I dropped by the final of eight City of Tucson Community Key Services Dialogues last night at the Ward 2 Council office, 7575 E. Speedway Blvd. My previous blogs outlined the process of these meetings and the discussions in the various break-out groups. See “Let the Dialogues Begin” and Let the Dialogues Continue.

City Manager Mike Letcher and Katie Bolger, aide to Councilmember Glassman made the welcoming remarks.

Neighborhood leaders present (whom I recognized) for this final dialogue were: Margo Gray, Dina Scalone-Romero (Pro Neighborhoods) and Paul Mackey, but there were also less people than were in attendance at the Wards 3 and 6 dialogues.

The results of all eight meetings will be posted online at www.tucsonaz.gov/dialogues. Already on this website are links –results from the dialogues– long, long lists of what residents/participants in the previous ward meetings thought needed to be improved, and what could be cut from the City’s budget.

Also online is the power point presentation made at these meetings for those of you who were unable to attend.

The website also states:”This is not a one-time effort. We will be inviting you to participate in additional dialogues in the future: City Budget & Work Plan (1 – 3 year view), Economic Recovery Plan (3-10 year view), and the General Plan Update (Vision for the future).”

Let’s wait and see what the new City Manager and his staff recommend from the results from these dialogues. At the very least, there appears to be more community input into the budget process than before. When I asked Mr. Letcher about budget priorities from these 8 dialogues, he responded that they would look for “common threads and themes” and then make suggestions to the Mayor and Council for early 2010.

I attended another City of Tucson’s Community Key Services Dialogue tonight at the Ward 6 council office, 3202 E. 1st street.

In attendance were the some of the City staffers that were there last week at the first dialogue in Ward 3 (at the NW Neighborhood Center). Councilmember Nina Trasoff and City Manager Mike Letcher did the welcomes. The format was the same, with six break out tables of residents discussing the same questions I wrote about in my previous blog “Let the Dialogues Begin” on 9/28/09.

Neighbors/activists I recognized participating tonight: Paul Mackey, Les Pierce, Don Ijams (Neighborhood Support Network), Colette Altaffer & Ruth Beeker (Neighborhood Infill Coalition), Robin Gomez, Bill Dupont, Mary DeCamp (candidate for Ward 3 council seat), Joanie Sawyer (Pro Neighborhoods), Alice Roe, Tres English.

Again, there was a promise at the end to post these comments and suggestions on their website, www.tucsonaz.gov/dialogues. But again there was no consensus on what are the City’s top budget priorities and what areas need to be cut. I wonder how the City Manager & his staff will weed through all these suggestions to come up with “key services” that should be prioritized for the City’s budget. Otherwise, these public dialogues may become mere “discussions”, with no solutions.

There are still five more City dialogues to attend in case you’ve missed the first three.

Coming up tomorrow night is the one in Ward 4 at Desert Sky Middle School, 9850 E. Rankin Loop, at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Be there to express your opinion on how the City of Tucson should prioritize their budget, but I wonder what the final outcome after these 8 dialogues will be. Stay tuned.