Today, the Pima County supervisors will consider the Traffic Safety Ordinance which will prohibit the “loitering of pedestrians on medians that separate opposing lanes of a multilane highway.” The ordinance was requested by Sheriff Chris Nanos in response to concerns expressed by Supervisor Ally Miller over the years, on behalf of her constituents.
The FBI investigation of Nanos is reaching an end, and as a result the Sheriff is doing all he can to maintain what is left of the public’s confidence in him. According to a memo from Pima County administrator Chuck Huckelberry dated May 17, 2016, the “ordinance is a vehicle and pedestrian safety issue, not a panhandling issue.”
However, as the eighth poorest metropolitan area in the country, it is the panhandlers that have created the safety issues.
Ever since Huckelberry and Nanos decided to turn Miller’s concerns for their political benefit, County residents and the homeless have come forward to discuss the complex situation at Pima County’s virtual watercooler; the James T. Harris radio show.
Mike, a business owner on the northwest side of Tucson, has had his share of troubles with vagrants near and on his property. His business has been in the same location for the past fifteen years, and he has been dealing with panhandlers and vagrants for the last decade with little to no help from the Pima County Sheriff’s Office. According to Mike, the situation has gotten so bad that one customer, who has been patronizing his business for years, said he would stop coming due to the constant harassment from the panhandlers. The patron said he will take his business to Marana, where the problem does not exist. Mike was taken aback by this and said that if nothing changes he may leave for Marana when his lease expires.
Recently Mike questioned why the deputies seem to be unable to remove the vagrants now despite the fact that current Arizona law allows them to act. At a meeting at which Nanos tried to argue that he needed a new ordinance to do his job, Mike asked why it took so long for Nanos to move to protect the public.
“I had been bringing it up with people for a while. The law already existed to remove the people from the median and it was like trying to nail a big hunk of Jell-O to get people to understand that that ordinance was already in place. But when the meeting started, I was absolutely stunned that when he stood up and announced starting tomorrow morning, Tuesday of last week they were gonna start removing people from the median and the method that they were going to use to do it and I was stunned,” Mike explained as he went on further to explain the exchange and the mood in the meeting. “I was stunned that nobody else was upset that the law was already in place – like we’ve been talking about for a while – all of a sudden say they are going to do it.”
“So when I had the chance to address the sheriff, I listened to everything he had to say and then he opened it up for questions. I kept raising my hand, and I asked what changed that you are now going to do this? Did a law pass today or yesterday? What changed? He told me we are going to use the trespassing ordinance. We are going to trespass them on the median. I was like why now? What changed? We have been asking for this for 10 years. Why now? And he wouldn’t answer me so other people asked questions and I kept my hand up. I was being kind of belligerent about it and I wanted an answer to my question. So then I asked again, why? Who changed this? Who is the one who made this decision to this? He said, ‘Pima County.’ I said Pima County is not a name. Who walked in and told you to change the policy and remove these vagrants from the median?”
Mike never did get a name of the mystery person.
Since that meeting nothing changed.
Trespassing signs have not been put in place and the panhandlers have remained in place.
Mikes says he is sure that the deputies want to do their jobs and protect people, but Nanos is preventing them from doing so. “This is something that I want the listeners to know,” Mike said to Harris, “we are the only municipality – unincorporated Pima County – in the state of Arizona that allows this activity to go on.” Mike said the deputies are embarrassed by the situation. “These guys absolutely want to do their job. I would ask the listeners to not hold this against the Sheriff’s Deputies. The deputies – to a man – that I have dealt with on this issue are as upset as us. They live in those neighborhoods. They are dealing with the same issues that we are and they would like these people out of there too. I had a deputy put his hand out to me and said help unchain me Mike so I can do my job.”
Mike stated, “These guys are sworn to uphold the law. That is what they want to do and now these guys have been put into position where they have to take a lot of guff from the citizens, from the County, because they are not doing what they need to do for the citizens of Pima County. They have been put in the middle and these deputies want to do their job. They live in the neighborhood. They see the same things that we do and they see more of it than we do because they are the ones called in for a problem. These guys are high quality people. They keep their mouths shut, they don’t complain about it, but when you read between the lines, and when you talk to them, they are demoralized by what’s going on.”
It is the treatment of the deputies, not the panhandlers that has put Nanos in political peril. Between the FBI investigation, and his unwillingness to fight for his deputies, Nanos is vulnerable this election season. While it is unlikely that his ordinance will do much to save his very short political career, the residents and business owners are grateful that election season does spark some action.