A Message from Steve K...01/03/2023

Next year we may be in a better position to have early communications with the North Pole and see if we can get the toys and things packaged differently. Until then though we’ll work on the logistics of the plastics program. It is not going away now that January 1st has arrived.  

I realize that not everybody gets the Star. Here’s a guest piece I ran last week talking about the success of the program and the need to figure out next steps. I’m grateful to Star Editorial Board director Curt Prendergast and his staff for printing the op/ed.  

Every day millions of tons of waste plastic are deposited in landfills, on the sides of our roadways and into the ocean, polluting our environment, adding to greenhouse gas emissions and killing marine wildlife. The world is awash in plastic. It is an international problem in search of local solutions. In the city of Tucson, we’re embarking on a program that is our approach to thinking globally and acting locally. 

On August 1st my office kicked off a pilot project in which we wanted to see the community’s interest in finding a productive use for plastic waste. In partnership with the city department of environmental services, ByFusion and Tank’s Green Stuff we began collecting the waste plastic hundreds of people have been providing. At the start of the project, we set a goal of collecting 20 tons of non-recyclable plastic by the end of the calendar year and signing up 500 people who want to be a part of our local solution. At year’s end we have collected over 35 tons of plastic and have over 1,500 people signed up with the program. Thirty-five tons is enough to create a pile of plastic 25’ long, 10’ wide and 500’ tall. That’s three times taller than the student housing towers located at Tyndall and Speedway. Based on those outcomes at least 2 things are certain; one, the community wants to take part in a local solution to this international problem, and two, the pilot program cannot sunset on January 1st. There is far too much momentum from the public to walk away from what we’ve begun. 

ByFusion is a company that is right now headquartered in southern California. They take the non-recyclable plastics many of you have been bringing to the Ward 6 office, shred the material and through a process of heat and compression create construction-grade blocks called ByBlocks. The blocks are 22 pounds of plastic yielding a 22-pound block. The product is all about creating a zero-waste stream.  

During the pilot portion of this program, we have built benches at the playground just west of the Himmel Park library, installed a bench in the Green Stormwater Infrastructure pocket park in San Gabriel neighborhood, constructed a trash enclosure out at the El Pueblo Community Center and have several large-scale projects in design with multiple groups located in Tucson, Phoenix and up in Flagstaff. In celebration of the success of the program we invited the community to the ward 6 office and built a holiday tree using ByBlocks. The tree is made up of nearly 1,600 pounds of plastic, all of which has been successfully diverted from the landfill. After the holiday season we will disassemble the tree and transform it into a raised planter bed. Since there is no concrete involved in building with the blocks there is an inherent flexibility built into working with them. And the labor costs of using ByBlock in comparison to regular cinder block are substantially lower. The group of us who built the holiday tree had it erected in about 30 minutes. 

The challenge is no longer determining whether or not the community will support the program. Not only have hundreds of residents supported the work, but we have all sorts of commercial partners helping to make the program work. Our commercial partners include movie theaters, nursery’s, swimming pool maintenance companies, micro-breweries, restaurants, pet supply stores, the Assistance League and many more. One local company that’s on board produces plastic labels for many of the products we buy. They produce roughly 100,000 pounds of waste plastic monthly. Prior to now all of that has been headed to the landfill. We want it in our program. 

There are companies who benefit from the waste plastic. Commercial waste haulers charge businesses by the ton plus a ‘trip fee’ to simply come and pick up the waste and dump it in the landfill. Think of the plastic labels – at 100,000 pounds per month that one company is paying nearly $3,000 per month just to have their waste thrown into the dump. The partnership we’re pulling together can save them money while at the same time result in the production of construction blocks that can be sold and used in a totally environmentally friendly manner. The only losers are the commercial haulers who are right now enjoying the fact that waste plastic is unavoidable. 

In January I’ve requested a study session item to talk about how to scale-up the program. I’m very pleased that both Mayor Romero and Council member Dahl have co-signed the agenda request. This program is absolutely aligned with the city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Our challenge is to identify the role the city and ByFusion will each play, and sort out the logistics and costs involved. Clearly the community has bought-into the program. Our job is to figure out how to keep it going.  

Those ‘next steps’ will have to include a realistic appraisal of the costs we’ve encountered during the pilot phase. One purpose of trying this out was to see where new financial obligations popped up. One very clear cost associated with the program is my asking the city to haul the roll off away at least 3 times each week to get it emptied. There’s labor and material involved with that. We’ll have to work out where the central storage location ends up being. Tank’s Green Stuff has partnered until now. I’m anticipating a longer-term rental ‘ask’ for the use of their space. That’ll be a cost. It makes no environmental sense to continue driving tons and tons of plastic to California for processing into blocks – and then to have the blocks driven back to Tucson. Getting that whole manufacturing and processing operation to Tucson will be a cost. And driving to the drop off location at the ward 6 office has an environmental and fuel cost. Maybe we offer opt-in curbside pickup. I’d like to hear from you on that possibility. I’m talking with ByFusion right now about how their part in this becomes ‘localized.’  Somebody’s got to process the plastic and manufacture the blocks. Someone’s got to connect with local contractors and sell the blocks into the local market. Someone’s got to market the program.  Someone has to contact businesses that are right now contracted with commercial haulers who are simply charging them to take their plastic to the dump. They can save money and contribute to this zero-waste diversion program at the same time. All of these are both costs, but they’re also local jobs being created.  

On Saturday I was out behind the ward office pushing the plastic bags deeper into the roll off – making room for more donations. In the short time I was out there at least 10 cars pulled up to add plastic. One was from out by the Desert Museum. One guy told me he had come over from the Mt. Lemmon highway. One lady said she had been coming in from Oro Valley to do the drops. Another had driven in from Vail. And of course, there was our friend from Sam Hughes neighborhood who rode over on her bike with her plastic. So, it’s people from all over the county taking part. One way or another, the program is not ending.  

Here’s the final pilot program status report. Our initial goal was to get 20 tons of plastic. You nearly doubled that. I think we’re all surprised at how sadly unavoidable plastic debris is in our lives. We’ll figure out how the program evolves. Your support has made it clear that we need to. 

 Gun Safety Class 

Since having been elected in 2009 I’ve been very clear on my desire to see more strict gun control laws. In this political environment that is somehow translated into being ‘anti 2nd amendment.’ That’s a sad, inaccurate and too-easy sound bite from the group who wants unfettered access to firearms. My goal is gun safety – responsible gun ownership – and yes, eliminating from civilian hands semi-automatic weapons that are meant for a battlefield.   

The NRA used to stand for gun safety and responsible gun ownership too. Some will be surprised to see this – it's my NRA “Pro-Marksman” certificate. But look closely at the date – April 24th, 1966. Back then the NRA ran gun safety classes for youth and for adults. My mom enrolled me as a way of teaching the safe and responsible handling of firearms. 

On Saturday, January 21st we’ve invited local gun store owner Ben Anderson to deliver a gun safety course at the ward 6 office. Ben runs Diamondback Shooting Sports located at 7030 E. Broadway. Diamondback also supplies local law enforcement with their duty weapons. On the 21st Ben and his team will be here to give a soup-to-nuts training on how to handle, clean, and discharge a firearm. There is no fee for the course. They will not be ‘discharging’ weapons during the class. The entire goal is to be sure that if people are going to get involved with guns, they do so only after having been trained in how to do it safely. 

The training will run from 9am until 4pm. There will be a 1-hour break for lunch. You do not need any prior familiarity with guns in order to sign up – or you could be a long-time gun owner who simply wants a refresher on some of the basics. Everybody is welcome to take part.  

Ben and I have worked together on how we can better prosecute straw purchases in Tucson. Right now, every TPD arrest for a straw purchase is turned over to the U.S. Attorney. There is likely an important local role that we’re exploring. Ben is also interested in posting some notices of suicide hotline numbers in his store. When somebody is in clear distress Ben will not sell that person a weapon. He and his staff are all about gun safety – just like the NRA was back in 1966 when my mom enrolled me in their class.  

I’m hopeful this is the beginning of opening some local doors so what has been a pretty contentious and confrontational relationship between me and the ‘gun guys’ can maybe turn a page and see us all work together towards the goal of making sure guns are not in the wrong hands (yes, there are ‘wrong hands’,) and that people who do want to own a weapon receive the training they need in order to do it safely.  

We have limited space at the ward office so you must pre-register for this training. You do that by emailing Training@dbackshootingsports.com.   

So, the 2023 newsletter starts with some strange bedfellows – and yet, we share a mutual goal I’m hopeful will flourish.  

If the need is not immediate and you’re after some crisis counseling, Solari is easily available to help you. You can find all of what they have to offer at their website;  https://solari-inc.org/   

The 988 call is for suicide and crisis intervention. The 211 is more for referrals to a variety of counseling needs. Both are three touches on your phone away with some wonderful people ready to help. The ward 6 staff and I are grateful to the Solari and to the NAMI teams for the work they’re doing in the community. 

Last June M&C asked staff to begin outreach with the hope some of our internal processes and code provisions needing a tweak could be addressed. We’re expecting some recommendations later this spring. In the meantime the outreach to the public continues.  

So far staff has heard input on these general areas:  

Our PDSD team is still gathering input and to that end will be hosting one more virtual, and one more in-person meeting. They’ll share what has been offered to this point and will continue to take feedback on potential code updates. You can learn more about the project here:  available on the project webpage.    

Whether you’re taking part virtually or in-person, you need to register. Here’s the information on the virtual meeting. 

VIRTUAL VIA ZOOM

 Tuesday, January 10, 2023 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. 

Please register in advance for the virtual meeting: https://bit.ly/UDCVirtualPublicMeeting 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

The in-person meeting will take place on Thursday, January 12th from 5:30pm until 7pm. It’ll be held at the Sentinel Building, 310 N. Commerce Park Loop. You can use this link to sign up for the session:  

https://forms.office.com/g/6q48LpQjHe 

Speaking of city outreach, our Tucson Water staff is continuing outreach to get public input into our 80-year water master plan. You can take part by going to www.tucsononewater.com.   

The survey will only take a few minutes of your time. You’ll be asked to prioritize in importance items related to the Colorado River water we receive, recycling/reuse of water, various conservation measures and more. The goal is for a master plan for water security to be completed and presented to M&C early in the spring of 2023. 

You hear a lot about Title 42 these days. It’s a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services Law that was implemented as a way the federal government could put emergency measures into place, the goal of which was to prevent communicable diseases from entering from foreign countries. In 2020 Trump put Title 42 restrictions into place in response to COVID. It was used as a way of keeping migrants out of the country under the guise of public health.  

When the clause is invoked, it eliminates any due process rights asylum seekers have under our system. Trump invoked Title 42 as an immigration policy. Biden has kept it in place, until he signaled that he was ready to allow it to expire. Predictably when he signaled its termination it created a larger population of asylum seekers at the southern border. We’re seeing many from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and from the golden triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Also, predictably the decision was challenged and last week the U.S. Supreme Court voted to leave Title 42 in place. The challenge was brought by 19 mostly-Republican states. The court will decide in February whether those states may in fact bring the challenge. They’re not deciding on anything related to the implementation, continuation or cessation of the program itself, just whether or not the states have standing to challenge it. The decision to keep Title 42 in effect could last until summer. 

Here’s what Title 42 is causing on the southern border.  

The people represented in that picture are a part of over 617,000 encounters Border Patrol has had at the border. Of those roughly 182,000 were expelled due to Title 42. Another 430,000 were released. Many of those are probably counted at least twice in the ‘encounters’ number – repeat attempts to cross the border. Border Patrol knows of more than 240,000 who simply got away.  

Embedded in that group are people who have legitimate asylum claims. Their due process rights are being set aside while the court gives congress and the administration a pass on actually fixing the broken asylum/immigration system that’s the real cause of the backlog at the border.  

The Court decision was 5-4 to keep Title 42 in place. I’m on the side of Sotomayor, Kagen, Brown-Jackson and oddly Neil Gorsuch in the dissent. Gorsuch is the only one who gave a reason for wanting to lift the emergency clause. I pulled this from his dissent:  

“The current border crisis is not a COVID crisis. And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”  

The people being kept out of the country will most certainly suffer illnesses, criminal acts, hunger and issues related to exposure. They’ve already been through all of that on their way to the border. Those of you who volunteered at the Benedictine, or who are still able to serve at the Alitas Welcome Center know the stories. The Supreme Court just sentenced them all to months of continued trauma under the ruse that in the next few months congress will adopt significant changes to our immigration and asylum processes so it actually works.  

This KOLD story by Mikala Novitsky includes a statement by a former TPD officer who is now I guess a spokesman for the Border Security Alliance. In it he correctly calls Title 42 a ‘crutch’ that law enforcement and congress have been leaning on. He also naively suggests the immigration mess will be handled by congress by June when the court is expected to make a final decision.  

https://www.kold.com/2022/12/29/title-42-remains-place-officials-tucson-have-more-time-find-space-influx-migrants/   

Refugee Donations: Please continue bringing your donations to the ward 6 office. Many people are having Amazon deliver new underclothes, hygiene items and warm clothing to the ward office. If you’d like to take part that way the mailing address is 3202 E. 1st Street – Tucson – 85716. Otherwise, we’re open M-F from 9am until 1pm.  

If you’re ordering under-clothing, please get small sizes. If you’re bringing towels, please focus on travel sizes. The people who arrive at Alitas are not staying for extended periods of time so what you provide needs to pack and travel easily.  

Thank you for your involvement in meeting these needs. Nobody would want to experience what these families have gone through. Their gratitude is clear when they arrive and for the first time in months are greeted openly and with warmth by the Alitas staff and community volunteers. 

In 2022 Pima County counted 134,491 new COVID cases. That does not count the number of people who self-tested and never reported to the health authority they had the virus. With that in mind we can easily say Pima County had over 150,000 cases last year. Just counting among my office staff and their families I know of 10 people in our little orbit. That’s just COVID. In our office we’ve also seen bronchitis, RSV, hand/mouth disease, and I think the technical term is ‘the crud.’ So far, no flu.  

Please do not come to the office if you have any symptoms – COVID or otherwise. Call and reschedule. And if your group is using the ward office, we strongly encourage you to require participants in your meeting to wear a mask. Respiratory diseases are spread in part through airborne transmission. While not 100%, masks do help in reducing spread.  

During December we saw COVID case numbers decline throughout the month – both in Pima County and statewide. Here’s the chart showing that trend: 

I’ll go on record as saying that I don’t believe those numbers are accurate. Over the holidays people weren’t contacting doctors’ offices. But they were gathering in large groups passing the virus. And if not COVID there was plenty of other junk being passed around. Please be cautious when out in public so we don’t see spikes in any of the illnesses that are in the community.  

Wear a mask when you’re in close quarters. And please reschedule any meetings you’ve got in the ward 6 office if you have any symptoms of any of those viruses.  

Here’s the statewide COVID count map by county.