A Message from Steve K...05/01/2023

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Date: 05/01/2023

Topics in This Issue:

• Environmental Excellence Awards

• RWB Old Glory Relay 

• Soul Box Display

• Budget Survey 

• Refugee Donations

• CHRPA

• Plastic Program

• Wednesdays at the Inn

• F35 Flyover 

• Community Court

• Sex Trafficking

• Stormwater Basins

• UA Architecture College and Plan Tucson

• Vail Incorporation     

• Ready, Set, Rec Dates 

Environmental Excellence Awards

Last weekend the city took home some hardware during the Arizona Forward Environmental Excellence Awards ceremony. Arizona Forward is a group that was formed over 50 years ago with the purpose of looking for solutions to a variety of sustainability issues. They cover everything from architecture to art, water conservation, and municipal development patterns. Their members include people from industry, construction, architecture, education – a wide array of people whose focus for this event was on a variety of categories in consideration of the environment.

Categories included in the awards were the built environment, educating about the environment, healthy communities, natural environment preservation, art – they had 14 different categories with finalists chosen to be invited to the Scottsdale event on Saturday night.

One Tucson winning program is our partnership with the county on “Stacking Stormwater Solutions.” Two weekends ago I shared with the Watershed Management Group about our local and regional challenges with respect to water security. Also at the event were Blue Baldwin from the city and Deirdre Brosnihan from the county. They teamed up during that meeting to share about how the city and county are working together on stormwater runoff solutions. Their work was honored with an Award of Distinction in the Buildings, Structures and Landscape Design category. If you’d like to see an example of this collaboration, check out our Seneca Park at Dodge and Seneca. That success story began with the Palo Verde neighborhood leadership initiating contact with then Supervisor Richard Elias to get the project moving. It’s a great addition to the area.

Also winning an award last weekend was the city’s E.V. Readiness Roadmap. That set of policy changes won a Crescordia Award from Arizona Forward in the Climate Action Solutions category. Assistant City Manager Tim Thomure was at the event along with Fatima Luna from the mayor’s office and Koren Manning from our planning department to receive the award. This is a set of policy changes that our planning team did a bunch of outreach on, eventually bringing us a package that had some detractors. The recognition by Arizona Forward validates the importance of the E.V. policy additions to our local code.

In the Circular Economy Solutions category the Ward 6 Glass and Plastic Reuse project won statewide recognition. This combination of projects began about 3 years ago with me crushing one bottle at a time in the ward office garage. Fast forward to today and we’ve of course added partnerships with Bottle Rocket (you see the crushed glass tops on our planter at the ward office and on benches at the Children’s Museum) and with ByFusion in the plastic reuse part of the project. Many of you will recognize Heidi from BF – she flew in from L.A. to take part in the event.

I’ll give the weekly update on the progress of the plastic program below in this newsletter. But I wanted to open by sharing that your participation in this program – bringing your plastics to the ward office and seeing the ByBlocks that are being produced from it has been recognized as the statewide winner of the Arizona Forward Environmental Excellence award focused on zero waste and creative solutions in the circular economy space.

Thank you to all who continue to take part in the glass and plastic programs. Stop by and take a peek at the trophy you’ve helped us bring home to Tucson. As I said to the crowd gathered at the event, ‘watch what we’re doing in Tucson. Every city in the country should be following our lead.’

RWB Old Glory Relay

Last week I was honored to take part once again in the Team Red White Blue flag relay in support of our veterans. The flag began in Seattle and over 50 days will be walked, run, or biked to Atlanta. The event is meant to highlight the grit and determination our veterans demonstrate every day in defense of our nation’s values. This year was of particular importance to me because I was able to run with two women whose stories highlight local heros. 

Here’s a photo of me running into Armory Park with Joanna – the sister of Deborah Martinez-Garibay. She’s the constable – and the veteran – who was recently shot and killed while performing her duties as a Pima County Constable. While we were running Joanna and I spoke about the loss to not only the family, but to the community more generally. We reflected on the great turnout – a huge show of respect – that Deb got during her memorial service. 

Below, you see me handing the flag off to Marsha Moon. She’s the Gold Star mother of local hero Chris Moon. Chris was a former Tucson High School baseball star who was killed in action during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2010. Marsha continues to honor the service and sacrifice her son gave for our country by biking in the RWB Old Glory relay. She was joined on her leg of the relay by some of the Tucson High baseball team members – a very cool touch by our local youth.

The guy in the middle is local hero, WWII veteran and owner of Miller Surplus – Don Sloane. Don took part in the ceremony by receiving the flag from Joanna and Deb’s family as we arrived in Armory Park. It was great to have him up front being honored for his dedication to what our nation stands for. 

Many thanks to Dominica Christian for organizing the event, and to TPDer Margo Susco for shepherding the activities at Armory while Dominica was en route with the flag running down from Marana. Please check out the Old Glory website to see ways you can follow the flag as it makes its way to Atlanta, and most importantly how you can actively support our veterans.  www.oldgloryrelay.org 

Soul Box Display 

In Arizona there are 98 men, women and children killed with a gun every month. Of those roughly 69% are suicides. Hundreds more are injured, and they each carry physical and psychological scars with them for life.

In Arizona you are allowed to buy military style assault weapons for cash from the trunk of a stranger’s car in a grocery store parking lot.

For the next 3 weeks we will have displayed in the ward 6 community room Soul Boxes. Each box represents a person who was killed by gun violence. We’ve got 14 panels hung, each with 98 boxes to depict the Arizona monthly body count.

This panel is the first one you’ll see as you walk into the community room. The 6 Tucsonans who were killed in the January 8^th shooting are shown in a column of yellow boxes.

This picture shows our wall in our ward 6 community room showing 1/2 of the display.

The annual Wear Orange event is coming – details to follow. But take a moment and check out the Soul Boxes next time you visit our office. We’ve got flyers that explain the project prepared by the local Mom’s chapter on the entry table for you to take and read.

Budget Survey

You’ve got just two days left if you’d like to submit your priorities for the imaginary City budget through the survey we’re running. This has been up now for about 3 weeks and the closing day for submitting your input is May 3^rd. I’ll review the results and have them fresh in mind as we close the FY’24 budget talks at M&C.

At this point in the survey, we’ve gotten more than 1,600 responses. The top 3 vote getters so far are Public Safety (police, fire, 911) with “other - roads” and water being next in line.  Here’s a link to the survey: tinyurl.com/ward6survey.  We’re asking one simple question – with an imaginary $100, how would you prioritize spending it on city services.

Also, don't forget the drawing we’ll be having at the end of the survey; two $100 Tucson Originals gift cards that will be selected by my team. For that please provide your contact information along with your survey.

Refugee Donations

Each week I title this section ‘Refugee Donations.’ That’s a holdover from the vast amount of work we’ve done at the ward 6 office in support of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants generally. Through your donations we’ve touched the lives of thousands of people coming across from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, Cuba – all over central and south America. We’ve touched the hundreds of families arriving from Afghanistan.  Last week we joined in celebrating the birth of one little girl whose family we had a significant hand in reuniting – the judge and his wife Nilofar.

And through your donations we’ve been able to support the important work Jean Fedigan is doing at the Sister Jose women’s shelter. This photo shows just how important that work really is – last week Jean was honored to be recognized for her Sister Jose service by the pope at the Vatican. Many of you will also recognize Bishop Kicanas in the background. He’s another of our locals who is committed to serving those in need in our community.

I share this photo because all of you who have been a part of donating to our work at ward 6 share in Jean’s recognition. Nobody flies solo in any of this kind of work. All donors should be proud that your help is being noticed all the way over in Rome. Thanks for your help in making a difference! 

We need hygiene products, sunscreen, lotions, shampoo, toothpaste/brushes, new socks and underclothes and kid’s toys. Please continue to bring in your donations. We continue to be amazed by and appreciative of your willingness to give in support of those you may only see on the news as a part of large groups of people. In fact, your donations go to individuals who are thankful on the most personal of levels.

CHRPA 

With those in need in mind, and with the heat about to smack us, I want to remind you of the great work being done by CHRPA – Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona. Find them at http://www.chrpaz.org/

The ward 6 office has offered up several thousands of dollars to CHRPA’s work, specifying that we’d prefer their assistance go to seniors living alone in ward 6. In our more recent donation to them we simply said to help those most in need.

Here’s an example of the work CHRPA’s staff and volunteers do. This is the before and after of a bathroom remodel done for a senior in midtown. You can imagine the gratitude shown at the end of the job.

CHRPA does home repairs and remodels, safety features like the grab bars you see in the photo, and they help make homes accessible for people with disabilities. If you know of someone who could use some help before we get into the 100-degree temps, please reach out to Scott and his CHRPA team to see if they can be of assistance.

Plastic Program

As I noted above, on Saturday my bride and I joined Heidi from ByFusion and several city staffers up in Scottsdale for the annual Arizona Forward awards. The plastics/crushed glass work we’ve done out of the ward 6 office was nominated, and in fact won the statewide award for environmental excellence in addressing a circular economy. Thanks, are 100% due to Jamie Galayda from Tucson Water for putting together the entry package.

Last week I pulled the annuals from our planter here at the ward office and replaced them with cactus clippings that came from my own yard. We’ll watch them grow together. The chili’s in the back are starting to get new growth. Once we get these established the watering needs will drop to about nil. It’s another fun change at ward 6 that we’re happy to share with all who come by the office.

Also in last weeks in the newsletter I had a picture of the new planter and bench we installed at the Children’s Museum. I also had a picture of how the Tucson Verde Rotary was all-in on collecting plastic. This is a picture of the TV Rotary at their booth at last weekend’s Earth Day celebration at the Children’s Museum. Guess what they highlighted?

In addition to the plastics program, TV Rotary had educational material for the kids about recycling in general, and even a demonstration showing composting with worms. We’re happy to see the community continue advocating for the plastics program. The final agreement we’re going to approve with ByFusion should be on the May 9^th evening session agenda. Once we have that in place it’ll be full steam ahead on getting them up and running in Tucson. In the meantime, we’ll keep pushing out the word through the ward office. Thanks again to Barbara from TV Rotary for sharing this picture with me.

Here’s the work in progress of the raised planter out at the Little Community Garden. They decided to expand the plot a bit, so we’ll be adding more blocks to their work this coming week.

Barbara Warren, director of the Arizona Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility shared an article that included ways to avoid using plastic in our lives. I’ve shared some ideas in previous newsletters but had not thought of these cooking/food related ones. I’m not the world’s most proficient cook (2 minutes in a microwave and I’m done) so if you want more on these, you’ll need to check some of the links I’m including.

One idea is to make your own flour tortillas and avoid carrying a dozen of them home in a plastic bag. Check out  this simple recipe.

The very same idea applies to baking your own bread. Doesn’t it smell great when you have it going in your home? There are several recipes at easy bread to choose from.

How about for you tea drinkers? Not only does  making homemade herbal teas  save on the packaging where the bulk of what’s used is plastic, but you can add ingredients to create your own blends.

And finally, veggie burgers – I’m a vegetarian so some form of these is usually in our freezer. They’re always packaged in plastic. Here are some links to make your own with:

• Easy Grillable Veggie Burgers
• NYT Cooking’s “The Ultimate Veggie Burger”
• The Perfect Veggie Burger Formula (to use what you already have)

And a final note in this section – related to the environment, but not directly on plastic. Sustainable Tucson is hosting a series of mini-online training sessions this week related to how you can best prepare for the upcoming heat. It’s a part of their Building a Resilient Neighborhood (BaRN) program. The sessions will run today at 3pm, Tuesday at 5pm and on Wednesday at 7pm. The takeaway will be to prepare your own household, and to check in with neighbors on preparedness for the hot temperatures that will soon hit.

You can find more on the program, and register at this link: https://samhughes.org/building-a-more-resilient-neighborhood/  And for more information contact Stuart at stuart@sustainabletucson.org. 

Wednesdays at the Inn

With neighbors on the mind – last Wednesday at the Inn we had groups from Catalina Vista, Blenman Elm, Broadmoor/Broadway, Miramonte, Potter Place and 2 groups who came in from the foothills – all to enjoy the ambience of the Audubon Lounge with some music added in. It’s great to see people coming out in support of the Inn as they work to get back on their feet post-COVID.    I’ll be playing each Wednesday in May from 5pm until 8pm. Bring a friend and relax with some down time. Thanks to those who have come to be a part of these evenings. I look forward to seeing you again through May. The Arizona Inn is on Elm between Tucson Blvd and Campbell.

F35 Flyover

If you live in the midtown area you should know this Sunday, May 7^th there’s a flyover scheduled that will include 2 F35’s and some F16’s. We know the 16’s are loud – we hear them all the time. The F35’s are considerably louder, and in fact the DOD decided Tucson was not a good location for basing a squadron due in part to the bases proximity to residential areas. I’d add that the approach/departure flight path goes directly over the zoo, residential areas and the UA so I concur with the DOD’s conclusion.

The flyover is associated with a UA baseball game. The athletics department did not reach out to me – I learned about this through another UA source whose work is getting more and more community based. Here’s the text of the Release sent out last week:

From: Gleason, Brett - (brettgleason) <brettgleason@arizona.edu> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2023 2:02 PM To: Gleason, Brett - (brettgleason) <brettgleason@arizona.edu> Subject: F-35 and F-16 Joint Flyover Scheduled for May 7 at Hi Corbett Field

FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE

April 26, 2023

Contact: Brett Gleason (509.339.5979)

F-35 and F-16 Joint Flyover Scheduled for May 7 at Hi Corbett Field

TUCSON, Ariz. — Arizona Baseball, in coordination with officials from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, will proudly host a flyover at Hi Corbett Field on Sunday, May 7 as part of the program's Military Appreciation Weekend festivities.

The flyover will consist of two F-35 Lightning IIs and two F-16 Fighting Falcons, while the flight and ground crews will consist of a mix of graduates from the University of Arizona and the United States Air Force Academy.

Tickets for the flyover game on Sunday, May 7 can be purchased by visiting ArizonaWildcats.com/BSB or by calling 520-621-CATS.

Stay tuned for additional details surrounding Military Appreciation Weekend against Air Force May 5-7 including first pitch ceremonies, national anthem performances, and more.

Brett Gleason Associate Director, Communication Services (BSB/FB/S&D) O: (520) 621-0917 | C: (509) 339-5979 | @brett_gleason

Brett is obviously relatively new to the area. Give him a call and introduce yourself if this item is of interest to you.

Community Court

Also known as ‘homeless court.’ Some of us on the M&C have been asking for a specialty court to be established that would provide some leverage to better compel people into the treatment they need other than simply ‘catch and release’ and putting another offense on your record. Doing that does nothing to address the underlying issues that surround homelessness. On May 19^th our city court system will implement a pilot of Community Court. The initial trial area will encompass the 85701 and the 85705 zip codes. Included in that area are parts of wards 1, 3 and 6.

Tucson Police assisted in identifying the target areas based on infraction data they’ve compiled. This area will provide sufficient defendants to test the effectiveness of the court process. This trial period fits in with an otherwise ongoing grant funded effort to reassess the effectiveness of our entire specialty court structure. The funding is a roughly 3-year, half million-dollar Justice Assistance Grant provided by the Justice and Mental Health Collaborative.

 Many homeless people are cited for relatively low-level crimes. The citation is just a citation. It does nothing to address the underlying issues the person is dealing with. The result is repeat offenses, a longer record being developed and the person falling farther away from an opportunity to change their life for the better. Everybody loses. Community Court will be a voluntary diversion program where if the person succeeds in completing it all in their charges will be dismissed.

The kinds of charges eligible for being included in this pilot program will be things such as these:

People who are arrested within the geographic boundary of the pilot will be offered a spot in the diversion, and with that an opportunity to have charges dismissed and a shot at getting back on their feet. This map shows the boundary for the program – the red dotted line:

Credit our city court staff for including this in the internal study they’re conducting related to our specialty courts. We’ll soon see how effective this is in addressing the needs of the unhoused people you see around. One principle – you've got to want to, or change isn’t going to happen. Hopefully this is a carrot enough to attract participants.

Sex Trafficking

Our hope in sponsoring the recent sex trafficking forums was to provide a valuable education piece for the community, and to bring agencies together so some productive information-sharing could result.  Thanks to the presentation offered by Dominique Roe Sepowitz from the ASU school of public health the education box was checked. And in the aftermath of the forum, we’ve met with police leadership and will be working together to facilitate a cross-agency information-sharing meeting.

Internally TPD is responding to the data shared at the forum by taking some very productive steps. Over the next several months the sex trafficking function will be moved into the Criminal Investigation Division of the department. Included under that umbrella are a Special Victims unit, Child Sexual Assault unit and a Sex Offender unit. Those investigation efforts working together will make the sex trafficking detective work far more effective than we’ve seen in the past. This is one more step in the internal restructuring work chief Kasmar has been working on since being appointed just over a year ago. Change doesn’t happen overnight.

In addition to moving the responsibility TPD will be adding 7 detectives plus some non-commissioned personnel to the CID work. Some employees who work for agencies that refer victims to TPD have already reached out asking about the new positions. That’s a positive. It’s tough filling law enforcement positions so having people actually reaching out and inquiring is good.

Our next step will be to help facilitate that inter-agency meeting where the goal will be to look at gaps that right now exist in the reporting process, streamline that so victims’ cases aren’t lost in the system. My staff and I are hopeful, and we’re grateful for the responsiveness we’ve observed from all the agency partners. People care about these victims. Our hope and goal are to help put systems into place through which perpetrators are caught and victims are helped and protected.

Trafficked youth have travelled some tough life roads. These data are from Dominique’s presentation. This is what we’re trying to address with these forums and inter-agency meetings. 

More to come on this.

Stormwater Basins

Because of the very nice rains we had in March the stormwater basins outside of our office have seen some significant growth. Then April hit – zero rain so things have gotten dry. Our Storm 2 Shade staff monitor basins all over the city and by the time you read this they’ll have been to our place and spruced them up a bit. We at the ward 6 office appreciate the fact that they’ve had this maintenance responsibility for just under a year, they’re still staffing up, they suffered some family emergency issues that have affected schedules, and they’re still working out the kinks in scheduling work, rotating crews around to various parts of the city and playing catch up with the great growth we’re seeing. Storm 2 Shade is an extremely popular program. I’m working with several neighborhoods right now on basins. Instead of getting nasty on social media, enjoy the blooming Palo Verdes and have some faith that we see what you see and we’re on it.

Sustainable Living Tucson is starting a mini campaign in which they’re inviting people to take pictures of the basins they have in their yard or neighborhood and send them into the SLT website. Here’s a link:

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2023/04/love-my-rain-basin-campaign.html

Here are a couple of examples of what they’d like to receive. Notice that one of these isn’t particularly current – maybe back to March right after it had rained. The goal is to encourage more basins throughout the city so the stormwater we receive is captured and serves a positive purpose. 

The little photo site SLT is putting together is nice – the work of actually designing and building the basins is something our S2S team is doing in partnership with our office. We’re in regular touch helping to get catchments in at various locations, focused on midtown. 

Use this link to learn more about this program. https://climate-and-environmental-sustainability-action-hub-cotgis.hub.arcgis.com/pages/gsi   And reach out to us at the ward office if your neighborhood has an interest in this program.

UA Architecture College and Plan Tucson 

Vail Incorporation 

Another state law is in play with their incorporation vote. The proposed boundaries are within 6 miles of Tucson city limits. That means the city council must consent to the incorporation. We’ll take that vote during our May 9th meeting. We did this a few years ago and voted unanimously to allow the vote to go forward. I anticipate we’ll do that again this time around. Then it’ll be up to the Vail area residents to decide whether they want to form their own governing body and local ordinances or continue to be governed by the county. 

Ready, Set, Rec Dates 

Here’s your monthly clip-it piece of the newsletter. These are the dates, times and locations for the RSR van visiting ward 6 parks. Our parks staff does a great job of bringing this entertaining outdoor activity program. Please mark your calendar and take the whole family when the van arrives near your area. 

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