Kino Gateway Corridor
For decades, the city has had a “Major Streets & Routes” plan that identifies how development is to occur along our roadways. There are certain separately designated types of roadways contained within that plan. Routes such as ‘scenic’ routes have some guidelines that differ from say an arterial that crosses midtown – such as Speedway.
One designation is a “Gateway” route. Here’s how the land use code defines one of those:
I know, this is sort of arcane stuff, but there’s a point.
The conversation I’ve shared multiple times about the TEP plan to install new, large 136Kv power poles, connecting three distinct power substations is likely being presented to the Arizona Corporation Commission to run along the corridor shown in this map. Take particular note of the green segment of the proposed plan. It runs down Campbell, up to around the UA, and over to the new substation they want to install by Banner UMC.
 Here’s another view of that section of the corridor – this time in blue. But note the slight jog to the west to get yourself oriented. The major difference between the two maps is the one in blue extends all the way to River Road.
In each case, the corridor TEP is looking at for the installation of the new 136 Kv poles is on what’s called the Kino Gateway Route. As I mentioned, there are design standards in our land use code that guide how new development is to occur along those kinds of routes. Here are two excerpts I pulled from different parts of that code. In the first one look at Section D, 1.
And in this excerpt, it’s Section B, 1, a. They say the same thing – all new utilities shall be underground.
It was late last week that I confirmed with our city legal staff that this is in effect and should guide our conversations with TEP for their planned extension of the new power poles. It’s simply consistent with our codes. When I raised the issue of undergrounding with TEP during early discussions of the extension of the route they pushed back arguing cost.
To be clear, I have no idea what sort of legal push back we will hear from TEP once they understand how this will impact their plans. To date, all of the midtown neighborhoods impacted by this proposed alignment, and others that were under consideration, have supported each other in the desire to see these new poles undergrounded. With this very new development in the conversation, I expect you’ll all still be mutually supportive.
In a recent Zoning Examiner hearing, the ZE noted that he could not separate decisions about what the new UA substation will look like from knowing the alignment it will take. He was correct – the two issues are joined at the hip. Knowing that TEP has chosen a Gateway Corridor that brings certain design standards with it will help in bringing some clarity to the aesthetics of the alignment piece of his concern.
I’m sure there’s plenty more to come on this, but the new wrinkle will be important in the discussion.
Vaccine Update
I’ll open with this quote from Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She’s Biden’s Director of the CDC.
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 I’d add to her quote that not only are people who are not fully vaccinated not protected, they’re also more likely to be in a position to pass along COVID, in all of its variant forms.
Last week the new Delta variant was identified in Arizona, and in Pima County. Our chief medical guy, Dr. Francisco Garcia is quoted as having said, “Individually, that unvaccinated individual who gets the Delta variant may have a very, very poor outcome.” So far there are 70 Delta cases reported in Arizona, and one in Pima County that we know of.
The Pima County vaccination rate is right now at about 45%. For weeks I’ve been writing and urging the ‘leadership’ at the UA to join science and require all students attending fall classes to show proof of being fully vaccinated. I’ve shared this map multiple weeks in a row that show Arizona schools being the only ones in the PAC12 conference that do not require full vaccination for fall attendance. There are now well over 500 colleges and universities in the nation who are making that a requirement.
So it was probably politically predictable, and in an act that likely gave the UA administrative folks a chance to breathe a sigh of relief that they don’t actually have to make a decision, that Governor Ducey issued yet another Executive Order that simply says in Arizona, public universities and community colleges “may not mandate” vaccinations. Here’s the part of the EO laying out the new edict.
 
Ducey is quoted as having said, “Health policy should be based on science, not virtue signaling. In America, freedom wins.” I guess ‘virtue signaling’ is what the UA would call “pandering”. It’s the word Robbins’ #2 guy used in describing my call for requiring students living off campus to be tested. Their lobbying worked – the M&C voted down my proposed non-binding resolution 6-1. Now it’s being applied to requiring vaccinations.
To be clear – the UA and other public institutions in Arizona require proof of MMR vaccinations (measles, mumps, rubella) for all incoming students. Somehow, that’s not social engineering or pandering.
COVID cases are no longer going down nationwide. The vaccines continue to work against all forms of the virus, but case counts have leveled off, and in some areas, we’re seeing another uptick. This chart shows the trend.
 Vaccination rates have slowed, and people are getting together in large groups again. The Delta variant is more contagious and more severe than either COVID19, or any of the other variants that have popped up. Close to 1/3 of Americans continue to report being either hesitant or unwilling to get vaccinated. Dr. Robert Wachter of UC San Francisco wrote in a recent article, “I’ll now bet we’ll see significant (incl. many hospitalizations/deaths) surges this fall in low-vaccine populations due to combo of seasonality, Delta’s nastiness, & ‘back to normal’ behavior.”
Here’s a list of upcoming mobile vaccine sites being facilitated by our friends at the Pima County health department. You do not need to make an appointment – just show up.
Two weeks ago, we had 130 new cases reported in Pima County. Last week we had 256 new cases reported. A month ago, we were seeing over 400 cases per week. The numbers are certainly worth watching.
As we’d expect with a slight increase in infections, the spread rate bumped up again.
Last fall, when UA students returned to the community, the UA refused to mandate COVID testing. Now they’re off the hook for requiring vaccinations. They cannot claim they were headed in that policy direction since nearly every other school in the PAC12 conference had already announced the requirement prior to Ducey’s latest Executive Order. It’s bad science coming from a guy who rode into town resting on his science credentials. Let’s hope we don’t see another fall surge as a result of the decision. Our health care and front-line workers deserved a better outcome.
NCAA Name, Image and Likeness (NIL)
Speaking of the UA, and the NCAA generally, this quick update on the NIL legislation I wrote about last week. As a reminder, right now the NCAA prohibits student athletes from working and remaining eligible to compete. In particular, the schools market NCAA sports by using the names, images, and likenesses of student athletes. The media contract for the men’s basketball Final Four alone is worth a billion dollars. Student athletes don’t share any of those revenues.
Right now, 10 states have adopted laws that will go into effect on July 1st. In each case they’re saying the NCAA rules are unfair and that they’ll protect the students’ right to benefit financially from use of their NIL. In some cases, simply to seek employment. That part will be difficult simply due to the programmed schedules most Division I student athletes must follow. Competition, training, travel – school. Add employment and you’ve got significant time management challenges.
Mark Emmert is the NCAA president. He’s clearly concerned with the looming recruiting competitive advantage that will accrue to the schools in states about to pass new NIL rules. The NCAA is lobbying congress for national legislation – but they’ve been saying that for a few years, without much progress. Emmert issued this letter last week. It doesn’t commit to anything new in NIL rules, except to say they’re going to get a level playing field by the end of this process.
The reality is that universities have been resisting these changes and have tried to avoid charges of restraint of trade in the courts. They have not been ‘working diligently’ to create NIL allowances for student athletes. Now, with a deadline coming, the conversation has changed.
As I said last week, on July 1st, college sports will enter a new day in which student athletes – at least in some states – will be allowed to benefit from marketing themselves. It will affect every school’s intercollegiate athletics department in the nation. That’s why congress is about to also weigh in.
Differential Water Rates
On Tuesday we have the continuation of our public hearing related to differential water rates for in and out of the city Tucson Water customers. Every water-related issue in this valley is complex. I’ll write more below on the Davis Monthan PFAS contamination issue. To demonstrate the complexity, someone said during a recent forum that Davis Monthan “isn’t even in Ward 6 so I wonder if this is an issue the Ward 6 representative should be fighting over.” That level of being uninformed is jarring. The entire central well field is in midtown, and it serves the region. Yes, it’s a Ward 6 issue.
We missed out on the joint City Council/Board of Supervisors meeting related to differential rates. I was looking forward to that since water is indeed a regional issue. Sharing our perspectives would have been informative. I doubt we’d have come away in agreement, but the public deserved to hear all angles on the issue.
I’m not decided on which way I’ll go on this, but one part of the decision that I raised during our last M&C meeting is the need for a true Cost of Service (COS) analysis to be done. Yes, we can legally implement differential rates without that – the courts have made that clear. And they’ve also made it clear that where differential rates are imposed, they need to bear some rational relationship to cost.
 In our own Tucson Code, we call out the need to have water rates be based on cost of service. Here’s the reference:
It’s not true that as a general statement it ‘costs us more’ to serve people who live outside the city limits than to serve those who live inside the city. For example, this is called a Pressure Zone Map. The colors basically show the different elevations that exist throughout the region. All the greens are one elevation, and the same for the other colors scattered around the region.
What’s important to note is that there are high and low elevations both within and outside of the city limits. For example, drive from midtown out Houghton towards Vail. Your ears will pop. That’s because areas on the east side of town, within city limits, are higher than midtown.
Throughout the valley, Tucson Water produces water from more than 150 different locations. We have one of the most complex water service systems in the nation, and that’s because of our unique hydrology. It’s also a reason to be concerned with PFAS, but I digress. We do not “pump water up” to serve higher elevations. We have wells in each gradient. Our system is extremely integrated so in many cases we can use water from upper reservoirs to provide water by gravity to other parts of the system – for things like fighting fires. Rate payers from both within and outside of the city limits have funded that infrastructure. In the case of new development, the developer pays to connect to the system.
There are valid arguments in favor of a differential rate. And there are arguments in opposition. Charging a higher rate for existing customers doesn’t contain sprawl. Those people are already there. But maybe it makes sense to charge a higher rate for all new development. That would address the sprawl concerns many of us share. And if we have a tool to encourage incorporation so we don’t continue to lose out on state shared tax revenues, we should be taking a hard look at how to use it fairly. Perhaps giving notice that say on 7/1/22 we’re going to start charging more. That would give time for areas to form towns. The courts have also said a water utility has the right to make a reasonable ‘profit’. We do that in order to be sure of our ability to meet future demand needs, and to address emergencies.
One piece of the decision that’s going to be important for me is to see the COS analysis so whatever side a council member lands on is at least informed by our own internal policy of basing the differential “in direct proportion to the cost of securing, developing and delivering” it to all our customers.
PFAS
Speaking of addressing emergencies, we have been spending considerable amounts of money to study, test for, and control the spread of PFAS, even while the entities responsible continue to slow-walk the issue. The plume is moving faster than the process.
Last week the Arizona Air National Guard (ANG) announced they want to take until the end of 2024 to finish studying the mess they’ve created out by Tucson International Airport. That’s by the treatment plants we’re being forced to shut down today. We’re shutting them down as a direct result of the PFAS contamination caused by ANG operations. Waiting until 2024 for them to study the issue is simply irresponsible. Our water utility will be spending millions of dollars during that time on containing and cleaning the pollutants. Yes, we’re keeping track so when the DOD gets around to making us whole, we’ll have records of what our ratepayers are paying to clean up their mess.
I’ve written this before, but it bears repeating. With the exception of 60,000 residents out on the NW side of town, we are serving our customers Colorado River water (CAP.) It’s our groundwater supply that’s being contaminated with the PFAS. You’ve seen this picture before – it shows how low Lake Mead is. Lake Mead is the indicator of the availability of Colorado River water. We will likely have our CAP water allocation reduced in the next couple of years. That means we’ll be moving more and more in the direction of relying on our groundwater. That is why we need it cleaned up – now, not in 2024.
That means the PFAS issue must be addressed.
The PFAS meeting we’re having on June 30th will focus primarily on the area around DM, just southeast of the central well field. But I suspect some on the call will have questions about the contamination out by our treatment plants. It’s all on the table. As was true last time, we’ll get an update from the DOD, EPA, ADEQ and our Tucson Water folks on how the PFAS process is advancing. There will be time for Q&A.
The meeting will run from 6pm until 7:30pm. Here’s the zoom link for you to join:
Meeting ID: 829 6307 3142
5G
Each week – almost each meeting I attend on this issue – the layers of the 5G onion get pulled back yet a little more. Last week during a Feldman’s meeting I learned that not all the blue staking you might see means there’s a cell pole planned for the location. As the telecom companies are out ‘doing their homework’ looking for sites, they call for blue staking to be sure if they choose a particular location, there won’t be surprises underground that’ll cause them to have to go back to the drawing board. So, if you see blue staking, please continue to bring it to our attention, but don’t immediately assume there’s a 35’ tall pole coming to that site.
We made some progress with both AT&T and Verizon last week. Each of them had a site selected that neighbors who live in the immediate area found disturbing. In the AT&T case, they’ve agreed to suspend construction until September, and in the interim, they’ll look at the location for alternatives. And in the Verizon case, they’ve agreed to hold off on construction until the end of June, and they’ll reassess then. One part of the Verizon decision is meeting with the neighborhood to discuss Verizon’s plans for the area, and to talk about the health effects some residents are concerned about.
It’s important to remind you once again – the city is prevented by both federal and state statutes from basing approval or denial of a site location permit on health standards.
Finally, we’re within a couple of weeks of having the utility site manual finalized. From my perspective, the two most important pieces of that involve a new requirement that new poles cannot be within 150’ of another ‘vertical element’ (streetlight, street sign, other cell poles, etc.) and a very robust public notice policy. I’ll share it with you once we’ve got it ready.
We’re clearly in a new conversation with the telecom providers than we were about 6 months ago. Then all I was hearing was ‘we have no voice’. Now we’re enjoying a more collaborative approach. Credit the city, telecom providers and TEP for coming together to find solutions.
New Rules for Asylum Seekers
Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland tossed two Trump-era immigration orders into the trash can. Both had been put into place specifically to make it more difficult for asylum seekers to win their cases. He said in his statement that immigration court judges should ignore both decisions, as a matter of fairness to the people applying for asylum.
One of the Trump policies was issued by former AG Jeff Sessions. Sessions has said that victims of domestic or gang violence do not count as a “particular social group” and therefore cannot use those abuses as reasons to apply for asylum. If you’re a Guatemalan woman who’s being beaten by her husband, or a young boy from Honduras who is being beaten by gangs, you could not use those experiences to claim asylum because Sessions wouldn’t allow them to be counted among a group worthy of consideration. Garland has now told immigration court judges to ignore Sessions’ claim.
The second decision he vacated was issued by former AG William Barr in 2019. According to Barr, even your own nuclear family doesn’t count as a ‘social group’ for the purposes of seeking asylum. That means if your entire family is threatened with violence, it doesn’t matter. Garland also tossed that out.
The current AG’s office is working with the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security through a rulemaking process that will determine what constitutes a ‘particular social group’ for the purposes of seeking asylum. Until that process is done, immigration courts are to rule as they did before the Sessions and Barr policies were implemented.
Also, this is the week we were told to expect some changes in the federal COVID policy by which most people who are apprehended at the border are sent back into Mexico. If that change happens, coupled with the changes in asylum laws Merrick Garland just announced, we might be seeing an increase in the number of asylum seekers. That makes your generous donations even more key. And with the heat climbing, the condition of migrants is expected to become frailer.
Toiletries, sunscreen, hygiene products, bottled water, electrolytes, and new, unopened underclothes and socks are important needs. Thank you to each of you for caring. Coordinate deliveries with me directly at steve.kozachik@tucsonaz.gov
Harvard Global Health Institute
This week there are a few more red level risk areas popping up, but also more green scattered in the Midwest. It’s not a significant change from last week. One important change is that last week all of Florida was green. Now it’s all back to yellow risk level. But generally, it’s the Midwest and west where the caution levels remain the highest. Vaccinations are important, regardless of the message sent by Ducey and UA ‘leaders’.
The international vaccination map continues to show very stark differences by region. It was good to see the Biden administration last week commit to buying more doses for underserved nations. The lighter the color, the fewer the vaccinations that area has administered.
 Here’s our statewide map. These are cumulative numbers. As noted above, they’re slowly increasing once again.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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