Topics in This Issue:

- Toni Solheid and Genna
- Jean Fedigan / Sister Jose
- Migrant Needs
- Plastic Blocks
- Sol y Luna
- Missed Opportunity
- Gun Violence
- Rainbow Fentanyl
- Street Racing
- TPD Trunk or Treat
- City Planning Code Changes
- Tucson Repair Café
- Water Security
- Grant Road Overlay
- Rincon Heights Seed and Plant Exchange
- COVID

Toni Solheid and Genna

If you’ve followed this newsletter for a while, you’ll know the story of Genna Ayup. Roughly 10 years ago her live-in shot and killed her. He said it was an accident. After a decade that included hundreds of hours of effort by the family, the court system failed them and ended up giving the killer 3 years’ probation.

Throughout the past several years my staff and I have worked with Genna’s family exhaustively trying to get justice for Genna. In the photo above you see her mom, Toni looking down at the locket that contains Genna’s remains. It’s all she has left of her daughter.

Last week Toni passed away in her sleep. I will forever know that a part of her passing was the effect of a broken heart – at the loss of her child, and at the injustice suffered through the judicial process.

I spoke with Toni’s husband over the weekend. In memory of Toni, and in honor of Genna the family is asking anyone who is so moved to make donations to Genna’s House – the recovery facility started by Genna’s sister in the aftermath of her killing. At Genna’s House, they provide a sober living environment for women in recovery - specializing in recovery assistance for women suffering domestic abuse, and substance abuse. You can find their website at this link:

https://www.believerecoveryservices.org/ 

Genna’s House is located at 6675 E. 22^nd. You can reach them at 520.347.6434.

My staff who knew and worked with Toni are heartbroken for the family.

Jean Fedigan / Sister Jose

Toni and Genna’s story is very sad. Jean and Sister Jose’s story is uplifting. Last Friday evening Jean was honored by Catholic Extension with the 2022 Lumen Christi Award. The Extension is an arm of the church whose mission is to help communities that are poor, rural, and generally in need of support beyond their own ability to subsist. The work Jean is doing at Sister Jose was nominated along with 6 other very worthy candidates. Jean won – and in the process received $25K from the Extension to support the work of Sister Jose.

Before the presentation was made to Jean, Czarina Lopez stepped onto the stage and on behalf of her and husband Bert Lopez presented Jean another $250K. We at the Ward 6 office thank Bert and Czarina for their generosity. The work being done at Sister Jose – at any of our shelters – cannot happen without significant support from those who can. The donation will go a long way toward helping Jean and her team expand their ability to take care of women facing homelessness.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add that Kiamas Foundation topped it all off at around $300K. Not a bad night for the woman I was on the phone with just hours earlier trying to secure housing for 2 women who are 80 years old. Jean will continue that wonderful work – my office will continue to partner with her along the way, and this well-deserved honor will simply allow them to touch more lives.

If you would like to get more information about St Jose's Women Shelter, here is the link to their website:

https://www.srjosewomensshelter.org/

Migrant Needs

You’ve likely seen the pictures of some governors using Central American migrants as political fodder by sending them to other areas. Those of you who have followed our work at Ward 6 for long, know of our involvement with support at a human level for migrants. Over the weekend the Star ran a nice article on how the Benedictine Monastery was used as a large migrant shelter. The article failed to mention that the transition to the shelter was initiated through this office. We’ve had families sleeping on cots in our community room when capacity has gotten particularly stressed.

You’ve stepped up in the past and helped with donations. The numbers of people arriving locally have ranged from around 400 per day up to a recent high of over 700. That is stretching thin the workers and volunteers out at the Alitas Welcome Center. It’s also stretching thin some of the items they’re putting in the travel bags.

Over the weekend I was in touch with the leadership at the Alitas Welcome Center. We’ve worked with them literally, for going on a decade. Here’s what we are helping with – at the request of the Alitas folks. New and unopened underwear (men’s and women’s and children’s,) new socks, and personal hygiene products. That’s shampoo, sunscreen, lotion, toothpaste, feminine products, soap – that sort of thing. New children’s toys. That’s it – we love creativity, but not in this case. That’s what they need.

We are not taking clothing. Nor do they need clothing at the welcome center. Please Stick To Only With What They’ve Asked For So They Or My Office Doesn’t Have To Sift Through And Toss What We Do Not Need.

Our office is open until 1pm every weekday. We appreciate the responsiveness of the community each time I try to turn on the donation spigot again.

Plastic Blocks

KVOA’s Megan Spector ran a nice piece on the plastic program last week. Here’s a link to her story. We’re appreciative of the local press coverage the program has received. We’re ready for follow ups – the project is immensely popular throughout the community.

https://www.kvoa.com/news/tucson-park-is-getting-4-new-benches-made-from-plastic-trash/article_c07c3b28-3423-11ed-bdfd-572d8e0a508e.html

Nadia and I joined several Sustainability classes over at Rincon/UHS last week. I was invited to share about the plastic reuse program. We had all of the show and tell, including some of the starter kits to hand out. I had suggested to their teacher that just for fun we tell them that the price of admission to the talk would be that they each bring a piece of non-recyclable plastic from their home.

Here’s what they showed up with. For scale, it’s close to 150 gallons of plastic – just from these students, and just from the week leading up to that day. As I was walking through their campus on the way to the auditorium I saw several more easy targets – liners from their trash cans, clam shells and plastic cups in the trash, and plastic wrapping around construction material. I challenged them to begin a Rincon/University High campus collection effort. Based on the interactions we had I’m suspecting they’re going to be great ambassadors for the work.

There’s a gizmo called the Waste Management Hierarchy inverted triangle. It shows the most preferred, descending to least preferred ways to deal with our solid waste. You can see that what you’re doing through the plastic project lies at the top rung of that triangle. Sadly, we’re not going to run short of plastic. Using it in a productive way is what we’re doing.

Last week, we moved forward w/4 more benches – these are by the Himmel Park library, by the playground. As we did at San Gabriel these will have a peek-a-boo window so people can see the blocks behind the stucco. And the seat tops are made from Anita at Bottle Rocket – the crushed glass product she builds. The final 2 seat tops will be installed mid-week this week.

Here I’m just looking over the stucco prep with one of the KappCon workers who took part in the install. We’re happy to have a local contractor involved with the work. 

This is another of the crushed glass Bottle Rocket seat tops – the cherry on the whipped cream. All 4 of the Himmel benches will be stucco’d and will have the tops added later this week.

The design work for the UA project has started. From that will come pricing and a conversation about cost-sharing. It’s my intention to partner on all of these projects as we move forward in the ‘prove it’ stage. The El Pueblo Community Center work began last week – just the footers on the trash enclosure. We’ll work on getting some pictures as those walls begin to go up.

The zoo folks began their program this week. You’ll see a bin right at the entry – you are not supposed to be bringing things like cups and straws into the zoo since they too often end up inside the animal enclosures. So, something like this is at the entry:

Inside the gift shop, and scattered through the work areas they’ve got more bins – 

This is something you can do in your own workplace. I’m in touch with Jennifer at the zoo and we’ll monitor how the stuff accumulates out there. Right now, they’re planning on making drops at the Ward office 1x per week. My crystal ball says that’s going to change. We’re at 2x per week with emptying our 30 cu/yd roll off and as I write this Sunday midday it’s jam-packed. If you come and the thing is full, try looking in the rear of the bin – it has windows on both sides and most people just use the front ones. If there’s no room, go ahead and leave your bagged plastic by our back door and we’ll toss it in once the roll off has been emptied.

I’ve been in very early conversations with the folks at ByFusion about what residential and commercial service agreements might look like. As is true with your current residential trash pickup, there’s a cost to handle and process the material once it leaves your place. At some point, we’ll need to figure out how the business relationship with ByFusion works – both at the residential and at the commercial level. Until then, just keep filling our roll-off. That’s the data point we’re building on to frame the larger long-term discussion.

Here’s our current progress report. We began this on August 1^st. Now, in mid-September we’re over 7 tons of waste that you’ve diverted from the landfill. Every morning I go out and use a broom to push the material in the roll off to the back of the dumpster so there’s room to toss your stuff in.

This is the social media contact data. It shows that nearly 10,000 people have been reached by the post, and just under 6,500 people have clicked to see what this is all about. That is an amazing ratio that demonstrates in yet another way that the program is something people care about and want to participate in.

We continue getting new people signed up on the program. Here’s the link. Signing up will do a few things – one, by giving your zip code we can track how widely dispersed throughout the community the program is. That’ll be an important consideration later when we try to go regional with the program. Signing up also gets you periodic updates on how the program is working. And it will get you access to other work ByFusion is doing nationwide. I’m hoping that we’re in this relationship for the long haul, so knowing your partner is a part of this pilot stage.

https://www.byfusion.com/pilot-program/

Keep your non-recyclable plastic coming. The driveway area by the roll off turns into a steady stream of cars. We appreciate you taking the time to come by and do the drops. We’re still giving away clear bags – come grab some if you’d like. We’re open until 1pm every weekday.

Sol y Luna 

A quick update on the on-going saga at the student housing towers owned and mismanaged by Nelson Partners. The security guards I showed in last weeks newsletter who were dancing on the countertop at the entryway/and sitting enjoying the spectacle – they've both been fired. And their employer has begun an effort to have their security license rescinded at the state level. And there was an eviction related to one of the incidents involving debris being thrown from a balcony.

This is a link to a video of another beer can-throwing incident that took place on 9/6. It’s not the one that has already ended in an eviction. Yup – another ‘opportunity’ for Nelson Partners to enforce their lease. I’ve given the video to Nelson Partners seeing if they’re going to act on the terms of their leases and evict the guys. I am told that NP has sold the place, but until the end of the month at least it’s still their responsibility. We’ll see if they care.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SAmA4vjfr4NP14k1xMqz1eNuCN7qPBNd/view

This will continue every semester as new tenants move in until the owners screen off the balconies. Eventually, somebody is going to be seriously injured. Then they’ll screen off the balconies. I’m mildly hopeful that this rough opening will be the last we hear from these properties – at least until their semester-ending parties.

Not to be outdone, the security guard from Urbane – across the street from Sol y Luna – reported multiple gunshots over the weekend. At least he wasn’t on the front counter dancing with drunk students. There were 2 people who were treated for non-life threatening injuries. The incident began on their party deck. Police have made contact with the suspects.

Missed Opportunity

Last Thursday night Ann and I joined about 100 others at a meeting billed as being an opportunity to hear concerns from local business owners related to crime and homelessness. Held at the Flowing Wells Community Center, give the organizers credit for filling the room. The fact that so many people invested time to talk about what is likely the #1 issue we address every day in the W6 office is a testament to what could have been a productive start of an important conversation with our business leaders. Unfortunately, the event turned into a political rally filled with personal attacks aimed at several of the people from the city and county who had carved out time to take part.

Also present at the meeting were Supervisor Rex Scott, City Manager Mike Ortega, County Administrator Jan Lesher, Police Chief Chad Kasmar, Sheriff Chris Nanos, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, Environmental Services Department Head Carlos Delatorre, and either in person or online the mayor’s office, and wards 2 and 4 were represented. That group of people spent 2 hours listening to one speaker after another talk about recalls, voting us all out of office, personal attacks, and some political statements from a couple of far-right candidates for the state legislature.

Following a 45-minute introduction in which the three organizers of the event gave lengthy statements describing the conditions they’re observing, I was allowed 2 minutes to respond. Seeing that, none of the other city or county staff people at the meeting chose to speak. The issue is far too complex to try to cram into a 2-minute sound bite.

We deal with the impacts of homelessness every day. Those impacts include the personal impact on the people who are wrestling with issues such as domestic violence, drug addiction, mental illness, rent escalation, PTSD, under-employment, and a host of other conditions that make homelessness such a difficult issue to address. We also work daily with the police and business owners on criminal activity – an activity that may or may not be tied to homelessness. The issue easily takes up 30% of the time for everyone who works in the W6 office. We’ll continue doing what we do. Nothing I heard at the meeting was news or novel. And nothing I heard at the meeting was a productive suggestion for addressing any of the issues we’re facing that we don’t already talk about pretty much daily.

The group who organized the meeting missed an excellent opportunity to open a dialogue with the city, county, courts, law enforcement, and both governing bodies. Bluntly – they blew it. They will not get another chance to bring that group of people together. I suspect many of them left feeling as though they had ‘told us’ a thing or two. They did. And the manner of delivery closed a door that could have benefitted everyone in the room.

Gun Violence

Last study session we had an update on our community safety program. That includes outreach to people who may need services, how our 911 center is functioning to assist diverting calls from TPD that don’t require a law enforcement response, and of course a report on community safety from relatively new Chief Kasmar. We’ve seen our violent crime statistics dip a bit from last year – but guns are still an issue in far too many crimes in Tucson.

I addressed two primary pieces of this issue; one is gun violence, and second, I wanted a conversation on how the city can support constables when they face a particularly dangerous call.

This graphic is one I poached from the KOLD story that covered our discussion. It shows homicides in Tucson over the past 3 years. Most of those involve the use of a gun. That escalation is typical of what we’re seeing nationwide.

There are more guns in circulation in the U.S. than there are people. So far in 2022, we’ve killed over 31,000 of our fellow citizens with firearms. Nearly 500 of those can be classified as ‘mass shootings’ where at least 4 people are shot – either killed or injured. This graphic from Gun Violence Archive shows the 7-year trend.

Some people point to contributing factors such as mental illness, violent video games, and racial animosity as being causal. In the U.S. we own the single most important contributor – proliferation of weapons throughout our communities.

In Arizona, our state legislature has in place ARS 13.3108. It preempts local jurisdictions from passing laws that affect the “transportation, possession, carrying, sale, transfer, purchase, acquisition, gift, devise, storage, licensing, registration, discharge or use of firearms or ammunition, or any firearm or ammunition components or related accessories.” So, in Arizona, it is legal to sell an AR15 semi-automatic rifle out of the trunk of your car to anybody who wanders by with cash – no questions asked. What could possibly go wrong?

Last year the state legislature passed what they called the ‘2nd amendment sanctuary law.’ It says that in Arizona we won’t recognize the supremacy of federal gun laws. Back in June 2021, I asked the M&C to agree to a Resolution stating that in the city of Tucson, we will recognize federal gun laws. And we will enforce them. So far nobody from the state has challenged that Resolution.

Following the Uvalde mass murder this year the feds passed what they called the bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It contains enhanced red flag laws, strict background checks on anyone under the age of 21 who is buying a gun, straw purchase penalties, and expanding prohibited possessor status to boyfriends and dating partners who are guilty of domestic abuse. We will be enforcing each piece of that in Tucson – our way of making the community safer, despite the efforts of the legislature and governor to do otherwise.

One example the city attorney and I cited last week is using federal courts to remove guns from people who come under ‘red flag’ scrutiny. That’s where when a person is a threat to self or others the court can temporarily remove weapons. In state court, we’d face the preemption challenge. We’ll be heading to federal court to act on the federal enhanced red flag law. Similarly, we have federal options available with the other components of the Safer Communities Act. That’s not going to solve the gun problem, but in Arizona the solution will have to begin at the political level – changes in the legislature and at the governor’s level. Short of that, we’ll do what we can under the law.

The other issue I wanted to address last week was the issue of inter-agency cooperation. Specifically, I want an agreement between the city police and the county to assure constables are given the backup they deserve when serving eviction notices to people who are known to pose a lethal threat. I raised this issue in the wake of the death of my friend Constable Deb Martinez.

In Deb’s case, the guy she was serving the eviction on was known to have issued threats with a gun, and other threats to neighbors. He had also threatened the previous property manager with a phone message saying “I’m going to f___ kill you.” We also know he was a prohibited possessor from another state, and that he knew enough about firearms to have altered the weapon he used during this crime – possibly using illegal material. That and more is all going to be in the FBI report soon to be released. I do not know whether or not Deb requested police involvement on the day she was shot and killed. But I do know TPD had been made aware that this guy was threatening people’s lives. In a case like that, the constable should be accompanied by a cop.

One legitimate concern raised offline by some of the people looking into this is that if a cop or SWAT member had been at the door, that person would likely have been killed. Perhaps. But that person would have had a bullet-resistant vest on. And the visit could have been scheduled and planned well in advance so the door knock that turned tragic wouldn’t have happened the way that it did.

I like Chief Kasmar. He’ll be good for the city. That does not mean we’re going to always agree. In this case, I have to say that the way he responded to my questioning on the constable item was code, not responsive to my point, and not appreciated. It also was likely missed by most of the people watching.

I asked for TPD presence at the time a constable was serving an eviction where the eviction was an immediate and irrepairable eviction and where a threat of gun violence was involved. Chief’s response was that he has “spoken with Sheriff Nanos about the 300 calls per day – they absolutely need to call us and get in the queue and so we can prioritize that response.” Sounds good – except nobody was talking about the “300 calls” constables go on daily for a variety of incidents, including evictions. I was very specific in saying ‘immediate and irreparable evictions where gun threats were involved.’ There are probably 1 in 300 of those. And the phrase ‘get in the queue and so we can prioritize’ simply means they’ll be added to the call load and TPD will get to them when they have time. That’s not good enough.

When a constable is serving the type of eviction I specifically referenced, they can schedule that out for days in advance. That means TPD can schedule it out days in advance – no queue, and no fitting it into other calls on the board. Book the meeting and accompany the constable. There are several discussions going on related to whether constables should even be doing the eviction work. As long as they are, in the very few cases where lives may be in danger, they deserve a police presence.

In order to be effective, we need a law, a cop, and a court system willing to do its part. On the day of our study session, I was made aware of a guy whose car was stolen. TPD caught the thief. He had drug paraphernalia in the car. While they were doing the field investigation with him the girlfriend was busy carrying some stolen items back into their apartment. The county attorney’s office refused to press charges because they didn’t feel they could ‘prove every part of the crime.’ The guy was released the day after TPD had done their job. The three-legged stool involves laws – in Arizona, we can’t write local gun control laws. It involves TPD – they should be at the side of a constable when a dangerous eviction is being served. And it involves the courts – criminals need to be punished. If not, they’re emboldened. This’ll be an ongoing conversation.

Eric Fink from KVOA did a story on the constable piece of this issue. Here’s his report:

https://youtu.be/6ZP2YmzKGJ4

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