Opinion By Don Lovitt
The following letter was sent to Tucson City Manager Richard Miranda. Miranda was just appointed to the permanent position after holding it as an interim.
Dear Mr. Miranda,
I recently read that you have appointed Mark Timpf as the new “Interim Director” for the TCC. I’m pretty sure that he is an active duty police officer isn’t he?
That’s fantastic. It seems like just yesterday that Tucson was threatening with having to lay off police officers and now it seems that we have such an abundance that we can transfer police captains to positions when they have absolutely no experience in the live events or entertainment industries.
On the bright side, maybe he will actually put in more than a 20-hour workweek. Something that his predecessor Rich Singer never managed to do. I’m sure that was because he was so busy putting the final nails in the Fox Theater coffin. As directed by the city managers office and the council.
Hopefully Mr. Timpf will actually have a driver’s license and drive himself to work. Seriously, it doesn’t fool anyone to “eliminate” the director’s position and then hire interim directors.
Oh yeah, I’m also told that he also brought in another police officer, but this one is only a lieutenant to act as an Event Services Manager. Really? Now Tommy Obermaier will do event management and promotions? Good God!
Speaking of Tommy Obermaier, it’s great to see that his hard work, prior management and interpersonal skills have been recognized. Is he still drawing interim directors pay for doing event manager duties?
I agree that the TCC needs management help, but did you ever consider posting for the position and seeing if there just might be someone out there locally that could have done the job better? Cronyism? Smells like it.
For those of us that pay attention to these sorts of things and hold out hope for a better Tucson, This is just pathetic.
Every week I read another article in the ADS of the city council whining about Rio Nuevo and the money that they spend on lawyers and all I can say is who can blame them? Rainbow bridges, Turtle venues, aquariums, $820k Promotional films, $1 rent for MOCA, LPG, Maynards, Scott Avenue, TCC facility maintenance fees not used for the TCC, $17 million dollar underpass that turned into $46 million, $13 million dollars for the Santa Cruz bridge and I could go on and on.
If I could shake hands with the city council I would count my fingers afterwards just to make sure they were all there.
I have been in the entertainment and live events industries for over 35 years and up until last October spent the last 2 as a stage supv. at the TCC. I have done over 3,000 events in 49 states and 18 countries so I might actually know what I am talking about.
Phoenix wants to be L.A and Tucson wants to be Phoenix and now we have city council members that think they know how to build a successful arena.
Believe me, it can’t and they don’t.
Don Lovitt
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