Tucson Weekly: The Skinny (June 11

Skinny HEAR THE CALL: Diana Boros is a mom with three kids in the Amphitheater School District. For nearly a year, she's been trying to get the district to restore a basic right of its constituents--the right to address the Amphi School Board at meetings during a call-to-the-audience segment.
These call-to-the-audience segments are common with most public bodies. The Tucson City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors let citizens sound off, as do many school districts in southern Arizona.
Amphi used to have a call-to-the-audience segment, but abandoned it several years ago, for reasons no one seems able to remember.
Boros has led a valiant effort to restore the call-to-the-audience. She talked to Board members and passed a petition, gathering hundreds of signatures in support of the call-to-the-audience proposal.
But Amphi Board President Mike Bernal has steadfastly refused to put the issue on the agenda. He stalled the issue, promising Boros she would someday have a chance to present her petitions to the Board if she just remained patient.
Frustrated by the continuing stall, Boros finally sent her petitions to the Board in May, hoping Bernal would address the issue as correspondence.
The first meeting after he had received the petitions, Bernal simply ignored the correspondence section of the meeting. He promised Boros the Board would address the issue at the following meeting, but canceled those plans at the last minute as well. Bernal finally agreed--as of press time, at least--to put the call-to-the-audience topic on the agenda at next week's meeting.
Boros is not a radical. She's not a ranting kook who wants to deliver a manifesto on the pygmy owl. She's just an ordinary mother who volunteers her time in the classroom and who thinks folks ought to have the chance to address their elected officials in a public forum.
If you agree, you ought to back her up. Your only chance to give the Amphi Board a piece of your mind comes at 6 p.m. this Tuesday, June 16, at Amphi's district offices, 701 W. Wetmore Road.
INSIDE JOB HUNT: Perpetually chipper Carol Carpenter, downtown development specialist with the Tucson Office of Economic Development, may be leaving the city to go to work for the newly formed downtown Business Improvement District (BID)--a quasi-public, quasi-private operation which Carpenter was instrumental in forming.
Sheila King, a leasing agent with PICOR Commercial Real Estate Services who helped organize the BID with Carpenter, confirms that Carpenter is one of four or five finalists.
"She has applied and she's being considered," says King.
King says BID Board members hope to interview candidates next week and pick a director by the end of June.
King says a final decision on the director's salary has not yet been made, but the proposed BID budget, which Carpenter helped craft, called for the executive director to begin at $50,000 and climb to $57,542 within five years. It also included an annual $25,000 bonus after the first year.
Carpenter currently earns $41,390 at the Office of Economic Development, according to the city's Human Resources Department.
It's a bit of surprise to find Carpenter applying for the job. During a meeting with merchants last fall, King and attorney Thom Laursen both expressed shock when asked if Carpenter would be heading up the BID. They said at the time that they couldn't imagine Carpenter making the job switch.
The executive director will head up a staff responsible for guiding visitors, sweeping streets, maintaining flowerpots and picking up trash in the downtown area. The executive director will also help design a development plan for downtown--which has many small merchants worried the BID will pursue sweetheart deals with chain franchises while neglecting the current struggling shopkeepers.
The BID is funded through additional taxes on downtown properties totaling about $413,000, along with a $216,000 annual subsidy from city taxpayers.
King says the BID has tentatively selected office space at 100 N. Stone Ave. and hopes to begin servicing downtown by November 1.
The BID was approved by the City Council on a narrow 4-3 vote. Council members Steve Leal, José Ibarra and Jerry Anderson opposed the BID because they had concerns about its impact on small merchants, as well as the proposed salary of the executive director.
Ibarra and Leal were both unhappy to hear about Carpenter's job pursuit.
"It's very inappropriate for her to apply for a job she helped create while on city taxpayers' time," says Ibarra. "What else can I say, except she's gonna be making a lot of money if she gets the job."
"This kind of stuff never looks good," adds Leal. "People see Pentagon officials getting jobs with the defense industry in a kind of revolving door, and it always makes the public feel like collusion contributes to compromising the public interest. Now folks will wonder if the reason Carol lobbied so much for the creation of the BID was in the hope of getting a job."
A GOVERNMENT OF MEN, NOT OF LAWS: In an amazing reversal of position, the Tucson City Attorney's Office now says that a local initiative election can be held in November. If the City Council agrees, Mayor George Miller may get a vote on his "election-by-ward-only" proposal this fall.
Back in the spring of 1984, the City Attorney's Office, the City Clerk, the City Manager and the City Council determined that Tucson's Charter required at least 365 days between initiative elections. That ruling prevented a vote on the Neighborhood Protection Amendment until November of 1985. The amendment, spearheaded by then state Rep. John Kromko but hated by the cementhead lobby, required a public vote on many major roadway projects.
But last week, city attorneys decided the Charter's "one year" and 365 days weren't really the same thing, so a city initiative election might be held this year. Miller and his supporters still need to submit enough signatures to require a vote on the measure. Plus the City Council will have to give its approval.
Kromko's reaction? "The stuff the City Attorney's Office is saying is bogus. I can't imagine we won't take legal action. The city should be ashamed of itself if it puts Miller's proposal on the ballot this year." Instead, Kromko has indicated he'll propose the Council send to the voters in November a Charter change that would clarify the situation.
BEAL APPEAL: We've taken a few shots at Arizona Daily Star columnist Tom Beal over the last few months for blending into the wallpaper.
Now it seems Beal agrees with us--on at least one point, anyway.
In one of last week's columns, he pointed out the trouble most candidates will have this year is that they'll simply be ignored by the local media, including his own paper. That was a candid and courageous statement, Tom.
Hey, if it doesn't work out for you over there, we've got a spot for you. Pay sucks but the freedom's great.
ORO VALLEY'S CHOPPING BLOCK: When Oro Valley's newly elected Mayor Paul Loomis and new Councilman Fran LaSala were sworn in, they promptly walked into their first Town Council ambush.
The new Council's first act was choosing Councilman Paul Parisi, vice-mayor of the previous council, by a 3-2 vote. (Count on seeing a lot of those up there in the future.)
Loomis then innocently made a proposal, already on the agenda, to have the call-to-the-audience segment at the beginning of the meetings, as has been Oro Valley's practice in the past. This allows citizens to make their points without having to wait until the Council has finished going through what are often long agendas. Parisi joyously supported the move.
The first person out of the box was a lady who then proceeded to berate new Mayor Loomis for failing to return a phone call and referring her issue to city staff. It was an obvious set-up to embarrass Loomis, which Parisi and others were no doubt in on.
Former Mayor Cheryl Skalsky, still on the Council and the most politically able of the whole crew, spent the rest of the meeting assuming her old sniping posture and trying to make Loomis look bad.
All of which indicates just how petty Oro Valley government has once again become. While Oro Valley continues to grow bigger, its Council is still mired in personal politics.
DIAMOND SHINES: There was a giant luncheon at Ventana Canyon Resort last week honoring Tucson's "Fathers of the Year" (well, the rich, well-connected ones anyway), with proceeds going to charity.
The last dad to speak at the program was legendary land speculator Don Diamond, who, we're told, was the hit of the day. He started by telling the crowd that everybody who wasn't on his payroll could leave if they wanted to, introduced his daughter as the lady who burned down Old Tucson, and noted that the event was sold out and the Tucson Weekly was too late to buy the two tables they'd requested.
Nice to see that Don has a sense of humor and can apparently handle stand-up. So what's next? A career in talk radio?

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