County expands downtown parking and safety investments with excess funds 

The move comes after the Pima County Board of Supervisors passed a sweeping plan to allocate about $12 million in excess revenue at Tuesday’s meeting. After some debate, the board voted 4-1 on all of County Administrator Jan Lesher’s recommendations, including one-time investments in employees, safety and tourism.

Business owners and property managers, including those of the Fox Theater, Si Charro! restaurants and Peach Properties, wrote letters of support to the board, writing that parking is one of the biggest barriers in attracting customers downtown.

Opening the following three garages for public use on nights and weekends, previously only for county employees, will cost about $677,000 over two years.

— Public Works Garage: 50 W Alameda St.

— Scott Avenue Garage: 50 N Scott Ave.

— Public Service Garage: 38 E Alameda St.

The county expects to offset the cost after the one-time funding with “minimal” parking fees, Lesher’s memo reads. County staff has not yet said when the garages will start expanded hours.

The funds are part of a larger $2.5 million earmarked for public safety efforts within the One Pima Initiative, a two-year plan for expanding homeless services and improving housing stability, public safety and health. $412,000 will fund a new limited initiative between the county and the Downtown Tucson Partnership, for part-tourism, part-public safety efforts during the upcoming tourist-heavy months in Tucson, starting in the fall through the February Gem and Mineral Show.

“When people perceive downtown as unsafe, the consequences extend well beyond downtown’s boundaries,” Lesher’s memo reads.

With the funding, DTP plans to launch two transportation services between parking facilities and downtown activities, including a free weekend shuttle and smaller six- and four-passenger golf carts.

The investments are part of an effort to make downtown “clean, welcoming and accessible,” county documents said.

In recent months, the city has been touting similar plans to improve aesthetics in urban corridors. A focus of their new Transit Safety and Security Action Plan is the physical appearance and cleanliness of bus stops.

One area of investment in the county partnership includes equipping Downtown Tucson Partnership’s purple shirt ambassadors with mobile cleaning carts, in an effort to “increase the visibility of cleaning services at street level,” according to county documents.

County employee raises

The majority of Tuesday’s discussion involved Lesher’s recommendations for investing in county employees. Lone Republican Steve Christy tried to garner support for committing $250 in county funds to employees who want to open Invest America accounts for their children.

The investment accounts are part of President Trump's initiative to increase financial literacy and build generational wealth. Christy did not receive any support in the form of votes, but Supervisor Rex Scott said he was interested in county staff looking into similar investment initiatives.

Lesher recommended nearly $9 million go towards employee retention and raising the pay of county employees who make under $45,000 a year.

Supervisor Matt Heinz ultimately voted for the package, but first suggested putting employee money towards immediate food assistance instead, citing strain on food banks as federal funding has continued to drop off.

“You have no idea how much I want to invest 10 plus million dollars right now in our amazing employees, but I also know that medical triage is an important concept. You have to address the most urgent threat to patients, or our community members, first and fastest,” he said.

Board Chair Jen Allen made a substitute motion to allocate an additional $1 million over two years from the excess funds towards food assistance, which passed 4-1, with Supervisor Christy voting no.