A Message from Steve K...06/05/2023

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Date: 06/05/2023

Topics in This Issue:

• In Memory of Donovan Durband 

• In Memory of Ray Armstrong

• Monterey Court 

• Refugee Donations

• RTA Update 

• Tucson Plastic Program

• PFAS and other water issues

  • ...Other Water Topics

  • ...Ornamental Turf Ban

  • ...Requirement for WaterSense labeled products

  • ...Sustainable Tucson

• Presidio Graduate School Energy Survey

• Stinknet 

• Parks and Rec

• Armory Park Improvements

In Memory of Donovan Durband

I began working with Donovan prior to the 2009 city council election. A few things about Donovan were immediately clear – he brought a passion for a successful and thriving downtown and surrounding area, he was actively walking out that passion, and through his work he had developed numerous strong connections with people similarly focused on the revitalization of Tucson. It was for those reasons that I asked him to join our original ward 6 office team back in ‘09.

Donovan stayed with our team for a few years before accepting the position of running what was then the Park Wise operation in the city transportation department. It kept him directly tied to development in the downtown and 4^th Avenue core and he was able to capitalize on the relationships he had developed over the years. My staff and I have stayed in direct contact with Donovan on a regular basis and we were heartbroken last weekend to hear of his passing.

I am working with Donovan’s wife Erin and many of those with whom he had close relationships to put together a memorial celebration of his life. Details to follow – his loss will be felt widely. I will always remember and appreciate his contributions to my work, the work coming from the ward 6 team and the contributions he made to a thriving and vibrant downtown.

In Memory of Ray Armstrong

Earlier this month the community lost a guy who was an inspiration to thousands. Ray Armstrong was known throughout the arts, music and community advocacy circles. He was responsible for initiating open mic evenings that are and will continue to be held at the El Rio golf clubhouse. Ray’s musical talents included guitar, piano and wind instruments. Ray also founded the annual Barrio Art Show that’s held at the El Rio Community Center.  A resident of west side Barrio Hollywood, Ray served as a mentor to many activists throughout the valley. His walk was finally ended by cancer, but not before he touched the lives of many many people, leaving us better for his having been a part of who we are.

Barrio Hollywood hosts First Friday open mic at the El Rio clubhouse (1400 W. Speedway.) They begin at 6pm. Join next month in support of Ray’s family and his legacy.

Monterey Court

While the Arizona Inn starts their summer maintenance work in the Audubon Lounge, this Saturday, June 10th, I’ve been given the opportunity to share a set on the Monterey Court stage. The event will run from noon until 3pm. From noon until about 1pm they’re having a trio called the Cochise County All Stars play tunes. Their genre is Americana – some light rock. At 1 there’ll some speakers and I’m on at 2pm. You’ll hear covers from Elton John, Ed Sheeran, some light country and Clapton. All over the place – as much as I can squeeze in an hour.

The event will be emceed by Miguel Ortega. He worked with Ray Armstrong on establishing the First Friday open mic events out at El Rio. Many of you will also remember Miguel from his days as chief of staff in the ward 3 office. He was out and about regularly doing his constituent service work – it's in his DNA so I know his name will be familiar to lots of community members.

Monterey Court is a very cool venue – it'd be great to see you there to enjoy some music, food, drink and community. It’s an historic hotel remodeled and repurposed into a unique and comfortable entertainment venue. They’re located at 505 W. Miracle Mile.

Refugee Donations

Thank you to all who have already brought by some of the cooking supplies we’re gathering for the Feed the Kids project. The local non-profit is working with schools right now, providing the ingredients for healthy meals on a Friday so the kids and their families don’t have to go hungry over the weekend. Even with school out the program continues its work. Thanks are due to the Kaimas Foundation for offering a matching grant of $10,000. Later in June we’ll be hosting an event that I’ll post in the newsletter where the ‘kids’ will be here preparing one of the healthy meals that are a part of the program. Stay tuned.

We at the ward 6 office are joining Steven Cota-Robles – founder of the family food project – in gathering useful kitchen equipment that will be donated to the families in need who come into the FTK program. What we’re asking for needs to be new and unused.  Here’s a list of the most-needed items:

• Frying pans (preferably non-stick)
• Sauce pans of all sizes
• Roasting pans
• Baking sheets
• Colanders
• Wooden spoons
• Spatulas
• Mixing bowls
• Kitchen towels

Steven has made several great contacts within the food service industry through which he’s getting much of the food donated to the project. As the program expands, he’ll need to also expand that part of the operation. Please get ahold of us at the ward 6 office if you can help at the food end.

We continue our weekly collection of items for the people who arrive at the Casa Alitas welcome center. With the heat now on us it’s important that we get the things we’re used to in our daily lives in the desert – sunscreen, lotions, soaps, and other hygiene products. And the need for new underclothes, caps, shoelaces, belts, sneakers sizes 9-13 – all of that is needed as Alitas continues receiving over 500 new arrivals every day.

I rotate watching the ABC and NBC nightly national news. Last week they both had segments on the absolutely unbearable conditions the people in Haiti are experiencing. Regular citizens are caught in the middle of turf battles. There’s virtually no employment, schools are closed, and people are starving. If you’d like to get involved with Haiti relief, I pulled this site from one of the ABC broadcasts.

Haiti Relief – www.wfpusa.org/abchaiti

RTA Update

The current RTA ½ cent sales tax assessment ends in 2026. I’ve written several times about the status of the effort to build a new RTA plan to put back in front of the voters. Much of the work is frustrating. And much of the frustration is coming from the RTA staff controlling dialogue at our Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) level. It seems that if citizens are the ones who’ll need to approve a new plan the RTA leadership would be savvy enough to not alienate the citizen advisory council. But over and over they seem to be tone deaf to that reality.

The latest example is an attempt by CAC members to get a creative conversation going at the CAC level about what the next RTA might look like. One of the things the CAC is charged with doing is to recommend an RTA Next package to the full RTA board. Ultimately, it’ll be that board that decides what hits the ballot, but the process of getting there involves citizen input through the CAC. Or maybe more accurately, it should involve citizen input through the CAC.

This table shows the budget of the current RTA – how the various pots of money were voted to be spent back in 2006.

Original RTA

Note a few things about that budget. One is there’s no money for road maintenance. Without that, RTA Next doesn’t have a prayer. And there’s no ‘debt service/Admin’ because they hadn’t started any work yet, so it was a learn as you go approach. The major categories your ½ cent are buying are road widening and transit. And they’ve run short of money.

This next chart shows how the RTA staff is proposing RTA Next funds be reallocated. Above I said the current RTA is short on funds to complete the first round of projects. That’s the “Undelivered RTA 1 Projects” line at $230M.

Note also that they’re now proposing $100M for debt service, small business and administrative costs. And they want another $100M as a slush fund to use however the board decides. That alone would become a major ‘talking point’ in the runup to any RTA Next election. And inquiring minds would like to know what portion of the admin/debt svc/small business $100M is going to administration costs.

Another point of note on the staff proposal is that it doesn’t modify any of the original spending categories. They’re proposing more go to roadways, less to transit and nothing for road repair. For me that’s beyond being a non-starter, but as you’ll see below the citizen group wants to shift the conversation.

This chart is driven by the citizen advisory group. You’ll see the shift in not only priorities, but also the addition of other categories for spending (‘categorical elements.’) They’ve split out ‘public transit’ (the bus system) from ‘active transit’ (bike/ped), added money for road repair and added money for upgrades to the technology used in things such as signalization control.

The problem is the RTA leadership won’t post this proposal to the RTA website so the public can see it. There’s value in an open and transparent exchange of ideas. That’s evidently not something some of the RTA jurisdictions and RTA management agree with. Otherwise they’d have posted the alternative proposal and put it on the CAC agenda for open discussion.

The issue is the director won’t allow the CAC to post the discussion items on the RTA site, alleging that only staff-driven proposals can be made public. In fact, they regularly post items created by ADOT and other non-RTA agencies. The ‘rule’ is yet another invention inserted into what should be a very public conversation about options being considered as a final RTA Next plan is prepared for voter approval.

Tucson Plastic Program

This is Lisa – Catalina Vista resident who along with her sister Kristina is delivering just 3 days’ worth of plastic they’ve gathered from a variety of locations around the neighborhood. A full trunk in 3 days. It’s all day, every day at the ward 6 rolloff. I’ll share the current totals below.

But before I get to the numbers, I’ll share some progress being made on the 600 sq/ft house being built with ByBlocks up in Flagstaff. Many of you ask if the material can be used for tiny homes. Yes, and homes larger than ‘tiny.’

Art Babbott is a member of the Azulita Project up in Coconino County. His group has been following all of our work with ByFusion and keeping the northern Arizona residents up to speed through their facebook page. Here’s their link: 

https://www.facebook.com/AzulitaProject/

If you go to that page you’ll be able to see a short video in which Art is showing the house construction progress. I poached a few images for you.

The house will be 600 sq/ft, 2-bedroom, 1 bath. If you’ve been involved with any of our local builds you know about the threaded steel rods that slide through the blocks, securing them together. In each of these pictures you can see them poking through the double layer top rail.

The house is of course sitting on a slab. The post-tension rods are secured into a footer at the foundation level. When many of you ask about building a structure, I note that, as is true of any building material there’ll be a structural element. Going vertical with the blocks is the easy part.

Here’s a better shot of how the block wall will be cinched together, secured and the roof will be installed. Credit to the Coconino County board and building officials for seeing the environmental benefits of building with the ByBlocks. And credit to Art for being at the forefront of using this non-traditional building material and method on his project. I’ll share the finished product pictures once the work is done.

Each of the other 2 drop off locations are now generating just above a ½ ton of plastic per week. We’re still getting more than that every day. All totaled now the program has generated 105.12 tons of plastic. That’s over 200,000 pounds diverted from the landfill. Every ton of plastic releases roughly 3 tons of greenhouse gas equivalents. So, through your participation there has been over 300 tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided at the landfill. And Art’s house alone is diverting nearly 20 tons of GHG from the environment.

Work continues on design for several local projects. I’m involved with weekly planning meetings with ByFusion. There’s a lot going on behind the 22’ rolloff you see each time you come by the office.

PFAS and other water issues

It was good to see state attorney general Mayes initiate a suit against 3M, DuPont and other PFAS manufacturers last week. The state is late to the game but with the change in administrations up in Phoenix we’ve finally got a partner in the court action. Having them add their weight to our own ongoing litigation could be of value in expediting a resolution.

Here’s a graphic I pulled from KVOA’s story on the state filing their lawsuit. It shows AG Mayes’ statement concerning the prior knowledge 3M and others had regarding the impacts of PFAS.

She’s right. When 3M was sued by the state of Minnesota during discovery for that trial internal 3M documents were revealed that made it perfectly clear the leadership of that company had guilty knowledge the chemicals they were putting out into the marketplace were toxic. As I say in Eric Fink’s story, they put profits ahead of people. Here’s his full story:

https://www.kvoa.com/news/local/state-of-arizona-suing-manufacturing-giants-linked-to-pfas/article_e1a173ca-ff77-11ed-8c2d-6f4c1e074aea.html

During our interview I said to Eric that my hope is by having the state jump into the litigation 3M would see the financial avalanche headed their way and decide settling would be the prudent way out. That’s what happened in Minnesota. 3M settled for $850M. Here’s a link to a story that ran when that settlement was announced. https://3msettlement.state.mn.us/

Last week the NYTimes ran an article in which these were the opening lines: Three major chemical companies on Friday said they would pay more than $1 billion to settle the first in a wave of claims that they and other companies contaminated drinking water across the country with so-called forever chemicals that have been linked to cancer and other illnesses.

The companies — Chemours, DuPont and Corteva — said they had reached an agreement in principle to set up a $1.19 billion fund to help remove toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from public drinking water systems.

Back in mid-2018 I had contact with a public official back in New York whose county was involved with litigation against 3M and other chemical manufacturers. He put me in touch with their litigation team, Napoli and Skolnick. Through a series of exchanges, I facilitated a meeting with that legal team, then mayor Rothschild, our city attorney, water director and me. The result of that meeting was the M&C in December of ‘18 joining the ongoing litigation against the product manufacturers. Here’s a Star story Joe Ferguson wrote about our taking that action. In it I’m quoted as saying they had known the chemical was toxic for years, and that it was 3M’s obligation to make it as though the pollutant had never infiltrated our aquifer. That’s still true.

https://tucson.com/news/local/tucson-city-council-votes-to-sue-3m-other-manufacturers-over-contaminated-wells/article_dae15cc7-14db-511f-9795-eecfb3098627.html

It was encouraging to see 3M and the other product manufacturers come forward last week and suggest bailing out with a settlement was the right thing to do. They’re not doing it through some revelation that their actions historically have been unethical. Rather their shareholders are seeing the massive litigation efforts piling up against the company and seeing the prudent financial move is to use settlement as an escape hatch.

Tucson Water has over $50M already invested or committed to the Tucson PFAS problem. That’s the tip of the iceberg. Even what’s being talked about as a 3M/DuPont settlement won’t truly address the issue nationwide. There are also federal bills coming down the pipeline that have remediation dollars tied to them. Addressing what’s known as a ‘forever chemical’ has by definition long term costs involved. I’m proud to have been the council catalyst for getting us into the litigation ring. It looks like we might end up winning by TKO sooner than it would have taken to win by a decision if a full trial would have been necessary.

...other water topics

This week a group called CoderDojo is partnering with Watershed Management Group and presenting an opportunity for youth to explore making the most of our Tucson water supply. CoderDojo is focused on teaching young people how to write computer programs (‘Code’) in teams (‘Dojo’). Through this 7-week summer workshop they’ll give youth ages 7-17 the chance to work together and learn about water sense using data collection, stories, games and other applications.

The series starts today – it's not too late to get your kids signed up though. These lessons and activities are going to be presented in a combined online and in-person format. You can sign up for one, or any number of the workshops being offered. Each session will run from 9am until noon, Monday through Friday for the next 7 weeks – with a week off for the July 4^th holiday. Go to their website linked below to learn more about CoderDojoTucson does, and to register for this water focused program.

 (coderdojotucson.com)

...Ornamental Turf Ban

Late last year M&C asked staff to study a series of water conservation measures and bring back some suggestions. One of the items is a proposed ban on what we’re calling ‘ornamental turf.’ It’s the non-functional eye candy too many developments have in their common areas or along public rights of way. Much of what exists is legacy turf – having been a part of prior development packages. On Tuesday we’ll hold a public hearing to get your thoughts on prohibiting ornamental turf in all new residential and commercial development.

Staff is recommending we change our development code landscape standards so that any new development would be prevented from including in their plan:

• Grass areas with any single dimension of 8’ or less
• Grass areas exceeding a 25% slope
• Grass areas that are not accessible by a paved pathway and/or are restricted by some sort of physical barrier that restricts accessibility
• Grass areas installed closer than 10’ to a street and/or front entryway to residential neighborhoods or subdivisions unless that turf is being used for recreational purposes
• Grass areas that are not used for active recreational purposes.

Functional turf – any grass area not covered by one of those listed prohibitions – is still allowed. In addition, there is a carve out for turf areas on school grounds, parks, dog parks, golf courses – areas typically used for recreational purposes.

The public hearing will take place during our evening session.

...Requirement for WaterSense labeled products

If you go to an appliance or plumbing store you will be hard-pressed to find a fixture or appliance that is not labled WaterSense. The EPA sponsored a voluntary program over 15 years ago through which water efficient products can receive that certification. The standard is that those fixtures use at least 20% less water than a ‘regular’ fixture. These days the WaterSense products have virtually become the ‘regular’ fixtures.

On Tuesday we’re hosting a public hearing to get input on changing our code to require WaterSense certified fixtures for all new development. There are both cost and water savings to the customer, and at some point, in development use of these products may result in having to install smaller capacity water lines to a project. This chart shows a few examples of what’s being proposed:

Staff advises me that in their outreach to the development community they haven’t gotten any push back on this proposal since pretty much all fixtures being spec’d for new development is already using these products. Spoiler alert – this, and the ornamental turf items should be slam dunks on Tuesday.

...Sustainable Tucson

And I’m happy to take part in this week’s Sustainable Tucson panel – a very timely discussion about heat and resiliency. UA sustainability director Trevor Ledbetter will be on the call to talk about what the UA is doing to prepare for extreme heat events. I’ll share some thoughts on city preparedness and Joe Barrios from TEP will bring the utility’s perspective on protecting the grid and building resilience.

The session is being titled “The New Normal – how TEP and the city are adapting to increasing heat, and what we can to do be prepared.” I’d add the UA to that list as well.

You need to register for the event in advance. It will be held via zoom.  Please use this link to do that. Register here

The discussion will be on Wednesday, June 7th at 6pm. We are going to keep things real, and civil.

Presidio Graduate School Energy Survey

On the heels of those energy/environment-related items I’m sharing a link to a survey being conducted through the Presidio Graduate School Sustainable Solutions program. One goal of the survey is to gauge the public’s appetite for Community Choice Energy – a program through which consumers would have options for selecting sources of their energy supply beyond the existing utility. Even advocates concede there are legal challenges in Arizona preventing its adoption right now, but the survey is geared to testing for whether the concept might have legs at all. If so there’s work to be done at the state and Corporation Commission levels initially.

The plan is for the survey to stay live through the summer, and then to begin conversations with interested stakeholders based on the results. It’s an early step in the conversation. The survey only takes a few minutes to complete. Please use this link to get your thoughts included:  (linked here).  

Stinknet

Thanks to those of you who read the newsletter with a critical eye. Last week, relying on a link sent to me by city staff I included a photo of what in that article was purported to be a stinknet weed. In fact, it wasn’t and some of you noted that. Here’s the accurate picture of what to look for when identifying the invasive weed.

And this link has pictures of the weed at various stages of its development along with an extensive report on the issue we’re facing.

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1827-2020.pdf

If you see it starting to flourish please reach out to Ben Tully  at the UA Pima County Ag Extension and give him the locations. He can walk you through proper eradication protocols.

Parks and Rec

Now that our parks staff has filled the lifeguard positions they’re announcing this year’s  Summer Poolooza.

Summer Poolooza is a series of free pool parties that will be held at various pools spread across the city. The Ready, Set, Rec vans will be at each party along with other games, food, music and of course pool fun. Please remember your sunscreen and show up expecting to have a great time with your neighbors at each of these events. Here’s the Poolooza schedule:

Thursday, June 8, 5:30-7:30 p.m.   Udall Pool, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road.

Wednesday, June 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m. El Pueblo Pool, 5100 S. Missiondale Road.

Saturday, June 24, 5-7 p.m. “Welcome to the Jungle” Edith Ball Adaptive Recreation Center, 3455 E Zoo Court. 

Saturday, July 1, 4-7 p.m. “Red, White & Blue Splash Bash” Mansfield Pool, 2275 N. 4th Ave.

Tuesday, July 4, 7-10 p.m. “Red, White & Blue Spectacular” Archer Pool, 1665 S. La Cholla Blvd. *Registration is required keep an eye on the website for details to register

Thursday, July 13, 5:30-7:30 p.m. (Red, White, Blue Splash Bash) Clements Pool, 8155 E. Poinciana Drive

Thursday, July 20, 5:30-7:30 p.m.   Freedom Pool, 5000 E. 29th St.

Tuesday, July 25, 5:30-7:30 p.m.  Oury Pool, 665 N. Hughes St.

Armory Park Improvements

Through Prop 407 Armory Park was targeted to have over $1.5M in upgrades. Our parks staff is beginning public outreach to share early concepts and to gather input for what these capital improvements might include.

This survey only takes a few minutes. It’s one piece of the public outreach that’s just now starting related to the Armory Park projects. None of the changes being funded through this 407 programs will affect improvements happening within the Armory Park Senior Center or within the Children’s Museum.

If you’d like more detailed information on Prop 407 and Armory Park in particular you can  get it at this link:   tucsondelivers.tucsonaz.gov/pages/armorypark.

And on another parks-related note, there are several activities coming to midtown throughout June. You’ll find some with a kid focus, some all ages can enjoy, and some will be informational meetings talking about how the 29^th Street Thrive effort is moving along. This list has all the dates, times, and a description of the activities.

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