By Fletcher McCusker
A few weeks ago I was appointed to the Rio Nuevo board by President of the Senate Steve Pierce. I was actually approached by a number of different people about joining the board; democrat and republican, even current board members, given that positions were opening. I had worked with Jodi Bain during the legislative session on bills that were designed to improve the District and increase flexibility, successfully I might add, except the bill was vetoed by Governor Brewer. I consider Jodi a friend and a brilliant attorney. Given my presence at the legislature, activity downtown, (including locating our company headquarters there, starting Second Saturdays, turning around the Fox Theatre and advocating for downtown support) I expect I established some credibility as a non partisan influence on downtown revitalization.
Even though I expressed my willingness to serve I figured there was no way a democrat would be appointed by the republican leadership. Much of the Rio Nuevo dialogue recently appeared quite partisan to me.
Once my appointment was announced, along with the President’s recall of former appointees, the fur started flyin. A number of people felt the new members were “city friendly” and that we would quickly move to dismantle the current audits, dismiss the lawsuits and go back to the spending of the Rio Nuevo of the past.
I expect we surprised a lot of people by, instead, encouraging the forensic investigations, maintaining the legal leverage obtained through actual and threatened litigation and the fact, that even with two meetings under our belt, we have not “spent” anything on go forward projects.
I immediately went to work with District staff on the budget, I supervise 450 budgets a year and the process of identifying revenue, itemizing expenses and making recommendations to a board is very familiar territory. I met with former members and talked with them several times so that we could pick up the budgeting right where they left off.
Staff and I dealt directly with the State to identify and track TIF revenue, we dealt directly with three banks to confirm balances in 14 different bank accounts. We confirmed the reserves and attempted to identify District resources. The only account I am not 100% comfortable with is the City of Tucson account where excess TIF revenue and excess bond revenue is parked. That account is required according to the bond documents and we can’t apparently untangle the city from maintaining control over District revenue. There is much work to be done to reconcile that account and transfer those funds to District control.
The only significant changes I made to the former budget were to request substantially more money in the auditing lime item ( probably a surprise to a lot of people) and I recommended to the board that they hire a CFO given the complexities of the TIF and the desire to be totally independent of the city. I also added in the lease revenue and adjusted the debt service, given that the 2002 COPS were paid off in June.
I was proud to have Alberto Moore nominate me to chair the District board and to be selected unanimously by the members, old and new. It was a rare sign of Rio Nuevo unity. I have since been approached by many citizens with an agenda to “remove ” one member or another.
I have said publicly and privately that I do not believe it is my place nor any sitting member’s place to usurp the authority of the Speaker, President and Governor in whom they select to the board. We serve at the pleasure of those who appointed us and my personal feeling is that once a political appointment is made our loyalty is to the organization we have been appointed to, not to party or politics.
A revitalized downtown is important to the Tucson region as a competitive tool in creating an urban environment that is at least as good as other cities in the West. We have a little money that we can invest toward projects that improve sales tax revenue and contribute to visitors downtown. Those investments should be transparent, within the legislature’s and voter’s intent, with easy to follow money and initiated only after public input. It has been suggested that we bring back the Citizen’s Advisory Board that eliminated themselves from the process because the city run Rio Nuevo didn’t listen to them anyhow.
I think that is a good idea and an opportunity for a good cross section of people to consult with us on how we move forward.
For 10 years now the words Rio Nuevo can’t be spoken without the accompanying tag line..”with little to show for it”
My hope is that we can change that to Rio Nuevo..finally they got it right!
That is not going to happen with McCoy/Hatfield bickering, this should not be a good vs evil process nor will there be a D solution or an R solution.
Tucson, we can do better.
Fletcher McCusker
CEO
Providence Service Corporation
Chairman Rio Nuevo District Board