“We have spent money on audits and subsequent lawsuits to finally bring some accountability to the Arizona taxpayers. Some people say they are concerned about a settlement; that the taxpayers will lose. The truth of the matter is that they already lost, and now we must see how we can mitigate those loses, and continue bringing forth the truth about the City’s bad actions. We are committed to a revitalized Tucson built on a strong financial footing,” said Alberto Moore, the one of the District’s most vocal watchdogs.
It is the confusion about who did what that has allowed so much to go on for so long. Until 2010, the City of Tucson controlled the Rio Nuevo District including the purse strings. Every deal, every contract, every promise was made for the City by City staff with the consent of City officials.
The city-controlled Rio Nuevo District was managed by a four-member board; two board members were appointed by the City of Tucson and two members were appointed by the City of South Tucson. “According to legal filings, “At inception and through at least a portion of 2010, the city-controlled Rio Nuevo District’s Director was also the City of Tucson’s City Manager or a deputy, its Treasurer was the City of Tucson’s Finance Director, and its staff were all City of Tucson employees. Activities of these employees (and their staff) also included the acquisition, replatting and transfer of properties located within the city-controlled Rio Nuevo District.”
Acting as the staff of the city-controlled District, these COT officials and employees executed multiple party agreements between the COT, the city-controlled District, private developers, and other governmental agencies. According to the legal filings, “These agreements typically made the city-controlled Rio Nuevo District responsible for financing improvements without giving any benefit or consideration to the Rio Nuevo district.”
In April 2011 the FBI seized a room full of records of the formerly city-controlled Rio Nuevo District. The City of Tucson had stashed the records of how exactly $230 million in taxpayers’ hard earned monies were wasted in a room in the Tucson Convention Center.
By the time the FBI showed up, the new Rio Nuevo District Board had learned so much about the City’s past bad acts that they had limited the City’s access to the records the FBI wanted. The room in which the records were stored had two sets of locks; the District and City could only access the records in the company of each other.
Only after spending $230 million did the Arizona Legislature finally step in and take control away from the City of Tucson. When they did, they left the all volunteer board with no budget and no means to hold anyone responsible. Due to their shortsightedness, it would be up to the FBI and the Arizona Attorney General to hold City staff and officials responsible.
The District Board, headed up by Jodi Bain with the guidance of fellow Board members Jeff Hill and Alberto Moore forged ahead and ordered audits. Soon after lawsuits were filed and the City went on a blitz attack with willing media who were too stupid, or too politically motivated to take the time to educate the public on the role of the new Board. They perpetuated the myth that Rio Nuevo and not the City of Tucson engaged in the waste, probable fraud, and abuse of the taxpayers.
Concerns about the legal fees were legitimate. The bills began to mount, and the City had endless supplies of money to keep up the fight and every reason in the world to do so.
However, it was due to the machinations of Tucson City Attorney Mike Rankin, and the convoluted contracts contrived to benefit only the City, that lawyers, Sean Brearcliffe and John Sundt, had to spend as many hours as they did poring over the chaotic documents. The two men donated much of their time, or offered it at a greatly reduced price…. but the bills kept growing as a result of the City’s intransigence.
This past spring as arbitration started to focus on the nitty gritty of the contracts, the City became suddenly concerned about the taxpayers. In an effort to bring negotiations to a halt, an all out blitz went out through every unsophisticated media source; the bills are too high and the nasty new Republican Legislature-controlled Rio Nuevo Board is trying to hurt poor Tucson.
It worked; they killed two birds with one stone; the Tea Party members and the Democrats bought into it. The brilliant maneuver brought negotiations to a halt.
It is that reason that so many are suspicious of a settlement and so many others are calling for one.
Did you know that the Presidio cost $4,375,367.97 worth of Rio Nuevo funds? If you do the math it comes out to a $75,000 a square foot.
Did you know that after spending hundreds of thousands of Rio Nuevo dollars on the Depot Garage project, City Attorney Mike Rankin sent an email instructing City staff to make it a City owned asset? They complied in March 2010, responding to his request,” It can be an accounting transaction. When the construction is complete, we will donate it to the City.”
Did you know that the City is responsible for the upkeep of the Tucson Convention Center? They even collect a tax for that purpose, but swept it into the General Fund and now want Rio Nuevo to pick up the tab.
Did you know that the City used Rio Nuevo funds for the streetcar? City engineers failed to provide for a stop at the Convention Center and the hotel which is in progress and the heart of the measure the voters passed in 1999. As per current plans, riders will have to walk from the planned stop at the fire station beyond the Convention Center.
It is yet to be seen if there will be a settlement and what the terms will be.
Settlement was almost derailed when emails to COT staff from McCusker discussing possible settlement terms were circulated by an anonymous source. The email sender suggested that McCusker was operating illegally towards settlement and that the TIF should be terminated, and McCusker should be gone. Although the emails were dismissed as a vain attempt by someone either trying to smear McCusker, or stop negotiations, or both a few unsophisticated media members ran with the “scandal.” They did so despite the fact that McCusker, Moore, and Hill had been authorized to negotiate a settlement and Arizona law requires the conversations be confidential.
McCusker, Moore, and Hill have done what they could to come up with something they could take to the whole Board. However, they have insisted in the past that the audits will not be stopped. They are insisting that whatever settlement is reached it will include provisions which give them greater strength to conduct those audits. We will see today if McCusker was a man of his word or if he sold out Rio Nuevo for a soft settlement with the City of Tucson.
Regular Rio Nuevo watchers wonder if Tucson’s new mayor, Jonathan Rothschild, will become a part of Rankin’s problem, or part of the watchdogs’ solution. He has pledged a new transparency. The agreement the Rio Nuevo Board hopes to get will provide much of that.
The questions remains; Can the City afford a settlement which strengthens Rio Nuevo’s control, and can the taxpayers afford the City’s avoidance of responsibility?
The Rio Nuevo District Board will hold a public meeting today Monday October, 22, at 2:00 p.m. in room 222 at 400 W. Congress Street.