Date: 10/30/2023
Topics in This Issue:
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Sister Jose Meditation Garden
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Neighborhood Support Crime and Code Listings
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Asylum/Homeless Donations
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Sex Trafficking Forum
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Prop 413
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TEP Board of Adjustment Hearing
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Plastics Program
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Porch Fests and more
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Visit Tucson/County Partnership
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November 4th Events
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End of Life and Medicare
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Ready, Set, Rec Van
...Why do we do this to each other? In the past few newsletters, I’ve shared links to send relief support for Ukraine and to Israel. Through this link you can offer support to civilians in Gaza who are also suffering: https://www.unrwausa.org/ It’s all so stupid.
Another Mass Killing
And this. Ho hum – another mass shooting. It’ll be gone in a couple of days as a news cycle story and congress will not pass a ban on the kind of weapon used in the killing. Despite the fact that the weapon was developed for use on a battlefield, we’re fine using it in a bowling alley too. And at a concert, a nightclub, a college, an elementary school or a place of worship. This Maine killer isn’t even in our top 10 nationally in terms of the number of people he murdered.
On Wednesday of last week, you likely saw the news reports of the guy who went on the killing spree in Maine bowling alley and bar. He killed 18 people and wounded another 13. By American mass shooting standards, he’s not even in the top 10. That’s a pretty sad commentary on our inability to elect members of congress who will stand up to the NRA and adopt meaningful gun control legislation.
In the table shown above look at the last column. It shows the kind of weapon that was used in the killing sprees. All of them are in the same class used by the Maine shooter – semi-automatic weapons that do not belong in the hands of civilians. You can see the result.
Thanks to Dave Fitzsimmons for accurately capturing the dynamic in this editorial:
Similarly -
There’s an election again in ‘24. Sadly, this won’t be the last time we’ll have an incident like this in the news between now and then. Only voters can change what’s happening.
Sister Jose Meditation Garden
In the midst of all that turmoil Ann and I took part in the Sister Jose Meditation Garden blessing that happened on Saturday morning. It was comforting to see that even while others are finding ways to divide and hate, the staff and volunteers at Sister Jose are finding ways to welcome those in our community who are struggling.
Speakers included a Roman Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, Episcopal (giving a Native American blessing) and Sikh. It was nice to see people coming together for a good cause despite their differences.
 Jean Fedigan (speaker) is the spiritual heart of Sister Jose. She was sensitive to include in the event board members, volunteers and of course the women who are currently staying at the shelter. It’s a place of inclusion and healing. If you’d like to learn more about ways, you can support their work check their website at https://sisterjose.org/
Neighborhood Support Crime and Code Listings
For going on 15 years, Peter Howell neighbor resident Don Ijams has created and maintained a listing of code enforcement and police calls. We owe a big note of thanks to Don for all of his work. He has it organized by neighborhood. It’s quite the data entry chore and Don is right now considering stepping away from the task. Here’s a link you can click to see the site and how much information Don has collected on it.
Asylum/Homeless Donations
Last week Diana and I visited the County owned Drexel shelter. It’s run by Casa Alitas and is used for overflow from the migrant community that’s being delivered to Tucson by CBP. In recent days they’ve seen numbers in excess of 1,000 per day.
Drexel is being used for single men. The Welcome Center is being used for single women and families. The city and county are partnering for some hotel space for people who may have communicable diseases. The logistics for the operations are complex. Given the high number of new arrivals Catholic Community Services is currently coordinating 6-8 buses per day to take people to shelters in the Phoenix area. And of course, volunteers are the backbone of the operation. Here’s a story KOLD ran last week on the day we did our visit. The lady in the video you see me standing with is Teresa Cavendish – CEO of Casa Alitas.
https://www.kold.com/2023/10/25/asylum-seekers-arriving-tucson-explode-nearly-1500-day/
We’re back up and running in the ward office for receiving donations. Here’s the current list showing the needs that exist. While we were at the Drexel site a bus full of people from Senegal arrived. They’re also seeing people from India and Mauritania. And of course a good number of Central Americans. The stories are all very similar; people coming to the U.S. because staying in their country of origin would mean starvation or death from cartels. Our role is to help with some provisions while they get their feet on the ground and go through the legal asylum process.
Men's S, M and L t-shirts short sleeve and long sleeve. (No XL please)
Men's pants waist size 26 to 32 and length 30 to 34.
Men's Sweatpants or athletic pants S and M.
Men's sweatshirts, hoodies,
Women's tops, S, long sleeve and short sleeve.
Children's tops and pants size 2T to 18.
Children's sweatshirts, hoodies, jackets, coats 2T to 18.
Winter Gloves and hats for all.
Men's shoes size 8 to 13.
Women's shoes 5 to 8 (No dress shoes or heels please).
Socks and underpants for men, women and children all sizes (No XL please).
Those are the clothing items. There’s the ongoing need for Lotions, sunscreen, hygiene products, new underclothes and socks, belts, shampoo/soap, small kids’ toys, baseball caps, and gift cards to stores such as Walmart or Costco. We’ll resume our weekly runs to Casa Alitas and they’ll distribute out the donations to the shelter network that’s in place. Thanks for your continued help with these needs. With all the negative that’s happening around the world it’s comforting to see the heart of Tucsonans who’ll step up to help in ways they’re able to.
We truly appreciate your involvement.
Sex Trafficking Forum
The crowd you see in the picture is the more than 200 participants in the sex trafficking forum we hosted last Monday at the TCC. The groups represent everyone from the newly formed TPD trafficking unit to people from the Navajo Nation, and agencies from across the state who deal with youth. Everybody connected with youth should be concerned with this topic.
We were pleased to have the event facilitated by Dominique Roe-Sepowitz from the ASU school of public health. We’ve worked with Dominique on several local trafficking forums – this one was the largest and the first one solely targeted to professionals and agency representatives. The turnout shows just how aware people who work in the field are that trafficking is a serious issue.
We have the Gem show coming soon. Up in Phoenix there will be post season football games. At any major event like that incidents of sex trafficking increase. There’s a circuit around the southwest that victims are transported through, following events where large numbers of travelers can be counted on.
It doesn’t take a major event to facilitate trafficking. In Tucson right now we know of certain massage establishments where women are being victimized by sex trafficking. The only tool on our books that exists right now to address it forces TPD to bust the victim. And to reach that point the undercover cop has to put himself in a compromising position of soliciting the act. Two years ago, I was close to asking for M&C to address the issue – it was turned into a political token and was sadly mischaracterized. The result was the continuation of victimization. The people who made it a political issue at the time have that result to be proud of. In the very recent past I was approached by one council member who was made aware of the issue. We’re talking about how best to bring the issue forward to M&C and provide TPD with tools they can use to go after the perpetrator and not the victim.
Thanks to Dominique and her team for investing in our community with their work. Ann from my team was integral in pulling the event together. It was great to see the buy-in from TPD’s trafficking unit. It was not a one day, over and done presentation, but rather it was the continuation of work on this topic that my team, in partnership with the ASU folks have been conducting. We’re planning for more outreach which will be aimed at broadening the audience.
Here’s a link to the KGUN9 story that features both Dominique and Ann from the W6 office.
Prop 413
Proposition 413 is on the ballot that you’ve received in the mail. I cannot use city resources to lobby for or against ballot measures. But I can lay out the facts. Some of them have been lacking in the printed material that has gone out.
Currently the mayor is paid $42K annually, and city council members are paid $24K. Those amounts are set by the City Charter. Also set by Charter is the process for changing the salaries. Every 2 years the city manager appoints a 7-member citizen commission who studies the issue of M&C salaries and makes a recommendation for the voters to decide. The M&C do not have the authority to alter what the commission recommends.
This year the commission recommended that we do away with the Charter process of having a new recommended salary adjustment every 2 years and instead tie our pay to the pay received by the Board of Supervisors. Theirs is tied to a state statute (ARS 11-419) so the voters never weigh in on whether, when and by how much their salaries get adjusted. Currently Supervisors are paid $76,600 per year. If Proposition 413 is passed on December 4th of this year all council members would begin receiving that amount. Prop 413 says the mayor’s salary would be 1.25x what council members make, so on December 4th of this year if 413 passes the mayor will begin receiving $95,750 annually.
ARS 11-419 already has a built-in salary increase. Beginning on January 1st, 2025, Supervisors will see their pay increase to 96,600 per year. If 413 passes city council members would also receive that amount with the caveat that it wouldn’t start until December of ‘25. The mayor would receive 1.25x that amount, or $120,750 per year. The only way that would not happen is if the city manager appointed a commission in ‘25, that commission recommended that we decouple M&C salaries from the automatic statutory adjustments and keep us at $76K and $95K. Then the voters would have to approve that change. That’s unlikely.
Here’s the language from the ballot measure that ties what would be our new salaries to any statutory increases the supervisors receive:
 And ARS 11-419 says this:
Being an educated voter is all about doing your homework. That’s difficult when the informational material you get doesn’t tell the full story about what you’re voting on. As Paul Harvey used to say, ‘now you know the rest of the story.’ I hope this helps in your decision-making.
TEP Board of Adjustment Hearing
The Board of Adjustment hearing requested by TEP for an exemption to our undergrounding requirement was held last week. I’ve shared a lot about the midtown reliability project through which TEP wants to run new electric transmission lines down Campbell, past the UA and over to a site next to Banner hospital. Campbell is one of our gateway corridors and our ordinance governing those corridors says any new utility must be undergrounded.
TEP is arguing a few things – the one germane to the Board of Adjustment is simply that this project is not about ‘new’ construction. It’s simply upgrading existing infrastructure. During the Board hearing I was surprised to hear for the first time that TEP says the new poles will not be any larger than the existing ones. I think that was news to most of the residents who were also listening in. They also said the existing distribution lines (the one’s that connect through residential areas and to your home) will be removed when this project is done. In other public meetings they’ve added that process will take up to 5 years to complete.
The Board of Adjustment voted to uphold our local ordinance. That is, they said if TEP chooses a gateway or a scenic corridor for this project, the infrastructure needs to be underground. This is in fact a new project if for no other reason than the pure scale of what’s being proposed. And that is consistent with how TEP has described it to the Corporation Commission.
One of TEP’s arguments was that a member of the city planning department had told them they didn’t need to comply with the ordinance. The city attorney in the hearing correctly pointed out that even if that had been said, relying on the word of a staffer who does not have the authority to void a city ordinance was probably not the best way to plan a multi-million dollar capital investment.
The motion to uphold the ordinance was made by ward 5 member Jesse Lugo. It was seconded by both ward 6 member Bruce Dawson and ward 3 member Bonnie Poulos. The chair is ward 2 representative Michael Marks. Ward 1’s representative is Erma Duran. They both joined in the unanimous vote. The mayor’s representative Miranda Shubert had left the meeting early and did not take part in the discussion of or vote on this important topic. And ward 4 does not have an appointee to the Board.
TEP now has 30 days to decide if they’ll appeal the Board decision to Superior Court. This process never comes to M&C for a hearing.
While that’s going on TEP is also out in the public seeking input on proposed transmission line routes. They’re forming an advisory group made up of representatives from each of the neighborhoods that are touched by the proposed routes. There are 62 neighborhoods in that area. So far, they’ve only gotten 9 people to sign up. Here’s the route map:
 |
If you live in a neighborhood that’s inside of the black lines on the map and you’d like to sit on the advisory committee, please reach out to Teresa Bravo at TEP. Her email address is Teresa.Bravo@tep.com. They’ll also continue with their public outreach meetings and hope to have a preferred route for presentation to the Corporation Commission mid-next year.
Plastics Program
The 72 linear foot mural wall out at Mission Gardens went up late last week. You can see the threaded steel rods sticking up from the concrete footing. The volunteers simply slid the blocks onto the rods and at the top snugged them all up, so the wall is secure. I get asked from time to time about using the ByBlocks for perimeter walls. Having the Mission Garden wall up and in place will give the ByFusion designers something to build from when they get new requests for similar projects. Being a new operation each project like this is a part of everyone’s learning curve. Thanks are due to ByFusion’s local representative Heather Bowers for being on site and helping guide the efforts.
 |
Here you can see the wall closer up – and the rods sticking out of the top. That excess steel rod is ground off and a top plate is drilled into place. There are 3 different sections of the mural wall with gaps left between them to allow for water to flow. And of course, the shorter sections are more stable than one long 72’ wall would have been.
And there’s progress on the tack room being planned for Therapeutic Riding of Tucson (TROT.) Here’s a rendering of what it’ll look like. It’s going to be 800 square feet, all ADA compliant. The area I have circled in red is a ‘truth window’ - named because it’s left as an opening so people entering can see the plastic blocks that are forming the structure of the building.
You can learn more about the work TROT does using horses as therapy by checking their website at https://www.trotarizona.org/ At that site you can also see how you can help in their funding effort for the tack room. Lots of people ask how they can support the plastics program – helping TROT is a way of supporting their work, and advancing the plastics work we’re doing out of the ward 6 office.
Grace St. Paul’s is where we participated in their climate fair a couple of weeks ago. The blocks were on display. On Sunday, November 5th from 11:30am until 3pm they’re going to host another event at which some tiny houses will be on site for ‘tours.’ Having walked people through the ByFusion tiny house that’s in front of the ward office I can tell you that it’s not like a walking tour through the Louvre Museum in Paris – but they’re interesting to see. They’ll once again have information on the ByFusion product at the event on the 5th.
Donations continued last week to be around 5 tons. That’s a significant amount of plastic diverted from the waste stream. All of us look forward to welcoming ByFusion to Tucson and being the first in the nation to stand up this level of plastic reuse program.
Porch Fests and more
Thanks to the Catalina Vista and Garden District neighbors who put together the porch fests last weekend. Combined there were hundreds of residents who enjoyed the opportunity to stroll through the neighborhoods, enjoy the fellowship with others, food, drink and music. If your neighborhood doesn’t host a porch fest you can learn how they’re organized by reaching out to either of these two neighborhoods’ leadership.
It was snowing in Colorado while we were outside enjoying the Porch Fests.
And for more outdoor activity, food, music and community don’t forget the newly opened Corbett’s Tucson. They’ve got a live music stage that has a variety of seating options around it, and that you can listen to while off playing their activities – pickleball and cornhole. They have live music 7 evenings per week. I’m booked from 6pm until 9pm on both November 9th and November 30th. Please stop by and support this new local business in the historic Corbett’s building. Here’s their website if you’d like to get more familiar with their layout and their menu.
Visit Tucson/County Partnership
I’ve shared in previous newsletters about the Vamos a Tucson Mexican baseball festival held out at the County-run Kino Sports Park. In addition to that in September Kino hosted the Prospect Wire Baseball Tucson Fall Classic. With Visit Tucson heading the marketing campaign both of those events were economic successes for the wider community.
The Fall Classic was held the last weekend in September. The numbers are in and during that tournament local hotels benefitted from 280 booked room nights. Vamos a Tucson came in October and that 4-day event brought in 16,000 fans who took up 843 hotel rooms. The total local economic impact from the Mexican Fiesta was over $2.7M. Thanks to Felipe Garcia and his team from Visit Tucson, and to Jan Lesher and her team at the County for their work in promoting the region through these successful events.
November 4th Events
Coming this weekend there’ll be a few different options for you to enjoy. One will be hosted by the city, and the other two will be neighbor led events.
I’ve written in previous newsletters about the re-imagining of the Randolph Park golf complex. Here’s the rendering of what’s being considered -
The current eastern portion of the park is made up of 13% park space and 87% golfing space. The design being considered will change that ratio – you can see the new comparison in the rendering. Coming on Saturday city staff will host an in-person meeting at which the public can share their thoughts on the proposal. The meeting will run from 9am until 11am at the Copper Room in the Randolph Park office complex off from Alvernon (600 S. Alvernon.) This is a continuation of the public outreach that staff has been conducting for about a year. If you’re unfamiliar with the proposed project you can see a full background at this link:
Also coming on Saturday the 4th is the annual Garden District multi-home yard sale. I help them put out the word for this event each year. The homes involved are in the Speedway/Grant - Alvernon/Swan square. There will be multiple homes scattered throughout the neighborhood participating. Begin at the corner of Columbus and Pima and just follow the signs. They’ll guide you through the neighborhood to each of the participating homes. Sales will begin by 8am. If you’d like a more direct route, go to www.thegardendistrict.org before heading over to the event and they’ll have the full menu of houses posted by around 6am on the 4th.
And over in Sam Hughes, artist Marianne Bernsen is doing her annual benefit sale of one-of-a-kind earrings and handcrafted necklaces. Last year Marianne donated all of the proceeds (about $1,000) to TUSD for school supplies. This year her target organization is the Community Food Bank. This event will run from 9am until 4pm at her home that’s near Country Club and 5th. Call Marianne at 520.971.5596 to get the address – I'm not posting it in the newsletter. You can check out her work at this website:
End of Life and Medicare
It’s open enrollment time for Medicare. If you’re eligible you have until December 7th to get signed up. There are several different plans that you can research online, or you can make an appointment for a free consultation with a Medicare specialist. You can also connect with Pima Council on Aging (PCOA) for free counseling.
One part of Medicare Part B is its coverage of advance care planning. Also known as end of life care, Plan B includes coverage for the whole planning effort. You can begin the conversations about end of life with your PCP during your annual visit. It’s likely that time is not going to be enough for you to get all of your questions answered and complete the forms. With that in mind PCOA has Caregiving and End of Life Specialists available to help you understand all of the options. They do this through their partnership with United Way and other health care providers.
If you’d like to speak confidentially with someone about end of life care options, contact PCOA at 520.790.7262. You can also check out the Partnership by going to https://azendoflifecare.org/
Ready, Set, Rec Van
Let’s close on a more upbeat note. Wars, shootings, homelessness, trafficking – and thanks once again to Sierra Boyer for her work in helping spread the more cheery word about where and when you can find the RSR van. Here’s the ward 6 schedule for the month of November. If you haven’t taken the time to visit the van, I highly recommend it. It’s all free and in fact will pay you dividends through your participation.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik Council Member, Ward 6 ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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