To compensate for a precipitous drop in sales tax revenue, City Manager Mike Letcher has proposed $17.4 million in new or increased taxes and millions more in new or increased fees.

The largest chunk, estimated at $10 million in Letcher’s recommended budget, would come from a 2 percent tax on residential rental property.

The tax, which needs City Council approval, would apply to residential property owners with more than three such rental units in Arizona, at least one in Tucson, says a fact sheet from the Finance Department. Properties rented as public housing would be included.

The new levy would mean that renters who pay $600 a month would likely have to pay another $144 a year, the budget states.

Landlords would be responsible for getting a business license and collecting the taxes, and they would be audited as the city audits any business, officials said.

The tax has been criticized as regressive, a burden to the poorest made all the heavier by an economic recession.

U.S. Census Bureau statistics for 2005-2007 show that about 42 percent of the more than 94,000 Tucson households that rent pay $500 to $749 a month.

More than 41 percent of Tucson renters pay more than 35 percent of their monthly income on rent, compared to about 19 percent of city mortgage holders, according to the bureau.

City officials note that property tax rates for rental and owner-occupied homes have changed since the 1970s, when the city last imposed a rental tax.

Under the new system, both types of properties are taxed at equal levels.

The cost of the property tax, however, is likely still passed to renters.

The city already imposes a 2 percent tax on commercial rentals.

Tucson tried to add a rental tax in 2004 but backed away after 1,000 people rallied by the Arizona Multihousing Association protested.

The association again opposes the tax, leaving pamphlets at apartment doors and setting up a site – www.norenttax.com – that urges Tucsonans to show up at the council’s public hearing Tuesday at the Tucson Convention Center. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.

Courtney LeVinus, president of Capitol Consulting, which handles lobbying and governmental affairs for the trade group, said last week, “The AMA has always seen this as an unfair and regressive tax and we don’t support it under any circumstances.”

City’s seizure threat gets landlords’ attention

Joseph Gongeles, 51, lives at the Palm Terrace Apartments, 3066 N. Balboa Ave., where he often takes care of his niece's children, including Christian Sanchez, 2."It's changed a lot. It's pretty nice and quiet," Gongeles said, since the landlord joined a city crime prevention program.

About one-quarter of crimes reported in Tucson in the past two months took place within about 150 feet of one of the city’s many apartment complexes, if traffic and health-related calls are excluded.

So it’s understandable that the Tucson Police Department would advertise on its Web site that a potential benefit to landlords participating in the department’s Crime-Free Multi-Housing Program is less property damage from police raids.

The Web site also highlights other prospective gains linked to the voluntary landlord training and certification program: less resentment from neighbors, reduced fear of dangerous tenants and higher property values. Added from police accounts could be: less gunfire, less in-and-out drug traffic and fewer fugitives with untraceable assault rifles.

The incentives for landlords to enroll in the program have never been stronger.

Tucson is considering seizing properties that fail to meet minimum management standards as the next step in its effort to improve housing conditions.

It’s something the city has never done, but officials say they’re ready, although no legal papers have been filed yet.

“These properties have become huge drains on city services and resources,” said Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, whose office has worked closely with police and the City Attorney’s Office on the project. “The city has really not been as aggressive as I think (we) need to be.”

That’s been changing. Tucson launched the Landlord Accountability Initiative last year, sending letters to the management firms of six apartment complexes. Each property also had code violations, said Linus Kafka, a city attorney.

In his letters, Kafka told property owners that to seize a property, the city needs only to prove that illegal activity occurs at the complex and the owner “knows or has reason to know that the conduct is occurring or is likely to occur, or takes no action to ensure that property is not used for such purposes.”

In most cases, the threat prompted action, Kafka said, resulting in at least a meeting between landlords and city officials. In at least four of the six cases, owners or their representatives flew in from California.

“We try to do this cooperatively,” Kafka said. “Many times they didn’t know what the situation really was. . . . If they show progress, we hold off on taking legal steps.”

The range of reactions to the letters is visible on a drive down North Balboa Avenue.

Palm Terrace Apartments, 3066 N. Balboa Ave., roughly one block east of Oracle Road and Miracle Mile, was, in the eyes of police, one of the worst offenders, averaging a call nearly every other day last year.

From Jan. 1, 2008, to March 31, police went to the complex 184 times: 15 times for reported assaults, 23 times for drug calls and 54 times for reports of suspicious activity or disturbances, according to call logs.

But if the data for 2009 hold steady for the rest of the year, Capt. Brett Klein expects sending an officer to the complex only 60 times, or about once per apartment.

Klein attributes the dramatic change to a shift in apartment management. “I have to credit the landlord for taking the right steps,” he said.

Since March, the complex has been enrolled in the Crime-Free Multi-Housing Program and has added an addendum to its leases that makes it easier to immediately evict tenants who commit crimes, Klein said.

Jennifer Connell the project manager for Heritage West Group, the company that owns the complex, said the addendum has helped turn things around by getting criminals out.

“I didn’t feel safe at all,” she said of her strolls around the complex, which she oversaw in addition to several others in California. “We had a few tenants who just tainted the whole complex.”

Connell said that in the two months that she’s been in Tucson to supervise the makeover, lights have been fixed, apartments have been remodeled and shrubs have been pruned, making the area safer.

The quality of applicants also improved. “At the beginning, I was denying about half,” she said. “Now it’s about 1 in 4 . . . What I think is changing is the reputation of the complex.”

Connell hired an on-site manager just before the company received the city’s letter, she said. “The whole atmosphere has changed,” she said.

Tenants agree. Joseph Gongeles said, “It’s changed a lot. It’s pretty nice and quiet.” He often takes care of his niece’s children and finds it a good place for kids.

Genevieve Tatro also likes the quiet. “I haven’t seen anything (suspicious), and I spend a lot of time outside my place just watching people,” she said.

On the other side of the spectrum, police and officials say, is a small five-unit complex at 2614 N. Balboa Ave. Police records show cops have spent hours there on calls and watching drug users stream in and out during surveillance.

Over the course of four months last year, police arrested one tenant, Victor Aros Jr., twice, both times also seizing drugs including Oxycodone and crack cocaine.

When the SWAT team raided Aros’ apartment in October, according to police reports, three women seen leaving were identified as prostitutes and police called Child Protective Services about several juveniles.

Victor Aros Sr. was arrested, and Victor Aros Jr. and Cecelia Aros were cited and released. The charges against Aros were dismissed with the caveat that they could be brought again later, according to court records.

In 2008, police went to the complex 15 times for calls ranging from drug sales and assaults to runaway kids, Klein said. He expects a similar number in 2009, saying the property owner, though contacted by city officials, had been “uncooperative.”

The owner, Paul Gualtieri, contests the characterization, saying he has worked closely with police since he took over management of the building about five months ago. He said that before that, his partner, whom he declined to name, was in charge of daily oversight.

Gualtieri did his first eviction, for drug possession, on March 27, according to court records, and he said police and the crime-free lease addendum helped.

But Gualtieri chafes at the idea that he is ultimately responsible for other people’s behavior. “They want landlords to be responsible for what happens on a property, but I can’t run people’s lives,” he said.

As part of the police program, Gualtieri installed new outdoor lights and fenced the property. The reaction, he said, exemplifies his dilemma. Tenants prop the gate open, Gualtieri said, and the bolts holding on the lights were unscrewed. “What can I do?” he asked. “It’s a Catch-22.”

A Web search shows the property is for sale, advertised as remodeled, updated and completely leased. “This property is a cash cow!!” the ad reads. Gualtieri said Tuesday, however, that he was selling the property because he was tired of paying his tenants’ rent. He said he was losing money on the property each month.

He said if he’d known about the crime in the neighborhood, he never would have bought the property as an investment three years ago.

No tenants at 2614 N. Balboa Ave. were available for comment.

Neighborhood activist Jane Baker fears that the property’s sale could mean a continuing pattern. She’s lived in the neighborhood for years and watched owners come and go with no improvements.

Baker hopes stepped-up enforcement can make a difference and end the negative cycle that has transformed the neighborhood. Once middle class, she said, it’s now an area commonly associated with cheap rent, drugs, gangs and prostitution.

“This has been going on for 20 years,” she said. “These properties affect the whole neighborhood. There’s just no responsibility.”

The Crime-Free Multi-Housing Program run by police, though voluntary, has a track record of transformation.

Through teaching landlords how to do background checks and verify IDs, evaluating properties for safety hazards and handing out a lease addendum that makes evictions easier, crime rates dropped as much as 70 percent at some complexes, city police records show.

Charity King, property manager for The Springs, 4900 E. Fifth St., and Bob Lebsack, area supervisor for HSL Asset Management, testify to the program’s powers, attributing an uptick in community involvement and a drop in car thefts at The Springs to aspects of the program.

“If you work the plan, the plan works,” King said.

Becky Noel, a police community service officer who runs the midtown program, stresses that anyone may participate, from the owners of a single-family home who want to lease their house for the summer to the operator of a 100-unit complex.

“Everyone deserves a safe place to live,” she said.

The Landlord Accountability Initiative could formalize that notion.

Sign at The Springs, 4900 E. Fifth St., and other apartments that join the program.

Charity King, manager of The Springs, 4900 E. Fifth St., attributes an uptick in community involvement and a drop in car thefts there to aspects of the landlords program.

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The letters

The owners of the following apartment complexes with high levels of reported crime received letters from the city advising them that the city would seize their properties if conditions didn’t improve:

• Verde Meadows Apartments, 1514 E. Irvington Road, owned by Citrus Square LLC, Bonsall, Calif.

• Desert Palms Apartments, 5550 E. 26th St., owned by Casa De Rosa LLC, Santa Ana, Calif.

• Royal El Con Apartments, 3660 E. Third St., owned by Desert Ventures Development and Management, Tucson.

• Rio Nuevo Apartments, 410 N. Grande Ave., owned by EMCO/Rio Nuevo LLC, Tucson.

• Retro City Apartments, 2475 N. Haskell Drive, owned by Retro City LLC, Los Angeles, Calif.

• Palm Terrace Apartments, 3066 N. Balboa Ave., owned by Heritage West Group, Yorba Linda, Calif.

The Tucson City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday on the budget recommended by the city manager for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The budget submitted to the council by City Manager Mike Letcher this week included $17.4 million in new or increased taxes, including a tax on residential rental properties.

The budget can be read at tucsonaz.gov through a link in the right-hand corner.

The hearing is set for the council’s regular session meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m. It will likely be moved to the end of the session.

Because large crowds are expected, the meeting will be held at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.

During the study session that precedes the council’s regular meeting, the group will discuss some possible fee increases.

Tucson Water Department has asked the council to approve a 10 percent increase in revenue from water rates, though not an across-the-board 10-percent rise. The increase would hit hardest customers that use large amounts of water.

The hike, officials said, is due to customers using less water and fewer new customers. The department’s financial plan also accounted for a proposed increase in the utility tax and a proposed new tax that would function as a property tax on Tucson Water properties.

The new tax alone would send $1.6 million of what Tucson Water customers pay to the city’s general fund, the pool of money that pays police, fire and parks, among other services.

Another set of potentially higher fees could affect bus riders. On Tuesday, the council will discuss suggestions from the group assigned to review transit finances after questions arose last summer about whether a fare hike was necessary.

The task force recommended raising fares from $1 to $1.25 for a full fare trip, from $2 to $3 for a day pass and from $1 to $1.50 for express service. Letcher’s budget does not include a fare increase.

The council also will discuss the fees charged to developers who apply to extend their deadline for building based on approved plans and whether to amend the city charter to set police staffing levels and fire department response times.

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IF YOU GO

WHAT: City Council meeting

WHERE: Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.

WHEN: Study session at 2:30 p.m.; regular session at 5:30 p.m.

The Arizona Department of Housing has opened its cyberdoors to Arizonans interested in buying foreclosed homes.

The Web site – www.yourwayhomeaz.com – details the programs the state, counties and cities have put together to get foreclosed homes off the market.

Arizona received $121 million as part of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Plan. Together, Pima County and Tucson got about $13 million.

Down payment assistance will be available through the state in July, according to a news release from the Housing Department.

Information about city and county programs will also be posted on the Web site.

The budget recommended Tuesday by City Manager Mike Letcher would divvy up almost $13 million among local nonprofits and governments, key support bases for the City Council.

The sum would be 8 percent less than what the city provided those organizations this year, but it is about $3 million more than what ex-City Manager Mike Hein wanted to give them in his budget.

The $3 million difference, to be paid for by proposed new taxes, would be divided primarily among Job Path, the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau, School Plus Jobs and the Tucson Pima Arts Council.

Under the previous plan, Job Path, School Plus Jobs and the arts council would have received nothing.

Letcher wants to give the visitors bureau $4.2 million with about $900,000 of that added in by Letcher, the largest allocation set for any organization.

After the visitors bureau, the biggest beneficiaries of the city’s payments would be:

• Pima Animal Care Center, the county-operated pound, $1.3 million

• Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, the area’s economic development agency, $1.2 million

• Tucson Pima Arts Council, an advocacy group that provides support services and grants to artists and organizations, $900,000

• Access Tucson, the city’s public access TV channel, $700,000

• School Plus Jobs, a dropout prevention program that puts high school students to work and was developed by the Pima County Interfaith Council, $600,000

• Job Path, a job training program developed by the Pima County Interfaith Council, $500,000

• The Downtown Tucson Partnership, a downtown business advocacy group, $300,000.

More than $2.2 million would go to the city’s Human Services Plan, which provides smaller grants to agencies that provide crisis services.

About $225,000 of the proposed tax increase would be spent on events the city co-sponsors such as El Tour de Tucson bicycle races, the Tucson Rodeo Parade and the Winterhaven Festival of Lights.

The appointment of Tucson’s next police chief is scheduled for the City Council’s May 5 meeting as a consent agenda item, a draft of the agenda shows.

The council votes on the consent agenda without discussion unless a member of the council requests the item be put on the regular agenda.

Unlike the nationwide search that was called off in March, the City Council will not interview the candidates, Assistant City Manager Richard Miranda said.

However, there likely will be a meet-and-greet session at which members of the council can talk to the hopefuls, he said.

Nine Tucson Police Department commanders applied for the job during the internal recruitment, including two who were in the final four of the earlier search – Assistant Chief John Leavitt and Capt. Brett Klein.

The list of nine will be whittled to four Wednesday by a panel of law enforcement experts that will include former police chiefs, said Miranda, a former chief himself.

Four candidates will drop to two the next evening, after a pair of community panels, one composed of neighborhood and community leaders and the other of union members, Miranda said.

Miranda and City Manager Mike Letcher will interview the two finalists and recommend a candidate to the council for approval.

Police union president Larry Lopez complained during the earlier process of council “meddling.” He declined to endorse a candidate Tuesday but said that he hoped the process remains as outlined.

A requirement that the new chief live in the city will be enforced, Miranda said. Currently, each applicant lives outside the city.

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The candidates

Assistant Chief John Leavitt

Assistant Chief Roberto Villaseñor

Capt. Brett Klein

Capt. David Neri

Capt. Clayton Kidd

Capt. Robert Shoun

Capt. Bill Richards

Capt. Perry Tarrant

Capt. George Rodriguez

Source: City of Tucson Human Resources Department

The proposed taxes will likely be felt by renters, who officials estimate would have to pay $144 more a year.

The recommended budget presented to the Tucson City Council on Tuesday includes $17.4 million in new taxes and a proposal to raise some fees and set up a system of regular increases.

The guiding idea was to keep the city out of the mess in which it now finds itself: watching its income dwindle as its primary funding source – sales tax – plummets as consumers curtail spending in the weak economy.

By adding new streams of revenue, city officials argue that economic hard times won’t be amplified because city government won’t have to suddenly cut its staff and services.

Newly appointed City Manager Mike Letcher pointed out that his recommended budget was balanced despite an expected 20 percent drop – $68 million – in sales tax receipts next fiscal year.

The budget calls for most departments to cut their spending about 7 percent beginning July 1, when the fiscal year begins, and public safety agencies face cuts of about 2.5 percent.

The budget contains $28 million in one-time fixes, most notably in the form of debt refinancing and from windfalls such as a multimillion dollar court settlement stemming from an asbestos case. About $423.6 million of the $1.3 billion budget is unrestricted, and much of the rest is slated for the Water, Trash and Transportation departments.

Letcher said in his overview letter to the council that the $17.4 million in proposed new taxes is designed to take the edge off the budget decisions next year, when the revenue situation isn’t expected to be much better.

“The more stability we can bring to our annual budget, the more control we can exert over our economic future for the betterment of our community,” he wrote.

“The city cannot responsibly cut our way out of the challenge presented by declining revenues. To maintain critical funding for core services, revenue enhancements are the only alternative remedy to fill the gap. . . ”

The proposed taxes will likely be felt by renters, who officials estimate would have to pay $144 more a year.

Tucson Water customers, who together will pay the equivalent of a 10 percent boost in water rate revenue, will be covering an increase in taxes levied on utilities and a property tax aimed at Tucson Water.

Tucson Electric Power customers will also take a hit, thought to be about $9 a year for the average bill.

Some fee increases are recommended, though not yet written, said Assistant to the City Manager Marie Nemerguth, who oversaw the budget process.

Among those that may increase are Parks & Recreation fees, which in 1996 were ratcheted back to levels officials say are unsustainable.

The budget shows that the leisure classes offered by the city’s Parks & Recreation Department will “have minimal impacts.”

No bus fare increases are proposed.

The first of three public hearings on the budget is scheduled for April 28 at the Tucson Convention Center.

The Arizona Multihousing Association is already rallying people to attend to protest the rental tax.

When the tax was last proposed, in 2004, about 1,000 people protested and the tax was not imposed.

Courtney LeVinus, president of Capitol Consulting, which handles lobbying and governmental affairs for the trade group, said, “The AMA has always seen this as an unfair and regressive tax and we don’t support it under any circumstances.”

Letcher mentions in the budget that Tucson is one of two cities in Arizona that collects its own taxes but does not have a rental tax.

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City budget

Read the proposed city budget: www.tucsonaz.gov/budget/docs/10RecBOOK-Op.pdf

Capital budget proposal: www.tucsonaz.gov/budget/docs/10RecBOOK-CIP.pdf

Ousted Hein’s deputy no longer ‘interim’

Acting City Manager Mike Letcher (center) was given the job on a permanent basis by the City Council on Tuesday. Letcher had been acting city manager since the council fired Mike Hein on April 7.

The Tucson City Council decided Tuesday to forgo a national search for a replacement to ousted City Manager Mike Hein and chose instead to hire his former deputy.

With a 6-1 vote, Mike Letcher moved from a soon-to-retire background player to the city’s top bureaucrat, charged with leading the city through economic hard times, departmental restructuring and a multipronged financial assault from the state Legislature.

Councilman Steve Leal, who attended the meeting by phone, was the sole no vote.

Other council members sang Letcher’s praises and touted the quick transition.

Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, who put a closed session on the agenda to discuss a possible nationwide search, moved to have the vote before the scheduled session, just minutes after Letcher’s recommended budget for next fiscal year was distributed.

She described Letcher as “thoughtful and extremely competent and thorough and good.”

She said that after watching Letcher interact with her constituents during a recent town hall-type meeting, her assessment changed from “good” to “excellent.”

“Questions from every angle were thrown at you, and you had answers,” she told Letcher.

Trasoff asked the city attorney to begin negotiating a contract with Letcher, who has agreed to delay his retirement beyond the November date he had set.

Councilwoman Shirley Scott emphasized continuity.

“I think he’s a very well-qualified person with 30 years of experience,” she said. “He knows where we are so he has the know-how that can make for a smooth transition.”

Councilwoman Regina Romero said she hoped Letcher’s tenure would be long, even suggesting that it be “longer than five years.”

“I think you really have public service in mind,” Romero told Letcher, summarizing her reason for support.

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich agreed, advocating for “a long period of service” and complimenting Letcher on his leadership in the city’s Financial Sustainability Plan, based on a plan he created in Sedona, where he had been city manager.

Tucson’s plan dedicates new revenues each year to public safety, parks and transportation but is now suspended because of plummeting sales tax receipts, a major source of funding for the city.

Mayor Bob Walkup said, “(Letcher)’s been a good deputy to Jim Keene and Mike Hein (the past two city managers), and I suspect he has the knowledge and expertise to lead us through a very difficult time.”

Despite the praise being showered on the new manager, not all hard feelings over the firing of Hein on April 7 have faded. In that decision, the council was divided, with Walkup, Trasoff and Councilman Rodney Glassman voting against the dismissal.

Glassman said Tuesday, “While I continue to disagree with the untimely decision to fire the former city manager, I’m pleased that our mayor and council will be able to provide some level of consistency and continuity with the appointment.”

Glassman emphasized that Letcher has a strong reputation as a manager among the members of municipal organizations. “I hear about him all the time at conferences,” Glassman said.

After the meeting, Leal said he voted against appointing Letcher not because of the new manager’s personal qualities or past performance, but because he regretted sidestepping a national search process in 2005 when the council hired Hein, a favorite of the Pima County business and political establishment.

Letcher, then a deputy manager, was a candidate in that aborted process. “We didn’t even get far enough to winnow anybody out,” Leal said.

Leal thinks Tucson could benefit from the contrasts an array of prospective managers would provide. The benefits, he argued, outweigh the appearance of urgency to fill the position immediately.

“When you look at the details, the major items are already under way,” he said, citing the budget and the police chief search, which was narrowed to local candidates after the council halted a national search.

While Leal says he’s worked well with Letcher in the past, he worries he doesn’t know him well enough, a casualty of the city hierarchy. He said Letcher has been “professional, affable and open to other ideas.”

Jack Camper, president of the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, echoed Glassman’s support of Hein but backed the council’s taking action, even though it seemed he was surprised by the decision not to do a search.

“The council’s made some strange decisions recently,” he said. “The city needs strong leadership, and I hope (Letcher) brings it.”

Police union president Officer Larry Lopez said, “We need an individual who will lead by example, who will be transparent in their operations and management and, more important, will act with integrity.”

Lopez was critical of Letcher during labor negotiations last summer, complaining of a lack of transparency, but he said Tuesday he was ready to move on.

“We’ve got some big decisions in front of us,” he said.

That’s not lost on Letcher, who plunged into budget revisions minutes after Hein’s dismissal.

After the council’s votes, Letcher said only, “Thank you for your comments.”

Letcher has about three decades of experience in city management, mostly in college towns including Charlottesville, Va., and Amherst, Mass.

He’s occupied the deputy manager post since May 2001 and served as acting manager between Keene’s departure and Hein’s hiring.

Before moving to Tucson, he was Sedona’s top bureaucrat. He served that city for seven years.

Letcher gets a hug from Councilwoman Regina Romero before the City Council meeting Tuesday.

New City Manager Mike Letcher talks with Councilman Rodney Glassman before the City Council meeting.

———

MIKE LETCHER

Age: 55

Education: master’s in education from the University of Kansas

Years in Tucson government: 8

Total years in government: 30

Former posts: city manager of Winsooki, Vt., city manager of Sedona, Ariz., assistant town manager of Amherst, Mass.

Family: married, with three children

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City budget

Read the proposed city budget: www.tucsonaz.gov/budget/docs/10RecBOOK-Op.pdf Capital budget proposal: www.tucsonaz.gov/budget/docs/10RecBOOK-CIP.pdf

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The Community Food Bank is looking for volunteers to gather food donations during the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Food Drive, usually one of the year’s largest collections.

Last year, more than 334,000 pounds of food were collected in one day, the nonprofit said in a news release.

This year’s drive is scheduled for May 9.

The food bank is especially in need of volunteers to work in post offices from 2 to 6 p.m. There are morning shifts available as well.

Volunteers are also needed to drive their own trucks to collect food and to transfer food from letter carriers’ trucks into semi trailers.

To sign up, call 622-0525 Ext. 204.

Says city needs better public safety, planning

Buehler-Garcia

Ben Buehler-Garcia wants to represent the North Side on the Tucson City Council because he’s heartbroken at Tucson’s recent path.

“It wasn’t just one thing. It accumulated,” the 47-year-old Republican said. Rio Nuevo, crime, keeping up the city’s appearance – “We’ve lost our way.”

But don’t take Buehler-Garcia for a cynic or a pessimist.

That’s what he says he’s campaigning against, other than Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, the Democrat who holds the seat representing Ward 3, an area roughly north of Grant Road from Interstate 10 to North Alvernon Way.

“So much of it comes down to the will for positive change,” he said. “I’m doing this because I love this community.”

Buehler-Garcia moved to Tucson in 1979 to get a University of Arizona bachelor’s degree in public administration.

He worked for the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and for the past 12 years has been a self-employed consultant.

The focus of Buehler’s consulting is economic and community development, small-business advocacy and nonprofit management, he said.

That’s meant he’s spent most of his career working with government and with businesses, something Buehler-Garcia thinks puts him in a good position to advocate for change.

At the top of Buehler-Garcia’s list are improvements to public safety, aggressive recruitment of new industry and a new land use code, which he hopes will make doing business in Tucson easier.

The council, led by Uhlich, has been working on revising the land use code, but Buehler-Garcia thinks it might be easier to start over.

Buehler-Garcia is executive director of the Tucson chapter of Stand Up for Kids, a nonprofit working with homeless teens.

He’s also been on the city’s Industrial Development Authority board and the National Bank of Arizona nonprofit advisory board.

Steve Kozachik is campaigning for the midtown City Council seat on what he describes as “a dysfunctional council with a dysfunctional mayor.”

The Republican’s run to represent Ward 6 – which stretches from downtown to Wilmot Road between Grant Road and 22nd Street – will have no flashy start, Kozachik said.

The closest to a formal announcement will be a picnic May 3 at Himmel Park, he said.

“I’m not your cookie cutter, party regular type of politician,” he said in explanation. “I’m not a politician.”

He views that as an asset.

Kozachik, 55, has worked for the University of Arizona for more than 20 years, now as associate athletic director for facilities and capital projects.

He recently oversaw the design and construction of the new practice facility near McKale Center, an experience he thinks bodes well for the city’s planned construction of an arena downtown.

Kozachik said that within hours of filing his papers to run for the seat held by Democrat Nina Trasoff, he called southern Arizona’s state legislators about Rio Nuevo and to introduce himself.

While downplaying political associations, Kozachik plays up ties to business owners.

To create jobs, he advocates cutting red tape and speeding up bureaucratic practices, and espouses a policy of clear delegation of responsibilities.

On City Manager Mike Hein’s recent firing, Kozachik said: “It never should have come to a situation where we’re playing brinkmanship. Nobody can claim the moral high ground for letting it get to that point.”

He cites his job experience “forming teams of professionals with varying skill sets, setting egos at the door” as a model of potential change.

“The philosophical orientation needs to change,” he said. “They’re in this circular firing squad where they’re all just shooting each other.”

Kozachik also puts public safety high on his list of priorities.

“I will not vote for a city budget that cuts the operating budget for police and fire,” he said.

When the Tucson City Council was briefed on changes to the city manager’s recommended budget last week, members held their questions.

“I think we’re saving them for next week,” Councilwoman Nina Trasoff said with a smile.

Tuesday will be the big day. After weeks of budget talks, the council will finally have a completed budget to reference.

They’ll also have copies of a five-year plan for infrastructure improvements.

The first of three public hearings on the budget is set for April 28 at the Tucson Convention Center.

Part of the council’s talks Tuesday will center on employee union concessions worth about $5 million.

The sum is the result of increased health insurance co-pays and deductibles, frozen uniform allowances, furloughs, changes in supplemental pay and pension contributions and no merit or cost-of-living pay increases.

The changes were laid out in an April 14 memo from Human Resources Director Cindy Bezaury to Acting City Manager Mike Letcher.

Furloughs, announced about a month ago with a 12-day total, were shortened to five days and will not affect police or firefighters, according to the memo.

Former City Manager Mike Hein had set a $10 million goal for concessions from unions. Hein was fired April 7 amid questions about how the budget was being compiled.

Trasoff, who voted to keep Hein, sent a memo Monday asking that the council talk about how to replace him.

Among the issues she proposed discussing were whether to do a national search, how to time the recruitment and whether to ask Letcher, formerly Hein’s deputy manager, to stay past his planned retirement date at the end of November.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council is expected to approve measures that would make all public safety employees eligible for five one-year extensions beyond a mandatory retirement age of 65. An application from Police Officer Steve Smith to work another year is on the consent agenda.

A public hearing is scheduled to discuss whether the Environmental Services Department, whose fees are supposed to cover its costs, can charge less per pound of garbage to certain haulers if they pledge to deliver a certain amount of trash.

Private landfill operator Waste Management opened a transfer station last year near the city-owned Los Reales Landfill that has siphoned trash away, leaving the department with a budget shortfall that may result in a fee increase.

The city has seen a 40 percent drop-off in trash brought to Los Reales this fiscal year compared with the year before, according to a memo from Letcher to the council. Revenue from the landfill pays for the future costs and liabilities of closing the landfill, and maintenance on 22 other city dumps, the memo states.

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IF YOU GO

What: City Council meeting

Where: City Council Chambers, City Hall, 255 W. Alameda St.

When: 2 p.m. study session, 5:30 regular session

The Arizona attorney general, a Tucson city councilwoman and three Tucson police officials will be available to answer questions at a public crime and prevention forum slated for April 27.

The meeting was organized by Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, who will be on the panel with Attorney General Terry Goddard, police chief candidates Capt. Brett Klein and Capt. David Neri, and police Capt. Vicki Reza.

The conversation is set for 6 to 7 p.m. at TPD’s West Side substation, 1310 W. Miracle Mile.

Topics to be covered will likely include methamphetamine, human smuggling, drug trafficking, identity theft, consumer scams, elder abuse and Internet safety, according to a news release.

Corrected version; corrects URL and e-mail links

Starting in May, Tucson businesses may pay back taxes and fees plus get licenses for unlicensed businesses without penalty, city officials said.

The “tax amnesty program” will begin May 1 and end June 30, officials said in a news release.

Businesses taking advantage of the program will receive a penalty waiver and the interest charged over the delinquent period will be cut in half. Full payments are due on June 30.

To participate, businesses must fill out an application. The form is available online at www.tucsonaz.gov/finance.

For more information, call 791-4681 or e-mail tax-amnesty@tucsonaz.gov.

The Pima Association of Governments is looking for nominations for its fifth annual Thomas L. Swanson Regional Leadership Award.

Nominations are due April 30.

Candidates for the award must have enhanced the regional community despite jurisdictional boundaries, promoted cooperation among residents and elected officials and led innovation on regional issues, the association said.

The award is named in honor of PAG’s longest-serving executive director.

For more information, call Melissa Minerich at 792-1093 or go to www.pagnet.org.