Has it only been a year since UA Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities and Project Management Steve Kozachik was sworn in as the City of Tucson’s Ward 6 Councilmember? He and his staff should be congratulated on their hard work, especially on Rio Nuevo issues.

And Steve had never held public office before, so he had a lot to learn about the City of Tucson’s financial situation. He is a Republican and defeated Democratic incumbent Councilmember Nina Trasoff in November, 2009.

Councilmember Steve Kozachik

Council Office: Ward Six staff
Ann Charles, Council Adminstrative Assistant
Barbara Jacob, Administrative Assistant
Donovan Durband, Council Administrative Assistant
Teresa Olson, Council Administrative Assistant
Christal Ferree, Executive Assistant

Donovan used to write for us at Tucsoncitizen.com (“Urban Durband”) until he was hired by Steve.

Join them for a non-partisan holiday party for all.

Happy Holidays!

Ward 3 Council office is having their holiday event today (no fancy flyer received, just an email notice):

Holiday Event and State of the Ward with Council Member Karin Uhlich -
December 15 – 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres from Pastiche. Ward 3
Council Office, 1510 E. Grant Road. A presentation from the Ward 3
Neighbors’ Alliance will start the evening off with their agenda for
the first quarter of 2011.

Councilmember Karin Uhlich

Council Office: Ward Three Staff
Tamara Prime, Chief of Staff
George Pettit, Council Administrative Assistant
Linda Mehall, Office Supervisor
Lisa Ross, Administrative Assistant

This is Democratic Councilmember Uhlich’s 2nd term in office. She defeated Republican incumbent Ward 3 Councilmember Kathleen Dunbar in 2005, and Republican challenger Ben Buehler-Garcia and Green Party challenger Mary DeCamp in 2009. She is the Executive Director for the Center for Economic Integrity.

Season’s greetings to all.

Attend either or both of these Council offices’ holiday events, and get to know your Councilmembers.

Many people don’t seem to realize there’s a City Council election going on.

The Council of Senior Citizen Organizations (COSCO), a program of Pima Council on Aging, is hosting a forum for all official City Council candidates for Wards 3, 5, and 6 in the upcoming November 3rd general election. This forum will be on Thursday, October 15, 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Armory Park Senior Center, 220 S. 5th Avenue, downtown between E. 12th and E. 13th Streets, south of Broadway Blvd.

Here’s who’s running:

Ward 3:

Ben Buehler-Garcia (Republican), www.buehler-garcia.com

Mary DeCamp (Green), www.decampcampaign.org

Karin Uhlich (Democrat incumbent), www.karin2009.com

Ward 5:

Richard Fimbres (Democrat), www.fimbresforcouncil.com

Shaun McClusky (Republican), www.voteshaun.com

Ward 6:

Steve Kozachik (Republican), www.votestevek.com

Nina Trasoff (Democrat incumbent), www.trasofffortucson.com

The Council of Senior Citizen Organizations is “committed to providing accurate, timely information about services, legislation and social and human service issues relevant to older adults and their caregivers.” You don’t have to be a senior citizen to show up and find out about these candidates and incumbent Councilmembers at this forum. Check out the candidates’ websites to find out more about them and why they want to represent the residents of Wards 3, 5, and 6.

I hope all the candidates show up to discuss aging issues with voters in our community, as there haven’t been many “meet the candidates” forums this fall. Since this forum is downtown, an obvious question to ask is also about progress on Rio Nuevo!

And remember to vote on November 3rd. The choice is yours.

So said Rebecca Ruopp, a City of Tucson employee in the Dept. of Housing and Community Development, in starting off the first Community Key Services Dialogue tonight at the Northwest Neighborhood Center. 7 more meetings in the 6 city wards will be held in October to get feedback from city residents on several questions: 1) what do you like about Tucson and 2) what would you most like to see improved about Tucson?

7 tables of about 10 residents dialogued with each other and a facilitator in answering these initial questions, followed by brief welcomes from Councilmember Karin Uhlich and City Manager Mike Letcher. A budget analysis disclosed that the discussion tonight was to concentrate on the 32% of discretionary funds of the City’s budget.

Then the same tables were asked these questions: 1) What City services do you use? 2) What City services would you maintain or cut, and why? 3) What new resources, revenues or efficiencies should be pursued by the City? 4) What services should the City invest in for our community’s future?

I recognized several activists present at the meeting: John Kromko, Tres English, Dick Bayse, Judith Anderson (Pro Neighborhoods), Jim Murphy (PCOA), and Ben Buehler-Garcia, candidate for Ward 3 Council seat. About 15 City staffers (including TPD officers) were available as resource persons.

No consensus was reached or vote was taken in answering these questions, but records of each table’s discussion with lots of creative, varied responses will be collated and put onto the City website at: www.tucsonaz.gov/dialogues. I question whether these comments won’t just be a compilation of anecdotal responses from all 8 dialogues/ meetings, without any clear mandate from the participants. Let’s wait and see since the website says that the goal of this process is “working together to set city budget priorities”.

The calendar for the upcoming meetings are listed in my previous blog and by clicking on the link above. The next meeting will be on Sat. 10/3 at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, 9 to 11 a.m. Questions/comments can be directed by email to dialogues@tucsonaz.gov, or by calling 520-791-4204.