The biggest item on the Tucson City Council agenda today will be discussed behind closed doors.
City officials set aside nearly an hour to get an update from their attorneys on the Colorado River water interstate negotiations and supply contracts. They only set aside five minutes to discuss it publicly.
We are all for transparency, but this might be one of those rare times where we understand sharing Tucson’s legal strategy would be akin to showing off your hand in the middle of a poker game.
Tucson isn’t the last stop on the Colorado River, but it can feel like the last in line when the water allocations get tight in these fights.
Watch this space and we’ll have updates in a few days, at least from the city’s perspective.
As you can see in this City of Tucson graphic, the city relies heavily on Colorado River water from its Central Arizona Project allocation each year.
Let’s (not) go, Speed Racer
Don’t let our header signal our support for speed racing. Just ask former Republican Rep. Justine Wadsack what happens when you race down Speedway.
The council is set to discuss street racing this afternoon, getting updates on three recent jurisdictional crackdowns at known hot spots in the city. Last month, for example, a Tucson Police Department operation near Valencia/Kolb resulted in 23 arrests and multiple vehicle seizures.
A City of Tucson montage of street-racing stops.
TPD has stepped up its enforcement in the last few months. Police officers are getting more aggressive with ticketing racers and pursuing felony charges for unlawful flight and endangerment, as well as giving out tickets to spectators.
Councilman Paul Cunningham told the Democrats of Greater Tucson on Monday that there are staffing issues in the patrol division related to traffic enforcement, including addressing street racing.
“We need at least 6 more officers,” Cunningham told the online audience.
Parking rates proposed
You’re probably going to have to pay more to park downtown. The council will review a complex proposal that would raise rates for parking garages, parking permits and meters.
The city operates Park Tucson as an enterprise fund — revenues collected stay inside the program — but it has been operating at a loss for a year.
This line from a staff report is telling: “Park Tucson Fund has been operating with a negative balance year over year and current projections show the deficit growing through FY2031.”
While no one is going to be a fan of parking rate increases, the biggest hike is at the meters, which will go from $1 to $1.50 an hour.
After feedback from the downtown crowd, the city has pulled back on plans to further extend the hours for paid meter parking past 7 p.m.
Resolutions are all the rage
The council will also consider two non-binding resolutions, one opposing the Copper World mine in the Santa Rita Mountain Range and another opposing the opening of an ICE detention center in neighboring Marana.
These are high-profile stands against two deeply controversial issues in Southern Arizona, and the resolutions are just the latest salvo against both the mine and the detention center.
Two weeks ago, the council passed a resolution opposing the auction of state land to Hudbay for the Copper World mine, sending a formal letter to Gov. Katie Hobbs asking her to cancel the sale.
And the Pima County Board of Supervisors has passed multiple resolutions opposing Copper World for several years.
It didn’t matter. Hudbay bought the 160 acres near the mine for $1 million shortly after the council sent a letter to Hobbs. Now, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas is suing.
As for the ICE detention center, the supervisors passed a similar resolution back in February. This shouldn’t come as too much of surprise, as Supervisor Jennifer Allen’s district includes Marana and she organized town halls to discuss the detention centers back in 2025.
Since we took the supervisors to task for their prolific use of proclamations two weeks ago, we’ll give the city a “B” grade for limiting the number of non-binding resolutions (three) and proclamations (two) this week.
By the way, the Pima County Board of Supervisors is technically meeting today — but just for a few minutes. It will be a special meeting where they are expected to solely vote on a resolution opposing the proposed 14% rate increase by Tucson Electric Power.
The council meeting starts at 1 p.m., but we don’t expect the council members to emerge from executive session until after 2 p.m. Look for Joe’s live posting from the meeting here.
Joe loved spending Monday with the Democrats of Greater Tucson,1 but it isn’t the place where people usually make major political announcements.
But Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham almost did just that yesterday, when he was asked to address rumors that he was thinking about running for mayor.
However, you don’t spend 16 years on the council without learning how to say something — and still leave yourself some wiggle room.
“My plan is to run for mayor. It is a life-long dream of mine,” Cunnngham told the DGT crowd.
Paul Cunningham
It wasn’t a confirmation, though, and Cunningham added he is “90 percent” of the way to making a decision, quipping at the end of the meeting that he hasn’t put up a campaign website — yet.
For what it’s worth, we expect Mayor Regina Romero to announce she is seeking a third term next year, but she hasn’t said anything publicly.
Cunningham also weighed in on other political races, telling DGT members to get involved in statehouse contests.
He specifically pointed to Legislative District 17, which wraps around Tucson’s north and east sides — from Rincon Valley and Tanque Verde north through Oro Valley and Marana to SaddleBrooke in southern Pinal County.
Cunningham said that Democrat Edgar Soto, who is running for the state Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Vince Leach, is crucial to a strategy for Democrats to take over at least one chamber of the statehouse.
“Nobody wants that name”: University of Arizona students put black tape over “César E. Chávez” on the campus building named after the disgraced labor activist, Mia Kortright reports for the Tucson Sentinel. UA officials and students are figuring out what to rename the building, and wrestling with whether removing the name would align with the UA’s values. That prompted one student to urge his classmates to leave a meeting last week, rather than debate “whether a rapist’s values align with our institution.” So far, one suggestion is to rename the building “Si, se puede,” after the motto of the farmworkers movement that Chávez championed.
Documenting the “before” times: Scientists and amateur ecologists are documenting wildlife near the Arizona-Mexico border as the Trump administration adds more border wall that could block wildlife migration corridors, the Arizona Daily Star’s Henry Brean reports. The Border BioBlitz has already documented more than 2,700 species since the effort launched in early April.
Perseverance pays off: A former bomb squad officer with the Tucson Police Department won a long legal battle to get his workers’ compensation after he was diagnosed with cancer, Nick Rommel reports for Arizona Public Media. Michael Conto says he’s glad to finally get the compensation, but the legal battle took a toll on him.
“Instead of spending these last three years making my peace with my family, my friends and fighting my cancer, I’ve spent the last three years in a ruthless battle fighting the city,” Conto said. “And it may be my last three years.”
Fond farewell: Teachers and students gathered at Copper Creek Elementary in Oro Valley to celebrate the school’s legacy before it closes in a few weeks, Jacob Owens reports for KVOA. After serving the local community for 38 years, Amphitheater school district officials decided to close the school at the end of this school year, although some students from the now-closed Tucson campus of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind will use the Copper Creek campus in the fall.
“There just wasn’t a day in 27 years that I woke up, and I wasn’t excited to come to school because this was my family too,” former teacher Susan Latin said.
You can get a handle on this constantly changing world (at least the Southern Arizona part, anyway), by clicking this button.
Details emerging: The plane that crashed in April at Marana Regional Airport — killing the pilot, Chris Sheafe, and his wife, Jacque — was flying too fast to be able to stop on a shorter runway that was in use while the main runway was closed for construction, KGUN reports. That finding was part of the preliminary results from a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, which should continue for at least another year.
We know this feeling all too well.
It turns out, not everybody spends all day thinking about elections like news reporters and county recorders do.
Still, voting is important! And Southern Arizona voters will have a ton of big choices to make this year.
If you don’t want to leave the paperwork until the last minute, the Pima County Recorder’s Office can show you what you need to get done.
1 Joe used to spend Tuesdays with the Tucson Republican Club before Tuesday government meetings took over the entire day.