The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to move forward with the construction of the Joint Justice/Municipal Courts Complex near Stone and Toole avenues without the City of Tucson’s participation.
The City of Tucson agreed in October that the city could not afford to pay its share of the construction costs that exceeded the $76 million in 2004 bonds originally allocated to the project.
The discovery of military and civilian cemeteries from the late 1800s on the site of the complex, the excavation of nearly 1,400 remains and consequential repatriations and reburials added nearly $17 million to the cost of the project.
The mayor and council voted to either move the city’s court operations, now housed in a former parking garage on Alameda Street east of Stone Avenue, to the complex without paying the city’s share of the excess construction costs or keep its court operations in the Alameda Street building.
Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told the Board of Supervisors that the city’s share of the excess costs, based on its anticipated occupancy of 54 percent of the complex, would be about $20 million. The continuing decline in the property tax base would prevent the County from subsidizing the city’s court operations by paying the city’s share of the costs, Huckelberry said.
Huckelberry recommended and the Board approved continuing the construction of the complex without the city’s participation and occupancy. The portions of the complex that would have been occupied by the city will not be completed. The County will explore options to fill the space with legal or court-related functions and tenants who would pay their share of the costs.
Earlier this year, Huckelberry conceded that the County had inappropriately used $10M of the bond money for the Superior Court after the issue was during this past election cycle. Those monies are now being repaid from the County General Fund.
Tucson Councilman Kozachik complains that the “Board of Supervisors agreed to break ground on the project knowing full well that there was no agreement with the City on any of the terms related to occupancy of the space.” However, he “fails to acknowledge that the City has been paralyzed for years and accomplishes bupkiss,” said one regular City Council observer. “What is the County to do?”
“As I have said, the best case would be for both sides to come to agreement – but the result has to take into consideration the fact that in two fiscal years, we’ll be faced with additional costs for Police due to the end of grant funded positions, and we’ll have additional transit costs associated with the streetcar O&M. Those are not avoidable. The new courthouse is.”
Kozachik instead says his wish list for the new Legislative session is the creation of a “Film Industry Incentive Bill, full staffing at the Nogales Border Crossing, and funding for increased infrastructure north and south of the Nogales port of entry.”