Posts Tagged ‘Nina Trasoff’

Ms. Trasoff

Ms. Trasoff has announced she wants to selectively revise the Tucson Land Use Code.

Bully for her.

But it is time to COMPLETELY revamp the antiquated Tucson Land Use Code and not perform some selected minor elective surgery.  Ms Trasoff you are wrong – again!

A total revamp of the code is what is needed to create a brighter future in Tucson.  But revamping the code will be a dangerous task for her to accomplish and the reason Trasoff and Company do not wish to pursue this endeavor is because their neighborhood special interest group allies do not want this to happen. 

These are the same folks who help elect Trasoff and her Democrat crew along with BIG LABOR.  That is why she has been so unwilling to make any substantive changes to happen and only reluctantly suggests some tinkering with the code.

Is it in Tucson’s best interests to continue to elect council members who are beholden to special interest radical neighborhood groups and BIG LABOR who lead our City Council around the nose on issues which are so important to ALL Tucson?

Rio Nuevo was to be Ms. Trasoff’s jumping off point to run for mayor of Tucson. 

She had hoped for success with the project and so did each of us who also wanted there to be a vibrant downtown.  That is why local community leaders and myself worked so hard and sacrificed our personal reputations at the Arizona Legislature to expand the TIF only to be embarrassed by her and the council.

Trasoff, the rest of the council and her supporters squandered the most positive business cycle in half a century flopping around like a fish from one failed concept after another.

Further, Ms. Trasoff sanctioned selling $80,000,000+ of bonds at the worst possible time in an effort to threaten the Legislature against cutting off the TIF expansion. 

When the bonds were sold Trasoff said this was one the greatest developments for Rio Nuevo.  Trasoff says she “owns” Rio Nuevo.  If she does then let her sink with this stinker.

This week Ms. Trasoff will announce she plans to seek re election.  Her bid MUST be rejected.  She is an amateur who is in charge of millions of our dollars and while she would believe our tax dollars have been well spent she and her friends are delusional.

When revenues aren’t coming in you have to cut expenses. Sound pretty basic right? Well according to a recent editorial in the Tucson Citizen  “City leaders should contemplate other creative alternatives as well to save money without eliminating jobs.”  In other words, instead of cutting expenses let’s look at raising income – click HERE for tax increases you should start planning for.

A look at lay offs around the state:

Oro Valley Cutting Jobs To Balance Budget – HERE

Phoenixis expected to lay off 1,200 people next month, Fischbach said. And Tempe, Chandler, Mesa, Bullhead City and Flagstaff have already been through series of layoffs. 

February 25, 2009, 4:28 p.m.

Tucson Citizen
letters@tucsoncitizen.com

Normally we would not applaud Tucson City Council members for delaying decisive action, but their hesitancy to lay off workers in this economy is commendable.

Yes, the financial forecast is grim and the city budget situation is dire.

Yes, difficult decisions must be made.

And yes, perhaps City Manager Mike Hein’s recommended 30 or so layoffs would result in more city “efficiency,” as he says.

But as we at the Tucson Citizen know all too well, losing a job in this economy is an especially terrible fate.

Every layoff sends ripple effects through the local economy – and those effects hit city government, too.

So the council members are wise to continue their work on other options, such as 12-day furloughs.

City leaders should contemplate other creative alternatives as well to save money without eliminating jobs.

Employees should be offered unpaid, voluntary sabbaticals, with their jobs reserved for them until they return.

Also, most workers undoubtedly would prefer to accept a sizable pay cut on a temporary basis rather than lose their jobs permanently.

Or, some portion of employee salaries could be deferred for a year while the economy recovers (let’s hope).

And if some employees’ jobs in the development arena no longer are needed, as Hein reports, then the city should try to devise a way to transfer those workers to other vacant positions.

In that way, when the construction industry picks up again – and it will – the city will not have to hire and train new employees to perform permitting and other development-related functions.

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich recently told the Citizen, “Obviously I’m concerned about the high-quality staff we have throughout the Planning Department and making sure we don’t lose the benefit of their guidance in any way.”

The federal stimulus bill also “could fill in some of these blanks,” Councilwoman Nina Trasoff recently noted. “It’d be fabulous if it does. The city has done a good job of poising itself with shovel-ready projects if it does.

“I hate to see anybody lose a job.”

So do we. Director Fred Gray’s ideas to reduce services in the Parks & Recreation Department would preserve full-time jobs but eliminate part-time ones.

He would cut the summer swimming season by three weeks, close three pools, reduce adult sports leagues by half and eliminate up to 40 leisure classes.

We urge the council to continue carefully calculating its strategies. If the federal infusion of funds can eliminate the need for layoffs, we hope the money will be used in that regard.

February 15, 2009, 8:15 p.m.

CARLI BROSSEAU
Tucson Citizen

The city will conduct an “internal review” of payments to the University of Arizona for UA’s planned Science Center complex downtown, Tucson City Manager Mike Hein said Thursday.

Hein said the review was prompted in part by political pressure from the state Legislature, which has threatened to revoke the tax-increment financing district Tucson has relied on to fund downtown and Rio Nuevo redevelopment.

But some city accountants have been questioning UA’s invoices for months. In October, Rio Nuevo Finance Manager Stacie Bird asked Hein to sign a memo that said Hein approved “expenditures the City does not allow on other District projects.” If he didn’t sign, she wanted a meeting with him and UA officials to talk about the spending.

Hein signed it.

Then on Jan. 29, Tucson Finance Director Frank Abeyta ordered an audit of city payments to UA and of the outstanding bills for the Science Center, Rio Nuevo’s flagship project.

Hein, through Bird and Assistant to the City Manager Jaret Barr, put a stop to the audit that day, saying it wasn’t the city’s role to question UA’s expenditures.

On Jan. 30, Abeyta ordered Bird to stop all payments to UA, then abruptly quit. He had been head of the city’s finance department for only four months.

Neither Abeyta nor city officials will say whether the dispute over the audit was the reason for Abeyta’s resignation, but Abeyta, in an exchange of e-mails with Bird Jan. 29, questioned the appropriateness of some UA bills.

In an interview Thursday, Hein cited staffing concerns, the cooperative ideals of public partnerships and the terms of the contract between the city and UA as reasons for resisting an audit and for paying the full amount billed by the university.

He said the city is bound to pay its share of project expenses even though invoices show spending that the city and the Rio Nuevo district normally wouldn’t cover.

But last week members of a state legislative committee criticized Rio Nuevo’s lack of transparency and money management and also complained about a lack of tangible results.

UA’s bills may not help the Rio Nuevo projects’ reputation with legislators.

The charges Bird labeled “questionable” included $161,585 for salaries, $2,155 for food, $14,374 for new computers and a $2,289 trip to Pisa, Italy. The items in doubt accounted for more than $186,000 of the $692,000 the university spent on the project in June and July.

The most recent invoices reviewed by the Tucson Citizen show that spending patterns haven’t changed much, and documents supporting much of the billed amounts were missing.

Receipts lumped with the January invoice show another trip to Pisa, costing $1,188 in June, and requests for reimbursement for a $3,927 trip for two to attend a planetarium conference in Chicago and $1,784 for a university employee to learn about data mining and information storage at a resort near Las Vegas.

The slips showed meals for two in June and July in Tucson at Sullivan’s Steakhouse ($127.98), Barrio Food & Drink ($73.51) and the Arizona Inn ($49.92), and a $165 charge from a HoneyBaked Ham Store that included a $30 delivery fee.

January’s invoice lists a charge of $77,025.42 for “other specialty & design consultant fees.”

Abeyta wrote in an e-mail sent to Bird at 7:54 a.m. the day he resigned that “The City Manager said he would rather not know what discrepancies we find in the payments to U of A. . . . Also he indicated what you said, that as long as U of A approves the expenditures, we don’t have to. I obviously don’t agree with that.”

Abeyta said he was concerned that unless the project was slowed, the city would be spending money on the Science Center that had been allocated to other projects. “Since we have only $2 million from this bond issue, someone has to slow this project down,” he wrote.

UA has billed the city for about $1.3 million of the $2 million Rio Nuevo bond allocation already. The city has not paid the university any of that amount.

Bird, who reports directly to Hein but earlier also to Abeyta in his role as Rio Nuevo treasurer, said Thursday the delay in payments was because of work on the city’s sale of $80 million in Rio Nuevo bonds, not questions about the UA’s spending.

The city has agreed to pay half the cost of the Science Center, up to $130 million. UA has spent and approved more than $13.3 million so far, according to its expenditure summary.

The contract states that Tucson must reimburse the university for “one-half of the total design phase amounts expended to date at the end of the month.” There is no clause clarifying procurement policies.

The contract does, however, give the UA an out if its funding is cut by legislators, allowing it to renegotiate terms or cancel the deal.

University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton said Saturday that the Vice President of Business Affairs Joel Valdez and Hein have been discussing a revised construction plan for budgetary reasons.

Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, who presides over the Rio Nuevo council subcommittee and whose ward covers much of the Rio Nuevo district, said Thursday, “This has been very difficult. . . . We are bound by the terms of the agreement.”

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, who called for a city audit commission in June after a dispute with Hein and questions over budget figures, said a review of the UA Science Center invoices could be the commission’s first work.

“It’s true that we have to watch all costs at this time, but transparency and accountability remain priorities,” Uhlich wrote in a statement. “Mayor and Council amended the outside auditing firm contract to allow for ‘spot audits’ costing less than $50,000. That may be a way to contain the cost of any review needed.”

UA’s Valdez, a former Tucson city manager, declined to comment on specifics of the university’s spending Thursday. He did say, however, that “I’m not opposed to an audit.”

Taxpayers lost big on Rio Nuevo bond sale

By not delaying it, as other US areas did, city may have to pay extra $10M or more

By Rob O’Dell

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.15.2009

When other communities across the country were pulling out of the bond market in December as the failing economy pushed interest rates higher, Tucson forged ahead with a Rio Nuevo bond issue.

The move potentially cost taxpayers more than $10 million in extra interest — money that could have gone into projects instead — because the municipal bond market recovered in January and February, experts interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star said.

One municipal bond expert put the potential loss at as much as $18 million.

The city’s bond adviser, Shawn Dralle of RBC Capital Markets, estimated the savings from delaying the bond sale would have been a much smaller $5.4 million over the life of the bonds, from 2011 to 2025.

Tucson issued $78 million in bonds for its Downtown redevelopment district Dec. 15-17, as state lawmakers were openly threatening to take back the state sales taxes that go to Rio Nuevo because of the project’s perceived lack of progress.

Several experts said interest rates now would be about 1.2 percentage points lower than the nearly 6.5 percent the city sold its bonds at in December. Dralle estimates the rate difference would be only 0.25 percent to 0.5 percentage points lower.

Several Tucson officials said no one could predict future interest rates, and added that the city sold the bonds to get Rio Nuevo projects moving. The legislative threats weren’t a factor, they said.

But numerous communities across the country delayed their bond sales in December. A January report from JP Morgan Asset Management said many issuers were postponing year-end bond sales because they were unwilling to pay the high yields required to attract buyers.

Just three days before Tucson’s sale, New-York based municipal bond adviser Freda Johnson told Bloomberg News it was recommending “borrowers delay their sales if at all possible” because of high yields and weak demands.

Mayor Bob Walkup said the bonds were sold to get Rio Nuevo moving in response to criticism from the public and the media about a lack of progress. He said the legislative threat to take the money back “wasn’t even a discussion.”

“I think we still did the right thing at that moment,” Walkup said, adding the city can’t predict interest rates. “If you find the guy with that crystal ball, let me know because we can make a lot of money.” Action delayed elsewhere

Deven Mitchell, executive director of the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority, said the bank pulled back two bond issues in early to mid-December, one for a prison and the other for money that would be loaned to municipalities. The Alaskan bonds had similar ratings to Rio Nuevo’s, although Tucson spent $750,000 on bond insurance to boost its rating several levels.

The bond bank waited for the markets to calm down and then sold its bonds “as soon as possible” at rates under 6 percent just before Christmas and again in January.

It’s a difficult decision, Mitchell said, because if you need the money to start construction, it can be better to issue the bonds than wait.

But the amount of construction to be done with the $78 million in Rio Nuevo bonds is limited, with $58 million split between design and construction for 13 projects Downtown and on the West Side. One expert questioned the amount of “soft costs” for design in the bonds.

A total of $20 million went to pay back a loan to the city, into a reserve fund or for bond insurance.

Issuers as disparate as the state of Minnesota, the District of Columbia and Oklahoma City delayed bond sales at the end of 2008 because of market conditions.

In Florida, top state officials questioned the state bond director in January over a bond sale for universities on Dec. 14 with an interest rate of 6.16 percent, pointing out that another Florida issue a month later fetched a rate of 4.7 percent. The director blamed volatile credit markets. Higher interest costs

Michael Stanton, publisher of the Bond Buyer newspaper, looked at the difference in market rates — calculated from municipal market data or MMD — between December and the second week in February.

He said the average rates today are about 1.2 percentage points lower than rates were in December, resulting in roughly $10 million more in interest costs for the December bonds.

Stanton made a second calculation of only $4.3 million in savings using an index of revenue bonds — which are paid off with revenuelike sales taxes. But the Rio Nuevo bonds are backed not just by sales taxes, but by the city’s general fund as well.

Alvin Boutte Jr., managing director and head of the Midwest region for Chicago-based investment banking firm Grigsby & Associates Inc., estimated the difference in interest rates cost the city $18 million in interest over the life of the bonds. He estimated the city would pay 5.2 percent on the bond issue today.

In a larger issue by the city of Chicago on Jan. 20, Boutte said, the interest rate for 15-year bonds was 4.81 percent. By contrast, the yield for Tucson’s 15-year bonds is 6.79 percent.

The companies that underwrote Tucson’s bonds declined to estimate what the difference in interest rates cost Tucson. Stone & Youngberg said there were too many variables to calculate. Piper Jaffray referred calls to the city’s bond adviser, Dralle at RBC Capital Markets.

In a statement, Dralle said the rates did drop in January but that much of the drop was “on paper” because there were few sales, and many issuers had higher credit ratings — although the city paid $750,000 for bond insurance to boost its credit rating equivalent to AAA.

Dralle said the bonds got the best rates they could at the time they were sold, and estimated that Rio Nuevo bonds today would sell with interest rates between 6 percent and 6.25 percent because of “a worsening economy and with Legislative threats to the revenue.”

Jaret Barr, assistant to City Manager Mike Hein, said interest rates have dropped, but estimated the impact was more like $5 million.

He added the city talked about waiting but decided to move forward to keep projects going. He challenged those who criticize the city’s decision to tell him what the interest rates will be in March, since they think the city should have been able to see the future. Deliberately hurried

State Rep. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson, has railed against the city bond sale for months, contending the city knew it was getting a bad deal but went out to market anyway to commit the money so the Legislature wouldn’t be able to take it away.

“It was deliberately done in a hurry to use it as a bargaining chip,” Antenori said. “Because it was somebody else’s money, they just did it.”

Councilwoman Nina Trasoff countered that Tucson proceeded in order to jump-start important projects, acting on the advice of its bond attorney.

“You can always second-guess these things,” Trasoff said. “It’s always easy in 20/20 hindsight to say, ‘gee, if.’ ”

Contact reporter Rob O’Dell at 573-4346 or rodell@azstarnet.com.

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