The PEEPs rollercoaster
City finds some funding … To check or not check? … Council Chambers has a great PA system.
The Tucson City Council dug into the couch cushions on Tuesday and found roughly $325,000 to help fund the county-run early childhood education scholarship program for another year.
It’s more than the $0 that the Council had planned to spend on the popular county-run program this year, but far less than the $750,000 the City of Tucson kicked in last year.
And Councilman Paul Cunningham made it clear that this would be the last year the city would fund the Pima Early Education Program scholarships (PEEPs).
“We need to be really clear it's just this one year because … we have KIDCO to do. We have other programs for kids at parks and rec that we do,” Cunningham said.
A large portion of the money will come from a failed collaboration with a privately-run foundation that was going to use $250,000 from the city’s general fund to fund public daycare, primarily for public safety workers.
Newly appointed Councilmember Rocque Perez pledged $50,000 from his own office budget to keep the program running for another year. And Cunningham also committed to using some funding from his office to help.
Perez said the decision to eliminate funding — which happened before he was appointed two weeks ago — left families in his southside district with few options when school starts in the fall. PEEPs has an agreement with the Sunnyside School District to offer high-quality childcare in several classrooms.
Mayor Regina Romero recently sent a letter to the Pima County Board of Supervisors urging them to increase the library district property tax, as the city can no longer fund the program long-term.
“Given the library district funding can be set and adopted by the Board of Supervisors, we ask you to consider increasing the administrator’s proposed adjustment to fulfill the level needed for our library system as well as PEEPs,” Romero wrote.
The City Council also faced mounting pressure Tuesday to walk away from Tucson Electric Power, as activists packed the chambers demanding the city move toward a publicly owned electric utility.
Protesters crowded the audience as the council discussed a final report on the feasibility of creating a city-owned electric utility by acquiring a large set of assets currently owned by TEP.
The city hasn’t said no to the idea — which TEP executives have said amounts to a hostile takeover.
Rather, councilmembers once again said “not now,” as they’re still in negotiations over TEP’s “franchise agreement” to maintain its near-monopoly in Tucson.
Councilman Kevin Dahl said that while he supports the general idea of a municipally owned electric utility, and that the idea aligns with the city’s long-term goals, now is not the right time.
“When the time is right, when we're not at a financial crisis, I think there'll be a better time for us to review this,” Dahl said.
City Attorney Mike Rankin told the Council that extending TEP's franchise agreement and creating a municipally owned electric utility are not mutually exclusive ideas.
That later drew criticism from activists who want the city to cut ties with TEP.
Lee Ziesche, a Ward 1 resident and member of the Tucson Democratic Socialists of America, said the renewal of the TEP franchise agreement has long-lasting repercussions for the community.
“We understand legally, yes, they are separately, but politically, absolutely not. They are 100% connected, and that is why we are trying to address both of them,” she said.
She told the Council that she — and the 100 people who sent letters to council offices, along with thousands who signed a petition — were looking for the Council to use its political power to act in the best interests of the community.
“I'm here today to ask you to show that leadership. Please move forward with public power. Pause the negotiations with the franchise agreement,” she said.
The Council will also revisit the controversial proposal to ban sleeping in washes — a topic on which the Council has been deadlocked for weeks — at their June 17 meeting.
“I want everyone to know we haven’t forgotten,” Cunningham said.
Last time the idea came up, the board was deadlocked.
Perez, the newest member of the council, could play a pivotal role in the decision, as he is the only member of the Council who has not voted on the issue before.
However, Cunningham hinted that the revived proposal might look different from the one last voted on, saying he wanted “some leeway” in the proposal.
The issue of banning camping in washes started bubbling up after Arizona voters approved Prop 312 last November. It requires local governments to reimburse property owners for financial losses if the city fails to adequately enforce public nuisance laws — which, in this case, means cracking down on issues related to homelessness.
The city — along with almost every other government agency in the state — is attempting to modify laws to indemnify itself from future reimbursement claims.
There’s a lot going on at the city, isn’t there? If you smash that button, we’ll keep you on top of it all.
Well, at least they tried.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors found themselves with a Sophie’s Choice when it came time to appoint someone to Adelita Grijalva’s vacant seat last month.
Should they follow a rule they set for themselves and do background checks on potential candidates for political appointments — or fill the seat as soon as possible?
They chose the latter, as at least two of the candidates’ background checks were not complete when they appointed former state Rep. Andrés Cano to fill Grijalva's seat on the board.
We filed a public records request with Pima County that revealed the board still hasn't received the results of Cano's background check (though Cano did everything right on his end).
We spoke to several members of the board who said nothing in his background check would have changed their minds.
Background checks not being ready was also an issue when the supervisors appointed a new justice of the peace two weeks ago, as Supervisor Matt Heinz noted.
The Supervisors went with David Miller as the new justice of the peace for Precinct 6.
And to be fair, the background check probably wasn’t completely necessary, as Miller worked at the time as a prosecutor in the Pima County Attorney's Office — which requires its own research when hiring prosecutors.
Did she get a jet, too?: City of Tucson spokesman Andy Squire “clarified” that the Qatar embassy paid for Tucson Mayor Regina Romero’s trip to Qatar — not Bloomberg Philanthropies, as he had previously told reporters, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. And Romero cut her free trip short after news broke that she was out of town for the Qatar Economic Forum.
Does she get a jet?: Romero endorsed Miranda Schubert in this summer’s crowded primary to represent Midtown Tucson’s Ward 6 via a written statement last week, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. Romero called Schubert a “passionate advocate and a grounded community leader.”
Flood of bad ideas: At an annual water conference sponsored by UA’s Water Resources Research Center, Gov. Katie Hobbs called out GOP lawmakers for “stonewalling” groundwater management reforms, saying this year’s proposals from state lawmakers were a step backward from negotiations last year, the Star’s Tony Davis writes.
MAHAHAHA: The USDA cancelled funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, which supplied fresh, locally grown fruits and veggie lunches to students at schools like TUSD’s John B. Wright elementary, Reuters reports. That sends “mixed signals” about the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again movement and deprives many low-income students in and around Tucson of the only healthy meal they get.
“In my opinion, if you want to make America healthy again, you have to invest in your school nutrition programs,” Lindsay Aguilar, who leads TUSD’s nutrition program, told Reuters.
Try again later: Republican state lawmakers have officially dropped the idea of passing a Prop 123 renewal this year — and accompanying constitutional protections for school choice vouchers, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. They’re still eyeing the 2026 ballot for a combo package, but say the dragging budget negotiations are now taking top priority. Meanwhile, Tucson Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez penned an op-ed in the Star on Tuesday saying Republican lawmakers are jeopardizing school funding with their “poison pill” plan. Democrats have been sounding the alarm about the attempt to mash the two ideas into one constitutional amendment since our sister publication, the Education Agenda, first revealed the Republican plan last month.
“Your voices might be able to stop them,” Gutierrez wrote. “Please join me in saying no to anything but a clean renewal on Prop 123.”
Tucson has a ton of great music venues: The Rialto Theatre, Fox Tucson Theatre, Club Congress, Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, Leo Rich Theater and ... Tucson City Hall?
We owe a debt to these two self-described “raging grannies” for making City Hall the next big thing for up-and-coming artists. There is no cover charge, security, and a pretty banging PA system.
The two women took over the Tucson City Council meeting on Tuesday night, singing an original song1 trying to convince the Council to break up with Tucson Electric Power.
Believe it or not, they weren’t the only singers that went before the Council that night, although they have our support if "The Voice" holds auditions here in the Old Pueblo any time soon.
Joe checked SoundCloud and couldn’t find a match.
I continue to think that early childhood education should become integrated into elementary school education: paid for by the State and voluntary.
The council had set aside the $250,000 to fund 'solutions for child care for public safety employees' for city employees, City Manager Tim Thomure said. For about two years the city worked with the foundation to try to invest those dollars into a city-owned property that would be operated by the Hite Foundation under an agreement. That did not work out, the city says. This is accurate.