By Sergio Arellano-Oros
The City of Tucson accepted a settlement offer by the Rio Nuevo Board on Thursday after two years of negotiations and the exposure of the City’s reckless spending of nearly $230 million through forensic audits commissioned by the Rio Nuevo Board.
Tucson’s Mayor Rothschild and City Manager, Richard Miranda signed the agreement. At a press conference Thursday morning Rothschild said, “Today has been a long time coming. But today, the council and board put past disputes behind us and move forward.”
Rio Nuevo Board member, Alberto Moore, said that he had supported the settlement and commended the Rio Nuevo Board Chair Fletcher McCusker “for his dedication to the economic welfare of the residents of the sixth poorest metropolitan area in the country. It is because of the dedication and hard work of this board and private business people that any discussion of downtown development is even possible.”
Moore said that it was good the City wanted to put “disputes behind them and move forward,” however he noted that the settlement does not absolve them of responsibility for mismanagement and “perhaps even malfeasance.”
Moore told James T. Harris, a popular Tucson radio host on 104.1 The Truth, that he agreed with Senator Frank Antenori’s assessment of the settlement. Antenori said the settlement agreement was an “admission of guilt by the City of Tucson” and terms amounted to restitution.”
For years, while under the control of the city, Rio Nuevo was used by the City to funnel monies away from development or squandered on planning and attorneys. In 2010, the state legislature took control of the Rio Nuevo District, and installed a watchdog Board of downtown merchants, experienced developers, and community leaders.
The newly reconstituted board then launched a series of audits which uncovered the wasteful spending and mismanagement of the City. The audits lead to lawsuits, which in turn led to yesterday’s settlement.
Moore, said that he had supported the settlement and was ready to move on, but he had voted against the settlement went it went before the Rio Nuevo Board because he lacked confidence that City officials could act in good faith.
Moore continued, “Having volunteered for over two long years, with my fellow board members on the newly reconstructed Rio Nuevo Board working to clean up the mess left by years of City of Tucson mismanagement and possibly worse; malfeasance, I believed that it was in the best interest of the taxpayers of Arizona and the residents of Tucson to enter into settlement negotiations.
Moore noted that despite Tucson city Councilman Steve Kozachik’s claims to want the process open to the public, “each and every time we submitted a settlement proposal to the City, that offer was made public. The City’s counter-offers have been made privately, outside of public input or scrutiny; even being kept from the City Council members.”
Moore sharply criticized the negotiations that had “been handled primarily by the City Attorney, Mike Rankin, and the City’s former attorney (through his firm) and current mayor, Jonathan Rothschild.”
Moore told the public to consider what “the motives might be” for the City’s secrecy. On Harris’s show, he urged the public to call the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and ask where an investigation might be completed. Moore complained that the Arizona Attorney general has dragged his feet in the investigation of the past bad acts and actors who once controlled the Rio Nuevo District.
At the time of the Rio Nuevo vote to settle, Moore issued a statement in which he said, that “My decision on the settlement offered to the City of Tucson today is solely a statement of indictment against the City and not a rejection of the settlement,” said Moore. “I do have concerns about some of the terms of the settlement today not because the terms are unacceptable, but because the City’s past performance gives me little confidence that it will act in good faith and in the public’s best interest.”
Moore told Harris that he was excited to move on toward development and that there were many exciting projects planned for the downtown area.
When asked if the Legislature would continue to support the Rio Nuevo District, McCusker said “yes, if we don’t screw this up,” and McCusker is determined not to let that happen. “We have a real opportunity to do some good. We will be open and transparent. In going forward transparency, I think, is the issue . . . All of our bank accounts are now on the web. Anybody can now follow what we are doing dollar by dollar. Any project will have it’s own site on the web where you can actually see the commitments that are made and (where) the funds flow. That’s been part of the challenge historically: who was making decisions and where did the money go. We can resolve that collectively going forward.”
Alan Willenbrock, a former watchdog member of the Rio Nuevo Board expressed an opinion in a letter of support shared by many City of Tucson observers, “The City of Tucson did an incredibly lousy job of managing Rio Nuevo. This has been proven through many audits. City of Tucson employees have been dismissed, and elected officials have been unseated. This does not prevent the FBI, Attorney General, or other law enforcement from pursuing malfeasance.”
Willenbrock continued in the letter, “As a resident of the community, I don’t really care who owns certain property as long as I can enjoy it or the community can benefit from it. The financial situation of Rio Nuevo has improved dramatically in the last 3 years – they now have significant funds that can be invested in our community. I believe the current Rio Nuevo Board is capable of providing appropriate oversight.”
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Moore and Hill reveal the truth about Rio Nuevo (transcript)
