A Message from Steve K...09/25/2023

• John C. Scott

• Guns and Ukraine 

• End of Life Care 

• Walk to End Alzheimer’s 

• Yellow Brick Coffee

• Tucson Plastics Program

• Southern Arizona Animal Food Bank 

• Differential Water Rates 

• Differential Rates – Commercial Customers 

• Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) 

• The Mourning Project 

• Casa Cardo

• Ready, Set, Rec 

• Midway Village Plant & Seed Swap 

This is a bad trend. Last week it was my brother, Pete. A couple of weeks before that it was a tribute to Bill Buckmaster’s wife, Ann. This week we’ve lost local radio personality John C. Scott. He died in his sleep late last week. 

John was on the air for nearly a half century in this market. He served in the Arizona state legislature, my brother knew him ‘back in the day’ at the former KZAZ channel 11. The news crew included George Borozan and Gene Adelstein. This community has benefitted from John’s participation in the public sphere in so many ways. I had him on panels talking about issues including where we were as a society in the aftermath of the Trump election in ‘16. He was sharp and brought his own distinct experience into the discussions. 

Last year John lost his wife. Earlier this year he lost his daughter. Both weighed heavily on him – as anyone would expect. They’re somehow reunited now, and all are at a peace. John was a friend. I was honored to be the last guest he invited to be on his KVOI radio show. I will always treasure his friendship. 

Early on after Putin and Russia invaded Ukraine, I was working with community members and some law enforcement officials on how we might take firearms the city had for disposal and get them to Ukraine. I was also going to solicit donated weapons from the public. By disposal I mean selling through the internet. Remember our state legislature passed a law after the gun buy-back I organized that makes it illegal in Arizona to destroy a gun – even one that you might turn into the city for that exact purpose. Once it gets into the city’s possession, we have to either use it or sell it. 

The city of Phoenix did pass an ordinance that specifically authorized transferring guns to Ukraine. This involved taking guns that may have been used in crimes on the Phoenix streets or had otherwise come into the possession of the city and getting them out of circulation here and into the hands of the volunteer soldiers who are defending Ukraine. They had roughly 600 unclaimed firearms that were going to be sent over. Predictably two members of the fringe right in the Arizona state legislature filed a complaint with the state Attorney General saying that the ordinance was trumped by the state requirement that we sell guns back into circulation. You can thank Representatives Quang Nguyen and Selena Bliss (no small irony in her last name) for filing the complaint. 

Last week A.G. Mayes issued an opinion on the complaint. She ruled that the Phoenix ordinance does violate the state pre-emption on disposal of firearms and therefore the city is prevented from sending their unclaimed weapons to Ukraine. 

Russia began its current invasion of Ukraine in the middle of the night, February 24th, 2022. They’re a year and a half into the pointless, brutal and power-crazed daily murderous exercise. And in Arizona our legislature has successfully blocked any effort that I was hoping to implement, or that Phoenix did have on the books to aid the Ukrainian people with guns that are simply stockpiled in police departments in our respective cities. 

Attorney General Mayes isn’t the bad guy in this. In her summary of the decision, she cites Phoenix’s intent as “commendable.” In the news release announcing the decision she writes: 

 "While my office has determined that Phoenix's ordinance conflicts with state laws concerning firearm disposal, I am deeply troubled by these statutes. These laws are inflexible and frankly offensive to the victims of crime and communities affected by gun violence. The laws essentially mandate that confiscated firearms, most of which have been used in crimes, must be resold and put back on the streets. That is an insult to the survivors and victims of the original gun violence. These laws perpetuate a cycle where weapons are reintroduced into the very communities that have already been harmed by gun violence. The families of people who are murdered or maimed by gun violence should not have to live with the knowledge that those weapons are still on the streets.” 

 "The City of Phoenix tried to reduce the number of guns on its streets while simultaneously supporting the brave Ukrainians fighting for freedom in the face of Russian aggression. While the City’s intent here is commendable, the Legislature has chosen to prohibit this type of creative solution. Instead of filing complaints against cities like Phoenix, members of the legislature should focus on passing sensible gun legislation. Sound gun disposal legislation should aim to keep Arizonans safe while allowing local leaders to decide the best way to get rid of guns that have been used in the commission of a crime, based on what their communities need and want.”  

The roadblock to sensible gun reform in Arizona is no longer an AG who is bought and sold by the gun lobby. It’s the state legislature who has an expansive block on city’s rights to enact local laws that protect our residents from gun violence. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the success we’re having with Place Network Investigations. They’re targeted police actions aimed at locations experiencing high levels of gun violence. They’re costly, time and resource consuming. And that’s about the only tool we’ve got in the tool kit under the rules set in place by the state. 

Thanks to A.G. Mayes for the strong statement about gun violence and the state pre-emption. Nothing will significantly change until ARS 13.3108 is repealed. 

The End of Life Care Partnership is a coalition of organizations dedicated to educating and supporting individuals and families as they face hard end of life decisions. If you’ve got your fingers perched above the keyboard about to write me telling me I’m trying to ‘play God’ - don’t bother. Far too often the end is clear, inevitable, and the systems in place force families into emotionally and financially draining processes. We treat our pets with more end of life dignity than we are allowed to do with our loved ones. 

The United Way has brought together some wonderful and compassionate organizations to assist people during those hard decision times. And importantly to assist before the times get difficult so plans can be put into place ahead of time. Some of the partners include our friends David Fife and his team over at Roots and Roads Community Hospice Foundation, TMC, Banner’s Alzheimer’s Institute, the Dunbar Coalition, Catholic Community Services, Goodwill, Tu Nidito, Interfaith Community Services, and a bunch more. As you can see it’s a broad based coalition that can assist with all age ranges, and that can respect and work with varying cultural traditions and faith beliefs.

The Partnership’s goal is to promote, and importantly to normalize our conversations about end of life. Bringing peace of mind, addressing financial challenges and ultimately reducing the many burdens on loved ones are all a part of what the End of Life Care Partnership brings. They’ve been working under the United Way umbrella for the past 6 years, working on changing the way we talk about death and the dying process.  Since they began in 2017, the Partnership has distributed over 36,000 advance directives throughout Pima County, and they’ve done educational outreach to over 33,000 people – individuals and professionals – throughout Southern Arizona. If you’d like to connect with this group, please check them out at www.AZEndOfLifeCare.org, or call at 520.903.3937.   

And mark your calendars for Sunday, December 17th at 2pm. I’m partnering with Friends of Aphasia and the Loft to do a screening of Nightmare Before Christmas as a fundraiser for the work Friends is doing in support of families suffering through the effects of the disorder. This is the obit that ran in a California paper about Pete last week: 

The ‘recycle center’ arrow is pointing to across the street – not to the ground next to the sign. Thanks for sticking with the plastics program though.  

We’ll be back in front of Yellow Brick Coffee again this Thursday from 10:30 until noon. We’ll have the free clear plastic bags for the ByFusion program and Mark will be on site to take questions and just chat with you if you’re looking for some company while enjoying your brew.  

Last week we had some important and helpful decisions made with respect to the plastics program, and we had some fun activities that served to highlight its importance to and reception by the community. First the decisions – I've notified the broker for the Plumer site that for several reasons we’re going to continue with our original choice and put the operation out at the Los Reales Sustainability Campus. It’ll be the anchor tenant once the system is up and operating and other environmentally-oriented programs that come in behind it will reinforce not only the great work the ByFusion program will bring to the community, but will also offer other sustainable programs that will enhance the importance of the Campus activities. So, we’re off and running on that site, anticipating the symbiotic operations that will eventually be sharing the space. 

To that end the city manager has assigned a project manager. I met with him and the ByFusion folks last Friday to get everyone introduced and to start the talks about design, long lead-time items and setting a schedule into place. One long lead-time item will be the electrical panels and transformer. I’ve reached out to TEP to get them involved with the design process from the start. Ideally, we’d like to include both solar and power from the grid. Having a TEP design person at the table from the beginning will help that process along.  

Last week the zoo received their ByBlock bench. I met with Nancy from the zoo on the day it was built. It took their maintenance guy less than an hour to put together. Here’s a nice shot of their bench – it's right in front as you enter the zoo. Eventually they’re thinking of moving it over to the World of Play once that attraction is finished and ready for prime time. The zoo bench is diverting roughly 175 pounds of plastic from the ocean, landfill or side of the road. 

Southern Arizona Animal Food Bank 

What they’re after is dry and wet dog and cat food, feed for large animals, exotic animal food and the gently used animal supplies. And financial donations – that can be as easy as logging into Smile.Amazon and listing SAAFB as your charity of choice. That means they’ll get a donation based on each Amazon purchase you make. As with any non-profit getting volunteers to help out is critical. The website has information on those opportunities as well. 

Check out the site. It’s a great local non-profit that is making an impact on reducing the abandonment of animals. 

Last week we received notice from the courts that the county was successful in their lawsuit against our differential water rates. The case was tried up in the Maricopa County Superior Court – a change of venue to insure objectivity. The court said we had not made the case for charging county residents more for water than we’re charging city residents. 

The short history of this is the city council approving higher rates for water for Tucson Water customers living outside of city limits. We established the new rates but went back and commissioned a rate study from an independent consultant to see if the rates we had landed on were justified. The study affirmed that they were. In its decision the court took the position that we had the rates in place ahead of the study so they had not been based on the independent evaluation. Sort of the cart ahead of the horse. From my layman’s perspective, if the study affirmed the rates it seems like the order of the decision shouldn’t matter. But we’ve got the court decision and will decide on October 3rd what our next steps are. The options include folding our cards and eliminating the new rates, or going back to court and appealing the decision. If we walk away from the new rates there will be the question of whether and how we repay the county residents who have been paying the now ‘illegal’ rates. So, more to come on this. Here’s a memo from County Administrator Jan Lesher that came out last week outlining the issues. We’ll have an executive session on our 10/3 agenda to talk about the options. 

Also coming on October 17th will be a public hearing during which people will have a chance to share their thoughts on our proposed changes in commercial water rates. We will have the option on that date of either moving forward with one of the proposals we’ve presented for consideration, or just keeping our current rates in place. 

The proposals have two pieces. Right now, commercial users pay a base rate (so do residential users) and their ‘seasonal’ rate per Ccf is based on a winter consumption level. That sounds confusing, but it’s really simple – we look at how much water a business uses during the winter and assume there’s little outside watering going on during that time. Then in the summer, in order to encourage conservation, they pay a higher amount for the usage that’s above their winter average. The assumption is much of the increase is due to optional outdoor irrigation water use. This graphic shows how it works.  

Right now, we use November through April to define the winter months. What’s being proposed is that we shorten the ‘winter’ month calculation to December through February – to more accurately define when it’s cold and no outdoor watering is taking place. Then the surcharges for consumption above that level would be in effect for the remaining 9 months, and not the 6 months as is currently the case. 

What we can intuitively expect to see is the winter averages will come down since later into the spring the temps rise and outdoor watering might have been occurring, thus raising the average. So, with a lower winter average the surcharges for consumption above those levels would not only apply for a longer period of time, but would kick in at lower consumption levels. Our goal is to encourage conservation for longer periods of time, and basing the conservation threshold at a lower level. And while all of that’s going on, we’re proposing to lower the base rate so businesses that don’t have much seasonal change in consumption might see their water bills go down. 

This is a tool Tucson Water has on their website that allows you to see real-time what changes in your consumption pattern will do to your bill under the proposals we’re considering. You need to download it:  quantitative tool(XLSX, 102KB)  

Here’s how it works – you change the totals in the consumption column and the averages at the bottom automatically change. That way you can set your own goals. On the site you’ll see the rates that are being proposed so you can calculate how your conservation changes will result in dollar savings.  

Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) 

One final water-related item for this week. This one’s fun – the UA’s Water Resources Research Center holds an annual photo contest. This year their theme is ‘Water Scarcity & Extreme Weather in Arizona.’ Entering is pretty straight forward. You take some photos expressing that theme and submit them to WRRC. You could be capturing shots of floods (I should submit pictures of our office) or the effects of microbursts, wildfires...lots of options. 

They get some pretty impressive entries. Last year this won ‘Best in Show’ and was submitted by Brian Andersen. 

You can look at all of last year’s winners on this link: Check out last year's winners. 

The WRRC folks have listed these categories for this year’s competition - Water Scarcity and Extreme Weather: People, The Built Environment, Nature, Arid/Semi-Arid Lands Outside of Arizona, and water in Arizona as a general category. Use this link to get your photos into the mix. Submit your photos today!  

When I was young the March of Dimes was working to find a cure/vaccine for polio. They’d give us little boxes to collect dimes in. We’d fill them by going door to door – clearly not something parents are sending their kids out to do these days. But it worked back then and the March of Dimes was successful. They didn’t fold their tent and disappear though. They’ve found other causes to tackle and today they’re partnering with The Center for Compassion and presenting an exhibit related to infant loss. It’s called The Mourning Project: Infant Loss Made Visible. 

If you follow this newsletter you know of the ward 6 work with asylum seekers and migrants. You also know the system is fundamentally broken and people trying to navigate the asylum process have a multi-year and expensive process ahead of them. That’s true pretty much regardless of how extreme their credible fear is of returning to their homes. On Tuesday, September 26th Southside Presbyterian Church will host an event announcing the opening of Casa Cardo – a home that will serve women and their kids as they work through the asylum system. 

Casa Cardo will be a 2-year residential program through which residents at the facility will be assisted with the confusing and long asylum process, but also with more wholistic and healing support as they work for asylum. On the 26th there will be a dinner and a program explaining the Casa Cardo. Becca Stevens is the founder of Thistle Farms. She’ll introduce the leadership from Casa Cardo and will share the vision of the group. Please contact Southside pastor Alison Harrington at the church to RSVP for the event. You need to do that ahead of time so they’ll have a good head count for the meal.  

Alisonharrington@yahoo.com - or call the church at 520.623.6857.  

On a much lighter note, parks’ Sierra Boyer got us the October RSR van schedule. Here are the dates/times and locations where you can find the van and parks staff. These activities are for kids of all ages. Also, registration for the P&R fall camps begins on Monday, September 25th at 8am. You can use this link to get signed up:

Register 

Tucson Parks and Recreation 

These camps will take place at multiple sites scattered around the city. They’ll be broken up by age range: kids 5-11 and for kids from 12-14. The activities will include sports, dance, art, games and nutrition-based learning. They’ll fill up so get signed up soon if you want your kid(s) to be involved.  

The event will run from 8am until 10am. Same as Rincon Heights – swap a plant, seed packet or flower pot. You can also sign up for their neighborhood tree initiative. At 9am Tucson Clean & Beautiful will show designs and take your input on ideas we’re kicking around for a future basin/parklet in this location. Come and share your thoughts. If you’d like more information you can email to:

MyNeighborhood1929@gmail.com.