Officer Kass
TPD Officer Stephen Kass very sadly took his own life on May 5th. He had been with the department for just a few years. We at the Ward 6 office offer our heartfelt condolences to the Kass family and friends and to his TPD family as well.
Serving in law enforcement is an extremely tough job. Suicide rates for cops exceed those for the general population. In fact, more police officers take their own lives than are killed in the line of duty. Chief Magnus has placed a high priority on supporting the emotional health of our officers. Losing Officer Kass is a reminder of just how important that is.
Officer Kass’ friends and family have established a GoFundMe in his honor and intend to donate the funds to a charity in his name.
Saturday was National Peace Officers Memorial Day. Governor Ducey issued a half-staff order. Due to all the mass shootings, our flag was already at half staff. We add our respectful honor for Officer Kass and federal, state, local and tribal peace officers who have died or suffered disabilities in the line of duty.
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Public Safety Add
It’s important to remember the tough jobs all of our public safety workers are involved with on a daily basis. Police, Fire and Communication Workers – the jobs are all stressful. Our 911 dispatchers too often get left out of the ‘public safety’ discussion. That’s a group I’ve had a strong relationship with since 2012 when we hosted a press conference here at the Ward office, giving them an opportunity to publicly talk about challenges they were having at the commo center. That ended with system upgrades to the center and a change in leadership at the city manager’s level.
We at the Ward 6 office continue to recognize the efforts of our front-line workers across the public safety field. The pay increase that was just given to police, fire, and communication workers was well deserved.
We’re Reopening
Each week I cover lots of items – many of which are essential issues I feel you should know about. One this week that I want to open with is honoring our essential workers and our local businesses as we begin the process of reopening our city. Please take a minute and watch this very cool video put together by the Metro Chamber. I want to open with this note of upbeat hope. We’ve been through a lot together. Thanks to our local workforce and businesses for hanging in there.
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F35s in Vermont
The F35 forum is coming next week. I can now announce the panelists who’ll be joining us from Vermont.
Duane Peterson and Patrick McCormack are the two guys who put the film Jet Line together. We’ll be opening the evening with a viewing of their work. Joining them on the post-film panel will be Julie Macuga. Julie is one of the steering committee members of Save Our Skies VT. That was the group that formed the main opposition to basing the F35s in Burlington. She’ll be able to speak to the litigation and politics that led up to the basing decision.
The film is an interesting series of images from around Burlington with voice mail messages overlaid as the audio component. The messages are those left by locals who were invited to call in and leave their thoughts relative to the F35s. You’ll hear both pro and con in the calls. Mostly opposition.
Here’s the Zoom link for the event. Please share it. I’m looking forward to hearing from our east coast neighbors.
Topic: F35 Jet Line Event
Time: May 27, 2021 06:00 PM Arizona
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Donations for Migrant Families
We continue accepting donations here at the Ward 6 office for migrant families. You know the story – people of all ages coming to escape life-threatening conditions. Now add severe levels of COVID to the threats they’re getting away from. Later in the newsletter, I’ll share an international COVID map showing just how devastated South and Central America is with the virus.
Please bring donations here to the Ward office. If you go out to the Alitas center, volunteers are pulled away from the work they’re doing. And they cannot take used clothing out there because they simply don’t have the time, staff, and space to sort through it all. Bring your stuff here, and we’ll serve as the conduit.
We’re getting close to reopening, but for now, please continue emailing me at steve.kozachik@tucsonaz.gov, and we’ll coordinate a time to connect. Thank you all for continuing to give in support of these families. I know hundreds of you worked at the Benedictine, so you see the need first hand. It hasn’t disappeared.
The needs remain personal hygiene products, sunscreen, kids’ toys (small ones), and new underclothes.
5G Progress
Last week some of my staff, neighbors, and I joined workers from our transportation and electrical departments on a site visit for what was proposed to be a new AT&T 5G pole. Their subcontractor was there, and a representative from TEP showed up as well. We’re hopeful for a good outcome.
The planned site for the new pole was right in the middle of a water retention basin that is part of the Pima Pedestrian Path project the Garden District worked on for over 5 years. Setting aside the question of how wise it is to put the electrical gear in a water basin, the aesthetic impact is unacceptable. This picture shows where AT&T had in mind. Note the orange stake in the middle of the picture, just this side of the tree.
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Look in the background, and you can see a TEP utility pole. Here’s a close-up on the right.
It’s leaning towards the south, and it already has some cabling hung on it, one would assume for the purpose of collocating some CATV use. The pole is clearly ready to be replaced. It is literally a stone’s throw from the location AT&T chose – in the water detention basin across the street. We put the project on hold while AT&T considers collocating on that TEP utility pole. We shouldn’t have had to show up and make the suggestion.
The larger takeaway from the meeting was TEP administration calling me the next day upset that I had ambushed their line worker and asked him to do things he wasn’t empowered to agree to. My apologies to TEP worker Luis, but that’s not at all an accurate description of the meeting.
Once again, TEP told me that AT&T has not requested collocating, so without that request, they don’t proactively engage in offering up utility poles. When I reminded the guy that there’s still the TEP requirement of a Master License Agreement, I learned the new narrative is that TEP will consider collocating even without an MLA in place. Consider yet another layer of the onion having been peeled back.
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So we have TEP working with AT&T now on both an MLA and a collocation over at the Pima project. In addition, the city is working with multiple utilities on a site selection manual, the genesis of which was this mess over 5G poles. Had we seen some cooperation early on, the manual wouldn’t have been necessary. I’m participating in the dialogue and formation of that manual.
One more new piece of information related to 5G. Do you know those 5’ tall orange and white PVC poles placed to mark underground fiber? Like the one on the right side of the picture.
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Some of you creative people have been doing this to them.
Well, here’s what’s new on the PVC post front. None of them have a permit from the city. They’re not in front of your house with the city’s blessing. Wouldn’t it be a shame if they started disappearing?
Yet another example of how this 5G rollout has been moving along with the assumption by the utilities that local voices don’t matter. At this point, I’m sure they now realize that we do count – and we’ll do what’s necessary to get the rollout done in ways compatible with retaining the character of our neighborhoods.
Oh, and going forward, those PVC posts will be replaced with a medallion in the ground. Something even the utility folks wouldn’t object to having in front of their own home.
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TEP Substation
Also, last week, we received the zoning examiner’s draft report on the proposed TEP 138Kv power substation they want to install just north of Banner UMC. The short message is that the zoning examiner denied the application. Two key parts to that decision are that the final alignment of the poles has not been decided, and there should be more consideration of undergrounding. I agree with both parts of that decision.
In his opinion, the zoning examiner made this point. “PT” is referencing Plan Tucson, and “UAP” is the University Area Plan. The examiner had earlier made the point that the UAP specifically calls for undergrounding utilities where possible in order to mitigate the impact on adjacent uses (residents.)
During our study session leading up to this process, I asked whether we can consider the actual alignment of the poles in making our decision about the substation location. We were told that our authority is limited to things related to the substation. But the zoning examiner is right; “as a practical matter, the two are interrelated.”
TEP now has 14 days from the day that decision was released to appeal to M&C. Or they can ask the examiner to reopen his case. Or they can go straight to the corporation commission and finalize their alignment before moving ahead with the city part of the process. Whichever they choose, the clear language included in the zoning examiner report opens the discussion to some of the items I had wanted to pursue. The meter is running on TEP’s decision.
Vaccine Update
With the change in CDC mask-wearing guidance that came late last week, the linchpin in making it work is still vaccinations. The list of colleges and universities that have announced mandatory vaccinations for all students this fall is now up to 356. This map shows the states in which PAC12 schools are located. The dots represent schools now mandating vaccinations. There are none in Arizona. That’s irresponsible.
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The NY Times had an instructive graph last week showing how deadly COVID has been in comparison to the flu. Each year we worry about flu season, and millions of people get their flu shot. It’ll be interesting to see if that becomes our norm with respect to managing COVID. Just as is true with the flu, COVID isn’t going away just because there are vaccines. But it can be managed much more successfully than is shown in this graph of our current experience. Note that the numbers are listed in thousands of deaths annually.
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All of that is to suggest the ongoing importance of getting fully vaccinated. In Pima County, we’re at 40% of all residents having achieved that mark. You can see from this graphic how those numbers break out by age group. There’s still a long way to go. These figures were as of the middle of last week.
If you’d like to dig more deeply into the national vaccine program, use this link: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/ . The map that pops up on the screen will give you the ability to click on any county in the country to see how they’re doing.
Anyone who is 12 years of age or older can now receive a vaccine in Pima County. There are multiple sites now up and running, and many of them are mobile. Use this link to find a site: www.pima.gov/covid19vaccine. Here’s a list showing where this week’s mobile clinics will be operating.
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A year ago, at this time, very few people would have predicted that we’d see what we did in the following 12 months. It’s not done. I’ll share some of the ongoing COVID data below. But it’s getting better and now mask mandates are being eased for people who are vaccinated. There are lots of incentives for getting that shot – both for you personally and for the wider community. If you haven’t, please do.
COVID Case Update
Last week in Pima County, our average number of cases per day was 66, and we were at 6.3 cases per 100,000. Here’s the progress we’ve made in the last 7 days.
It’s all a slow recovery, but we’re continuing to move in the right direction. And Pinal County immediately to our north is still one of the hot spots in the state, so that’s more reason to be cautious.
Even with that improvement, hospitalization rates are still edging up. So for those who contract the virus, it can still be very serious.
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Here’s this week’s addition to the infection data I’ve been tracking for Pima County. It went down, but our testing rate is so low that perhaps the better statistic is percent positivity. That’s still in the 8.3% range.
April 12th - April 18th - 520
April 19th - April 25th - 651
April 26th - May 2nd - 459
May 10th - May 16th - 206
Last week I mentioned that our region is trending up slightly in terms of community spread. That continued again this week. These data show where we moved in the past week. The goal is to stay below 1.0.
Regarding the variant strains, the CDC lists some as ‘variants of concern.’ Those new strains of the virus are more contagious and potentially more severe in their impacts. We have at least 7 of those mutating throughout the nation. They also list ‘variants of high consequence’. Those are strains that elude our vaccine. It’s where we were a year ago with COVID-19. Right now, there are none of these spreading in the U.S. - or in the world that we’re aware of. That is yet another reason to get vaccinated.
So, lots of progress. Keep up the great work.
Eviction Moratorium
The Tucson NAACP is hosting a webinar this Saturday in which people can get important information on resources available related to the threat of eviction. The event will run from 1 pm until 2:30 pm. The current moratorium ends on June 30th, so this is a very timely presentation.
Speakers during the forum will include Chaelee Chaves and Megan Sanes from Our Family Services and Anthony Young from Southern AZ Legal Aid. They’ll discuss the legal ins and outs of eviction and homelessness prevention. You need to register for the webinar. Go to your Zoom app and type in
837 2866 3243 as the meeting ID. The link for the event will be provided once you register.
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Gun Culture, again
Over the Mother’s Day weekend, over 400 people were shot and either killed or injured in the U.S. Our gun culture makes owning a weapon that’s solely intended to produce mayhem an acceptable possession. For example, if you need this for bird hunting, you really should be spending more time at the firing range practicing instead.
Here are just some of the Mother’s Day shootings. A birthday party in Colorado Springs left 6 people dead. In Phoenix, an overnight shooting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel left one man dead and 7 others wounded. It goes on – Woodlawn, Maryland, had 3 killed and another wounded at a townhome argument. In LA, there was one killed and 5 wounded on Mother’s Day. And two were killed in a Compton shooting that same night. Both of the guys were teenagers. And 2 are dead, with 3 more injured in a St. Louis County killing. A witness is quoted as saying, “it was all peaceful and beautiful and the next thing you know, gunfire just erupted.”
Ducey and the state legislature majority just declared that in Arizona, we wouldn’t be adhering to federal gun laws any longer. It’s all bound up in ‘state’s rights’. My study session item in which I will be asking support from my colleagues on notifying the state that we intend to enforce federal gun laws was delayed until June 8th. It’s coming, and none too soon. I’m anticipating that we won’t need to contract with the Cyber Ninjas out of Phoenix to count our votes.
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Coming on June 5th is this year’s Wear Orange Moms Demand Action gun safety event. It’s going to be done by Zoom. Hopefully, this’ll be the last time we have to ‘meet’ like that. For such an emotionally charged topic, being together is a big piece of it. This year’s focus is on domestic violence. The tie-in between fatality and DV where a gun is in the home is indisputable.
The Moms Demand Action event will be a day-long series of action, reflection, and some music. The Zoom piece begins at 1 pm. You’ll have to register first by reaching out to rene.friedkin@gmail.com. The details of the event are still being finalized, but the importance is written in stone with every new gun violence incident.
As a part of this event, Moms Demand Action is collecting books for Emerge Center for Domestic Abuse. These should be new or close-to-new books for teens or younger. You can either drop them off or ship them to 4220 E. Cooper, Tucson, 85711, attention Rene Friedkin. Or, if you’d like, you can email at besmart.tucson@gmail.com and ask for a COVID-safe pickup at your place. You can also reach out to me at steve.kozachik@tucsonaz.gov, and I’ll arrange for you to bring them to me here at the Ward office, and I’ll be sure to get them to Moms/Emerge.
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Street Racing
Something that can be just as deadly as guns and domestic abuse is the street racing we’re seeing all over town. We’ve had reports of it happening out on the east side, in midtown on Speedway, in the downtown core, and on the southwest side of Tucson. It’s all over, and TPD is doing their best to be ahead of it, so the people taking part are caught and convicted.
If you hear or see it going on, please use this link to report it to TPD. They may not to be able to hurry right over and catch the people on the spot, but having this information will be helpful in their effort to put resources where it’s likely to do the most good. We need your help in tracking this dangerous behavior. Thanks in advance for being involved with helping TPD crackdown on this issue.
Report Racing vehicles and motorcycles: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/d3ae9452403640d6bcf30975f5c221ca
Online Crime Reporting
One more TPD link that you should keep handy. Sometimes you’ll see or experience a crime that may not require an officer to immediately respond, but that needs to be a matter of record for the police. Say a bike is stolen, or your car is broken into. Knowing dates and locations will help TPD to assign resources to what might become a hot spot and catch the perpetrator.
This link will take you to the TPD online crime reporting site. And if you’d like an officer to contact you even when you use the online form, you can make that clear when you file, too.
Differential Water Rates
Coming during our June 8th meeting will be a public hearing on differential water rates. This is the idea of charging people who live in unincorporated Pima County a different rate for water consumption than is being paid by the City of Tucson residents. The hearing will take place during our evening session.
Ahead of that, there will be a public meeting during which city staff will make a presentation on what’s being considered and take public input. That meeting will occur by Zoom and will happen on Tuesday, May 25th, from 5:30 pm until 7 pm. Use this Zoom link to take part:
In addition, we’re gathering public input through a survey. The results will be a part of our material for the June 8th meeting. To take that survey, use either of these links.
Right now, there are a few different options on the table. One, of course is to not charge a differential rate. Then there are 5 options of charging a flat amount, and 3 options where we’d build a conservation incentive into tiered rates. We do that with our current rate structure – the more you use, the higher the cost per Ccf. This chart shows the various options we have in front of us right now.
Tucson Water has posted much more information on this topic on their website. You can find all of it at https://tucsonaz.gov/water-rates. Please weigh in on this through one of the means we’re making available. There’s some controversy in the idea, so getting wide community engagement is going to help guide a thoughtful decision.
Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI)
Another water-related item is our GSI program. Now is the time for your neighborhood to put together an application to get involved for the next round of funding.
These are some photos of project examples the GSI program has funded. They’re all neighborhood scale, and the Tucson Clean & Beautiful group works directly with your neighborhood to put the plans into final form. And they’re there to help with the implementation.
We had several neighborhoods represented during last week’s Zoom call re-introducing the program. There’s a little funding left for this fiscal year, but July 1st starts the next round, so now is a perfect time for your neighborhood to start talking about projects.
If you’d like a full description of the program, you can contact Ariel here in my office at ariel.fry@tucsonaz.gov. Or check out the Tucson Clean & Beautiful website at www.tucsoncleanandbeautiful.com. You’ll find that link under the ‘announcements’ section in the middle of the opening page.
We’re grateful to Jon and Jenny from TC&B for taking the time to share with neighbors. It’s fun to see these ideas come to fruition. They’re a great way to help alleviate some stormwater runoff and to capture it in ways that will enhance the landscape around your home.
And while we’re on the environment, check out this great story Luzdelia Caballero from KGUN9 ran last week on our plastic reuse program. The city manager is working with ByFusion on an implementation plan. We’ll have that report on the July 7th study session.
Parks Reopening
Himmel Park has been the home of the weekly Parkrun – a 5K run/walk social event that has been on hold throughout COVID. They’re returning to action on Saturday, May 22nd. The event begins at 7 am.
Parkrun in Himmel is a part of the national Parkrun program. It’s free. They time the runs so you can compete against yourself from week to week. And they’ll be following CDC COVID guidelines, so the event is safe, too.
Please register in advance. Use this link – it's a one-time free registration. They’ll send you a barcode you should take to the event so you can receive a time.
Here’s a rundown of the Parkrun walker/runner COVID code. And if you just want to support the event, they can always use more volunteers during the event.
Parks Special Events
Parkrun is a special event that uses Himmel Park. Our parks department is again accepting applications for special events wanting to use city parks. They’re still being limited to 25% capacity, as defined by the venue size. For events where there’s no capacity limit, such as Parkrun, the limit per event is 250 people.
For now, this does not include parades, concerts, fairs, or other large outdoor festival-type events. You should get your event application in as early as possible. I expect we’ll have lots of people wanting to reserve spaces, so 60-day advance requests are probably safest for you to consider. You can use this link to access the application site: Tucsonaz.gov/business/special-events
Accessory Dwelling Units
Staff is continuing the public outreach on this proposed code change. The idea is to allow separate living quarters - ‘granny quarters’ or small casitas in the backyard of a residential lot. There are upsides – affordable housing, aging in place, caregivers. And there are downsides – minidorms, historic designation impacts, privacy mitigation. Your input is important.
Midtown is the area where the impact from the UA is most clearly felt. No two city Wards are alike and so getting a broad set of perspectives at these meetings is going to be a key to our crafting a policy that can work across disparate settings. Or not. Nothing is set in stone.
Use these links to register for any of the meetings. The first link (“Background information”) will give you a summary of what ADUs are and how they might fit into our land-use code.
Lend A Hand Senior Assistance
Shortly after my mom died, I worked with Lend A Hand and hosted a ‘yard sale’ in the sanctuary of the Benedictine. They gather all sorts of things – like what you see a yard sales – and the proceeds from sales go to helping seniors stay in their own homes. It’s a wonderful program that can use your full support.
Coming on Saturday, May 29th, Lend A Hand is working with Pima County Constable Bennett Bernal and hosting a shred-it event. The suggested $5 donation per box/bag will go straight to supporting their work. The event will be held from 8 am until 10 am in the parking lot of Sacred Heart Church – 601 E. Ft. Lowell.
Lend A Hand is a group of midtown neighborhoods – all in Ward 3, so I’d love to see some Ward 6 neighborhoods join in their work – they're dedicated to aging in place and support of our seniors. Please consider how you can get involved.
Harvard Global Health Institute
Arizona is now ranked 32nd nationwide in terms of Risk Level for COVID-19. We used to lead the world, so that’s quite an improvement. Here’s the current Risk Map from the Harvard folks.
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I mentioned above that Pinal County, just north of Tucson, is still listed as a high-risk area. Nationwide, Colorado is ranked #2 nationally for risk level. They’re our border neighbor, so that’s not good. Stick with the safety protocols.
Internationally there are still some very troubling hot spots. You see some of them on the news, but this map shows many in South America that don’t get the play that India is getting. Travel makes the danger a fluid issue, so it’s important to at least be aware of where the virus is still wreaking havoc on people.
No change in Pima County school guidance last week. Most are up and running in some form. Most have decided on some form of hybrid learning. If you want to track the risk factors guiding that decision, you can find them on the Pima County COVID site with this link: https://webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=568644.
Here’s our statewide map. I’ve been sharing these weekly for over a year now. In Pima County, we’ve now passed 115,000 COVID cases. Maricopa County is well over a half-million COVID cases since this began.
In Pima County, we’ve lost over 2,400 friends and loved ones since this began. When we did the memorial event in Himmel last October, the number was 622. At the time, we planted a flag for each person. Now that field of flags would cover the entire hill we gathered on.
Please keep focused on getting a vaccine and continuing to practice safe habits. We can see the finish line, but we’re not there yet.
For the NY Times data sets, use this link:
The State Department of Health site is at this link: www.azdhs.gov.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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