 Chair Scott's Statement Regarding the Upcoming Joint Meeting with the Tucson City Council
TUCSON, ARIZONA - November 04, 2025– I am pleased that we have a date for this Board’s first joint meeting with the Tucson City Council and want to acknowledge before saying anything else that there will always be things the county can do differently, or better. When I added an item to our October 14 agenda to discuss the topic of meeting with our colleagues with the city, it was done so in the spirit of collaboration and partnership. That day, none of us said anything critical about the city and its dedicated efforts to address unsheltered homelessness and its effects.
Unfortunately, when Tucson officials introduced their Safe City Initiative and when they had their own vote on joint meetings on October 21, they felt obliged to attack the county, disregarding or mischaracterizing our equally dedicated work to take on these issues. As the Board Chair, it is important for me to respond appropriately in instances such as this. The message also needs to be sent that assertions or comments like the ones made by Mayor Romero and some City Council members cannot be repeated when we gather together on November 18. That would detract from the goal of working in harmony to respond to these vital community concerns.
Mayor Romero said on October 21 that “we need our jurisdictional partners to step up and act now.” Councilmember Cunningham asserted that “we can’t count on the county.” Some of the other topics discussed at their meeting included the county’s Transition Center, the use of opioid settlement funds and enforcement efforts associated with the Safe City Initiative. Here is what was not said:
The Transition Center is a county initiative in a county facility, authorized by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors. It was inspired by the research and work of county staff and already has a proven record of success. The City of Tucson contributes some staffing to the operations of the Transition Center, but they took close to 14 months after the Center had opened to get their full staffing commitment in place. The request to expand the Transition Center’s hours came from this Board and we have received a memo from the County Administrator detailing how that might happen. It will be vital for the city to do its part to ensure those expanded operations when they are begun.
When the opioid settlement funds were being distributed, two of the towns opted to go their own way, but Pima County joined with Marana, South Tucson and Tucson to make joint use of those funds. For many months, I asked our previous Chair and the County Administrator when the intergovernmental agreement allowing our mutual work would come to the Board for approval. The answer was that it was being delayed by the City of Tucson and that we could not get clear answers as to why. Meanwhile, the Board authorized staff requests to make use of county funds to get more Narcan on the streets and to take other steps to combat substance abuse and addiction.
There was much discussion on October 21 by the City Council about the county’s Mission Annex property and how it might be utilized. Our staff informs me that the county has already spent over a million dollars to prepare that property for any future uses. Whatever we do there, we want it to be done correctly and to produce tangible outcomes, as our Transition Center already has. Our partnership with the City will be crucial to taking the next right steps at the Mission Annex, but it is inaccurate and unfair to assert that we are dragging our feet. The grant proposal authored last year in an effort to secure funds for Mission Annex use was jointly developed by two city and two county staff members.
I meet with Mayor Romero once a month, just as Chair Grijalva and Chair Bronson did. The County Administrator and City Manager are also participants. During one of those meetings, I shared the data collected by VetSec, our contracted security firm, regarding hot spots on The Loop where drug use and other illegal activity frequently takes place. When it comes to responsibility for law enforcement, every one of those high-profile areas is within the City of Tucson. We hope that data was used and will continue to be used to inform some of the activities detailed by Tucson Police Department Chief Kasmar during the October 21 discussion of the Safe City Initiative.
With regard to joint meetings of our two bodies, Chair Grijalva told me when I took over as Board Chair that the topic had been discussed with Mayor Romero during her tenure. I raised it early on this year and also reached out to Board offices to request potential agenda items. You can see that by reviewing agendas from the spring for my meetings with Mayor Romero. She did not formally raise the topic in a City Council meeting until this fall, insisting to her peers that she had been pushing for such a meeting for a long time.
Pima County is proud of the many research-based programs we have in place at the jail and throughout the community with regard to behavioral and mental health interventions. There was reference made during the October 21 meeting to medically assisted treatment for substance abuse, which has had demonstrated success at the jail. The county and city should have a robust dialogue about jurisdictional responsibilities for behavioral and mental health that includes the State of Arizona, but it is without merit for city officials to claim that the county is ignoring its roles and responsibilities in this area of policy.
Mayor Romero and I have jointly convened meetings of our justice system partners in the courts, the City and County Attorney’s Office, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the Tucson Police Department. Those meetings have resulted in the creation of four working groups that will make recommendations to both the Board of Supervisors and the City Council. The efforts of these groups are especially focused on people whose substance abuse results in justice system involvement, notably those who are repeat offenders.
The Mayor and I have also met with leaders of the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness as they embark on their federally required strategic planning process. We have both asserted our belief that jurisdictional priorities and the demonstrated needs of our community need to be better addressed by TPCH when people turn to them for services. As my colleagues will recall, both the city and the county have federally mandated roles within the local Continuum of Care, but there are also private sector entities involved with TPCH.
There is much more that I could say about Pima County’s work to help deal with all the challenges associated with unsheltered homelessness, including the efforts of multiple county departments when they respond to reports of encampments on county property. The Board hears from Ms. Darland with our Office of Housing Opportunities and Homeless Solutions regularly as to her efforts in this space. Many of our departments work in partnership with city staff in ongoing efforts to offer services and provide shelter to those who need both.
When she rolled out her Safe City Initiative last month, Mayor Romero claimed the county has not been an “active participant” in addressing these issues. To the contrary, Pima County has been and will continue to be a leader in taking on unsheltered homelessness and the associated need to increase our housing stock. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the City of Tucson in these endeavors, but collaboration will be hindered if city leaders persist in making baseless charges about our track record and level of commitment.
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