The Republican candidates for Pima County Board of Supervisors, District 1 faced off last week at debate held by Tea Party Patriots moderated by popular morning radio host Garrett Lewis of KNST 97.1. The four Republicans; Ally Miller, Mike Hellon, Vic Williams and Stuart McDaniel are hoping to replace retiring Supervisor Ann Day from the Republican leaning district.
Topics included balancing the budget, cuts in spending and the highly controversial County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry.
“The debate was a huge success,” said event organizer Sherese Steffens of the standing room only crowd and the candidates’ participation. “We accomplished our goal to educate the voters who attended. We plan on doing the same thing for the voters next Thursday night with the District 4 supervisor Candidates debate.”
Huckleberry, who has come to be known as “King Chuck” has ruled the County for years, while the democratic controlled-board provides little oversight. As a result, Huckleberry has become a lightening rod this election cycle.
Hellon, a county insider, said that Board members can do little to change business as usual. He said that board members needed to persuade “Chuck” to do something, and “Chuck counts to three, and you need to get your three votes.” Hellon was referring to the need for a majority vote of supervisors. He ignored the power of supervisors to propose policy and win public support across the county.
Stewart McDaniels seem to struggle with questions, having difficulty understanding a question about the County’s financial requirement. Lewis had to explain to McDaniel what the financial requirement was.
When asked how to bring jobs to Pima County, Miller said that the county had to become more business friendly. She suggested removing impact fees to jump sstart the economy, “something that is being done across the country” to spur development. Miller said that it was “a no brainer” that the county needed to work to facilitate job development.
Hellon called for a 5% reserve if the economy gets worse, and said it was expected to get worse. Hellon said that “the problem is Chuck’s slush fund/ He has money stashed all over the county. If you need a little bit from here of there you go and get it.” Hellon said that he agreed with Miller assertion that the budget needed to be watched more closely by supervisors.
Hellon said, “I agree with Ally on job development. Arizona grew 69,000 in the last three years, Maricopa had 45,000 of them, and Pima County had 800 of them.”
Hellon stopped short of calling for the defunding of TREO. Tucson Regional Economic Office, which was supposed to bring private industry to Pima County, has come under fire for its failure to recruit new employers to the area, and the large salaries of its staff.
Miller challenged Hellon’s assessment of TREO, saying that she could not believe that Hellon continued to “support funding for TREO after six years of failure. They have brought in only 4,000 to 4,600 jobs over the years, and about 40 percent of those are $10 an hour jobs. How long do they have to prove to us that they are failures before we say enough is enough?”
After the recent junket to San Diego where City council member Paul Cunningham got drunk and engaged in abusive behavior, TREO leader, Joe Snell was given a 3 year contract and a raise from his salary of $313,000 a year, to nearly $1 million for the 3 year period.
Hellon responded that he was unprepared to cut them off, as he “had not delved into details and had it from reliable sources that there are some good things they do. I just want to take a look before I make a decision.”
While Williams said he would “get out of TREO,” he ignored current business trends of limited travel. He said that politicians “need to get on a plane and ask companies to move here.”
Williams focused on asking for business and found little fault with Pima County’s current economic development and business environment saying that the Northern part of the County was doing well. Last week, at a Young Republic’s event, Williams said that Huckleberry was the “greatest administrator,” and argued that Huckleberry “was one the greatest managers he knew of.”
Williams said that “we need to look at bonding. I have no issue with bonding. Bonding for infrastructure, roads, highways, and waste water treatment water delivery systems is what made this country great. This makes our quality of life better and attracts industry.” Contrary to his statement, when Williams served as chair of the legislative Transportation Committee, HURF monies were swept by the Legislature away from counties. The “HURF sweeps” had a devastating effect on county infrastructure according to many experts.
Hellon and his campaign staff distributed what was characterized by many as “a hit piece” from a Tucson tabloid against Miller. Miller questioned Hellon’s distribution of the materials. Miller and Hellon are considered the two front runners in the race.