A Message from Steve K...10/24/2022

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Date: 10/24/2022

Topics in This Issue:

• Migrant Needs

• Plastic Blocks

• Glass Program Update

• RTA Next?

• Halloween Costume Contest

• Tucson Leash Law

• Pima Animal Care is Overstuffed

• Safe Halloween Options

• Tucson Water and Environmental Services Rates

• Tucson Development Center Online (TDC Online)

• Volunteer Tax Assistance

• Phone Scam

• Randolph Park Treatment Plant

• Domestic Violence Awareness Month

• COVID

You might have noticed that there’s an election going on.  The political ads are hard to miss. Each vote counts – please take part in the democratic process.

Migrant Needs

I want to acknowledge the generous support of migrants in need provided by the Tucson Sunset Rotary Club. They've been following the news, and the newsletter, and last week came by with a significant contribution to help meet the needs of people arriving at our southern border.

Many of you have joined in this effort. On behalf of the recipients, we’re grateful. We continue delivering your support out to the folks at Casa Alitas. Given the number of guests arriving it’s fair to say that our donation room needs replenishing as soon as we empty it.

We continue to need the following:

New and unopened underwear (men’s and women’s and children’s,) new socks, and personal hygiene products. That’s shampoo, sunscreen, lotion, toothpaste, feminine products, soap – that sort of thing. New children’s toys.

NO CLOTHING PLEASE. Just the items listed. We’re located at 3202 E. 1^st Street – across Speedway from the Loft. Our office is open until 1pm every weekday. We appreciate the responsiveness of the community.

Plastic Blocks

We’re continuing to gain commercial partners, but we’d rather not do it by companies making a decision to begin using plastic. Shirley from Sustainable Tucson writes that the Sprouts on Speedway and Swan have stopped issuing paper bags at checkout and are now only using plastic ones. While we can use the plastic in our program, supply is not going to be our problem. It’d be great if this stuff didn’t even exist. It does, so as a second-best option, it’d be great if companies stopped forcing it onto the public. Bad decision by Sprouts of all places.

Right now, the private haulers such as Republic Services are charging in some cases up to $40 per ton plus a ‘lift charge’ of $250 to go to commercial locations, pick up their waste plastic and dump it in the landfill. We get calls from people who have bins overflowing in businesses or apartments around their homes asking us to try to get more frequent pick-ups. The ‘lift’ charge is one clear reason that’s an issue for commercial customers. So many of you have joined in this pilot program delivering the clear message that we as a community are better than that. Profit’s a wonderful thing – but this is the result of the plastic pollution we’re creating, and companies like Republic are profiting from.

Every little bit helps. Last week Arlene emailed us and planted a seed – she attended her grandson’s birthday party. All of his kindergarten classmates were there – as well as plastic tablecloths, plastic utensils, plastic food containers, and more. She filled up 3 garbage bags of the post-party waste that otherwise would have gone into the dump. We’re grateful to Arlene for connecting with us, for participating in the program, and for educating the other parents who attended the party about our program.

Last week, we advanced our partnership with Raytheon. They’re hosting a free household hazardous waste and electronics recycling day out at their facility. It’s open to the public. During our meeting with their sustainability leadership, they agreed to also include a plastic reuse bin at the event. Here’s their flyer. I’ve circled ‘our’ piece.

This is an opportunity for you to get rid of some of the troublesome non-recyclables you’ve got piling up. And to support the plastic pilot at the same time. The event will be held on Tuesday, November 15^th from 6am until 9am out on Aero Park Blvd at the Raytheon site.

ByFusion was also highlighted on CNN recently. They appeared on the CNN Business channel. In the link, you can watch the video of the short segment or read the copy. In the video you’ll see them constructing a wall from the blocks. This is one image. It can certainly be replicated in your back yard. That’s where we hope to head with this pilot once it’s off and running full steam.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/08/03/business/byfusion-waste-plastic-blocks/index.html

We’ll be meeting with city administration, ByFusion and Tank’s again next week to work more on the logistics of how to make this work on a wider scale than this pilot. Last week ByFusion inadvertently comingled in an email blast some of the program elements they’ve got up and running in the L.A. area. Things such as individual weighing, tracking of your donations, subscription to the program, and a bunch more. We don’t know what our ultimate program is going to look like except to say that having a single 30 cu/yd roll-off at the Ward 6 office to handle the region is not it. Much more to come.

Here is this week’s program data. In a week or two we’ll have met the 20-ton goal we had established for the first of the year. The ‘we’ is you. Well ahead of expectations. Conversations are ongoing with city leadership and our private sector partners on what the logistics of this moving forward will look like.

Here’s the link to sign up for updates on the program. It will also help us keep the zip code information growing and up to date.  

https://www.byfusion.com/pilot-program/

We appreciate you taking the time to come by and do the drops. We’re still giving away clear bags – come grab some if you’d like. We’re open until 1pm every weekday. And when you come by, please take a extra moment and toss your stuff in the windows on the back side of the roll off. It’s common for the thing to look jam packed when in fact there’s room on the rear.

Glass Program Update

Some of you have asked what’s happening with our glass reuse program. This is the one that began with me crushing one bottle at a time in the Ward 6 garage. We had intended on buying a commercial-scale crusher and doing the workout at the Los Reales site. Then COVID happened and everyone’s world changed. In this case, it ended up for the good. Strategic Materials is our vendor for handling the glass you’re donating. Since January 1st they’ve processed about 1,500 tons of glass for us. They’re crushing it and selling the silica sand that results. Companies such as Dow Corning use that material in their own production process. And you already know about how it can be mixed with concrete for things like the slabs you walk across when coming into our office, and the bench/countertops Bottle Rocket fabricates for our ByBlock benches. There’s a cost to the city in hauling the material. Our piece of the contract with SMI is 10% of the product they produce for our own uses, plus $5 per ton of the glass we provide. It’s not a financial game-changer for the Environmental Services budget – in fact, they’re still doing the hauling at a financial loss. But doing the right thing environmentally sometimes doesn’t come with a single net bottom line benefit. The environmental benefits are unquestionable. We appreciate your support of both the glass and of the plastic programs. Tucson is truly leading the state of Arizona once again. But the word is getting out. Remember Arlene and the birthday party I opened with? The party was up in Phoenix. She was our local ambassador with that group of parents.

RTA Next?

I have shared several times the policy positions issued by the RTA related to who is responsible for inflation costs. In the original RTA plan, they identified ‘minimum RTA’ allocations. Those are the ballot amounts, and they’re what continue through today as what until last Tuesday the RTA said it was responsible for. We were being charged for inflation increases.

At last Tuesday’s study session, I asked the RTA director if the RTA is going to pay for inflation increases. He said the RTA was and has always paid for inflation.

In the 2022 RTA budget audit – to which the director is a signatory – it states “The RTA Plan approved by voters acknowledged that cost increases due to inflation or scope changes were likely to occur; however, it also specified that any project costs exceeding the RTA Plan amounts were the responsibility of the local jurisdictions.” That audit goes on to say:

While the RTA has met its legal requirements to fund the RTA plan to the ballot amount, the remaining RTA projects are facing increased construction costs due to recent spikes in construction materials, labor availability, and supply chain issues.

Although these added costs are the legal responsibility of the lead agency building the project, the RTA is committed to funding eligible costs if additional RTA revenues are collected.

If you follow this newsletter, you will have seen their own internal policies before. Here you go once again:

The director cannot sign onto a budget audit that says the inflation costs are the city’s responsibility while at the same time knowing their internal policy is to cover inflation – and over the course of the past several months attempt to shift the inflation increases (approximately $150M) onto the city, and then last week say the RTA has always taken care of inflation increases over the ballot amount. If you read through the original RTA measure, you’ll see reference after reference to “transparency.” That isn’t what’s reflected in our recent experience. If they want support for the Next round of RTA, this really isn’t the best way to achieve that.

Another policy challenge they’re trying to force on the city is moving some of our projects to RTA Next. We were told recently that the director had recommended our segment of 1^st Ave be moved to the Next round of RTA because of cost increases/scope changes. He relied on this section of the Plan:

48-5309. Regional transportation plan; definitions

Here’s what that section says that the director is leaning on to justify moving our 1^st Ave project to Next:

B. The regional transportation plan may not be amended to add or delete an element or substantially change an element without prior approval of the electorate at a general or special election pursuant to subsection D of this section. The prior approval of the electorate required by this subsection is waived if a political subdivision causing changes within its jurisdiction to the regional transportation plan incurs the incremental costs of implementing the proposed changes.

The RTA Plan has 4 ‘elements.’ Those are roadway improvement, safety, environment and economic vitality and transit. The section of the Plan the director is using to shift 1^st Ave to Next is being incorrectly applied. The 1^st Ave project is a single project out of the 35 roadway projects that make up that Plan ‘element.’ If we were changing the cost of the entire roadway element, then maybe. But the cost of a single project does not send that project back to the voters. What it does is send that project to the member jurisdiction (the city) and the RTA board to determine the causes of cost increases and how that increase is going to be addressed. And according to the Tuesday comment by the director, inflation driven cost escalation is covered by the RTA.

Last Tuesday I offered a motion intended to send the message to the RTA that the city is serious about staying at the table, but that we are not cancelling any of our projects and that we expect the RTA to use any and all funds available to fully fund our projects. Including inflation. Here’s the motion:

“I move that we recommend to the RTA Board the following projects be delayed in terms of completion to give the RTA Board an opportunity to find other funding sources to include any and all regionally allocated funding including the possibility of inclusion into RTA Next if it ends up on the ballot.

Houghton Rd Stage 8, Broadway Blvd to Tanque Verde Rd – Widen to 4-lane roadway:

Current Cost Estimate: $55,337,000 b. Funding Shortfall: $48,250,000

22nd St Stage 3, I-10 to Kino Pkwy (22nd Street Revitalization Project) – Widen to 6-lane arterial:

Current Cost Estimate: $78,277,000 b. Funding Shortfall: $78,277,000

For the projects recommended for delay from the original RTA, in alignment with the RTA Board’s unanimous decision in January on Ted Maxwell’s motion, delayed projects are to be frontloaded to the beginning of RTA Next and are not to be included in the jurisdiction’s share of RTA Next projects.

For the projects that are not being recommended for delay, the RTA board needs to ensure delivery of the program that was promised to voters in 2006 RTA using any and all available funds allocated to PAG and/or RTA. This does not indicate that the City of Tucson agrees that not completing the projects as originally outlined to the voters in 2006 is acceptable.

Furthermore, we recommend the RTA Board include any and all regionally allocated funding toward the completion of the 2006 RTA program through 2028 or as long as may be necessary to complete the 2006 program.”

I had consulted with the mayor’s office prior to the motion – she is the city representative on the RTA and we need to be working on concert with one another.

To be clear, it’s my belief the RTA Next package is poorly thought out. They project $1B in roadway revenues over its 20-year lifespan. If the city projects they’re asking us to move forward to Next are included with the project list they’re considering, then the city projects will take up over $700M. That’s in today’s dollars. Add inflation and the city projects chew up all of what they’re putting on the ballot. There are 7 other jurisdictions in the RTA that will want some roadway improvements of their own. Even if you don’t add in inflation our $700M isn’t going to sit really well with those other 7 towns and jurisdictions.

So bottom line, RTA Next is a mess, the current director has kept us battling over cost responsibilities, and the motion the council adopted unanimously last week sent the message that we aren’t walking away from what was promised to the voters in 2006. Their next meeting is on November 3^rd. The mayor will walk into that meeting with that pretty strong motion in hand.

Halloween Costume Contest

Reminder to send us your pictures of kids and pets dressed up for Halloween. Send them to Ward6@tucsonaz.gov and my staff will go through and choose winners. We need the entries by the end of the day on Friday, October 28^th.

Be as creative as you’d like – such as this little guy transformed into a bumble bee.

Or if you prefer, use something you can later toss into the plastic bin for that program (the costume, not the pooch):

We’ll contact the winners after Halloween – prizes will be tickets to the Children’s Museum. Thanks for taking part – we always get some fun entries.

Tucson Leash Law

With cute pooches on your mind, I want to remind you of the local leash law. It’s Tucson City Code, not just a courteous thing to do when you’re out in public with your pup. When you’ve got your dog out on a walk it must be on a leash no longer than 6’ in length. The one’s that have a retractable cord are fine as long as you reel the pup in when around others.

We get calls in the ward office pretty regularly about off-leash dogs in our city parks. It’s against the law. I’m a dog-lover – and when I dog-sit for my granddog and take him to our neighborhood park I have him on-leash. It’s for the safety of everybody else in the park. He might not bite, but any dog can get excited and jump up on some little kid and injure them. Please abide by the leash laws.

Our friends at PACC have this flyer that contains all of the rules governing dogs being on a leash when in public. It’s not a punitive measure – it's for the safety of everybody.

I have been working with the city manager and county administrator to come up with ways to further encourage compliance with the leash laws. None of us want to be heavy-handed, but we do understand the reason for the law and want it complied with. If you have a Community Service Officer or one of our parks employees approach you with this business card, please don’t get in their face about it. The alternative would be a citation. We’re about education, not fining people.

Thanks for helping us with this initiative.

Pima Animal Care is Overstuffed

This little guy is not dressed up for Halloween, but would certainly love it if he was in a family setting before the holiday. PACC is literally in a ‘code red’ condition with respect to capacity. Every single kennel is full, and they’re even placing dogs in staff offices, meeting rooms, and wherever they can find space. The very real and sad message is that if they do not get fosters and/or adoptions immediately, some of the animals may have to be euthanized.

PACC is an open-admission shelter – they take what people bring. Last Tuesday alone they added 68 more dogs. They’re full. There are several ways you can help them – adopting (all non-adult dogs are free right now,) fostering (you can do this for as little as 2 weeks – but it’ll help,) and if you find a stray you can take them to a vet to have them scanned for a microchip and get them back to their owner. If you’ve lost your furry family member, check the PACC website daily to see if they have come to the shelter.

Please be a part of the solution by spaying or neutering your pet.  In this case, dogs do mimic our plastic program; there’s no supply problem in the community.

Safe Halloween Options

Our partners over at the VFW are hosting a safe and for all-ages Halloween event on Saturday, October 29^th. It’ll include games, music, food, and a costume contest for the kids. With all the craziness going on in the world we’re grateful to the folks at VFW for making this family-friendly fun experience available. The flyer shown below has the information about the event.

Tucson Water and Environmental Services Rates

Last week, I shared some information about the fee increases being considered by Tucson Water and by our Environmental Services team. During our regular meeting last Tuesday, the M&C voted to set a date in January for a public hearing on the proposed increases. Ahead of that city staff is presenting public meetings in which they’ll give you a focused opportunity to see what’s on the table, and to hear the rationale behind the proposals. Also included will be a full description of our low-income assistance program that will be available for both departmental fees – wherever we end up with them.

The Ward6 briefing will take place on Thursday, November 10^th from 6pm until 8pm at the Parks & Recreation administrative building – 900 S. Randolph Way in the Mesquite Room. Please use this opportunity to hear from the respective department leadership about what is being proposed, and importantly why it is being proposed.

Ward 6

Thursday, Nov. 10, 6-8 p.m.

Parks and Recreation Administration

900 S. Randolph Way (Mesquite Room)

Tucson Development Center Online (TDC Online)

Last week, I gave a head’s up to any of you who may need to get permits or other services through the Planning Department that they’ll be in a down period this week. They’re in the process of standing up the new Tucson Development Center online portal.  A part of that is going dark for about 10 days. They’re in the middle of that now and will be live again on the morning of October 31^st.

During this time if you need an emergency permit you can still get that through this link:

https://docs.tucsonaz.gov/Forms/TucsonPermitApp-Emergency

You can also get customer service questions answered at 520.791.5550. Please try to avoid non-emergency inquiries for this week. Call our office if you’ve got some general planning sorts of questions and we’ll try to help you (520.791.4601.) While this week may be a little clunky, the result will be a much-improved online service experience.

Volunteer Tax Assistance

We’re thankfully not into tax season yet, but now is the time the United Way is recruiting volunteers to help people file once we get to that point. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is their annual outreach to people who for whatever reason need some help filing. These volunteers will be assisting local families to get their maximum allowable return.

The training offered by United Way will lead to IRS Certification in tax preparation. You don’t need to have prior experience – they'll walk you through the training. It’s going to be offered both in person and online. And they have other spots you can fill if tax prep isn’t your bag. To sign up go to www.unitedwaytucson.org/vita/volunteer.

Phone Scam

Last week, a neighbor friend shared with me that someone had tried a phone scam on her. Thankfully she didn’t fall for it – and thankfully she took good notes so I can share the call with you so you’re on the alert.

The caller claimed to be her nephew. The caller gave the correct name of the nephew to try to make the call sound legit. He also said several times that he was in the middle of an emergency and that my friend should not tell anyone about the call.

The guy said he had been in a car crash in Cancun, Mexico. The driver of the other car had been injured and the caller had been taken into custody. He was being moved from a jail cell to an interrogation room and his lawyer would be calling my friend back shortly. He commented on how dangerous the conditions were in the jail, especially for Americans. And he said the US Embassy had confirmed he had the correct insurance and that he’d be reimbursed after he paid his hospital bills out of pocket.

The next call was alleged to be from the lawyer. He began by saying that his boss was in consultation with the prosecutors and the judge and that a non-disclosure agreement was being drawn up. My friend asked him what law firm he was involved with – at which time the alleged lawyer hung up.

The phone #’s these calls came in from were 734.459.420 (Plymouth, Missouri,) and 623.223.1670 (Phoenix.) Be wary if you get oddball calls like this. It’s clear if my friend had not spooked them, they’d have been asking her to wire cash to help pay the hospital bill, likely promising reimbursement from the insurance of course. And yes, this was all reported to the police.

Randolph Park Treatment Plant

You know what this picture is. The Lake Mead bathtub ring just keeps getting more and more exposed.

It’s as clear a sign that anyone should need that sooner than later, we’ll be more heavily reliant on our local groundwater. With that reality in mind last Tuesday, we gave unanimous approval to Tucson Water to begin the design and construction of a PFAS treatment plant on the north side of Randolph Park, by Randolph Way.

The PFAS plume has been identified by work done in partnership between Tucson Water and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ.) The purpose of the treatment plant is to intercept the leading edge of the plume before it gets into our central Tucson wellfield. We’ve already shut down 21 water production wells due to PFAS contamination. If the plume hit the central wellfield the dynamics of the problem would change significantly.

The city ratepayers should be paying a grand sum of zero for the treatment plant. And that’s true of costs associated with testing at our wells, anything related to remediation, replenishing our supply, and any operations and maintenance of this treatment plant, and any others that will be built. For now, though the timing is such that we said to start design and development – we'll front the money and expect to get it back from what the EPA calls the ‘likely responsible parties’ as those conversations continue.

We’ve done this before. When we recognized an imminent danger from 1, 4 Dioxane several years ago we gave direction to begin building the Advanced Oxidation Plant while negotiations were still ongoing with the Department of Defense over who should pay for it. They ultimately reimbursed us for construction – maintenance and operations costs are still being evaluated so they’ll be paying more for that piece soon. It’s clear that we have to go down that route with the PFAS plant as well – build it and get paid back later.

The construction time is roughly 24 months. I’m concerned that we may be missing the opportunity to fully intercept the plume in this location if we’re not in the ground treating the water for another 2 years. All hands are on deck though and Tucson Water, along with ADEQ will continue testing and monitoring throughout this time period. And we’ll keep in talks with the DOD about paying for their mess. There are several bills going through Congress right now with PFAS dollars tied to them. And we continue pursuing payment from the product manufacturers – 3M and others. That court process is plodding along. We need to build the treatment plant now and figure out who pays later.

From a water conservation perspective, last week the Bureau of Reclamation seemed to pivot from their demand that the 7 states who are reliant on the Colorado River come to a mutual agreement about how to conserve and/or reduce our individual legal entitlements to water on the River. Instead, the Bureau is now throwing money at the problem – not for treatment plants, but to entice users to leave what they’re entitled to in Lake Mead. Under the current law, California does not have to offer up any of their Colorado River water if a shortage is declared. It’s pretty obvious that the Bureau is simply trying to buy them off and get some of their water, primarily from California agricultural interests. It might work in the short term but it’s not a solution. This offering is in the $4B range. That’s not a sustainable approach. We still must have a serious conversation about conservation at the local level. We do a great job already and can lead by example with conservation, PFAS remediation and challenging the likely responsible parties to ante up and get in the game of fixing the contamination issue they’ve created.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

A final full week of the month in which we highlight domestic violence awareness every year. Last week there was a news report about some local task force that’s studying DV in this region. It was reported that Emerge is not a part of their work. Let’s be very clear – Emerge is the leader in this work for the region. Any task force formed to study and advance awareness of DV that does not include Emerge is inherently flawed.

Emerge is far more than simply a DV shelter. They’re out in the community building relationships. Why? Because solving DV is a community issue. They’ve got a variety of programs that include a 26-week class for educating young men about DV, training in all kinds of abuse – beyond just sexual and physical abuse, providing services to victims beyond their shelter needs, assisting with stable housing, providing risk assessments, and much more.

Domestic abuse is a complex set of issues. In the same way that ‘homeless’ does not come close to accurately describing the issue, the same is true when you hear the term ‘domestic abuse.’ It can be physical, emotional, drug-related, financial – and lots of combinations and more. Emerge is knee-deep in addressing DV from its multiple angles.

And please remember the 24-hour hotline for domestic abuse – either if you’re a victim or want to consult about a situation you’re aware of – 520.795.4266.                                            

COVID

Last week the COVID numbers nearly doubled in Pima County, and more than doubled statewide. I read that some of the increase might be due to a backlog of data being released, so there’s some question about the validity of the weekly report. We’ll see next week when they update the data on the state website. But here’s what was reported – and embedded in these new numbers are another 59 deaths in Arizona due to COVID. Vaccines and boosters are of course still recommended by the CDC.

Here’s the chart of cases I’ve been keeping. The direction is good.

It’s still a danger to vulnerable people who are unprotected by a vaccine. Please consider your vaccination status. I know 3 people who have had COVID in the past week. It’s still a ‘thing’ in the community.

Similarly, the flu is beginning to be a national concern. In Arizona, we’re still doing relatively well, but that’s not the case in a growing number of states. Here’s the current flu infection national map. Arizona is still in the low-risk category. Major pharmacies have flu and COVID vaccines available. Now is the time to get yourself and your family protected.

Here’s the statewide COVID count map by county.

Sincerely,

Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov

City of Tucson Resources

• COVID-19 Updates: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/covid-19/covid-19-updates
• I Want To... : https://www.tucsonaz.gov/i-want-to