Apparently, after twenty-five years of collecting a massive salary for subjugating his constituents, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry’s memory is cloudy: It was only a few short years ago that he pushed a bond measure to fund road repairs that Pima County voters proudly shot down. Fast forward to 2018, and once again he attempted to foist a bond—and its commensurate taxes—on all of us. Once again, just like the last time, the good people of Pima County smelled the bum deal that Chuck offered, and they turned up their noses, wisely.
At public appearance after public appearance, Board of Supervisors meeting after Board of Supervisors meeting, Chuck insists that the tens of millions of dollars of gas tax funds the State sends Pima County each year aren’t enough to patch even a three-inch long crack, let alone one of the crater-sized potholes that pock nearly every county-maintained road. Only a new bond, he is adamant, will give us good care of our roadways. Huckelberry sounds an awful like a one-trick pony, doesn’t he?
A few weeks ago, my boss approached me to find a way to load some software on several hundred computers we couldn’t reach through our normal channels. It was no mean feat, but I got creative: I tapped into another management facility deeply ingrained in those machines, and I contrived a mechanism to send and to install our software. I found a way to make do with the resources I had, and I got the job done.
Chuck continues to insist that the only way he can appropriate funds for us to maintain our resources is to levy a new burden against the taxpayers and take from us new funds; he is certain he cannot do his job with the resources he already has.
I rather enjoy being gainfully employed, and my regular direct deposits of salary. And I can promise you, my employer pays me far less than we pay Chuck. Either I’m due for a raise, or Chuck Huckelberry is grossly overpaid and a poor fit for the job he does. (Maybe both.) It is time the leaders we (continuously and astoundingly re-) elect to administer this County retire Chuck—and his hand-picked lackeys—and appoint administrators who will do the job we the people pay them to do.
It’s long past time, actually.
So, after the taxpaying voters handed Chuck another defeat at the ballot box last week, what action must the Supervisors take? It’s simple: They must take up a vote themselves and unanimously declare that they have no confidence in Chuck. Except for the monied cronies who paid for Chuck’s large and colorful campaign signs, nobody else has confidence in Chuck. Now is the time to find a reasonable steward of our public resources. And, heck, the cronies will reap rewards in saving the money they otherwise waste on Chuck’s cockamamie schemes.
Seriously, Supervisors, vote no confidence on Chuck Huckelberry. He can only snow the people for so long before he takes you down, too; winter is coming.