Archive for April, 2009

Phoenix leads nation in home price declines in February - From Phoenix Business Journal

That’s the largest decline of any of the 20 largest cities in the U.S. In addition, Phoenix home prices are down 51 percent from their peak.

Ann Brown over at the AZ Star did an opinion piece this weekend about the benefits of regional government.

It’s time for Tucson — and I use that to describe the entire region — to put aside petty differences, step away from feifdoms and collectively roll a boulder. If our community does that, I believe we can get to the top of the hill.

One of our favorite blogs Antiplanner.com is often referenced here on Tucson Choices. The author brings forth great arguments and ideas.  He tackled regional government a while back and I thought it would be worth posting it.  I’m not sure if regional government is the answer here in Southern Arizona or not. Given our lack of leadership I doubt real discussions will take place. The large portion of unincorporated areas is probably the biggest barrier we have to success. Let’s solve that one first then discuss regional government.

Glaeser Stumbles on Regional Governments

posted in Regional planning |

“The entire process was so unprofessional and such a joke, I’ll never do another project in this town again. If it wasn’t for our 200 people we would have pulled out and moved to a friendlier community.”

Unfortunately these stories are starting too become a series on this blog. I had a 4 hour conversation with a local business owner on a trip back and forth to Phoenix.  This business owner is in the highly sought after manufacturing business. He has been in Tucson since he bought the company in the late 70’s. His company employs 200 people and sales are over $20 million per year. This is exactly the type of business and industry our community desperately needs.

When I asked him how it was to interact with government, I got the typical answer I hear over and over. Apparently he bought some open land in an industrially zoned portion of Tucson. He went down to the city to build his new factory and office complex. There was no neighborhood opposition (shocking, I know) and his architect designed the project to current building and zoning codes.

After 6 months of stalls, delays and outright incompetency he took his architect down to Development Services and met with the director. In the meeting the tone was unfriendly and downright hostile. Apparently some genius from Dev. Service staff did a drive by of the property and found a building had already been built -without permits. The director commented that the manufacturing facility may be required to be taken down due to potential code violations and lack of permits. His plans were being held up and nickel and dimed for breaking the rules.  Here’s the best part of the story; the staffer that drove by his project went to the wrong address! The manufacturer still had a dirt lot on his property and hadn’t moved a rock.

With no apologies, no explanationthe development plans magically started to move through the process. Rather than address the issue head on 6 months earlier a decision from the top down was made to make this man’s life hell on earth.  He saw first hand the wrath of a bureaucrat scorned.

Unfortunately, these stories happen all to often. There are undoubtedly procedural issues with the Development Services department. There are steps that can be made easier. I personally have sat on 6 or 7 different panels to try to make the process more customer focused and streamlined. The piece that we continue to dance around is the role of an upset plan reviewer, the field inspector that’s having a bad day, the unofficial word that goes out department wide to make that developers life living hell because they stepped out of line. It’s retaliation at its finest.

If Tucson ever wants to become business friendly it must start with Development Services. This department is the gate keeper and usually the only place a business truly interacts with the city. Without a permit nothing gets done.

The attitude must shift from ‘what can we find wrong with you plans’ to ‘how quick can we get you up and running and generating sales tax revenues.’

It’s that time of year again, the election cycle at the City of Tucson is beginning.

Being a fan history, I stumbled upon a great synopsis of the race in 2001 when two Republicans, Dunbar and Ronstadt won seats in Ward 3 and 6. Emil Franzi a long time campaign strategist broke down the race pretty well.

What jumped out to me was how Dunbar and Ronstadt won the race on the growing east side. The east has the Republican and moderate votes needed to change the democratic strong hold on city politics. In 2005, the national Republican brand was loosing it’s shine and their wasn’t any major issues to get the faithful to the polls and two  upstarts, Uhlich and Trasoff won decisive victories. Ronstadt didnt’ really have his heart in the race and Dunbar stumbled late in her race and let her emotions take over. Either way both lost 60-40.

What happened in 05′ ?

1. Munger left the control of the Republican party and Judy White was at the reigns. Enough said.
2. The Democrats got their act together. They gained substantial ground under the leadership of Paul Eckerstrom.
3. There weren’t any independent campaigns to bring out the great unwashed conservative to moderate Republican base.
4. The national Republican ‘brand’ wasn’t as strong as it was in 2000.
5. According to Emil, the NRA stayed home and many of the die hard conservatives. With 20-30% turn out the guy that gets the most of their people to the polls wins.
6. With a 3-2 voter advantage toward the Dems, cross over voting didn’t happen.

What are we looking forward to in 2009?

1. Rio Nuevo - Rio Nuevo - Rio Nuevo; It’s been a mess and with elected officals continually botching the entire process some heads should roll.  Council voted recently to send TIF money to a project that the State Legislators expressly asked them not to do. If they lose the funding it’s squarely on that vote.
2. Bush is gone, things are bad, will the Obama factor make a difference come November?
3. The bureaucrats, elected officials and residents of Tucson are finally connecting the fact that a healthy business class is critical to a healthy community. They’ve  neglected, ignored to down right impeded the business community for the past few years. Is the pain enough to get a voter to try a different path?  You think I’m kidding? Google Tucson and Land Use Code, Sign Code, Development Services, new ad-rental-vendor- taxes, Certificate of Occupancy, Infill Zoning, Historic Districts, Neighborhood Preservation, funding of Department of Neighborhood Services (to the tune of $1 million per year),  loading every citizen committee with NIMBY neighborhood activists or groups like, Chicano Por La Causa, Habitat for Humanities, Casa Maria Soup Kitchen and more.
4. Police - Crime is OUT OF CONTROL! This council is dinking around with niceties that buy voters and neglecting the basics like protecting their citizens. If your city isn’t safe, houses don’t get bought, people don’t shop and your community rots from the inside.
5. Approval ratings for this council is in the low 20’s. Bush at the time of the polling was in the low 30’s.
6. The base may be fired up. A good candidate that is on the right side of the issues will bring out the right.
7. Will the business community finally get their act together and do something?
8. The Republican party has shifted to Bob Westerman. Bob and I campaigned together. He’s got a vision and a plan and he brings executive leadership from his career at Ratheon. Having been a candidate he knows what is desperatly needed. He’s inherited a mess but he’s starting to turn the ship.
9. The Citizen will soon be gone and the Az Star is loosing ground each and every day. Alternative sources of news like this blog and others are where people ar turning for their news. Jon Justice has rose to the top of morning talk because he’s found an audience that wants and alternative.

PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 15, 2001

Taking Council

Tucson’s leading political piranha chomps into the city election’s real winners and losers.

By EMIL FRANZI

Last week, the Republicans won their first multiple victory in a Tucson city election since 1969 (non-partisan recalls don’t count) because they ran better candidates, were better organized and, courtesy of independent committees, had more money. Democrats blew it because they ran inferior candidates, had no real message and got bogged down by peripheral issues of interest only to the fringe portions of their coalition.

While Republicans went out of their way to appeal to Democrats, Democratic candidates never gave a GOP voter any reason to cross over besides the tired old bitching about “special interests.” Voters know that everybody is supported by some special interests-Dems have trial lawyers and unions. The special interest must be named. They would have done no worse visibly running against the Growth Lobby instead of tap-dancing and not wanting to be called “no-growthers,” which is what they were perceived as anyway.

The Republicans were hardly invincible in a 3-2 Democratic town. Poll data taken by one group supporting Republicans Kathleen Dunbar and Fred Ronstadt had Ronstadt up 10 points against Democrat Gayle Hartmann, and Dunbar about even with Democrat Paula Aboud in the last 10 days of the campaign. Ronstadt blew part of his lead with a dippy radio spot that offended many by playing off the current national crisis–a ploy that burned most candidates of both parties other places this election. Fred’s spot made it sound almost un-American to criticize him and demanded that Hartmann quit the negative campaigning while the independent committee supporting him and Dunbar was running one hell of a negative campaign against Aboud. Many noticed that hypocrisy. Many inaccuracies flawed that negative campaign against Aboud, but that didn’t stop it from working, nor did Aboud’s consistently evasive responses.
THE WINNERS

· THE GOP
The Kumbaya BS coming from GOP leaders about how it “wasn’t really a Republican victory” is peculiar. The state GOP didn’t drop a 30 grand bundle on this one because they just wanted good government. They, and all the Republican voters they urged to the polls, wanted a Republican win. They got it, and their leaders should politely revel in it and use it as a base for party building.

· AT-HOME VOTING
Besides allowing election officials to pander to the lazy, the stupid and the uninterested, this politically correct attempt to raise voter turnout has another constituency besides the election bureaucracy–those with enough money to run a lengthened campaign. For now that will favor the GOP in most local elections, as it did this year. And someday it will increase voter fraud. Chicago voters know–they don’t let election officials hold onto their ballots any longer than necessary.

· THE NRA AND OTHER GUN GROUPS
The Dems simply couldn’t leave a politically irrelevant symbolic issue in a City Council election alone. There were several hundred real bodies at a couple of gun-rights rallies for Dunbar and Ronstadt, crowds that clearly outnumbered those being drawn by the heavily touted neighborhood groups, and those attending were all voting one way. If the GOP doesn’t want to claim this win, the NRA should. They worked their several thousand members well. Mayor Walkup should notice that it’ll be easier next time if these people are at least off his back.

· SHERIFF CLARENCE DUPNIK
He came out early and hard for Dunbar and later for Ronstadt. The most popular Democrat in Pima County is probably the least popular in certain Democrat circles. And the net result will be that even more candidates will be kissing his butt in 2002.

· MAYOR BOB WALKUP
Probably the luckiest man in local politics. He was standing just close enough to be able to claim he had some impact upon this election. He now has two years to come up with a program that reaches beyond slogan. Fixing some potholes would be a start.

· PIMA COUNTY REPUBLICAN CHAIR JOHN MUNGER
When the French attempted to determine who had won the Battle of the Marne, their commanding general, Joffre, responded, ” I don’t know who won, but I know who everyone would’ve blamed had we lost.” Despite his modesty over claiming it for the GOP, Munger was party chair for the biggest local Republican win in three decades. We’ll claim it for him.

· NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING
Hartmann did it to Ronstadt; he whined and lost votes. The independent committee did it to Aboud; she whined and lost votes. It works. Get used to it–it’s only been around since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1800.

LOSERS

· THE NEIGHBORHOOD COALITION AND SIMILAR GROUPS
Everybody lives in a neighborhood–so? The leaders of these groups never noticed that the constituency of those who looked upon them as leaders was shrinking and they weren’t replacing it. Part of that occurred when they added superfluous issues ranging from gun control to sign codes and forgot about stuff like sidewalks and street lights. Part of it was natural attrition and burnout. And a big part comes from geography and growth–these groups are mainly from the static central city, which is being gradually swamped by the growing east side. Dunbar and Ronstadt only carried the two eastside wards–and that was enough.

When these groups get some new leaders and some new ideas, they could again be relevant.

· THE PIMA COUNTY INTERFAITH COUNCIL
Ronstadt told them to stuff it. He won. They used to scare the hell out of every local politician. They no longer do. They should read a little more Saul Alinksy about when to bluff.

· THE ANTI-BILLBOARD LOBBY
City Councilmember-elect Kathleen Dunbar said candidly (candor was another reason she won), “Nobody cares about billboards”. It is hardly a hot-button issue, but those frightened by “visual pollution” are disproportionately represented in Democratic circles. It resembles what the late Murray Rothbard said about neo-conservatives: “There are only 105 of them in the entire country, and 78 of those have syndicated columns.”

· THE GREEN PARTY>br< What party? They found a decent candidate in Ward 3, and then allowed themselves to be guilt-tripped out of running him after they’d raised money to qualify for matching funds. The stiff they took a dive for lost anyway. They proved conclusively they are nothing more than a front group for the left wing of the Democratic Party, which they should all quietly return to and quit pretending they have a separate agenda.

· STEVE LEAL AND JOSE IBARRA
They will now act as ineffective symbols. Ibarra should find that easy, as he once worked for Supervisor Raúl Grijalva, who’s made a whole career out of being an ineffective symbol, even when in the majority and Chairman of the Board.

· THE ANTI-GUN LOBBY
While the issue of gun control wasn’t the deciding factor, those who get the support of the NRA, FACT and BrassRoots like Dunbar and Ronstadt are hardly out of the mainstream and can be elected without fudging their pro-gun position even in a generally liberal town.
THE DEMOCRATS allowed the GOP coalition to grow beyond its natural boundaries while their own shrank. To regain the political initiative they lost in the last three local elections they will have to either expand existing elements or find some new interest groups willing to go along with the most vocal parts of their existing team. The temptation will be to do nothing and just wait for the GOP to screw up. Arrogant Democrats will assume they will. The brighter ones will start looking for some new allies.

This comment was left anonymously on the “Meet The Candidates” post. Hey Anonymous, do you know something I don’t?  Love to talk…….

Dear Joe Higgins,

You and I don’t really know each other, but I’ve been observing you, and I have a pretty good idea that you are planning a lot more than a radio show and a blog. I figure that a lot of self-important people in Tucson are also watching you, wondering how ambitious you are, monitoring your every move, because it is a potential threat. A potential threat to their status as “community leaders”, as protectors of the status quo, and as Those Who Are Always Turned To by the electeds who don’t know to whom else they should turn.

Any day, week, or month now, I imagine that you’ll receive a phone call from a distinguished member of Tucson’s established “leadership elite”—known in some parts as the Cloth. This person is likely an older white male, with a job either as a consultant (whose clients are not well-defined, but obviously powerful) or as an executive with some local firm (probably a developer or other company whose income growth depends on Tucson’s continued population growth) with an interest in keeping things moving along in a predictable fashion.

This person will begin by feigning admiration and praise for what you’ve done with the radio show, the Thursday night meet-ups at McMahon’s, and this blog, attempting to draw your confidence through flattery. He will try to play the role of mentor, deigning to share his sage advice, gleaned from years of experience leading our fair community.

After he thinks he’s softened you up for the real purpose of the call, he’ll talk about what he and the more experienced business and community leaders have accomplished. “We got the RTA approved . . . we held the Regional Town Hall and built consensus for the first time anyone can remember . . . we created TREO . . . we’ve brought the community together . . . we won the water wars . . . we got Kromko indicted”. Okay, perhaps he won’t mention the last part.

Then he’ll say, “Join Us!”, or “Let’s work together!”, or “Let’s join forces. We’d be an unbeatable combination of youthful energy and wise experience.” He’ll tell you how he and his colleagues have the ear and the respect of Chuck Huckelberry. “We can get things DONE!”

You, being the practical fellow that you are, and also one who is basically respectful, will indulge this conversation for a while. I don’t know you well enough to know how you would respond. My guess is that you would be cautiously positive, not saying no and not saying yes, but showing respect. Maybe you would remind this person how the leadership elite hosed you when you ran for the Board of Supervisors.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that you say yes to joining forces with this esteemed Cloth Weaver. You try to make sense of what this new partnership will bring. Meanwhile your new friend has returned triumphantly to his smoke-filled room, announcing to his fellow Weavers that he has effectively ended the threat of the upstart Joe Higgins.

What can you expect from such a partnership? You can expect a 3-step process of being shown the door:
Assimilation. Your efforts will be subsumed under some existing organization or informal effort. That is the internal reality, but outwardly, this will be heralded as bringing everyone together to create a powerful force for change.
Assumption of Leadership. Your new friend will be the formal leader of this new partnership or organization. You may be given a token position such as vice-chair or something, which is a way of stalling for time to see how well you will play along. You will have no power, but you will be the first to know when your friend and his colleagues are ready to tell you what they’ve decided. Won’t you feel special?
Agenda-killing. Your efforts to use this new apparatus to actually accomplish something will not be welcomed. You will soon see that the purpose of your partnership is to keep you busy and quiet while the real power in Tucson keeps things moving along in a predictable fashion.

If you go along with whatever level of inactivity this group promotes, you will be rewarded with not being black-balled, and they may groom you to be the next generation of do-nothing community leaders.

If you choose to pursue something like the agenda that has your friend so nervous in the first place, you will be marginalized, minimized, and eventually discarded entirely. You will no longer have a radio show that anyone would bother listening to; your blog will be something not worth reading; you will have none of those things that got you off to such a promising start, AND you will also be shut out of the relationships with the go-alongs that could have been yours had you just left everything well enough alone.

It all comes down to whose respect you wish to earn.

Meet ALL the City Of Tucson Council challengers

Richard Fimbres          – D Ward 5
Judith Gomez              – R Ward 5
Shaun McClusky          – R Ward 5
Steve Kozachik           – R Ward 6
Ben Buehler-Garcia    – R Ward 3

Thursday April 30th, - 5:30 at McMahon’s – Please RSVP – we are expecting a big turn out.
RSVP to Joe@JoeHigginsinc.com

Brought to you by Wake Up Tucson and TucsonChoices.com. Wake Up Tucson is on M-F at 6am on KVOI 690am. The hosts, Chris DeSimone and Joe Higgins talk daily about the issues of importance to our region. The show is aimed to Wake Up our elected officials, Wake Up our leadership and Wake Up the community to the issues that affect us each day. Tune in, it’s more critical now than ever!

This will be your FIRST opportunity to meet the challengers for the upcoming City of Tucson Council elections. Prior and future events will feature the incumbents.

This is the third TucsonChoices.com/Wake Up Tucson event. Our goal is to bring the business community together with elected leaders. Our gatherings are incredibly important to learning about issues and letting our leaders know about your concerns for the community.

Our first meeting featured:

Sen. Al Melvin
Rep. Frank Antenori
Rep. David Gowen
Rep. Vic Williams

Our second gathering featured

Councilman Rodney Glassman
Councilwoman Nina Trasoff

Join us Tuesday April 28th at 5:30 at the TCC for the City of Tucson budget hearings.
Tune in this Wednesday for our interview with Richard Fimbres – (D) Ward 5
And Thursday for our interview with Judith Gomez – (R.) Ward 5
Also tune in for Free For All Fridays and Positive Mondays
KVOI 690am The Voice – M-F 6am-7am
Stream Online at www.TucsonChoices.com
McMahon’s Steak House is located at Swan and Ft. Lowell

Well it doesn’t happen every day but you got to give Pima County administrator Huckelberry and the controlling majority of the Board Of Supervisors qudos. They deserve major credit for actually balancing a their budget WITHOUT raising property taxes. In fact the counties tax rate has been lowered to its LOWEST IN 35 YEARS!

From today’s Citizen story by Gary Duffy - HERE.

The fiscal plan includes a decrease in the primary property tax rate from the current $3.39 per $100 valuation to $3.31 - the lowest in 35 years, Huckelberry told supervisors Monday in a budget memorandum.

Overall, it calls for a reduction in the combined property tax rate from the current $4.63 cents per $100 valuation to about $4.55 per $100 valuation.

The financial plan also notes the county will finish the current fiscal year with a balance of about $24.5 million, instead of a projected shortfall of almost $40 million.

About $6.7 million of the fund balance would go to property tax relief.

The county enacted across-the-board departmental budget cuts of 7 percent to 10 percent - except for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department - to avert the projected deficit.

“It went away because we managed it away,” Huckelberry said.

Tomorrow morning we have Deb Ferns coming on the show. Be sure to tune in, it’s going to be a good one!

Deb Ferns has spent over two decades as a meeting planner, working with a variety of corporate and association clients.  Currently she works as a planner for a transportation association, “Mega Movers”, arranging their quarterly board meetings and annual conference for 300.  Deb is also the organizer of the Babes with Bullets ^TM ladies handgun camps.  These 3 day/4 night events are held in six to eight locations across the US each year involving 30 to 50 women at each event. 

Since 1986 Deb has lived in Tucson with her husband, Gary, and their two daughters. Her education includes an MBA and she is author of the book, Babes with Bullets ^TM and delivers motivational speeches across the US based on a theme of “Life Outside Your Comfort Zone.” Ferns has won regional and national entrepreneurial business awards including “Meeting Planner of the Year” through Special Events Magazine.

Associations & Affiliations: Deb is Chairman of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association (TheWOMA.com).  She is also a charter member of the Tucson Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and is a life member of Girl Scouts of America. 

Passions:Deb enjoys a wide variety of shooting sports, though her favorite is 3-gun tactical competitions utilizing a rifle, pistol and shotgun. She shares her passion for Hatha yoga by teaching it at the ladies handgun camps. Deb also enjoys horseback riding and water sports.

CEO Magazineis one of my monthly reads. There are great insights and inside stories from top leaders in American and around the world. This months edition has a survey on CEO’s Confidence Index. They asked what the best and worst states to do business with in 2009. The best, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. The worst, California, New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

A couple commnets from the article that are important:

Unfortunately, those states with the worst records continue to practice the same policies, that alienate businesses. As the economic downturn worsens and unemployment rises one would think some states would rethink their punitive tax and regulatory structure, not to mention their unionization policies if they want to turn the page and attract new businesses and capital to their area.

..one CEO said, “Michigan and California literally need to do a 180 if they are ever to become competitive again. California has huge advantages with its size, quality of work force, particularly in high tech, as well as quality of life and climate advantages of the state. However, it is an absolute regulatory and tax disaster, as is Michigan.”

It has been confirmed that Sean McCluskey is in the race for the Ward 5 seat being vacated by Steve Leal. McCluskey is a political rookie that’s fed up with the way Tucson is being run. He will challenge Judith Gomez in the ward primary. The winner will face Fimbres in a city wide election.

So here’s the run down so far:

Ward 5-

Incumbent - None
Democratic Candidate - Richard Fimbres
Republican Candidates - Judith Gomez and Sean McCluskey (winner of primary moves on to general)

Ward 3
Democrat Incumbent - Karin Uhlich
Republican Candidate - Ben Buehler Garcia

Ward 6
Democrat Incumbent - Nina Trasoff
Republican Candidate - Steve Kozachick

It should be a long, hot summer!