal port of entry. The bill is a throwback to the disastrous SB1070 from more than a decade ago.

The council also opposes two constitutional amendments, which “surprise, surprise, both measures would change our local election system,” Thomure said. One would get rid of Tucson’s hybrid elections, and the other would force Tucson to hold its elections in even-numbered years.

As for bills they’d like to see become law, they supported HB2299, which would have allowed accessory dwelling units, aka “casitas,” to be built in more residential zones. But that one didn’t get a hearing and died.

They also supported SB1361, which would add regulations to sober living homes, like ones in Tucson and throughout the state that have been used to prey on hundreds of people.

That’s just a sampling of all the bills the city council is tracking. Now that the Legislature has started eliminating bills, with no new ones being introduced (for the most part), that list should start shrinking.

In the meantime, the council members can’t do much more than watch, make their case, and hope for the best.

Dropping bombs: Sahuarita town council members heard details about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ renewed cleanup of a bombing range that’s been closed since 1958, the Tucson Sentinel’s Blake Morlock writes. The corps began cleaning up debris in 2017 before the money ran out, but according to the State Land Trust, weapons debris found at the site over the years has included “practice bombs, high explosive incendiary projectiles, small arms and other related items."

It’s all politics: Three people arrested in connection with a Sunday night vandalism spree in downtown Tucson were in town for a “summit” organized by a group called Stop Cop City that says it is anti-police and against “Israeli Occupying Forces,” the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla writes. The three suspects were arrested on suspicion of arson, criminal damage and rioting and were part of a larger group of as many as 100 people. The group said it chose Tucson for its summit because “the Southwest is home to many corporations supplying arms to the Israeli military.”

Plot twist: KVOA’s Sarika Sood broke the news Monday that Pima County Attorney Laura Conover asked for her office be removed from a federal lawsuit involving a man who spent 42 years in prison in connection with the deadly Pioneer Hotel Fire. Louis Taylor was convicted of setting the fire, but released from prison in 2013 after making a deal for time served with the former Pima County Attorney. Taylor is suing Pima County and the City of Tucson for wrongful prosecution, violation of his constitutional rights, and prosecutorial misconduct. In the months before Conover took office, the office’s ethics committee determined that she had a conflict of interest in Taylor’s case because of comments she made while campaigning citing the handling of Taylor’s case as the inspiration for her work.

“In 2021… Conover’s office conducted a thorough, independent, and objective assessment of the Louis Taylor matter based on the facts and information known at that time. She followed the limitations of Arizona law in reaching her conclusion. County Attorney Conover has recently been deposed in the civil case and has now been subpoenaed to testify at the civil trial later this year,” Conover’s office said in a statement to the Tucson Agenda. “Based on these new, changed circumstances, the Pima County Attorney’s Office is seeking to have an outside agency investigate any facts or information that may arise out of the civil litigation.”

Blast from the past: Democratic lawmakers and Latino advocacy groups are asking businesses and state senators to oppose a Republican proposal that’s been compared to controversial immigration law SB 1070 that led to racial profiling by police, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. A coalition that includes Chicanos Por La Causa, LUCHA and the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is opposing HCR 2060, which would ask voters to approve new rules that would make it harder for people who illegally cross the border to work in Arizona. 

It takes teamwork: City of South Tucson Public Safety Director Danny Denogean said the city only has one paid, full-time firefighter and 35 volunteer firefighters who work full-time for other agencies, KVOA’s Jafet Serrato reports. Denogean said that without the City of Tucson’s 55 firefighters, ladder truck and special equipment at Thursday night’s Spanish Trail Motel, South Tucson’s three firefighters would not have been able to extinguish the blaze. South Tucson does not have the money or staffing for its own department, but residents have mixed feelings about receiving fire services from the City of Tucson.

1,631: The tally of bills introduced in the Arizona Legislature this year.