To meet or not to meet?
That is the question … Health insurance is expensive …. And don't blame the weatherman.
If you’ve ever wondered why it takes so long to do anything in local government, this is one of the many, many reasons why.
The resignation of the attorney for the Pima Association of Governments, Thomas Benavidez, is now pitting the Regional Transportation Authority Board against the PAG Regional Council.
This is a long-running, behind-the-scenes battle that most Tucsonans don’t follow. But the outcome may determine whether you look out your front window 10 years from now at a newly paved street, or one pockmarked with potholes.
And in true bureaucratic form, the fight is confusing as hell from the outside: Basically everybody on the RTA board is also on the PAG council. All eight members of the RTA board also serve on the nine-person PAG Council.1
The only other substantive difference is that Oro Valley Mayor Joe Winfield chairs the RTA board, while Tucson Mayor Regina Romero is the chairwoman of the PAG Board.
And therein lies the rub.
Romero has advocated for transportation projects within Tucson city limits.
She feels — as do most members of the Tucson City Council — that the city is getting shortchanged as money has been spread out among local jurisdictions.
So when she recently took over as chairwoman of the PAG board, she quickly moved to get rid of Executive Director Farhad Moghimi.
And now she has a strong ally, Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz, who was recently appointed to the PAG Board.
In essence, the two largest entities on the board are Moghimi’s biggest critics.
With less than a year before the taxing authority that funds the RTA is set to expire, Moghimi has emerged as a lightning rod for criticism.
Frustrated elected officials — including Romero — have been openly critical of PAG management for long-delayed projects that were pledged to voters nearly two decades ago. One solution would be to roll some of the unfinished projects worth more than $100 million into an extension of the RTA — called RTA Next — but that question would have to go before the voters no later than next March.
In order to formally discuss firing Moghimi, the RTA and PAG Regional boards need to have a joint meeting.
And Winfield says they can’t have a meeting without legal representation.
That’s where Benavidez comes in. Or where he would come in if he hadn’t resigned earlier this week…
The winner of the fight will likely decide when the next joint board meeting can be scheduled and whether an item discussing Moghimi’s employment contract — as well as a related item discussing the appointment of an interim director — can be placed on the next agenda.
On paper, Moghimi reports to both chairs.
The timeline for this political drama started more than two weeks ago, when Heinz was appointed to the RTA board by his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, replacing Adelita Grijalva after she resigned to run for the vacant seat in Congressional District 7.
Minutes after being appointed, Heinz sent an email to put Moghimi’s contract on the agenda for a special meeting scheduled for April 21.
Benavidez eventually rejected the request for highly technical reasons which we wrote about last week.
The PAG meeting ended with Romero requesting a joint meeting of both boards within 10 days to discuss Moghimi’s contract, as well as another item to discuss appointing an interim director for PAG.
Heinz tacked on a discussion of PAG attorney’s employment contract on the next agenda, and Benavidez resigned the next day.
Winfield told the Tucson Agenda that he couldn’t move forward on discussing Moghimi’s future until the RTA Board had adequate legal representation.
He said holding a meeting without an attorney — specifically one that represents PAG — could expose the organization and the board to legal action.
”I will agree to convening a special RTA Board meeting once appropriate legal council has been retained and approved by the RTA Board,” Winfield wrote.
Heinz argues Winfield isn’t playing by the rules, saying he has been asked by three members of the RTA Board (Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose, South Tucson Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela and himself) to hold a meeting as soon as possible and that request should override the Oro Valley mayor’s request to delay scheduling a meeting.
“Your invocation of legal counsel as a barrier to fulfilling your obligation is a red herring. While the departure of the previous counsel is noted, it does not suspend the rules nor excuse your noncompliance,” wrote Heinz.
With Benavidez’s departure, it’s unclear when PAG might have another attorney on staff.
Heinz said he would not tolerate dragging this issue out any longer, demanding Winfield schedule a meeting immediately.
“Any further delay only deepens the perception that you are undermining lawful governance and diminishes public confidence in our ability to move urgent regional transportation matters forward,” he said.
On PAG’s web site, there are no jobs listed as being open and it states that “final appointment (decisions) will be made by the Executive Director.”
In other words, it appears that Moghimi has the sole discretion to hire PAG’s next attorney — at least while he has the position.
The goal of this ongoing section has been to explain the City of Tucson’s budget in terms that the average reader can easily digest and understand.
With the failure of Proposition 414 and serious political fights ahead over how to balance next year’s $2.4 billion budget, there are a lot of calls for the city to rein in costs rather than raise taxes or increase fees.
For the next few weeks, we’re going through parts of the budget that can’t be easily cut — although we won’t rule out that they could be tweaked.
Today, we’re focusing on the city’s self-insurance fund — healthcare for its roughly 5,000 employees and their families — penciled out at $88 million, or about 3% of that $2.4 billion budget.
Here is the breakdown of how that $88 million figure is funded:
$67.8 million - employer contributions
$17 million - city employee contributions
$3.7 million - pharmacy rebates
City officials argue the self-insurance fund — as opposed to signing on to an off-the-shelf policy offered by a heath insurance company — gives them the flexibility to negotiate better terms that benefit both city employees and the taxpayers.
Sure, you could cut costs or shift more of the responsibility to the employee, but the city struggles with recruitment as it is, and making benefits less attractive is only going to compound the issue.
Put another way, arbitrarily shifting the costs by 2% from employer to employee will make it harder to hire police officers and retain the ones they have.
Showing him the door: Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller says it’s time for Pima Association of Governments Executive Director Farhad Moghimi to go. Steller traced the events of the past few weeks and came to the conclusion that the “incomplete projects, an uncertain plan and hostility from the region’s biggest municipality” are largely Moghimi’s responsibility.
“In my view, having watched dynamics at PAG and the RTA for years, I think Moghimi’s presence is an obstacle to success,” Steller writes.
Still in the game: Chris Elsner, a Democratic candidate for the Tucson City Council seat in Ward 5, will remain on the ballot after a challenge to his signatures failed, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. Jesse Lugo, a Democrat running for the same seat, filed a lawsuit this week challenging Elsner’s signatures. But Lugo didn’t hire a lawyer, and state law generally prohibits plaintiffs from serving papers in their own civil actions.
Surreal experience: After several weeks of international students suddenly finding out their visas had been revoked, federal officials are changing course and reinstating most of those visas. The Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington spoke with a University of Arizona student who was relieved to hear the news, but is still stressed out over the whole ordeal.
“The first two days I was lost completely. I couldn’t think at all,” the student said. “The situation was so surreal, unexpected. I was concerned about my paper, my resume, my studies, my source of happiness.”
Drop by drop: Tucson officials are moving ahead with a program to remove ornamental grass, and hopefully save about 2% of the city’s water usage, KJZZ’s Alisa Reznick reports. Officials are starting with 120,000 square feet of grass at Fort Lowell Park, before moving on to three other parks. The rest of the $1.5 million from the state’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority, along with some city funds, will go toward rebates to coax owners of commercial and multi-family properties to remove grass.
While the U.S.-China trade war steals all the headlines, another rivalry is simmering between the two countries.
Whichever country takes the lead in manufacturing for artificial intelligence will set the course for the industry over the next few decades.
And Arizona is right in the thick of it.
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Kudos to the weatherman in Los Angeles.
Adam Krueger took some heat from Tucsonans when he showed a weather map for Arizona, but left out Tucson.
That led to a mini-uproar on Krueger’s TikTok account: “Really Oracle over Tucson?” and “Tucson: Am I joke to you?” among many others.
Krueger took it in stride and said he would make Tucson more prominent on his weather maps.
Now it looks like Tucson is the only city in Arizona on some of his maps.
As it should be.
If you live in Phoenix, Benson, Nogales, or any other city in Arizona, please send your complaints to Joe@tucsonagenda.com2
The ninth member of the PAG Council is Ted Maxwell — who also sits on the state transportation board.
Curt wrote that last part.