The Rio Nuevo District Board has made a settlement offer to the City of Tucson in matter of lawsuits filed on behalf of the taxpayers of Arizona. The Tucson City Council is expected to consider and vote on the offer today. The settlement offer is the culmination of years of the Rio Nuevo Board fighting the City to recoup of assets.
Alberto Moore was the sole dissenting vote. Moore said he supported the settlement but his no vote was a indictment of the City and his lack of confidence that City officials could act in good faith.
Moore stated, “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 “negotiations that have 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.
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.
In 2010 the Arizona Legislature took control of the District away from the City and installed a new politically connected Board.
“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.”
• Rio Nuevo will fund the renovation of the TCC.
• Rio Nuevo will invest $6,000,000 into the ailing TCC, which the City of Tucson has neglected for years while collecting taxes for repairs.
• The Rio Nuevo Board is releasing all claims to the Depot Garage and the City of Tucson will reimburse the Rio Nuevo District in construction costs.
• Rio Nuevo will take ownership of the “arena lot” property along the freeway between Cushing and Congress.