Education
By Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, August 13th, 2010
Read a newspaper, turn on the TV news or listen to the radio and you start hearing the same buzz words over and over from local power brokers and politicians. They’ve been using them so long, you can’t help but notice they don’t add up.
At the suggestion of listeners to our radio show, we’ve put together our Wake Up, Tucson dictionary of definitions to these common buzzwords and phrases.
• Transparency or accountability.
Implied meaning: As stewards of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars, governments constantly strive to expose insider or backroom deals and honestly report the financial impacts of decisions. Print this storyEmail this storyPost a CommentShareThis
Real meaning: We will do fancy multimedia presentations with beautiful photos of things like folklorico dancers, but never actually show you anything important. We hire consultants to justify decisions we already know we are going to make. Pima County government has an additional meaning: If you are a county employee and your name appears in the news media, clean out your desk.
• The half-cent additional city sales tax is for cops and fire.
Implied meaning: The tax on the Nov. 2 ballot will go to funding necessary basic city services.
Real meaning: We will throw the money at fire and cops; meanwhile we’ll continue using city money to subsidize $5 yoga classes and Sun Tran services. If the new tax were really for cops and fire, why would Councilwoman Regina Romero have told Sun Tran’s striking Teamsters to “wait until the new sales tax is passed” when the city has more money in the kitty.
• Public-private partnership.
Implied meaning: A symbiotic relationship between a government and private businesses that will bear mutually beneficial economic fruit.
Real meaning: The business model is so bad that no private business would dream of sinking its own money into it. (Think downtown Tucson convention hotel.)
• Think outside the box.
Implied meaning: We are a cutting-edge organization constantly looking outside the norms of the typical boring way of thinking.
Real meaning: We can’t come up with an original thought and besides, any idea that does come up never gets implemented so we have to say something like this to make it look like we might actually do something some day.
• Blue ribbon panel.
Implied meaning: We have gathered the area’s brightest stakeholders to solicit ideas, debate them and present the resulting solutions in a clear, concise manner.
Real meaning: The place where good ideas go to die.
• Regionalism.
Implied meaning: A broad-based and inclusive partnership of municipalities working together to achieve a common goal by realizing the economies of scale and complimenting each of the other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Real meaning: A super government put into place by Pima County with the City of Tucson supposedly an equal. The goal is that once total control of water and wastewater is complete, the “region” can start to be turned back to the way it was in the 1940s. Meanwhile, the battle rages on the outskirts where the real region’s last hopes for progress lie in the the municipalities of Marana, Oro Valley and Sahuarita. (Bring up the “Star Wars” theme music.)
• Small business day (as proclaimed by the Tucson city council leading up to the November 2009 election).
Implied meaning: The attitude of the city and it’s bureaucratic red tape is improving so much, it’s a snap to open a business in Tucson. Things are “shovel-ready” and ready to go.
Real meaning: The city needs revenue so it has come up with a bunch of new fees to nickel-and-dime you when you try to open a small business. As an example, how about the city’s new $5,000 non-refundable application fee for temporary revocable easement review? In Oro Valley,a full Development Review Board review is $350.
• It’s for the children.
Implied meaning: The increased taxes and fees government is proposing on businesses will go to programs that will benefit the most vulnerable members of our society.
Real meaning: The extra money will go to politicians’ pet projects to increase reliance on government by the most vulnerable in our society, thus helping to reassure politicians’ re-election.
There are others we can’t fit in this column, such as “the four-mile $160 million modern streetcar will spur development;” “we have to build a downtown convention center hotel to save the annual gem shows;” “the $200 million spent so far by Rio Nuevo on downtown redevelopment sets the stage for private investment;” “spending $46 million on a $31 million downtown underpass is a great deal;” “I support copper mining but I’m concerned about how much water Rosemont Copper will use;” “the orange griffen and Scott Avenue is the heartbeat of downtown Tucson;” and “Huntsville, Ala., has nothing on Tucson.”
There are more buzzwords out there and we’d like to hear them. Send us your suggestions at the e-mail address below.
Consider it an educational as well as fun exercise. This stuff would be funny if it weren’t so painfully true.
Contact Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone at wakeuptucson@gmail.com. They host “Wake Up Tucson,” 6-8 a.m. weekdays on The Voice KVOI 1030-AM. Their blog is at www.TucsonChoices.com.
By Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, June 4th, 2010
If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ve figured out we are not professional journalists. If you listen to our radio program, you’ll quickly realize we aren’t radio pros either. We are a couple of small business guys who can no longer sit and watch as the region we love squanders its potential. The lack of vision and leadership is hurting the future for our families.
We, along with many of you, have come to the conclusion that Tucson is on a one-way trip to being the Detroit of the desert. Suburban areas are flourishing while the city core stagnates and rots.
Don’t blame us. We had nothing to do with Tucson’s overdependence on the growth industry. We didn’t chase away our youth for lack of opportunity. We had nothing to do with Motorola leaving. Or the movie industry going to New Mexico. Or IBM relocating. We haven’t been a part of downtown redevelopment but, like you, we watched as Albuquerque and El Paso actually did things in their downtowns while Tucson planned and planned. Print this story
The last few years in Tucson have been like watching a car wreck happen in slow motion. You know it’s going to be messy but you’re not sure how bad it will end up.
Tucson is what it is. This economic recession has ripped the bandage off a problem and the open wound has been exposed. You have the same three choices as we do: move away, sit back and coast or work to fix it.
For our part, we’re in the “fix-it” mode.
So far we, individually or as a team, have sat on commissions, worked on task forces and served on nonprofit boards. We’ve risen to management in organizations, we’ve created hundreds of jobs and opened or developed dozens of locations for small businesses. We’ve run for public office, campaigned for candidates, spoken to government officials, bureaucrats, neighbors, environmentalists and other movers and shakers.
We’ve found a whole bunch of people who feel the same way as we do. We’ve also found a few people who wish we’d get in line with their ideas. And we’ve even run into a few who are downright obstructionists.
Now is the time and this is a call to do one of three things: lead, follow or get out of the way.
There are groups out there right now thinking, planning and organizing how to chart a new course for this region. We are encouraged by the work of the up-and-coming leaders at the Pima County Republican and Democratic parties. We are energized by the work of the religious community and their efforts to organize politically. We know of business groups that are looking to improve the development process, create more jobs and improve relationships with Mexico. Private capitalists, not governments, are talking about how to leverage Tucson’s economic assets.
We need the business community to plug in. If you have already made your fortune in Southern Arizona, give a little of your time and experience to help the next generation. If your business isn’t there yet, reach out for help; there are many options.
Republican or Democrat, neighborhood or business, old or young, we all need to get away from the single-issue loudmouths who dominate the political debate. No more political doublespeak and elected officials who worry more about their next re-election than what’s best for the long-term of the region. We have had our fill of groups that are supposed to represent us but have become too comfortable. We believe education of our children is the single most important opportunity for Tucson to become a healthy community but are frustrated with throwing money into a black hole. We respect our role as environmental stewards but we also need jobs.
Most importantly, we need those with the power to tax and regulate to understand we can’t take much more. Pushing down one more tax, one more form, one more fee may not seem like a big deal to a government official but it’s getting to the point where it’s not worth the risk, sleepless nights and always being the last one paid.
We are down in the trenches trying to fix this mess now. We need like-minded folks to join us. That’s the only way anything is going to get done.
Contact Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone at wakeuptucson@gmail.com. They host “Wake Up Tucson,” 6-8 a.m. weekdays on The Voice KVOI 1030-AM. Their blog is at www.TucsonChoices.com.
Copyright © 2010 Inside Tucson Business
From Goldwater Institutes daily email. This session Arizona lawmakers enacted some of the most far-reaching K-12 education reforms in state history. The changes have received little attention from any Arizona media so far. But you can bet you’ll hear much more as the state implements the new laws.
Ten years ago Florida implemented a set of education reforms that transformed their schools from among the worst performers on national tests to among the best. Several of the bills that Governor Brewer has signed into law are modeled on Florida’s success.
Arizona now will annually issue schools a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F.
The state now will have a robust program for experts in math, science and other areas to teach their subjects without first getting a teaching certificate from a college of education.
Lawmakers have curtailed social promotion by holding back some third graders who have yet to learn the basics of reading.
Legislators expanded the sources available to launch new charter schools.
Lawmakers increased the size and transparency of the state scholarship tax credit program and changed to the date for claiming the tax credits from December 31 to April 15.
The Legislature also specified school districts cannot use “years on the job” as the only criteria when deciding which teachers to keep. The Arizona Department of Education will be required to develop teacher and principal evaluations that include how well students score on specific tests.
Each bill contains important policy changes that will improve education by holding educators accountable to parents and taxpayers. The “A” to “F” school labels and teacher evaluation reforms could revolutionize Arizona’s public schools if properly implemented.
We have many people to thank for these remarkable changes. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Patricia Levesque, the executive director for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, spent their valuable time here in Arizona. Key philanthropic and business community leaders aided with both their money and their time. Governor Jan Brewer and her staff made it a priority to win legislative approval of the Florida-based reforms. The chairmen of the Senate and House education committees, Senator John Huppenthal and Representative Rich Crandall, personally introduced several of the key bills. Most of the measures gathered strong, bipartisan support.
This year, Arizona lawmakers demonstrated with action, not just words, that they will not accept Arizona permanently sitting near the bottom of student achievement rankings. We will not see overnight improvement, and much hard work lies ahead. We have, however, taken the first vital steps to turning our school performance crisis around.
Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president of research for the Goldwater Institute.
Utah is hovering at just over 4% unemployment. It seems the economic crisis skipped over their state and landed in Nevada, Arizona and California. How did they do it? Here’s a hint; it took leadership and years of planning. Utah leaders embarked on a multi year project, Envision Utah. The Southern Arizona Leadership Council brought in organizers of the Envision Utah program about a year ago. A crowd of about 500 heard how Utah navigated through the wide variety of interests to come out with a comprehensive plan that would set their state on the path to prosperity for the next generations.
A project mirrored after “The Envision Utah” is well underway here in Tucson. The local effort, coined “Imagine Greater Tucson”, is lead by local land use attorney Keri Silvyan. I was in the audience and impressed with the concepts and the plan Utah embarked on. What Utah did, and what Silvyn is mirroring locally, is Utah leaders called together a large number of stake holders from varied backgrounds to build relationships and discuss their common future. T
The Envision Utah process put business, politicos and community activists together, discussed each groups particular needs and then used computer models to show what would happen over 20 years if certain paths were taken by the community. For example, if the community wants more open space then the land values would increase, dense population and infill would have to occur and mass public transportation would be required. If the community wanted more growth related industries (housing and sprawl) then the cost of supporting the infrastructure and finding water would have a cost to the entire community.
What’s important is that if Arizona as a state or Pima County as a region starts moving towards a Utah model, their must be voices from all sides being heard and respected. In southern Arizona the environmental voice is organized and focused and the business voice is unorganized and somewhat scattered.
What Happens If That Happens?
Environmentalists ability to influence our community is well documented. We are right in the middle of one of the largest movements in our history to combine water and waste water delivery. In the desert, the people that control water have the power. A large part of the comprehensive water plan included riparian re-establishment of the Santa Cruz. The plan calls for a whopping 25% of reclaimed waste water being sent to the Santa Cruz for creating a river that hasn’t flowed in a generation. The committee that has worked on the process for the past 20 months isn’t exactly ‘fair and balanced’. The business community had one seat on the board and isn’t happy with the results. This debate is the classic growth, no growth debate Tucson has been waging for 60 years. The no growthers are winning and that might not be that bad.
From this weekends Arizona Republic:
Faced with high population growth in the 1990s, Utah civic leaders became concerned about how to accommodate so many new residents without disrupting the state’s high quality of life.
Traditionally, elected officials would have taken the lead to manage growth. But residents of the libertarian-leaning state resisted that kind of top-down control.
So reformers in Utah instead started from the bottom up, building a grass-roots movement that led to the voluntary adoption of measures that observers say improved the state’s economy and helped it weather the current recession.
Compare that approach to Arizona’s, where reform organizers have so far limited public involvement to surveys and a few public forums.
To align the visions of elected leaders with the people they serve, Arizona may have to become more like Utah.
The Utah model
Although managing growth, not government reform, was the Utah initiative’s goal, the process did lead to change in how elected leaders work. In fact, the approach has become a model for problem-solving throughout the U.S. and even in some foreign countries.
Envision Utah was created in 1997, and together with state government, it developed tools to help communities plan. It educated the public on how to accommodate growth through higher-density zoning, the expanded use of mass transit and other strategies.
That education led residents to support proposals they might have once rejected.
The key to reform efforts that work, organizers said, is a bottom-up approach that makes citizens champions of the process. The core of Envision Utah’s model is to ask residents to reflect on their values and hopes for the future and then translate their thinking into action through interactive workshops. In its early days, Envision Utah would hold 50 public meetings for each step of the process.
Large-scale public participation is a catalyst for action, participants say. Tom Jensen, an architect from Logan, Utah, says political candidates in his region now compete with one another over who better supports the vision developed by residents for the Cache Valley.
“This has a greater chance to be implemented because it’s a grass-roots vision,” said Jensen, who also has an office in Tempe. “It gives political leaders cover.”
One example: Grass-roots support led elected officials in nine different communities around the Great Salt Lake to adopt a plan limiting development on the lakeshore.
While focused on growth issues, Envision Utah also has used its model of public engagement to create disaster-preparedness plans for the state and address issues related to higher education.
“We think that this is a process that can be used to address a number of issues in a community,” said Alan Matheson, a Tempe native and attorney who now serves as Envision Utah’s executive director.
Jeff Edwards, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, said the state’s reputation for collaboration has helped officials lure businesses.
“Envision Utah has been a great tool for us in communicating to companies that this is a community that works together,” Edwards said. “We kind of take it for granted. They say, ‘Trust us, this is not the way it happens in other states.’ ”
While no group can take sole credit for a state’s economy, lately Utah has had plenty for Arizonans to envy. The state’s unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, compared with 9.1 percent in Arizona.
The key to success, Matheson said, is not only involving the public from the beginning but also keeping it involved until the end. Persistence, he said, also is critical.
“We’ve all seen examples of good plans that sit on the shelf,” Matheson said. “But nothing happens in the public realm without public support. The way you get public support is by giving people ownership in that plan.”
Arizona’s effort
In Arizona, would-be reformers have made some efforts to involve the public.
The Arizona We Want, an initiative of the Center for the Future of Arizona, aims to take the results of the October Gallup poll and translate Arizonans’ goals into concrete steps to achieve them. The extensive poll of 3,606 Arizonans was designed to produce “actionable insights” into residents’ thinking. Using questions tested in dozens of other communities, Gallup found Arizonans are highly engaged in civic life compared with residents in other states.
Despite that engagement, polls regularly find dissatisfaction with elected leaders.
“The endgame is still the endgame: to get citizens and leaders working on the same things, to start pulling together on the things that we need to do,” said Pat Beaty, director of the initiative and a senior fellow at the Center for the Future of Arizona, the group led by former ASU President Coor.
Beaty said the institute needs to move beyond abstract goals to engage citizens about issues affecting their communities.
“You can talk about the Arizona we want,” Beaty said. “But it has to become embedded in the Flagstaff we want, the Yuma we want, the school we want.”
Coor has toured the state for the past three months, meeting with elected officials and civic leaders and soliciting their ideas and support. And the center plans to send questionnaires to candidates for elected office so citizens can see where they stand on those topics.
O’Connor House Project participants have taken their ideas for reform straight to the Legislature. A spinoff group, Government for Arizona’s 2nd Century, is working with lawmakers to support bills that will ask voters to create a lieutenant governor’s position, eliminate term limits and end taxpayer funding of candidates.
To date, the group’s efforts at public involvement have been limited to an invitation-only town-hall meeting for business and civic leaders. The approach has raised questions about how the group will develop the support necessary to succeed.
The bills cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and are scheduled to be heard in the Rules Committee this week.
Michael Bidwill, president of the Arizona Cardinals and chairman of the government-reform effort, said the time is ripe for change. “We have a unique chance to improve the way our government works,” he said. “When you look at any public-opinion poll, a lot of people are looking for government to work better.”
Organizers acknowledge reform in Arizona has had a spotty history. Many efforts lose steam before any real change is accomplished. Still, the state’s current crisis has brought a rare opportunity for real change.
“I see this groundswell starting to build,” said Sue Clark-Johnson, executive director of the Morrison Institute of Public Policy at Arizona State University and the former chairman and CEO of The Arizona Republic. “In the decades I’ve lived here, I have seldom seen such a compassion and a caring and a concern for the future of this state.”
But concern alone won’t be enough to reform state government.
“You can’t just do a vision and walk away,” said Brenda Scheer, dean of the University of Utah’s College of Architecture and Planning and an Envision Utah board member. “People have to own it, and they have to be champions of it.”
The names have been changed (sort of) to protect the innocent - or in this case guilty. Read the soap opera story we all know too well, by x4mr - HERE. Bravo!
WAKE UP TUCSON: Use your checkbook
By Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone, special for Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, November 06, 2009
The campaign signs are being collected. Campaign teams are exhausted. Candidates are getting to know their families again and life will return to normal for a couple radio talk show hosts. In the end Tucson has taken the first big step in a long journey.
Business people understand elections have consequences. Especially when government leaders are making decisions about banks being too big to fail, universal health care, new regulations, another czar of something or other and unending government takeovers. Billions and trillions of dollars that get thrown around way too easily.
President Obama rolled into office after eight years of Bush fatigue. Last year was time to punish Republicans for overstepping their power and losing sight of their core beliefs. The electorate was ready for a change.
Tucson had a similar momentum for change building this year among voters. Missteps, starts and stops, insider deals and unfulfilled promises got public attention and what happened? Republicans overcame a 2-to-1 voter disadvantage to elect Steve Kozachik to the city council. If you’ve met Koz, you know he would be better suited for a future non-partisan race than what he went through this year. This election was not about party affiliations; it was about job creation.
Where was the business community in this election? Once again a last-ditch rally cry went out, “it’s time for business to influence an election.” Meetings were called, checks were written, campaign strategies were implemented and in the end it was close. A handful of us actually did a lot, a bunch of us did a little and most of us thought “why bother.” Look at the track record in elections; business wins a few but loses most then drifts back into apathy until the next election.
It’s going to take a consistent long-range approach to change that current climate. We agree there is a lack of vision from elected officials but we in the business community also lack long-range vision. Where is business leadership? Who is the “go to” voice for business in Tucson?
Is it the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce? Judge for yourself. Take a look at Austin, Albuquerque or El Paso and compare their chamber models to ours.
Is it the Southern Arizona Leadership Council? SALC’s big push is education, which we agree is critically important to economic development. Starting with the basics and fixing the local playing field before lobbying Phoenix may be a better strategy. Voters last week told Tucson Unified School District and most districts around the state that more money isn’t going to happen – at least not right now.
Is it the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association or the Tucson Association of Realtors? Both organizations are too toxic to lead the charge. The Democratic machine in Tucson has made a career out of demonizing the “evil” growth lobby.
Is it Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (TREO)? TREO’s mission is to bring business to our region. It is still primarily supported by government sector and can’t bite the hand that feeds it, yet a rolling up their sleeves and creating a pro-business climate is the very thing TREO needs to be successful.
Is it small business? We have the numbers but we are usually so busy trying to keep our doors open scratching out a living we have little time for anything else.
Ladies and gentlemen, to use the famous Pogo quotation, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The next time you write your membership check to a business organization look to see if it accurately represents your view and is on the right track. The next time you get asked for a large donation ask if the organization — be it a chamber, business group or political party — if it can show measurable results.
Do we bury our heads for another two or four years and hope things will be different? Do we continue with the “go-along-to-get-along” attitude that has left us as second-class players in an community that is decaying?
It’s time for the business community to call for accountability and leadership. Vote with our checkbooks. It’s time to feed those business organization that are truly getting things done and starve those that have failed us.
Our hats are off to all the candidates and incumbents for the effort they put forth. If your pick didn’t win, get over it. Now is the time to get to work and support all of our elected officials to make Tucson a better place to do business.
Contact Joe Higgins at joe@joehigginsinc.com or Chris DeSimone at provenpartners@comcast.net. They’re the hosts of “Wake Up Tucson,” which airs 6 - 8 a.m. weekdays on The Voice KVOI 1030-AM. Check out their blog at www.TucsonChoices.com.