City of Tucson News

Public safety needs your help!!!
The Public Safety First Initiative has been filed and now we have 62 days to collect 15,000 signatures! If you are looking for a way to be involved in this effort we want to invite you to come to a petition training on Friday, May 8th at 8:00AM here at the Tucson Association of REALTORS®. The training will last about an hour and will cover everything you ever wanted to know about the Public Safety First Initiative and how to pass petitions. We will split the training into two sections so if you only want to come down and hear about the Initiative but don’t want to stay for the petition training then you can leave after the first half hour. Please RSVP if you are going to attend as space is limited. RSVP to teresa@tucsonrealtors.org.  We hope to see you all there!
The Public Safety First Initiative would…
  -   Set minimum staffing level for the Tucson Police Department at 2.4 full-time sworn officers per 1000 city residents. (Currently they are at 1.8)
  -   Adopt, in its entirety, the National Fire Protection Association 1710, a standard for the organization and deployment of fire suppression operations, emergency medical operations and special operations to the public by fire departments.
  -   Ensure that hiring standards or qualifications are not lowered in either department.

Rental Tax – The City 2% Rental Tax
The rental tax debate came to a head Tuesday night at the Tucson Convention Center when the Mayor and Council held a public meeting on next year’s budget. Over 800 people attended the meeting and most of them wore red to signify that they didn’t want a 2% rental tax. Many people were not allowed into the hearing room because of the fire code. 125 residents requested time to speak and an overwhelming majority of them did not want the City Council to balance their budget on the backs of renters. The Tucson Association of REALTORS® would like to thank everyone who participated in this event by either attending this event or writing a letter to the Mayor and Council. We had a great response from the REALTOR® community. The Tucson Association of REALTORS® will continue to oppose this tax and we ask for your continued support in this effort!

     Marana News

Town Council Endorsements
The Tucson Association of REALTORS® Candidate and Ballot Measure Task Force endorsed Kelly Maslyn and Carol McGorray for the Marana Town Council.

     Sahuarita News

Third Party Trusts
The Town of Sahuarita is considering modifying their policy on Third Party Trusts. The discussion is in the beginning stages and the Tucson Association of REALTORS® is involved in the dialog. We will keep you updated as things progress.

Town Council Endorsements
The Tucson Association of REALTORS® Candidate and Ballot Measure Task Force endorsed Kara Egbert, Duane Blumberg, and Alex Jacome for the Sahuarita Town Council.

  Oro Valley News

Public Safety
The Town Council voted unanimously to set a baseline for the police department's budget that likely will result in the preservation of six officers' jobs in the 2010 fiscal year. The proposal provides the police roughly $11 million in fiscal 2010. The changes would cut operations and maintenance costs across the police spending plan in lieu of eliminating police officer jobs. Other savings would come from transfers of money into the town general fund, and combining duplicated efforts like building maintenance, information technologies and motor pool. The vote does not finalize the police department budget. The council would still be allowed to revise the proposal before approving a tentative budget by the third Monday in July.

Development Services
Town Council and Management discussed Development Services restructuring and staff layoffs. Currently the position of Planning and Zoning Director and 32 other staff positions are being considered for elimination.