Inside Tucson Business 7/6/12

Realtor’s elect 2013 presidentTierra Antigua’s Erchull takes top spot

Page 19

Adapting forsuccessCouple behind Table Talk continues to innovate

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Rio Nuevo board focuses on futureNew chair comes with new attitude

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Your Weekly Business Journal for the Tucson Metro Area

WWW.INSIDETUCSONBUSINESS.COM • JULY 6, 2012 • VOL. 21, NO. 58 • $1

TAMALE TACKOVER

PAGE 16

Tucson Tamales gains fame for classic dish

Nominations open for new chamber-led Copper Cactus Awards Inside Tucson Business

After 14 years as the Wells Fargo Copper Cactus Awards, the annual celebration of the accomplishments of small businesses in Southern Ari-zona will go by a new name this year: the Tucson Metro Chamber Copper Cactus Awards presented by Wells Fargo.

Nominations for this year’s awards are open until July 20. Sub-missions can be made either online at www.TucsonChamber.org or at any Wells Fargo location. In addi-

tion to work environment, growth and community stewardship, a new category this year focuses on inno-vation through technology.

“Our region’s small businesses are one of the most vital sectors of our community. We are celebrating the backbone of American business – the small business operations that employ the most people and create the greatest part of the GNP,” said Michael Varney, president and CEO of the Tucson Metro Chamber.

Th e awards will be handed out at ceremonies Nov. 13 at the Westin La

Paloma Resort & Spa, 3800 E. Sunrise Drive. Co-sponsors of the awards are Casino Del Sol Resort and Confer-ence Center and Intuit.

Award categories are:• Best Place to Work - businesses

that encourage and support profes-sional growth, education and devel-opment for employees.

• Business Growth — small busi-nesses that successfully tackle mar-ketplace challenges.

• Community Service - business-es that demonstrate uncommon civ-ic leadership.

• Nextrio Innovation through Technology — businesses that are technology-led and/or look to IT to solve problems and increase effi -ciency.

• Small Business Leader of the Year — exceptional leadership by a manager or owner who is active in the day-to-day activities of his or her company.

Nominated businesses must be operated for profi t, been in business for at least two years, locally owned and operated and have 250 or fewer employees.

Revitalization NicheEntrepreneurs like Doug Smith

(left) want old, renovated space from redevelopers

like Ron Schwabeof Peach Properties.

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2 JULY 6, 2012 INSIDE TUCSON BUSINESS

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NEWS

New Rio Nuevo chair sets sights on creating excitement

By Patrick McNamara Inside Tucson Business

Recent changes on the Rio Nuevo Multi-purpose Facilities District board appear to have brought a new attitude, one that seeks to focus on the future instead of constantly dwelling on the past.

Th at’s the sentiment of Fletcher Mc-Cusker, who on June 29 was unanimously elected as the new chair of the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District.

“Part of me feels like I’ve been assigned to the Titanic,” McCusker said following the vote that day.

But in a separate interview, McCusker, who is also CEO of Providence Service Corp., which has its corporate headquar-ters downtown, said he remains hopeful something productive can still come from

the 12-year-old tax increment fi nancing (TIF) district that diverts sales tax revenues to support revitalization eff orts.

A state-ordered audit released in Oc-tober 2010 found that while under the auspices of the City of Tucson Rio Nuevo spent nearly $230 million on planning and designs but had not completed any signifi -cant projects.

Under his chairmanship, McCusker says he wants the board to have a new fo-cus and vision.

Th at vision includes renewed eff orts at collaboration with local governments, Na-tive American tribes and business interests on potential projects, which McCusker said have been done successfully in other cities that have used TIfs.

“Th e point of the TIF is to invest,” Mc-Cusker said. “Historically, this TIF has

spent.”McCusker compared projects to district

investments, which would create additional investments.

Done right, each of the $230 million that has already been spent should have brought back three additional dollars in private in-vestment that would have put nearly $1 bil-lion into downtown.

“If we had invested $1 billion we would have a world class downtown,” McCusker said.

But the days when the district had that kind of money available are over, he ac-knowledged. After paying its operating costs and debt service, the district has about $13 million in the bank.

“Th at’s not going to build an arena, not

see CHAIR Page 12

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Fletcher McCusker, Rio Nuevo board chairman, outside of his company’s downtown Tucson headquarters in 2010.

TEP fi les request toraise rates about 16%

Tucson Electric Power (TEP) this week fi led a rate increase request with the Arizona Corporation Commission that, if approved without change, would take eff ect in mid-2013 and raise a typical residential customer’s bill just under 16 percent, or by about $13, but keeping it less than $100 per month.

Other rate classifi cations would be raised as well, TEP said, including “changes to our commercial and industrial rates that allocate costs more fairly and improve the company’s ability to fairly recover its fi xed system costs.”

In the political atmosphere of the corpo-ration commission, utilities often aren’t ap-proved for their full rate increase requests.

Paul Bonavia, chairman and CEO of TEP and its parent UNS Energy Corp., said the proposed rates will cover the company’s in-vestments and increased costs and support continued eff orts in renewable energy and energy effi ciency.

Included in the request are two new sur-charges; one that would allow to TEP to con-tinue to collect fi xed delivery service costs and the other recovers costs associated with compliance of governmental energy eff cien-cy and environmental regulations.

TEP is also proposing to streamline its rate structure that currently amounts to 341 resi-dential rate variations. Th e proposed changes include elimination of frozen tariff s and sim-plifi ed time-of-use plans.

TEP said its last rate increase was in 2008 and that this would represent its third in-crease in 20 years. Th e fi ve-member corpora-tion commission will hold public hearings in coming months before voting on the new rate structure.

Number of Tucson businessesfell at the end of last decade

Th e number of businesses in the Tucson region with paid employees fell over the fi nal three years of the last decade, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta-tistics using the latest Census Bureau data.

From a high of 21,725 businesses in 2007, the number dropped 2.1 percent in 2008, an-other 3.4 percent in 2009 and 1.1 percent to end up at 20,319 in 2010.

Th e year with the highest number of paid employees during the decade was 2006, when there were 333,821. Th at dropped by 0.1 per-cent in 2007, 1.3 percent in 2008, another 6.0 percent in 2009 and 2/6 percent to end up at 301,151 in 2010.

PUBLISHERTHOMAS P. [email protected]

EDITORDAVID [email protected]

STAFF WRITERROGER [email protected]

STAFF WRITERPATRICK [email protected]

STAFF RESEARCHERCELINDA [email protected]

WEB PRODUCERDAN [email protected]

LIST COORDINATORJEANNE [email protected]

ART DIRECTORANDREW [email protected]

ADVERTISING DIRECTORJILL A’[email protected]

INSIDE SALES MANAGERMONICA [email protected]

CIRCULATION MANAGERLAURA [email protected]

EDITORIAL DESIGNERDUANE [email protected]

CARTOONISTWES HARGIS

REPORTER INTERNKAITY [email protected]


NEWS

By Roger YohemInside Tucson Business

Living, working, shopping, dining and subsisting in a downtown setting doesn’t appeal to everyone. Yet there are just enough people who like and want that life-style to create niche business opportunities for employers, restaurateurs, retailers and other urban-oriented entrepreneurs.

“In general, it’s a numbers game. Until recently, it didn’t make sense to put money into projects in downtown Tucson. Th ere were no opportunities to invest and get any rate of return,” said developer Ross Rulney, who is pursuing some of those business niches.

Th e recent recession changed the eco-nomics of urban real estate. When looking at the downside, builders could see the po-tential upside for select revitalization proj-ects. Many of the properties under consid-eration were fi nancially stressed, outdated, in disrepair, or vacant and vandalized.

“Alliance Bank got very involved in downtown when it was not cool to be down-town. Th ey jumped in knee deep, pioneer lenders in downtown’s comeback,” Rulney

said. “Downtown wouldn’t be happening without Alliance Bank.”

Rulney is one of several clients Alliance Bank of Arizona fi nanced to rescue promis-ing urban-area properties. Overall, Alliance Bank, 4703 E. Camp Lowell Drive, has a cluster of 12 loans totaling some $25.5 mil-lion invested in downtown’s budding re-naissance.

Many clients are familiar historic rede-velopers such as Rulney, Ron Schawbe of Peach Properties, Rialto Block owner Scott Stiteler, and Rob Caylor of Caylor Construc-tion.

Duane Froeschle, senior executive of Al-liance Bank’s Tucson division, and Joe Snapp, vice president of commercial real es-tate, work closely with these clients who they consider to be “visionary” redevelop-ers.

In 2010, Rulney used a $1.7 million loan to buy and renovate the historic Lewis Ho-tel/Julian Drew Building at 118 S. 5th Ave-nue. Th e redeveloped commercial space is fully occupied. On the same block, he also is renovating the former Tiburon Apart-ments as Th e Flats at Julian Drew. Th at $2.5 million loan will put 53 market-rate units

into play.“For small developers like me, these

small properties make sense. Each indi-vidual success breeds a new success,” said the University of Arizona fi nance grad. “Th ere have been many small suc-cesses of late and that gets the next guy that much more interested.”

In June 2005, Alliance Bank made its fi rst downtown-area loan to Schwabe to salvage the historic Firestone Building at 439 N. 6th Ave. Th e Depression-era structure had been boarded up and con-demned by the city.

“It was in a blighted, crummy ware-house district, exactly what would cause bankers to dive under their desks when they saw it coming. It was full of surpris-es, even leaky underground tanks. Ev-erything was wrong. It was the last type of deal they’d be looking for,” Schwabe said.

“But Alliance had the vision and we had a good banking relationship,” he added. “When Alliance Bank started to do deals downtown, it was a real pio-

Second of 2 parts

Eclectic urban entrepreneurs drawn to renovated retro spaces

Exo Roast Coffee owner Doug Smith loves his funky retro space at the Old Market Inn that was redeveloped by Ron Schwabe of Peach Properties.

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ENTREPRENEURS NEXT PAGE

Tucson Padres to stay atKino through 2013, then ?

Th e Tucson Padres confi rmed the Triple-A team will remain in Tucson for at least 2013 season and possibly a year beyond that.

“At this point, we’re needed for the 2013 season,” Padres General Manager Mike Fed-er said at news conference Monday.

He said the team is negotiating a con-tract extension with Pima County that will keep the team at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, 2500 E. Ajo Way.

Th e team called the news conference amid speculation of a move to El Paso after the city council there voted 6-2 last week to spend up to $50 million to build a new downtown baseball stadium, contingent on convincing a team to move there. Among other things, the ballpark will require El Paso to tear down its City Hall, which was built in 1979.

A group of El Paso-based investors has formed MountainStar Sports Group, which on June 29 presented its plan to buy the Tucson Padres to the Executive Committee of the Pacifi c Coast League of Minor League Baseball. Th e group says it already has ap-proval from Padres owner Jeff Moorad, who has put the team up for sale.

Tucson’s economy ranked No. 83 out of 100 metros

A new report from the Brookings Insti-tute ranks the Tucson region 83rd out of 100 major metro areas for the strength of its economy as of the end of the fi rst quarter. Th at ranking was down from No. 77 in the previous quarter.

Th e Metro Monitor Report moved Phoe-nix up to No. 5, from No. 9.

Compared to other metro areas, Tuc-son’s greatest strength was in housing pric-es, which despite a 1.3 percent decline in the fi rst quarter of 2012 — after a 3.3 percent increase in the last quarter of 2011 — per-formed better than all but 27 other metro areas.

Syracuse and Buff alo, N.Y. were the only two metro areas to post gains in home pric-es in the fi rst quarter of the year, and both were up just 0.3 percent.

Tucson housing prices remain 44 per-cent below their peak at the end of the third quarter of 2006.

Another area of comparative strength for Tucson was the unemployment rate that fell 0.2 percent in the fi rst quarter of the year, for a ranking of No. 37.

Tucson fared worst, ranking No. 96, in gross metropolitan product output that grew by just 0.5 percent in the fi rst quarter of the year.

Employment in Tucson grew by 0.5 per-cent in the fi rst quarter, which ranked the region No. 79.


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NEWSneering but dangerous partnership.”

Undaunted, Schwabe knew there were “just enough people, a certain type of pro-gressive entrepreneur” who would be inter-ested in the space. For two years, crews worked to restore the building’s authentic expanse of exposed brick, concrete fl oors and large windows.

Th e Firestone’s interior was confi gured into new 1,000 to 2,000 square-foot suites. Today, the building is nearly full with a mix of architects, artists, tech and retail tenants.

Together with Stiteler and a $6.1 million loan, the Martin Luther King Building at 1 N. 5th Avenue was saved from demolition. Vacant for three years, city police and fi re crews had trained there and battered 74 of the building’s 96 units.

For $700,000, the city had planned to raze it.

Th e building had been hit by copper thieves and heavily vandalized, yet Schwabe saw potential in the fact it was structurally sound. Th ey transformed it from public housing into market-rate and aff ordable apartments, plus new street-level commer-cial space.

“It was close to a total re-do, yet we saw it as the type of urban space people would go nuts for,” Schwabe said. Alliance Bank has fi nanced three of Peach Properties’ nine downtown-area renovations.

Th e Old Market Inn, 403 N. 6th Avenue, may best illustrate the premise that with the right type of redeveloped space, the niche urban-entrepreneurs will come around. Built in 1880, it was one of Tucson’s original groceries and one of the fi rst with refriger-ated food coolers.

Before Schwabe bought it in 2008, Ari-zona Glass was in the building. Schwabe restored the interior’s original wood fl oors, exposed brick walls, high ceilings and win-dows. Major upgrades included insulation, electrical, and cooling systems.

“Th is is perfect space for us, an up-and-coming location in a retro, industrial-style warehouse,” said Noel Trapp of the Exo Roast Co. coff ee shop. “For the authentic urban feel we want, the malls just don’t make it.”

Landscape architect Margaret Joplin, owner of Design Collaborations, is a tenant in back. Th e interior’s blend of aesthetics and functionality caught her eye.

“Nothing in here is square, level or straight. When fi rst looking at the building, I thought there was no way it would work for us. But it haunted me, it never left my mind,” she said. Husband and glass artist Michael Joplin also operates his studio out of the same 2,200-square-foot space.

Th e Market Inn is fully rented and Schwabe is eager for his newest tenant, Re-becca Saff ord, to open her Tap & Bottle craft beer and wine-tasting business. Her space has been designed and her liquor license approved in late June.

“Th ere’s really good bones in the build-ing. Ron took the old that is now new. We don’t have to do anything to recreate the historic look,” she said.

When revitalizing trashed parcels, it’s important to focus on eclectic tenants. Th e obvious goal is to be profi table, yet that is not achieved by “seeking out the highest rents,” Schwabe said. “You have to cultivate the type of business attracted to this type of urban space. Th ey’re typically too small to pay high rents.”

Back at Rulney’s Lewis Hotel parcel, he plans to continue the block’s revitalization. He wants to add either a small boutique ho-tel or more retail/market rate housing. Th e structure would “cantilever” over an exist-ing building and the city is working with him on the proposal.

For urban revitalization to succeed, Rul-

ney said the developer and bank “must share a certain vision for creativity. Of-ten, Joe (Snapp) tells me I’m crazy but they do more than just look at numbers on a piece of paper.”

“Tucson is one of the last large cities to go through a downtown revitalization. If not for the passion Alliance Bank has for urban revival, many of these projects would not be happening,” Rulney said.

Part one of this series on down-

town-area redevelopment projects funded

by Alliance Bank appeared in the June 29

edition. Contact reporter Roger Yohem at

[email protected] or (520) 295-4254.

Entrepreneurs Margaret and Michael Joplin are tenants in the back section of Old Market Inn.

Tap & Bottle owner Rebecca Safford picked an old building with “good bones.”

This Week’s Good News Cutting ties on vacation

Th is week’s good news isn’t Tucson spe-cifi c but could be considered good news for both executives and the employees left be-hind while they’re gone on vacation this summer. A new survey by staffi ng fi rm Rob-ert Half Management Resources indicates that more executives will not be checking in while they’re gone.

In a survey of 1,400 randomly selected chief fi nancial offi cers, 51 percent said they do not check with the offi ce while they’re away, which is up from 26 percent the last time the survey was conducted two years ago. When the survey was done in 2005, the number was 21 percent who said they wouldn’t check in.

Most likely the increase has to do with the fact that executives can now passively check using their smartphones, which also makes them easier to contact if someone back at the offi ce needs to. Another reason could be “burn out.” Work has become so stressful in recent years that people away from the offi ce want a real vacation away.

The Tucson

INSIDERInsights and trends on developing andongoing Tucson regional business news.

Fiesta Bowl and playoffsGlendale’s Fiesta Bowl, which grew to

be one of premiere bowls in college foot-ball’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS), is going to have to fi ght its way back in to prominence under the NCAA’s new playoff system, though it does have an inside track. Under the new plan, there will six bowls in rotation hosting four semifi nal games over a 12-year span.

Th ree bowls were automatic: the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., which tradition-ally hosts the Pac-12 and Big Ten champi-ons; the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla., which this week agreed to a new deal with the ACC; and the Champions Bowl, a new event featuring the Big 12 and SEC champions to be played at a site yet to be determined. Th e Fiesta Bowl, which had hosted the Big 12 champion, was left out.

As an incumbent BCS bowl game, the Fi-esta Bowl will get an opportunity to negoti-ate before other bowl participants but it will certainly have to come up with more money than $6 million it currently pays each year.

Th e new playoff system starts at the end of the 2014 season with semifi nal games on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and the championship on the fi rst Monday that is six or more days after the last semifi nal game.


By Jerilyn ForsytheCronkite News Service

Arizona offi cials have been sifting through the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the bulk of the national health-care reform act and deciding what steps, if any, to take next.

Arizona, like many states, has been mov-ing forward with plans to set up a health in-surance exchange, a sort of marketplace for insurance consumers that is required under the act.

Even though Gov. Jan Brewer criticized the “disheartening” ruling issued June 28, state offi cials were not ready to back away from the exchange. Or to embrace it.

“Th e governor will make a fi nal decision … after we’ve had a chance to review the decision and evaluate where we are on the exchange work,” said Don Hughes, director of the Arizona Health Insurance Exchange.

If states are not making progress on their exchanges by 2013, the federal government could step in and run the exchange itself, a prospect that many fi nd unpalatable.

“A state-based health insurance ex-change is much preferable to having the federal government design one for Arizona,” said Garrick Taylor, spokesman for the Ari-zona Chamber of Commerce, which oppos-es the act. “It gives Arizona fl exibility and ability to craft an exchange that fi ts Arizona needs,” he said of the prospect of a state-run exchange.

Arizona insurance companies also said they will help state offi cials create an ex-change. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona released a statement saying it “will work with state lawmakers to enact a state-based insurance exchange.”

Th e deadline for the exchange is one of several in the act, which was “largely un-scathed” by the court, in the words of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Besides the exchanges, the act calls on states to expand their Medicaid eligibility and it imposes a national “individual man-

date,” which requires the people have health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty.

It is “too early to tell” if Arizona will par-ticipate in Medicaid expansion, said Taryn Morrissey, a public policy professor at American University.

“Republicans have vowed to introduce legislation to repeal the entire act,” Morris-

sey said. “Th ey haven’t really provided an alternative but I’m sure in this election year there will be continued talk about it.”

U.S. Supreme Court justices rejected a part of the law that would have let the feder-al government strip Medicaid funding from states that did not expand the program – a part of the act that Chief Justice John Rob-erts called “a gun to the head” for states. In Arizona, for example, more than half of the state’s federal funding went to Medicaid in 2009, according to U.S. Census data.

Instead, Medicaid expansion can con-tinue as a state option with the enticement of what the court called unusually generous federal funding. Many experts speculate the lure of federal funds will get most states to participate.

“Th ere may be political reasons why they

don’t,” Morrissey said. “But the Medic-aid expansion comes along with a lot of federal funds. It would be economically rational … to participate in the expan-sion.”

Morrisey said other issues may en-tice states to expand Medicaid, since not participating in the expansion could lead to a lack of coverage for some people. Th ose who neither fall below the poverty line nor meet the requirement to receive subsidies toward health insurance could fall into an assistance “gap.”

“Th ere could be a gap between peo-ple,” Morrissey said. “Falling through the cracks so to speak.”

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who ral-lied in support of the act in front of the Supreme Court the day the ruling came down, said it would be in Arizona’s inter-est to expand Medicaid coverage under the law.

“By opting in, states will receive ad-ditional support, but more importantly, you’re going to expand the base of cover-age,” Grijalva said. “And that’s the whole point of this Aff ordable Care Act.”

But while some state offi cials said they wanted to study the opinion, many more were angry at the court’s decision.

Brewer said in a prepared statement that the act was “an overreaching and unaff ordable assault on states’ rights and individual liberty.”

Th e Goldwater Institute said it will move ahead with its lawsuit against a price-setting panel, set up by the health care law. Th at suit had been on hold pending the court’s decision.

Arizona Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Jon Kyl, called for a congressional repeal of the act. Health care reform “will not only decrease the quality of healthcare in this country, but it will place an enormous burden on the economy,” Flake said in a statement.

NEWSHEALTH CARE

State offi cials consider next steps after Supreme Court healthcare ruling

PUBLIC NOTICESSelected public records of Southern Arizona bankruptcies and liens.

BANKRUPTCIESChapter 7 - Liquidation Swanson’s Auction House LLC, 4628 E. Speedway. Principal: Michael S. Swanson, member. Estimated assets: $50,000 or less. Estimated liabilities: More than $100,000 to $500,000. Largest creditor(s): Not fi led. Case No. 12-13897 fi led June 21. Law fi rm: Michael W. Baldwin

Chapter 11 - Business reorganization Robert Eugene Barnett, 3025 Tomahawk Trail. Principal: Robert Eugene Barnett, debtor. Assets: $371,200.00. Liabilities: $3,722,015.29. Largest creditor(s): Alliance Bank of Arizona, $1,057,500.00. Case No. 12-14067 fi led June 22. Law fi rm: Eric Slocum Sparks

FORECLOSURE NOTICES MSJ Investment Properties LLC 11075 N. Oracle Road, Oro Valley 85737Tax parcel: 220-08-45801Original Principal: $7,225,000.00 Benefi ciary: Alliance Bank of Arizona Auction time and date: 1:30 p.m. Sept. 19, 2012 Trustee: Craig K. Williams, Snell & Wilmer, 1 Arizona Center, 400 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix

LIENSFederal tax liens Carter Pictures LLC and Page Carter, 1202 N. Venice Ave. Amount owed: $13,475.76. Red Ant Inc., PO Box 1580, Sahuarita 85629. Amount owed: $3,652.45.Ventana Xeriscapes of Arizona and Chris Pappas, 5535 N. Via Girasol. Amount owed: $17,871.20. Reata Equine Veterinary Group LLC and Michael Conaway, 9100 E. Tanque Verde Road, Suite 100. Amount owed: $7,865.70. Roof Ops Inc., 1750 N. Stone Ave. Amount owed: $1,068.00. A Plus Offi ce Services Inc., PO Box 425, Vail 85641. Amount owed: $20,172.86. William P. Plummer PLLC and William Plummer, 1106 S. Speckled Stone Way. Amount owed: $4,986.03.Thermal Engineering Arizona Inc., 2250 W. Wetmore Road. Amount owed: $46,702.78. Dan Lewis Inc., 2455 N. Campbell Ave. Amount owed: $7,414.90. K&K Insurance Agency LLC and Carlos M. Arias, 536 W. Utah St. Amount owed: $5,919.70. Express Tune Up & Lube and S&H Enterprises Inc., 777 E. 22nd St. Amount owed: $108,253.59. Peter G. Schmerl PC, 105 E. Speedway. Amount owed: $19,661.34. Munchkins Preschool & Daycare and Mercaba Enterprises LLC, 920 N. Swan Road. Amount owed: $4,476.00. DRT Enterprise Inc., PO Box 950, Sahuarita 85629. Amount owed: $42,293.23.Elite Business Installations LLC and Hector Hernandez, 8911 N. Veridian Drive, Marana. Amount owed: $4,674.76. Flores & Son and Jose A. Flores, PO Box 509, Ajo 85321. Amount owed: $2,372.79. Super Car Center Inc., 1665 S. Craycroft Road. Amount owed: $1,552.86. Sonoran Desert Homes and Sharon W. Rahm, 1625 S. Augusta Place. Amount owed: $32,794.00. Williamson Mechanical and Michael Dean Williamson, 17651 S. Copper Cut Trail, Vail. Amount owed: $27,067.90. We Rock and Adama Kaufman, 131 S. Camino Seco. Amount owed: $52,992.31. WPNT-Tucson LLC, 8838 E. Broadway. Amount owed: $4,449.91.E.L. Baca Construction Inc., 1401 E. Orange Grove Road. Amounts owed: $299,785.99; $400,237.17; $140,287.02; $100,988.96; and $14,082.30.

NOTE TO READERS

Sam Williams’ Sales Judo column and Susan L. Moore Vault’s monthly Your Money column, which normally would have appeared in this week’s issue, ran in error in the June 29 issue. Dane Woll’s quarterly Getting Fit column, which should have appeared last week, is in this week’s issue and a column by John S. Lewis, president of Commerce Bank of Arizona, is this week’s Your Money column. Also, David Hatfi eld’s Inside Media column takes a one-week reprieve and is scheduled to resume in the July 13 issue.

Walter Setzer is a Republican candidate for Pima County Sheriff. His name was left off a list of candidates that was published in the June 22 issue.

CORRECTION

“Republicans have vowed to introduce legislation to repeal the entire act. They haven’t really provided an alternative but I’m sure in this election year there will be continued talk about it.”

— TARYN MORRISEY, PUBLIC POLICY PROFESSOR



2-year grant showed Tucsonans can collaborate to reduce obesity Editor’s note: Th is column was originally

scheduled to appear in the June 29 issue.

In March 2010, Pima County received an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the Communities Putting Prevention to Work program to help create policy, systems and environmental changes to prevent or reduce the spread of obesity. Th is innovative and ambitious initiative has made so many positive changes in our community and has brought great focus to the need for improved health and wellness in all settings. Over the course of the two-year program, a diverse group of community partners, working together for the common goal of obesity preven-tion, has achieved more than any agency working alone could ever accomplish.

Obesity is one of the most signifi cant and multi-phased public health risks fac-ing communities across the United States today. Childhood obesity has tripled over the last generation, and adult obesity rates in this country exceed 35 percent.

Th e economic impact is staggering, with $147 billion spent on obesity related health care per year in the U.S., decreasing the buying power of families by an aver-age of $500 per man, woman and child. Tens of billions of dollars more are lost by employers in decreased productivity, ab-senteeism and increased insurance costs.

Decades of eff orts aimed at the indi-vidual have not proven eff ective in revers-ing obesity. Individual choice is the bottom line when it comes to personal health behaviors like eating and exercising, but by addressing barriers at the community level we can make changes that make healthy choices easy and accessible to all commu-nity members. By changing and shaping the policy environment, the systems in place around us, and even the physical landscapes, a large-scale and sustainable impact can be made that lasts for genera-tions and has eff ect far beyond that of an

individual-based program.

Th rough the eff orts of the Communi-ties Putting Prevention to Work program, hundreds of new gardens have been planted in homes, schools,

churches and places of business. Schools and neighborhoods have created more places for safe physical activity, and residents are encouraged by their friends and neighbors to be outside.

Health care providers are prescrib-ing exercise as therapy to fi ght obesity and related diseases. More teachers than ever have been provided with the tools to incorporate nutrition and physical activ-ity into their classrooms, and schools are again recognizing the vital link between a healthy body and a healthy mind.

Early childhood education and youth development programs are encouraged to move beyond childcare and supervi-sion, and are taking an active role in creating environments that promote healthy eating and physical activity.

More and more employers — and their insurance providers — are discovering the benefi ts of worksite wellness programs, increasing their bottom line while helping employees work on their waistline. Th e YMCA of Southern Arizona played a key role in helping to educate companies on how to develop worksite wellness pro-grams. Over the course of two years the Y worked with more than 350 local compa-nies to provide wellness programs to more than 80,000 Southern Arizona employees.

Th e health issues the Communities Put-ting Prevention to Work program addressed — poor nutrition, physical inactivity, obe-sity and related diseases — remain critical factors in premature death and disability

across the United States and in our com-munity. In addition to the impact on health and quality of life, an estimated $500 mil-lion is spent per year in health care costs.

Working together, organizations like the Pima County Health Department, Caro-ndelet Health Network, the Community Food Bank, the United Way, the Univer-sity of Arizona, the Y and many others have taken signifi cant strides to create an environment where making healthy choices is becoming easier for many of our residents, and continue working to keep Pima County moving forward on this path.

Th e success of the Communities Put-ting Prevention to Work grant was due in great part to the partnerships that were

forged before and during the initiative. Th ese partnerships proved we are much stronger together than as individuals and that working together collabora-tively we can make Pima County a healthy place for all to live, work and play.

I invite you to fi nd out more by vis-iting HealthyPima.org, ActivateTuc-son.org or Tucsonymca.org to learn about how you can be involved.

Contact Dane Woll, president and

CEO of the YMCA of Southern Arizona, at

[email protected]. His Getting Fit

column appears quarterly and is next

scheduled to appear in the Aug. 31 issue.

GETTING FIT

DANE WOLL

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ON GUARD

Four ways to fi ght back and help avoid the angry customer Often times the most diffi cult situation

for any business is fi guring out how to handle an angry customer — and we all encounter them. It can be challenging, to say the least, to deal with anyone who is screaming at you. It can be hard not to take negative customer feedback personally and even harder not to react.

Th e trick is to remember that no matter how loud a customer is screaming, in the end they are looking for help. And when a business answers an angry customer’s cry for help the chances of that customer staying a customer dramatically increase.

A 2009 study in the Harvard Business Review estimated that American businesses lose 50 percent of their customer base every fi ve years, and that existing customers spend 67 percent more compared to new customers.

Another recent study by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that a full 82 percent of consumers who stop frequenting a business do so because of the customer service treatment they received or because they were dissatisfi ed with a service or product.

As jarring as these numbers are they drive home a point: customer loyalties change frequently and drastically, and the changes in loyalty are largely driven by addressable customer service failures on the part of businesses. When a business doesn’t answer a customer’s cry for help, the customer will seek out a competitor that will.

Th is is why any customer retention plan should be built around a well crafted customer service policy. One big reason customer service is so crucial for business-

es-and that returning custom-ers typically spend more compared to new customers-is that customer service builds trust. When trust breaks down between a business and a customer, the customer leaves.

And multiple studies have shown that a loss of trust will impact your bottom line.

Ben Martin, writing for CRM Magazine, a journal that focuses on customer relationship strategy, outlines several excellent customer service related strategies he says companies “must do to retain customers and maximize the revenue potential they off er.”

In the end, an angry customer is an opportunity for your business. Most customers who complain are giving you the opportunity to maintain their loyalty – and learn from the issue that drove the complaint in the fi rst place.

At BBB we get a glimpse of the “angry customer” daily through our conciliation process. We also get to witness customer service at its best as businesses turn complaining customers into loyal customers by listening and focusing on solving the consumer’s problem.

Contact Kim States, CEO of the Better

Business Bureau of Southern Arizona, at


Th e BBB website is www.tucson.bbb.org. On

Guard appears the fi rst week of each month

in Inside Tucson Business.

GOOD BUSINESS

KIM STATES

Truly change to a customer-centric organization• When dealing with customers and creating a customer-centric culture, you need an action

plan — not a set of platitudes common to every business. Think about what organizational changes and strategy shifts will reshape and redefi ne your culture to focus on customer satis-faction and retention.

• Make sure you have management that is focused on customer satisfaction and retention.• Make sure you employ a consistent process to ensure customer service at all levels of your

business is being practiced as it should. • Think about designing creative compensation structures that reward customer-focused activity.

Understand customer service is the new marketing• Customer interactions are a rich vein of information for your business, one that the integration of social media only just begins to tap.• A customer-centric organization focused on service and the use of customer feedback will generate more revenue and reduce marketing costs. And by the way – complaints are a form of customer feedback.

Don’t hide from social media, harness it• Defi ne who is responsible for social media efforts and how they can be a customer service tool. • Consider developing a social media strategy; what do you want to accomplish through social media and more importantly, how?

See service as a profi t center, not a cost • Companies with the highest customer satisfaction and retention rates run their cus tomer service programs like profi t-and-loss units of their businesses. Successful orga nizations empower customerservice personnel with the tools and the knowledge to seize each unique customer interaction.

Treat every customer as high-value• The concept of “low-value customers” is a fallacy in today’s environment. You may not care if some customers take their business to a competitor, but the popularity of social media means every customer has the potential to affect your brand, market presence, and competitive reputation. Consumers have a loud voice in today’s marketplace, and their friends, family and acquaintances are listening.


REMEMBERING TUCSONTh e Mayerfelds continue to retail innovations at Table Talk

In the 1970s, gourmet specialty stores were the hot place to shop. At the time, Bob Mayerfeld was on the buying staff at the iconic Dallas-based department Neiman Marcus.

“If I was going to work in retailing, I thought it was great to learn from the best,” Mayerfi eld recalled from his days working for Stanley Marcus, who was known for his retailing innovations.

Mayerfeld was raised in retailing in South Bend, Ind., where his parents, Helen and Larry Mayerfeld, owned a chain of women’s apparel stores named Newman’s. Looking for a better climate and lifestyle, Helen and Larry Mayer-feld moved to Tucson in 1971.

“I was 24, had a good job in Dallas, but I had the urge to strike out on my own,” Bob Mayerfeld recalled. Five years later, he and his wife Dale, who is also his business partner, joined his parents in Tucson.

(As a sidenote, Mayerfeld recalled a connection his family had with mine. Mel and Betty Sandock, a couple of South Benders, were good friends of my mother, Marjorie Simon Levy.)

“Th e Sandocks introduced us. Dale’s family shared the same prominence in South Bend as the Levy’s family did in Douglas and Tucson,” Mayerfi eld told me. “I met your dad, Leon Levy, who I always considered the Prince of Retailing. To me, it is unique that top of the line Oxxford sold more men’s suits in Tucson than anywhere else in the country. Th at’s because your dad knew everyone’s size and prefer-ences. He was the ultimate salesman. More important to me was his help and advice in understanding the Tucson market.”

In 1976, Mayerfeld opened Table Talk in Broadway Village. John Murphey, who was a major Tucson real estate developer since the 1920s, was Broadway Village’s landlord. Th e Table Talk store was part of an adjoining center west of the original Broadway Village at Broadway and Country Club Road that opened in the 1950s as Tucson’s fi rst “subur-ban” shopping center.

Th e Mayerfelds opened a second Table Talk store in 1979, renting from Tucson builder Pete Herder on East Tanque Verde Road. Like Murphey, the Mayerfeld’s respected and admired Herder.

When business began to slump in the 1980s, the Mayerfelds adapted.

“Our customers started to ‘assemble.’ Rather than cooking from scratch and using a variety of utensils, they started buying food in cans and containers. Food was purchased ready for heating in a microwave. Lifestyles were also changing, and it impacted gourmet specialty stores,” Mayerfeld recalled.

Table Talk responded, adding solid hardwood furniture to the inventory. Some of the early items included butcher block tables and Breuer chairs, which were chrome framed with a cane back and seat and sold for $39.95 each. Th ey were hot. “Today, you would be hard pressed to fi nd one,” Mayerfeld says.

Nevertheless, to this day, furniture accounts for the highest percentage of sales at Table Talk.

Business remained tough during the 1980s. “We had to believe in what we were doing. We had total perseverance selling products that we were proud of, those that we could stand behind. We continued being in sync with popular items, things that our customers wanted,” Mayerfeld said.

Over the years, additional Table Talk stores were opened, including one each in Tucson Mall and Foothills Mall. When their 10-year leases on the mall stores expired, the Mayer-felds decided to close them, opting instead for stand-alone locations. A store in Casas Adobes grew large enough that it needed to expand after fi ve years so the Mayerfelds moved north to Oracle and Magee roads. Th ey also opened another store on the eastside, at Broadway and Pantano Road.

In 2009, the original Broadway Village store was closed.

Table Talk has survived some rocky roads. “We were in Phoenix for almost 15 years, but that city was really a tough market,” Mayerfeld said. “One thing I will always remember is Leon Levy advising me against opening in Phoenix. I should have listened to him.”

Customer service is important to the Mayerfelds. “We welcome and thank everyone who comes into our store. One time at our Broadway and Pantano store, a house-bound lady called to say she needed help in buying a toaster. One of our staff got in their car, drove to her home, set it up, and taught her how to use it. Another time, a customer said to me, ‘I want to buy this chair, but it won’t fi t in my car.’ I put the chair in my truck and drove it to his home. Th at’s the kind of customer service that you don’t fi nd in chain stores.”

The Mayerfelds also focus on selling local products. Among them are seasonings and spices made by former Fuego restaurant owner/chef Alan Zeman, Southwest spice rubs made famous by former Terra Cotta chef Donna Nordin, salsa from El Charro Café, dinnerware made by HF Coors, ceramics by Chris Bubany, prickly pear syrups from Cheri Romanoski’s

Cheri’s Desert Harvest, scone mix from Adobe Rose Bed and Breakfast, and a tortilla warmer made by La Tortilla Loca ini Rio Rico.

“We go out of our way to fi nd their products in order to support the community,” Mayerfeld said.

While retailing is all consuming, the Mayerfelds raised two children. Son Daniel, his wife and two children live in Houston where is an attorney with a multi-national law fi rm. Daughter Sarah lives in Bellevue, Wash., with her husband who is a corporate vice president with Microsoft.

Meanwhile in Tucson, Bob and Dale Mayerfeld plug away at keeping the inventory at Table Talk’s three stores current and adapting to new ways of marketing and selling using technology.

Mayerfeld is continuing to innovate in ways his mentors, Stanley Marcus and Leon Levy, couldn’t have imagined.

Do you have a historical Tucson story to

share? Contact Mary Levy Peachin at mary@

peachin.com. Her historical columns appear the

first week of each month in Inside Tucson Business.

MARY LEVY PEACHIN

BIZ FACTS

Table Talkhttp://tabletalk.com• 6842 E. Tanque Verde Road (520) 886-8433• 7876 N. Oracle Road, Oro Valley (520) 219-8232• 7707 E. Broadway - (520) 733-6052 Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays- Saturdays; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays

Bob and Dale May-erfeld plug away at keeping the inven-tory at Table Talk’s three stores current and adapting to new ways of mar-keting and selling using technology.


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“Th at’s not going to build an arena, not going to build a hotel,” he said. “But we can create some excitement.”

Excitement is something that has been missing from Rio Nuevo.

For the last two years under previous leadership, the Rio Nuevo board has spent much of its eff orts trying to examine histor-ical spending, conducting audits and fi ling multiple lawsuits against the City of Tucson to reclaim tens of millions of dollars spent while the city oversaw Rio Nuevo.

“We have no authority to reclaim the money,” McCusker said, adding that legal eff orts to do so would have to be paid by city taxpayers.

Despite the new chairman’s talk of rec-onciliation, bad blood toward the city and among Rio Nuevo board members was again on display at the board’s June 29 meeting.

Board member Alberto Moore again lashed out at fellow member Mark Irvin, suggesting Irvin had misrepresented him-self to district bankers.

Moore said an incident late last month, when Irvin contacted Rio Nuevo trustees at Wells Fargo Bank to request the release of fi nancial records to a board employee was improper because Irvin has no authoriza-tion to speak on behalf of the district. He said Irvin previously had been authorized

to speak with Wells Fargo on behalf of the district board, but he no longer had that au-thority.

“Th erefore, I want our counsel, Sean Brearcliff e, to investigate this matter, be-cause I believe this is a serious violation of Rio Nuevo processes,” Moore said. “We need to know if this misrepresentation to Wells Fargo requires the removal of Mr. Ir-vin from the board.”

As a practical matter, Rio Nuevo’s attor-neys likely wouldn’t be permitted to investi-gate a board member, because the board is their employer.

Moore’s comments follow on others he made at a meeting earlier in June where he accused Irvin of being “a mole for the City of Tucson.”

McCusker said the responsibility for the Wells Fargo incident rested with him, be-cause he asked Irvin to contact the bank and request the documents.

Moore also accused Tucson Assistant City Manager and Finance Director Kelly Gottschalk of not providing numerous years worth of fi nancial documents to accoun-tants the district hired to complete a fi nan-cial audit.

In response, Gottschalk said district re-quests for information were too broadly written and that requests to clarify what was needed were not answered.

Th e city has agreed to provide additional information to Rio Nuevo accountants, but Gottschalk said it would require signifi cant staff time to research aged fi les and out-dated accounting systems to locate specifi c information.

A recent Rio Nuevo-funded audit of pre-vious westside projects found that more $30 million could not be accounted for because the city did not provide or could not locate many receipts and other records.

McCusker said he wants the audits to go forward and had additional funds for audit-ing and banking services included in the district’s budget for fi scal 2013.

Moore also criticized Assistant Arizona Attorney General Mike Jette, the prosecutor heading up the Rio Nuevo investigation.

“Th ough some feel that Jette’s friendship with (Tucson City Attorney) Michael Rankin might cloud his judgment,” Moore said.

Lingering resentments aside, McCusker said the newly confi gured board would have to move forward.

“It’s behind us now,” he said. If the Rio Nuevo experiment doesn’t start

to produce positive results soon, Senate President Pierce has said he intends to work toward shutting it down.

“Th e president of the senate has told us,” McCusker said, “that we have a very limited amount of time to make that happen.”

Contact reporter Patrick McNamara at pmc-


CHAIR continued from Page 3

Fletcher McCusker said the Rio Nuevo board can “create some excitement” around the special taxing district and its role in downtown revitalization.

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co suggest the country will launch a “blitz-krieg surge” against the drug cartels during current president Felipe Calderon’s lame duck period.

One theory is that an intense military surge against the drug cartels in Mexico could debilitate them to such a degree the new president could implement his diff er-ent strategies.

Nearly complete tabulations of the nearly 45.3 million votes showed Peña Nieto with about 38 percent of the vote over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the leftist Demo-cratic Revolution Party (Partido de la Revolu-ción Democrática, or PRD), who received 32 percent of the vote, and Josefi na Vazquez Mota of the currently ruling conservative Na-tional Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, or PAN), who received 25 percent of the vote. Voter turnout was 63.2 percent.

While Mexicans might not be sure what the PRI will do once it’s in offi ce again, there is a strong sense that in the 12 years since it has been out of power, society has changed in dramatic ways.

By Sara Miller Llana and Lauren VillagranTh e Christian Science Monitor

Enrique Peña Nieto bested two other can-didates to win the July 1 Mexico presidential election by about 6 percentage points ahead of his nearest rival, that will return the Insti-tutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revo-lucionario Institucional, or PRI) to the top offi ce after a 12-year absence.

But unlike the authoriatarian grip the PRI had over the country for 71 years prior to 2000, Peña Nieto won’t have an entirely free reign when he takes offi ce Dec. 1. For one, it appears the PRI and its ally candi-dates will not have a working majority in Congress, which means the party will have to negotiate with others to push through la-bor and tax reforms and allowing outside investment in energy production that Peña Nieto promised during the campaign.

Beyond that the president no longer holds vast powers. With the opening of its economy, Mexico has also had to open its political system.

Meanwhile, reports coming out of Mexi-

“You have more counterbalances,” says Maureen Meyer, Mexico analyst with the Washington Offi ce on Latin America. “You have a civil society that has been building its infl uence. You have stronger political par-ties in general.”

One of the biggest sources of power for the PRI came from its ability to control the vote. In 1988, the party was widely accused of having rigged elections, after a leftist can-didate was coming out front. But in the wake of the outcry the government began the

process of overhauling its electoral system, reforms that were strengthened throughout the 90s. By the time the PRI lost in 2000 for the fi rst time, Mexico’s Federal Electoral In-stitute (IFE) was considered one of the world’s best.

Another accountability mechanism sim-ilarly emerged in a way that cannot be turned back: civil society. Business groups are increasingly acting as civic watchdogs, pressing for greater transparency and ac-countability in government.

NEWSNo free reign for new Mexican president


dessert. • Lodge on the Desert, 306 N. Alvernon Way — www.lodgeonthedesert.com/ — (520) 320-2000

Sweet treats at Park PlaceO’My Buns café has opened in Park

Place in the west wing off the food court. Th e place features roti buns that are popu-lar in other parts of the world, especially Asia. Th ey are lighter than what most us think of when it comes to pastries.

Selections include an original bun, which doesn’t have any fi lling, as well as specialty versions such as chocolate chip, almond and cream cheese. Th ey range in price from $2.25 to $2.50.

O’My Buns off ers a full selection of drinks in addition to the buns, includ-ing coff ee drinks and blended drinks.

• O’My Buns, 5870 E. Broad-way — (520) 747-1022

Contct Michael Luria at mjluria@

gmail.com. Meals & Entertainment appears

weekly in Inside Tucson Business.

ArtSummer

Saturdays is a new program presented by the Southern Ari-zona Arts and Cultural Alliance (SAACA) in which the galleries in Gallery Row, on the northeast corner of

Skyline Drive and Campbell Avenue, team up with Acacia restaurant for brunch. Browse the galleries of Madaras Gallery, Wilde Meyer Gallery and the Steinway Piano Gallery and Fine Art Gallery and enjoy a Saturday brunch that is served from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Th e galleries are open until 5 p.m.

FilmTh is weekend it’s all about “Th e Amazing

Spiderman,” the newest Hollywood version of the comic book hero. With a new director and stars, Andrew Garfi eld and Emma Stone, Hollywood hopes to re-launch the fabled series to more fans, and box offi ce dollars. A few other fi lms open this weekend, including the concert movie “Katy Perry: All of Me,” which follows the pop superstar on tour on stage and off .

Contact Herb Stratford at herb@

ArtsandCultureGuy.com. Stratford teaches

Arts Management at the University of Arizona.

He appears weekly in Inside Tucson Business.

HERB STRATFORD

ARTS & CULTURE

Th is weekend there are a few options to enjoy some great live music after the sun goes down. Th e Tucson Jazz Society is hosting a concert featuring keyboardist Jeff Lorber and trumpeter Gabriel Mark Hasselbach at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (July 7) at Loews Ventana Canyon, 7000 N. Resort Drive.

Lorber and Hasselbach are world-class, award-winning talents. Tickets are $35, or $25 for jazz society members, and $20 for students (limit two) with an ID. VIP table seats, two per table, are avaialbe for $70 per person or $50 for jazz society members, with a two drink minimu. Buy them online at www.tucsonjazz.org/ and some tickets will be available at the door.

If you want to enjoy the concert and the Loews resort, you can book special packages by calling 1-800-234-5117.

Tonight, the twice-monthly Friday Night Live free concerts continue at 7 p.m. in the Geronomimo Plaza Courtyard at Main Gate Square on University Boulevard between Park and Euclid avenues. Featured tonight is Cool Breeze, an ensemble that special-izes in Latin-American music.

Th eaterNot all of Tucson’s theater groups take

the summer. Gaslight Th eatre, 7010 E. Broadway, is presenting “Back to the Past” through late August. Referencing the “Back to the Future” fi lm series, this is a story of a 1980s time-traveling teenager and a nutty professor who go back to the 1950s. Call the Gaslight at (520) 886-9428 for tickets.

Two musical concerts come up,after the sun goes down

OUT OF THE OFFICE

MICHAEL LURIA

MEALS & ENTERTAINMENT

Iron Chef-winning entrees featured at Lodge on the Desert

Ryan Clark, executive chef at Lodge on the Desert, has successfully defended his 2011 title at this year’s competition. Th e mystery ingredient was Chilean Sea Bass which Clark skillfully used to put together four courses. Th is year’s challenger was Allen Yap of OM Modern Asian Kitchen.

Th e chefs had an hour to prepare four courses using Chilean Sea Bass and their creations were judged on presentation, creativity and taste.

Over the next three weekends you can try Clark’s winning dishes as they will be featured on Friday and Satur-day nights at his midtown restaurant.

Tonight (July 6) and Saturday the restaurant is featuring gingered mou-selline of sea bass. On July 13 and 14, sous vide sea bass with basil-macadamia crust and baby bok choy will be off ered and July 20 and 21 it will be pan-seared sea bass with braised leeks, roasted tomato and a Stella Artois dashi broth.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Clark is hosting a Vias Imports wine dinner on July 12 that will feature the Italian wines of Tuscany and the Argentina wines of Patagonia. Winemaker Hans Vinding-Diers will be on hand from Tuscany to talk about the wines and mingle with diners. Th e fi ve-course meal costs $75 per person (plus tax and gratuity) and will be a culinary treat for foodies. Th e menu includes rabbit, hand-forged wild mushrooms, espresso-cured duck confi t, grilled lamb porter-house and a dark chocolate “lollipop” for

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PEOPLE IN ACTION

To announce a professional promotion, appointment, election, new hire or other company personnel actions, fax press releases to (520) 295-4071, Attention: People; or email submissions to [email protected]. Include an attached photo at 300 dpi.

{YOUR NAME HERE}Arthur Martin the ACHCA Facility Leadership Award. Martin is the administrator of Handmaker Home for the Aging. The award is made possible with the support of eHealthDataSolutions. It is based on three years of skilled nursing facility (SNF) survey data. The areas of excellence the facility exhibits includes three years of performance on the health survey, fi re (life safety) survey, complaint surveys and improvement in the last two quarters of the reported quality measures.

APPOINTMENTS

The United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona has announced

AWARDS

Dave Clark, Sahuarita Parks and Recreation Commission vice chairman, has won the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Arizona Parks & Recreation Association. Arizona Parks and Recreation Association (APRA) is a non-profi t professional organization established for the promotion, broadening and improvement of parks and recreation in Arizona, and offers services which help members become the best parks and recreation service providers. Clark was nominated by the Town of Sahuarita Parks and Recreation Department. He was instrumental in starting the Parks and Recreation Commission for the Town of Sahuarita, and served as the fi rst chairman beginning in 2004.

Tucson resident Deb Ferns has earned the Excellence in Craft awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Ferns won three awards in the Blog Contest. She was

awarded fi rst place in the Hunting/Shooting Sports category for her entry “A Girl Can Never Have Too Much Ammo!,” published March 24, 2011 on OutdoorChannel.com. Ferns was awarded second place in the Outdoor Fun and Adventure category, for her entry “I Fear the Unfamiliar,” published April 16, 2011, on OutdoorChannel.com. She was also awarded third place in the Humor category for her entry “You Know You Are Flying Too Much When...,” published on OutdoorChannel.com, August 16, 2011.

The American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) has awarded

the appointment of fi ve new members of its board of directors: John Bremond, president, Bremond Company LLC; Frank R. Grijalva, business manager and fi nancial secretary for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1116; Gregg R. Johnson, campus director, University of Phoenix; G. Alfred Kennedy, business owner; and Dane Woll,

MARK DAILY ELIZABETH CAMPBELL

SPECIAL EVENTS

Marana Aerospace Solutions - DinnerSouthern AZ Logistics Education Org. (SALEO)Wednesday (July 18) 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.Viscount Suite Hotel 4855 E. BroadwayRSVP by July 17 noon: [email protected] or (520) 977-3626Cost: $30 ($25 members & 1st-timers, $10 students)

Nike, The Brand ExperienceThursday (Aug. 23)7 to 10 a.m.The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa 3800 E. Sunrise Drive Join the Tucson Metro Chamber and Pima Federal Credit Union in welcoming Nike executive, Loren Hoppes to hear about the Nike brand identity.Contact: Arlene [email protected] 792-2250 x135Cost: $45/members; $65/non/memberswww.tucsonchamber.org

REGULAR MEETINGS

Entrepreneurial Mothers AssociationMonthly luncheonFirst Thursday11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.Old Pueblo Grill60 N. Alvernon WayInformation: Sherry Goncharsky, [email protected]

Financial Workshops for WomenEvery Tuesday at 6 p.m. Barca Financial Group 5470 E. Speedway Suite A106Information: www.barcafi nancial.com

Foothills Optimist ClubFirst and third Wednesdays, noonMacayo’s Restaurant7360 N. Oracle RoadInfo and RSVP: (520) 744-5927

Foothills Rotary ClubEvery Friday, noonMetropolitan Grill7892 N. Oracle RoadRSVP: Eric Miller, (520) 979-1696

Foothills Club of TucsonSecond Friday12:30 p.m. McMahon’s Prime Steakhouse2959 N. Swan RoadRSVP: Leslie Hargrove [email protected]: www.foothillscluboftucson.orgCost: $20

Fountain Flyers ToastmastersEvery Tuesday6:30 a.m.Coco’s Restaurant7250 N. Oracle RoadInformation: Cheryl at (520) 730-4456Cost: Free to visit

Got a business challenge, 30 minutes & 20 bucks?Every Tuesday and Thursday 8 to 9 a.m.

Savaya Coffee Market 5530 E Broadway Ste.174 Info: Dale Bruder, Dynamic Strategist [email protected] (520) 331-1956 www.dalebruder.com $20

Group Referral Organization networking group First and third WednesdaysLuna Bella2990 N. Swan Road Suite 145Information: www.grotucson.com

GRO IISecond and fourth ThursdaysSam Hughes Championship Dining446 N. Campbell Ave. Suite 150Info: www.grotucson.com

Independent Business Networking Tucson “IBNT”Second and fourth Tuesdays El Parador2744 E. Broadway RSVP: Jennifer Row at (520) 603-3315 or [email protected]: First time is free

Inside ConnectionsSecond and fourth Wednesday, 7:15 a.m.Home Town Buffet5101 N Oracle RoadRSVP: Eric Miller at (520) 979-1696

Institute of Management AccountantsThird Thursday, (September through May) 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.Old Pueblo Grille60 N. Alvernon WayRSVP: Gale McGuire (520) 584-3480 or [email protected]

International Association of Administrative ProfessionalsSan Xavier Chapter monthly dinner & professional development meeting Every third Wednesday, 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Sheraton Four Points Hotel1900 E. SpeedwayRSVP: Kay at [email protected] or (520) 883-1819Cost: $18 members, $20 nonmembers, includes dinner

“Real Estate Investment Plan”Keller Williams Southern Arizona1745 E. River Road, Ste. 245Third Tuesday6 p.m.Workshop for individuals considering investment RSVP by noon Mondays (520) 909-9375

Kiwanis Club of Oro ValleyWednesdays, 7 a.m.Holiday Inn Express 10150 N. Oracle RoadInfo: [email protected]: $8

LeTip MidtownEvery Tuesday, 7:01 to 8:31 a.m.El Parador Restaurant 2744 E. BroadwayRSVP: (520) 296-9900Cost: $10

CALENDAR

Submissions: Deadline for calendar submissions is 10 days prior to publication. Post your event online at www.insidetucsonbusiness.com/calendar. Email any questions to [email protected].

{YOUR EVENT HERE}

A complete calendar listing is atA complete calendar listing is at

InsideTucsonBusiness.com

MARY SCHULZ BENJAMIN BURNSIDE

president and CEO of the YMCA of Southern Arizona. The 2012-2013 offi cers include: Neal Eckel, chair, Durazzo, Eckel & Hawkins, P.C.; Paul Bonavia, chair-elect, UniSource Energy; Alexandra Master-Judge, secretary, Raytheon; Christine McNamara, treasurer, Handmaker Jewish Services, Inc.; Tony Penn, president and CEO, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona.

NEW HIRES

The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, Department of Pediatrics, and The University of Arizona Health Network has hired Kareem Shehab, MD, assistant professor, to the Section of Infectious Diseases. As a pediatric infectious diseases physician, Shehab specializes in the diagnosis, management and prevention of childhood infections and diseases. Shehab completed medical school at the Univeristy of Arizona College of Medicine, his residency in pediatrics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases

KAREEM SHEHAB

at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Mark Daily is the new owner of The Bradford Home, assisted living facility. Daily has more than 15 years experience in health care facility management.

Elizabeth Campbell has been named the new director of development for Literacy Connects. Campbell has served as the Reading Seed program director for the organization since 2009. She has more than 20 years of experience in non-profi t management, fund raising and marketing and public relations. Her previous experience includes working at Big Brothers Big Sister of Tucson, Tucson

Newspapers and Child and Family Resources

Omni Tucson National Resort has hired Mary Schulz as sales manager. Originally from New Jersey, Schulz worked at the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort and The Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain before coming to the Omni.

ELECTIONS

Bogutz & Gordon, P.C. attorney Benjamin J. Burnside has been elected to the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). Burnside is a certifi ed specialist in estate and trust law by the State Bar of Arizona, and a certifi ed elder law attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation. Burnside joined Bogutz & Gordon, P.C. in 1999 and has practiced in Tucson since 1994. He earned a B.S. in commerce at the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce and earned a law degree at the University of Arizona College of Law.


PROFILETh e love of tamales is behind the success of Tucson Tamale Company By Lee AllenInside Tucson Business

Husband-and-wife team of Todd and Sherry Martin are taking tamales to new levels of fame.

Now in year number four, their Tucson Tamale Company is a shining example of what careful research and planning, combined with hard work, can bring.

“We opened our doors in the fall of 2008, right in the midst of one of the worst economic times ever,” says Sherry Martin.

Notwithstanding the inauspicious start, Todd Martin says, “We’ve doubled our business every year and expect to do so again in 2012. In fact, we made our millionth tamale in April and expect that this year alone we’ll make another million.”

Going into their enterprise, Sherry Martin she had some trepidition but when her husband quit his job at a Fortune 500 company to put on an apron, “Th at was the scariest thing in the world for me because a move like that wasn’t in my nature,” she says. “But my husband is an entrepreneur, so I guess it was just meant to be.”

Housed on the south end of a strip center on Broadway east of Tucson Boulevard, the location is small — 44 seats inside, picnic tables and a patio outside — with a brightly-painted décor and has 24 employees seemingly always wearing smiles.

“It’s part of our philosophy that every single employee contributes to the customer experience,” says Sherry Martin.

From a gustatory standpoint, the edible endeavor is an enjoyable one. Th e eatery has three times been named best tamales in the Tucson Weekly’s annual Best of Tucson voting. Phoenix New Times extolled its virtures, writing, “Best purveyor of masa-fi lled corn husks in Southern Arizona.”

Tucson Tamale Company has also received notice in Arizona Highways and Travel + Leisure magazines and on National Public Radio and the Food Channel. A write-up in Parade magazine just before Christmas last year caused Web orders to jump to the point that Tucson Tamale sent out more tamales in one week than it had in all of the previous 11 months of 2011.

At the restaurant, waiting customers routinely spill out the front door into the parking lot.

Having run a catering business in Denver in the 1980s, Todd Martin is no stranger to appeasing appetites and intends to continue doing so via Tucson Tamale Company.

“Th ere’s little else that satisfi es a craving for a really, really, good tamale, so I started making my own to rave reviews and requests from friends to take home leftovers but we never had any leftovers,” he said. “Tamales are the perfect food. Good to begin with, even better when

they’ve been re-steamed. Th e tamale is like a sandwich you can do anything with.”

“Th ere’s nothing like the feel of freshly-prepared masa being gently patted onto a corn husk. As you roll the tamal and tuck one side of the husk under the other, you’re in awe of the beauty you’ve created. I personally make every batch of fi llings using the fi nest ingredients that are hand-rolled and gently steamed. I have over 25 diff erent varieties in my portfolio, ranging from the ever-popular green corn to dessert tamales, with several vegetarian options for the health-conscious.”

Recalling their initial worries, the question now arrises, was it the right move for the couple?

“Absolutely,” says Todd Martin. “Tama-les are us, 200 percent. Th ere will always be things you might have done diff erently, but one thing we wouldn’t change is the concept that tamales represent our future.”

Martin stresses, however, that it took four years of planning before Tucson Tama-le opened. Th e Martins also made sure their personal fi nances were stable so they

could weather a business start-up. Based on success-to-date, their future

looks bright. “We get approached by serious pros-

pects wanting to buy a franchise, but we’d rather stay in the food production business as a wholesaler. We’d much rather be a producer of product rather than being a food purveyor. At some point down the road after we’ve built up our outlets, we may reconsider other options, but we’d

really like to go national wholesale in the next two-to-fi ve years. We’re in many major Tucson food stores already and added 19 stores in Phoenix in January. We feel in the foreseeable future, we could be in 1,000 to 2,500 stores around the country.”

TUCSON TAMALE COMPANY, 2545 East Broadway, 305 4760, www.tucsontamalecompany.com

Lee

Alle

n

BIZ FACTS

Tucson Tamale Company2545 E. Broadwaywww.tucsontamalecompany.com(520) 305-4760Hours: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays8 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturdays8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays

Tucson Tamale Company owners Todd and Sherry

Martin in their store

A tamale plate in the making.


GET ON THE LISTNext up: Public school dis-tricts, Private elementary schools, Private secondary schools, Charter schools

Inside Tucson Business is gathering data for the 2013 edition of the Book of Lists. Categories that will be published in upcoming weekly issues of Inside Tucson Business are:

• July 13: Package express and messen-ger services, Moving companies, Freight services, Storage firms

• July 20: Public school districts, Private elementary schools, Private secondary schools, Charter schools

• July 27: Universities and colleges, Specialty and technical schools

• Aug. 3: Health maintenance organiza-tions, preferred provider organizations and indemnity plan providers, Supplemental plans and Childcare providers

• Aug. 10: Business and industrial parks, Commercial office, Shopping centers.

If your business fits one of these cat-egories, now is the time to update your profile. Go to www.InsideTucsonBusiness.com and click the Book of Lists tab at the top of the page. New and unlisted busi-nesses can create a profile by following the directions.

The Book of Lists is a year-round ref-erence for thousands of businesses and individuals. To advertise your business, call (520) 294-1200.

NEW IN TOWNTucson gets 2nd VW dealer,with Fiat on the way

Tucson once again has two dealers selling new Volkswagens and by the end of the month

will have a locally franchised Fiat dealership.Volkswagen of Tucson, 900 W. Auto Mall

Drive at the northwest corner with Wet-more Road, and the soon-to-be adjacent Fiat of Tucson, 1000 W. Wetmore Road, are both housed in new dealerships owned by John Grant and Doug Moreland, who own Tucson Dodge, 2220 E. 22nd St., and Tucson Chrysler Jeep, 7800 E. 22nd St. Th ey opened Arizona’s fi rst Fiat dealership in Avondale last year.

Th e Fiat dealership’s website is www.fi a-tusaoftucson.com and the phone number cur-rently is a toll-free number, 1-866-675-5356.

Th e new Volkswagen dealership’s web-site is www.volkswagenoftucson.com and the phone number is (520) 670-3600.

As with other Tucson new car deal-ers both dealerships will have Monday-through-Saturday sales hours.

Tucson’s other Volkswagen dealer is Chapman Volkswagen, 4500 E. 22nd St.

Volkswagen, based in Wolfsburg, Ger-many, has grown to become Europe’s larg-est automaker with sales of its namesake brand up 9.4 percent through the fi rst fi ve months of this year.

Tucson had two Volkswagen dealers in the heydays of the automaker’s famed “beetle” with one dealership variously known as Scott Van Wyk Motors and Borgman Volkswagen, 5900 E. Speedway, and another dealership that had names of Pima and Grant Road Volkswagen, 266 E. Grant Road.

WATERWork to start on CAP waterpipeline to Green Valley

Construction of a pipeline and under-ground water storage facilities that will bring Colorado River water to the Green Valley area is set to begin by mid-August, according to an announcement this week by Commu-nity Water Company (CWC) of Green Valley.

Th e total project, which will cost $16 mil-lion to $25 million, is being funded by Au-gusta Resource Corp., parent company of Rosemont Copper which agreed to pay for it as part of its commitment to recharge 105 percent of its water use at the proposed Rose-mont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains.

Th e fi rst phase of the project is for about 1,000 feet of 36-inch pipe along a realigned portion of Nogales Highway in Sahuarita near what will be the new southern termi-nus for the water. Th e fi rst phase will cost about $400,000. In the meantime, work is expected to be completed on the design of the pipeline that will connect to what is cur-rently the southern terminus of the Central Arizona Project, at Pima Mine Road and In-terstate 19 near Tucson.

Th e entire project is due to be completed in January 2014. Community Water says it expects to use only about half the capacity of the pipeline and that it is being intention-ally over-sized to allow for additional water to brought to the area.

LEGALHigh court ruling won’tbe the end of SB 1070

Gov. Jan Brewer and the Mexican Ameri-can Legal Defense and Education Fund were on opposite sides of the legal chal-lenge to the state’s SB 1070 anti-illegal im-migration law, but both claimed victory in the June 25 U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-3 ruling rejecting three parts of the law as confl icting with federal law, but to uphold a fourth part giving local police the authority to check the immigration status of some suspects.

In a prepared statement, Brewer called the decision “a victory for the rule of law.” She also said, “After more than two years of legal challenges, the heart of SB 1070 can now be implemented in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.”

Meanwhile, the Mexican American Le-gal Defense and Education Fund issued a press release claiming a “resounding vic-tory” saying the court’s decision “shreds the foundation of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070.”

One thing both sides agree on, even the Supreme Court, is that things are not over for SB 1070.

Th e Court made clear that its ruling does not prevent other constitutional challenges to the so-called “papers, please” provision after the law goes into eff ect, depending on how the law is implemented.

Ban blocking AZ law of proofof citzenship to vote stands

Before beginning its summer recess, the U.S. Supreme Court made a number of deter-minations, one of which clears the way for a lower court ruling stopping Arizona election offi cials from rejecting voter registration forms that do not have evidence of citizenship.

Arizona has been requiring proof of citi-zenship with voter registration forms since 2005, shortly after voters passed Proposition 200. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-peals in April ruled the proof-of-citizenship requirement confl icted with federal voter registration law.

Th e Supreme Court had stayed that deci-sion in June at the request of Arizona Attor-ney General Th omas Horne, who was plan-ning a challenge to the lower court decision.

Without comment the Supreme Court justices on June 28 lifted that stay, which al-lows the circuit court to issue an order ban-ning the practice of requiring proof of citi-zenship. Th at order was expected this week, said attorneys involved in the case. With the Supreme Court now in recess, the earliest it would be able to hear Horne’s appeal — if the justices agree to hear at all — would be October.

BRIEFS

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In an age of specialization, not all staffi ng providers are created equal.


FINANCEYOUR MONEY

How successful businesses survive boom to bust cycles

In the midst of one of the worst eco-nomic recessions in history, I fi nd myself refl ecting on sage advice from a mentor of mine, Ed Carson. He advocated that business owners should always expect and prepare for economic hardships due to Arizona’s boom to bust to boom cycles. Uncertainty, he said, was the only certain thing businesses could count on.

Ed’s advice is as relevant today as it was when I fi rst heard it two decades ago. And those businesses that head Ed’s advice, I’ve observed during my career, are most likely to endure the rollercoaster of the Arizona marketplace and come out stronger on the other side of a fi nancial storm.

Th ere are other strategic moves to beat the odds that successful businesses have consistently made to weather Arizona’s recessions. Here are some of the best strategies I have observed during my more than 20-year banking career in Arizona:

• Invest in top talent, for they can help your business overcome challenges and outmaneuver the competition. An owner/operator naturally fi lls a variety of roles in a small business, but he or she cannot do it successfully alone. From quality control to brand reputation, employees can make or break a business. Hiring and retaining the right talent, with a likeminded work ethic, is key.

• Forge strategic partnerships when-ever possible to refer business to each other, co-market, pool resources, out-source, share expenses and take advantage of discounts.

Strategic partnerships with outside vendors and partners, including your banker, lawyer, CPA, and marketing fi rm, are also vital. Align with professionals who will tell you the truth about your business plan and ask the hard questions about the logistics and likelihood of success.

Seek out professionals who will be trusted advisors and partners verses merely business contacts. Listen to the advice these professionals off er. Th ey are experts in their fi elds and want to see their partners and clients succeed because if you lose business, so do they. If a banker is unable to have a frank discussion with a business owner, the lack of needed advice could ultimately lead to failure of the company

• Resist the urge to over extend business capabilities by expanding too quickly or without a solid business plan. Give consideration to the challenges that arise when a smooth running company of eight to 10 employees quickly grows to a staff of 20 people. Suddenly there are

human resources and benefi ts questions, employ-ee turnover and retention chal-lenges. If the owner/operator changes focus to managing these growing pains, who is overseeing new market and

product development, quality control, customer service, fi nance and operations?

• Focus on what you are truly passion-ate about and what has made your company successful and stick with that through the tough times. I have seen manu-facturing companies jeopardize success by taking distribution in-house. Sometimes this can work if the business owner can acquire the right talent, but more often I see companies fail when they depart from their original core strength.

• Build your own capital reserves – at least six months operating expenses – with-out relying on others. Credit is a great resource for businesses and a strategic relationship with a trusted banker is important, but plan for the day that funding may not be available to you. Don’t rely solely on outside fi nancial resources such as a wealthy friend or family member.

• Create a succession plan for your business. Th is is perhaps the hardest advice I provide our customers, especially for family-owned businesses. Th ere are times when passing a company down to the next generation may not be the best choice for a business to remain successful. Employees who have been with an owner since the beginning may not be ready, willing or able to grow the business. It may be necessary to bring in someone else to take over business operations, or create a plan to sell or merge the company. Succession planning is not easy or comfortable in each situation, but it is important to the company’s overall long-term success.

All of these strategies circle back to careful planning and execution.

Plan and prepare for the worst, and you will be able to navigate nearly any storm that comes your way. When the sun comes out, you will reap the rewards of owning a sustainable, small business in Arizona.

John S. Lewis is president of the

Arizona-owned community bank Commerce

Bank of Arizona. Th e bank’s website is www.

commercebankaz.com.

JOHN S. LEWIS

TUCSON STOCK EXCHANGEStock market quotations of some publicly traded companies doing business in Southern Arizona

Company Name Symbol Jul. 3 Jun. 27 Change52-Week

Low52-Week

HighTucson companiesApplied Energetics Inc AERG.OB 0.05 0.04 0.01 0.04 0.52CDEX Inc CEXIQ.OB 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.10Providence Service Corp PRSC 13.84 13.38 0.46 8.35 15.94UniSource Energy Corp (Tucson Electric Power) UNS 39.25 38.36 0.89 32.96 39.25

Southern Arizona presenceAlcoa Inc (Huck Fasteners) AA 8.90 8.53 0.37 8.21 16.60AMR Corp (American Airlines) AAMRQ 0.53 0.55 -0.02 0.20 5.53Augusta Resource Corp (Rosemont Mine) AZC 1.90 1.61 0.29 1.48 5.55Bank Of America Corp BAC 8.06 7.77 0.29 4.92 11.07Bank of Montreal (M&I Bank) BMO 56.60 53.90 2.70 50.95 65.79BBVA Compass BBVA 7.13 6.31 0.82 5.57 11.76Berkshire Hathaway (Geico, Long Cos) BRK-B* 83.78 81.98 1.80 65.35 83.88Best Buy Co Inc BBY 21.77 19.80 1.97 17.53 32.65BOK Financial Corp (Bank of Arizona) BOKF 58.12 57.27 0.85 43.77 59.59Bombardier Inc* (Bombardier Aerospace) BBDB 4.02 3.99 0.03 3.30 6.93CB Richard Ellis Group CBG 16.37 15.58 0.79 12.30 26.29Citigroup Inc C 27.65 27.10 0.55 21.40 43.00Comcast Corp CMCSA 32.03 31.04 0.99 19.19 32.50Community Health Sys (Northwest Med Cntrs) CYH 27.57 25.49 2.08 14.61 28.79Computer Sciences Corp CSC 25.10 23.66 1.44 22.80 38.41Convergys Corp CVG 14.94 14.51 0.43 8.49 15.00Costco Wholesale Corp COST 94.42 91.32 3.10 70.22 95.55CenturyLink (Qwest Communications) CTL 39.61 38.59 1.02 31.16 41.32Cvs/Caremark (CVS pharmacy) CVS 47.87 45.99 1.88 31.30 48.09Delta Air Lines DAL 10.77 11.07 -0.30 6.41 12.25Dillard Department Stores DDS 63.41 63.18 0.23 38.99 72.46Dover Corp (Sargent Controls & Aerospace) DOV 54.23 51.84 2.39 43.64 70.15DR Horton Inc DHI 18.31 17.26 1.05 8.03 18.56Freeport-McMoRan (Phelps Dodge) FCX 35.22 32.14 3.08 28.85 56.78Granite Construction Inc GVA 25.99 24.87 1.12 16.92 30.49Home Depot Inc HD 51.65 51.55 0.10 28.13 53.28Honeywell Intl Inc HON 55.77 54.00 1.77 41.22 62.00IBM IBM 195.93 193.00 2.93 157.13 210.69Iron Mountain IRM 32.44 32.56 -0.12 27.10 35.79Intuit Inc INTU 60.15 57.52 2.63 39.87 62.33Journal Communications (KGUN 9, KMXZ) JRN 5.25 5.05 0.20 2.69 5.72JP Morgan Chase & Co JPM 35.88 36.78 -0.90 27.85 46.49Kaman Corp (Electro-Optics Develpmnt Cntr) KAMN 31.62 30.06 1.56 25.73 37.70KB Home KBH 9.82 8.61 1.21 5.02 13.12Kohls Corp KSS 44.26 43.56 0.70 42.14 57.39Kroger Co (Fry's Food Stores) KR 22.92 22.79 0.13 21.14 25.85Lee Enterprises (Arizona Daily Star) LEE 1.64 1.62 0.02 0.49 1.81Lennar Corporation LEN 31.03 31.01 0.02 12.14 31.25Lowe's Cos (Lowe's Home Improvement) LOW 27.62 28.70 -1.08 18.07 32.29Loews Corp (Ventana Canyon Resort) L 41.34 39.85 1.49 32.90 42.64Macerich Co (Westcor, La Encantada) MAC 60.08 56.99 3.09 38.64 62.83Macy's Inc M 33.39 33.14 0.25 22.66 42.17Marriott Intl Inc MAR 39.25 38.16 1.09 25.49 40.45Meritage Homes Corp MTH 34.30 32.20 2.10 13.68 34.61Northern Trust Corp NTRS 46.61 43.95 2.66 33.20 48.31Northrop Grumman Corp NOC 63.93 62.13 1.80 49.20 70.61Penney, J.C. JCP 21.88 21.88 0.00 21.34 43.18Pulte Homes Inc (Pulte, Del Webb) PHM 10.83 9.88 0.95 3.29 11.04Raytheon Co (Raytheon Missile Systems) RTN 56.55 55.10 1.45 38.35 56.70Roche Holdings AG (Ventana Medical Systems) RHHBY 43.44 42.37 1.07 36.50 46.40Safeway Inc SWY 17.97 17.58 0.39 15.93 24.28Sanofi -Aventis SA SNY 38.21 36.09 2.12 30.98 40.58Sears Holdings (Sears, Kmart, Customer Care) SHLD 60.23 56.63 3.60 28.89 85.90SkyWest Inc SKYW 6.74 6.66 0.08 6.25 15.52Southwest Airlines Co LUV 9.29 9.14 0.15 7.15 11.61Southwest Gas Corp SWX 43.73 44.12 -0.39 32.12 44.64Stantec Inc STN 28.33 27.35 0.98 20.96 32.79Target Corp TGT 57.58 57.56 0.02 45.28 59.40TeleTech Holdings Inc TTEC 16.24 15.72 0.52 14.04 22.39Texas Instruments Inc TXN 28.56 27.07 1.49 24.34 34.24Time Warner Inc (AOL) TWX 38.90 38.00 0.90 27.62 39.24Ual Corp (United Airlines) UAL 24.00 23.97 0.03 15.51 25.84Union Pacifi c Corp UNP 118.95 114.79 4.16 77.73 119.94Apollo Group Inc (University of Phoenix) APOL 36.62 35.93 0.69 30.93 58.29US Airways Group Inc LCC 13.20 13.31 -0.11 3.96 13.81US Bancorp (US Bank) USB 32.58 31.43 1.15 20.10 32.98Wal-Mart Stores Inc (Wal-Mart, Sam's Club) WMT 70.75 68.59 2.16 48.31 70.72Walgreen Co WAG 29.64 29.59 0.05 28.53 44.26Wells Fargo & Co WFC 33.48 32.73 0.75 22.58 34.59Western Alliance Bancorp (Alliance Bank) WAL 9.50 8.90 0.60 4.44 9.50Zions Bancorp (National Bank of Arizona) ZION 19.70 12.20 7.50 13.18 24.71Data Source: Dow Jones Market Watch

*Quotes in U.S. dollars, except Bombardier is Canadian dollars.


INSIDE REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTIONTierra Antigua’s Erchull is Realtors 2013 presidentBy Roger YohemInside Tucson Business

Cathy Erchull, associate broker with Tierra Antigua Realty, has been elected 2013 president of the Tucson Association of Real-tors (TAR). In January, she will take over the gavel for Tim Bott, president of Bott-N-Sold Realty, who will have completed his one-year term.

Erchull has been a Realtor for 14 years and is based at Tierra Antigua’s offi ce at 7423 E. Tanque Verde Road. She holds des-ignations from the Graduate Real Estate Institute (GRI) and Accredited Buyers Rep-resentative (ABR) and became an associate broker with Tierra Antigua Realty in 2002.

“I have been actively involved at TAR for most of my career. Taking care of people has always been my main focus in my real estate career and will continue to be my focus as the 2013 TAR president,” she said.

Erchull holds a degree in nursing and a bachelor’s degree in management. Prior to becoming a Realtor, she had a 17-year ca-reer as a registered nurse.

Joining Erchull as 2013 offi cers will be 2014 president-elect Steve Redmond of Long Realty Company; vice president Ni-cole Brule-Fisher of Keller Williams South-ern Arizona; and treasurer Fawn Whitford of Prudential Foothills Real Estate.

Six association members were elected to serve on the board of directors for the fi rst time. Th ey are Miriam Bell with Home Smart; LuAnn Kidd with Long Realty Com-pany; Greg McCown with Century 21 1st American; Pahl Newlon with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage; and Meg Sax and Jerimiah Taylor with Keller Williams Southern Arizona.

Lisa Burns with Fidelity National Home

THE PULSE: TUCSON REAL ESTATE

6/25/2012 6/18/2012

Median Price $152,000 $130,000Active Listings 4,096 4,111New Listings 360 360Pending Sales 405 394Homes Closed 297 259Source: Long Realty Research Center

WEEKLY MORTGAGE RATES

Program Current Last WeekOne

Year Ago12 Month

High12 Month

Low

30 YEAR 3.75% 4.00%APR 3.75% 4.00%APR 4.95% 4.95% 3.75%

15 YEAR 3.13% 3.25%APR 3.13% 3.25% APR 4.22% 4.22% 3.13%

3/1 ARM 2.88% 3.125%APR 2.88% 3.125% APRThe above rates have a 1% origination fee and 0 discount . FNMA/FHLMC maximum conforming loan amount is $417,000 Conventional Jumbo loans are loans above $417,000Information provided by Randy Hotchkiss, National Certifi ed Mortgage Consultant (CMC) Hotchkiss Financial, Inc. P.O. Box 43712 Tucson, Arizona 85733 • 520-324-0000MB #0905432. Rates are subject to change without notice based upon market conditions.

7/2/2012

Warranty is the board’s new affi liate director.Returning to the board in 2013 are Laura

Baldwin and Kimberly Clifton with Tierra Antigua Realty; Andrew Gregory with New Market Realty; Lynn Hellwig with Home Smart; Pam Ruggeroli with Long Realty Company; Douglas Wright with Commer-cial Investors Realty Tucson; and Bott as immediate past president.

Th rough Aug. 1, the Realtors are con-ducting their annual Stuff the Bus School Supplies Drive in partnership with KVOA 4’s Kristi’s Kids community service pro-gram. All eight school districts in the Tuc-son region will benefi t from the charitable project.

Donation drop-off locations include neighborhood Walgreens stores and the Tuc-son Association of Realtors offi ce, 2445 N. Tucson Blvd. A list of drop-off sites is online at www.tucsonrealtors.org/supplies.html .

Last year, the association collected enough school supplies to fi ll seven school buses. For questions, to make a cash donation, or for more information, contact TAR marketing manager Laura Kruszewski at [email protected] or (520) 382-8775.

Transportation bill hailedOver the next two years, the $105 billion

federal transportation bill passed last week by Congress could be one of the biggest

and best job stimulus programs to come out of Washington, D.C., in recent years. Its passage is being hailed by local construc-tion industry offi cials because it will fund bridge, highway and other transportation-related construction projects in every state and congressional district.

“It’s hard to know which local projects will move forward under the bill because unlike previous highway bills, it includes no earmarks targeting money to individual roads and bridges. Instead, the states will make the bulk of the decisions,” said Ramon Gaanderse, executive director of the Tucson Utility Contractors Association (TUCA).

Th e bill, passed June 29, gives individual states greater fl exibility in spending federal transportation money. It is the fi rst major transportation bill since 2005 and it will main-tain highway and transit spending at current levels through the end of fi scal year 2014.

Gaanderse said the bill ends years of stopgap funding. TUCA represents more than 100 residential and commercial gen-eral contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, architects, engineers, and construction in-dustry service providers.

Selling prices mixedOne of the best indicators that the Tuc-

son region’s housing market is slowly gain-ing stability is the selling price per square foot. It’s a key statistic Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage collects, studies and analyzes every month.

Th e number is signifi cant because median and average selling price reports are impact-ed by the mix of low- and high-end proper-ties that sell. One or two very large home sales can artifi cially infl ate both values.

Coldwell Banker’s methodology “nor-malizes” that data to create a better indica-tor on the direction of values. So for May the indicator was… well, mixed.

Oro Valley had the highest selling price per square foot for month at $123, un-changed from April and up from $122 in

May 2011. All considered, it’s a strong indi-cator of stability in that area.

In Marana, the May selling price per square foot was $100, down from $112 in April but up from $97 in May 2011. Th at’s considered a bit unstable.

In the city of Tucson, the May number was $92 per square foot, up from $88 in April and also up from $88 in May 2011.

Rounding out the region, in Sahuarita, the May selling price was $71, down from $72 in April but up from $70 in May 2011.

$9M apartment saleTh e 408-unit Mountain Vista apartment

complex, 373 N. Wilmot Road, has been sold to a group of California-based investors for $9.15 million. Th e complex features a pool, volleyball court, picnic pavilions, business center, and fi tness studio.

GIT Tucson I LLC and GIT Tucson II LLC, both based in La Jolla, Calif., purchased the property for $22,426 per unit. Th e seller was Cap III Tucson LLC of San Francisco, repre-sented by Art Wadlund, Hendricks & Part-ners Tucson.

Hospice expandsCasa de la Luz Hospice has completed

a $3.35 million acquisition, renovation and expansion program for its new administra-tive campus at 7740 N. Oracle Road, Oro Val-ley. With funding from Canyon Community Bank, the hospice purchased and renovated a former A.G. Edwards offi ce building, then constructed two new buildings on the site.

Construction of the new campus began last year. Th e architect was Frank Mascia with CDG Architects, 2102 N. Country Club Road, and the developer was Rob Caylor, Caylor Construction, 6422 E. Speedway.

Tucsonans Lynette Jaramillo and Agnes Poore founded the hospice in 1998 that cur-rently employs about 190 people. Jaramillo is the chief executive offi cer and Poore is the chief clinical offi cer.

Sales and leases• Little Group LLC purchased a 2,540

square feet retail building at 6363 N. La Cholla Blvd. for $380,000 from Zion Bank. Th e transaction was handled by Robert No-lan, Oxford Realty Advisors.

• ZMA Enterprises doing business as Boxing Inc., leased 7,512 square feet at the northeast corner of East Broadway and Pru-dence Road in the Broadway Star Shopping Center from Broadway Star Partners, rep-resented by Nancy McClure, CBRE.

• H&A Tacos II leased 5,665 square feet at 4881 N. Stone Ave. from Brixmor Hold-ings I SPE LLC. Th e tenant was represented by Rick Borane, Volk Company Commercial Real Estate.

Email news items for this column to [email protected]. Inside Real Estate & Construction appears weekly.

Cathy Erchull of Tierra Antigua Realty Ramon Gaanderse of TUCA


Note: Former Inside Tucson Business

reporter Joe Pangburn is writing this

week in place of editor David Hatfi eld

who was out of the offi ce.

It seems like just yesterday I left Inside Tucson Business and Tucson, to head off to Virginia for the next big adventure of my life.

It is hard to believe it has been nearly a year and a half. I can tell you, though — and as many already know — ou can leave Tucson, but it will follow you wherever you go.

One of the very fi rst bits of Tucson I came across after moving was a wide selection of La Costeña branded canned goods at my local Kroger’s supermarket (Fry’s Food Stores in Tucson).

It’s funny how a little can makes you feel closer to home when the label says the product is canned in Tucson, Arizona.

I have continually crossed paths with Tucson. Usually it takes the form of missing something.

I’ve been in several locations in the U.S., but I haven’t been able to fi nd good Mexican food.

When I read the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau was launching a campaign to promote Tucson as the source of the best Mexican food in the U.S., I thought it was a no-brainer. Of course it is.

Make sure everybody knows it.And Tucson was also all over my TV last month as the

University of Arizona Wildcats fi nished their 10-win post-sea-son capturing the College World Series Championship.

I love the move of UA Athletic Director Greg Byrnes to put the “batcats” at Hi Corbett Field this season. Ticket revenue was up fi ve-times over last season — in one weekend series against Arizona State, UA brought in more ticket-sale revenue than all of last year. And because of the fi nancial success, Tucson was able to bid and host regional and super-regional rounds of post-season baseball.

It was rough to see the Sidewinders and leave, and hurt more when Major League Baseball spring training left town. Th ankfully the Tucson Padres have kept professional baseball alive, even if their future is uncertain as owner Jeff Moorad looks to sell the club — and El Paso moves forward with a project to build a new stadium to attract a Triple-A team.

Tucson is, at its heart, a college-sports town. I don’t think Tucson should give up on professional baseball, but in the meantime, who better to occupy the professional-level ballpark at Hi Corbett?

Th is move will help with recruiting and keep UA Baseball competitive and in the spotlight for many years to come.

I like a lot of what I see coming out of Tucson these days. Even if it is yearning from afar.

In the meantime, I’m sure I’ll fi nd more reasons to cross paths with Tucson.

EDITORIAL

JOE PANGBURN

CUP OF JOE

Cans, asada andWildcat baseball

EDITORIAL

City’s $100M bond vote is ill timed Now is not the time to ask Tucson voters to hike their taxes.But that is exactly what the Tucson City Council will ask

city voters to do.With the economy still foundering — more so in this region

than most in the U.S. — council members voted 6-1 to put a $100 million bond proposal for street repairs on the Nov. 6 ballot. Passage of the plan would cost a family living in a home valued at $100,000 another $18 in property taxes annually.

Never mind that Pima County offi cials — who have a much better record of passing transportation bond packages than their city counterparts — have delayed placing a bond proposal on the ballot for several years because they believe voters are in no mood for higher taxes.

Never mind that when the council asked for a half-cent sales tax increase in 2010, more than 60 percent of voters rejected the notion.

And never mind that Tucsonans have little trust in city leaders. After all, during the 2010 elections, city offi cials told their constituents if the sales-tax plan went down they’d be forced into making massive police layoff s. Voters turned thumbs down, but the layoff s never happened.

Never mind.One thing is certain: the maintenance of Tucson’s

crumbling streets has been ignored too long.Th e city’s Transportation Department has estimated it

will cost as much as $850 million over the next 10 years to adequately restore Tucson’s deteriorating road system.

But is passage of a $100 million bond package the best way to get started on needed street repair? We think not.

Tucson currently relies almost exclusively on statewide gas tax funding – an 18-cent per-gallon gasoline tax known as the Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF) — to fund road maintenance. In the current fiscal year, the city is using HURF money for 97 percent of its street and road maintenance budget.

Tucson City Manager Richard Miranda has presented the

City Council with a 2012-2013 fiscal year budget plan that includes nearly $3 million in additional money for street maintenance. Miranda’s budget proposal provides 54 times the amount of general fund support for street maintenance than is allocated in this year’s budget and would lower the city’s reliance on HURF money for such purposes to 86 percent.

Even if Miranda’s recommendations are approved by the council, Tucson’s street maintenance budget will continue to be far more dependent on HURF money than is the case in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona’s other largest cities.

Just 42 percent of road maintenance funds used by Phoe-nix come from the HURF. Th e rest is produced from a two-percent local tax on telecommunication services, state and federal grants and other sources.

Nearly half of Mesa’s street repair budget comes from local sales taxes.

While facing similar problems with faltering road conditions, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has proposed to county supervisors that as much as $9 million be released from 2012-2013 general funds for needed road repairs. Of that amount, Huckelberry said $2 million to $3 million could be sent Tucson’s way.

If council members want to see who’s responsible for Tucson’s dilapidated streets they need only look into the mirror. City roads are falling apart because the council’s budget priorities have been misguided.

Of the $21 million allocated for Tucson street mainte-nance, just one percent comes from the city’s general fund. By contrast, the general fund contribution to the Sun Tran bus system has grown from nearly $16 million in fi scal 2001 to potentially more than $40 million next year.

Tucsonans are being taxed enough.Isn’t it time the city council placed its budgetary

emphasis on core matters of utmost importance to voters, such as roads, water, garbage and public safety?


OPINIONBUSINESS INK

Marana’s economic development strategy has only one goal?Th ere’s more to economic development

than business retention, expansion, recruit-ment and creation. It’s more than fancifi ed executive titles for staff ers, slick marketing brochures, a toll-free number, nice web site and expensive leadership exchange trips.

When you strip away all the enticing promises of profi ts and business-is-better-here rhetoric, economic development boils down to one simple fi nancial goal: protect the local tax base. It’s a really basic concept and the Town of Marana gets it.

Since 2008, the town has been visioning, creating, establishing and working a strategic plan called the Marana Economic Roadmap. It has a lot of moving parts, a matrix of buzz-word components like initiatives, focus areas, target industries, ac-tion plans, and activity centers.

It’s an ambitious plan of attract. Yet despite its 31-pages, the bottom line is that short fi ve-word goal. To guide Marana down that roadmap, the town hired its fi rst full-time economic development director in March.

Say hello to Curt Woody.“In this uncertain economy, you have to

take care of your own. Marana tries to do that, by not getting in the way of business,” he told me.

Woody brings 30 years of private sector experience and an energetic pro-business

attitude to the job. His expertise was honed with legacy Tucson developers Bill Estes and Pete Herder, and as business develop-ment manager for Sundt Construction.

In testimony to his capabilities, he has a portfolio full of economic

development awards.Th e roadmap’s nine “activity centers”

are core destinations for future growth. Th e centers are specifi cally defi ned areas where the town wants to direct and cluster certain types of development.

Th e Marana Airport Activity Center, for example, is designated as a corporate and executive travel hub with a mix of support manufacturing and distribution. Th e Downtown Activity Center focus is to attract community-oriented tourism and entertainment businesses.

For each activity center, Marana will identify and plan for specifi c infrastructure needs.

Growing nine centers is an intriguing challenge. Marana does not have a strong “brand ID.” In the business recruitment arena,

what is Marana’s message? Is Marana a place for technology, agriculture, transportation logistics or something else?

Town spokesman Rodney Campbell had a strong opinion on that one, saying that Marana “absolutely, defi nitely” will not be known as a bedroom community. Woody is to push an image of self-containment and self-sustainment, that Marana is develop-ing into a place where residents and businesses “have it all right here.”

For now, Woody characterizes the emerging economic development land-scape in Marana as a “blank canvas.”

Whatever sticks as Marana’s brand ID will have a basis in Woody’s methodical research and expertise. He understands the game at all levels, from Main Street to mainland China. In town, over 600 businesses have been visited this year for feedback. Th ey told offi cials they don’t like the nuances of the town’s sign code.

It’s being revised and rewritten to get the bureaucracy out of the way.

On a more global scale, Woody is building a database of community assets. He’s taking inventory of raw land, vacant buildings, natural gas and power systems, and other economic intelligence.

It’s a simple, necessary proactive step to create new opportunities for companies to

locate in Marana. He wants to be ready when Asia, the Arizona Commerce Authority or a site selector comes calling.

So far, Woody is walking the talk, armed with all the right buzz words. By rote, he calmly recites the three pillars of economic develop-ment: business retention and expansion; business creation; and business recruitment.

With emotion however, he’s annoyed by the way business recruitment is glorifi ed.

When City A recruits a company away from City B, the winning city’s political and economic offi cials stand up and take the credit. It’s aggravating that recruiting a new business gets “the biggest splash” from the news media.

Big deal, recruit a new company and gain 300 new jobs. But since no one was nurturing the interests of existing busi-nesses, they downsized 250 jobs while the new fi rm was being romanced.

Woody strongly contends that reten-tion/expansion and local business creation is more important.

“Th ey’re already here by the hundreds. If you can help existing companies prosper, that’s protecting your own, protecting the tax base.”

Contact Roger Yohem at ryohem@

azbiz.com or (520) 295-4254. His Business Ink

appears biweekly and weighs in on local

political, social and business issues.

ROGER YOHEM

SPEAKING OUT

Now it’s our obligation to learn the facts about Obamacare To the surprise of at least a few people, the

U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the Aff ord-able Health Care Act’s mandate requiring everyone to have health insurance. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said Congress has taxing authority, making the mandate acceptable under that power. However, the court rejected the argument the Constitution’s federal commerce clause allowed for the mandated coverage.

Th e act requires that by 2014 all Americans be covered by health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Th is is the cornerstone of the act, which would help to balance insurance reforms while attempting to control costs. Insurance premiums paid by younger, healthier people help cover the costs of older, sicker people.

Arizona joined other states in fi ling amicus briefs with groups opposing the individual mandate. Th e Supreme Court determined that states must have a choice in whether to expand Medicaid, a govern-ment healthcare plan designed to assist those who are low income. Failure to increase eligibility for Medicaid cannot result in states forfeiting previously apportioned federal funds.

How will the state health care exchanges

or marketplaces work? Th ey are “a central agency” where individuals can buy health insurance. Th ere would be more options based on competition from private insurers along with government

subsidized plans. Some people would receive subsidies for their coverage from the government through Medicaid.

Arizona has accepted a federal grant to create a state health insurance exchange.

Th ere are good aspects of the Aff ordable Health Care Act. For example, the individual mandate that all must carry health insurance shifts costs. Up to this point, those with insurance have subsidized others without insurance. Congress found that this cost-shift-ing increases the average premium for insured families by more than $1,000 per year!

A Washington Post editorial noted that “in 2008, people without insurance consumed $116 billion in health care services,” and “the uninsured did not pay

for 63 percent of their health care costs.” Also, the United States is the only country

where employers provide health care coverage for the majority of those who are insured, according to an Associated Press report. Th is burden on business puts the U.S. at a disadvantage in the global economy.

Business groups with 50 or more employees will have to decide whether to off er coverage or pay the penalty. Th e penalty may be cheaper than off ering healthcare. However, there will be more options for those who now are required to acquire health insurance.

Some parts of the Aff ordable Health Care Act are already in eff ect. For example, young people can remain on their parents’ insurance policies until they reach the age of 26. Seniors are seeing savings in the costs of their pharmacy benefi ts. Th ose with private insurance and Medicare are receiving some free preventative care such as colonoscopies and mammograms.

Also, there is no lifetime limit on the coverage of care, and insurers cannot deny insurance to children with pre-existing conditions. Small businesses with fewer than 25 employees can receive tax credits to help them provide employee health care.

Other features of the act won’t go into eff ect until 2014, including the individual mandate. Insurers won’t be able to deny coverage to adults with pre-existing conditions.

Insurance companies will be required to ensure that at least 85 percent of every dollar paid into insurance plans is spent on healthcare rather than administrative overhead or company profi ts.

Federal offi cials claim the act will allow for better accounting of funds by reducing payroll errors, waste, and fraud, primarily in Medicare.

Th e act is not perfect. Instead of repeal-ing it, Congress should fi x the parts that need further refi nement and clarifi cation. Th at includes healthcare cost containment.

Th e Obama Administration has done a dismal job of presenting the act to the public. Detractors have seized upon this, that this is bad legislation.

While bureaucrats have a responsibility to better inform the public about the act, Americans also have an obligation to learn how this landmark legislation will aff ect them. Visit www.healthcare.gov.

Contact Carol West at [email protected].

West served on the Tucson City Council from

1999-2007 and was a council aide from 1987-1995.

CAROL WEST


Phone: (520) 295-4201Fax: (520) 295-40713280 E. Hemisphere Loop, #180Tucson, AZ 85706-5027 Internet: www.azbiz.com

STAFFPUBLISHERTHOMAS P. [email protected]

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InsideTucsonBusiness.com

• Letters to the editor — Opinions on business-related issues or coverage of issues by Inside Tucson Business are encouraged and will be published. Submit letters to the editor via email at [email protected]. Letters also may be mailed to Letters to the editor, Inside Tucson Business, P.O. Box 27087, Tucson, AZ 85726-7087. Letters must include the writer’s name and telephone number. Inside Tucson Busi-ness reserves the right to edit and may not print all letters that are received.

Make the news

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OPINIONAfter fi ve failures, this time we need to stick with the RTA plan By Garry Duff yInside Tucson Business

Some incorrect information regarding the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and its 20-year transportation plan has been circulated in recent weeks.

Th e disinformation comes from some who want to take money approved by voters countywide in 2006 for regional multi-modal transportation improve-ments and use it to resurface some of Tucson’s long-neglected streets.

Th e city’s street system may indeed be a mess — but the demands to use RTA mon-ey from its half-cent sales tax to fi x those long-standing problems ignore history — the how and why the RTA was created and how its funding can legally be used.

Th e RTA was created by the Legis-lature in 2004 as special taxing district, an autonomous subdivision of the state, with a straightforward mission: Create and administor a long-term transportation improvement plan that would include every municipal juris-diction, the two tribal communities, and unincorporated Pima County.

It was created after fi ve major trans-portation plans in the previous two decades — to be funded either with

bonds or sales taxes — had been over-whelmingly defeated by voters.

Why? All centered almost exclusively on new roadways — and none were true regional plans. And public par-ticipation during the drafting process of those failed plans was very limited.

From the beginning, the RTA set out to create a long-term transporta-tion plan that was indeed truly regional — and one that would be shaped by the public through numerous public com-ment meetings and draft plan revisions based on what the public had to say.

“One of our fi rst tasks was to create a citizens advisory committee,” explained Gary G. Hayes, executive director of the RTA. “We received numerous applications and selected members to form broad-based representation on the committee.”

A 35-member Citizens Advisory Committee was comprised of appointed representatives of municipal jurisdictions, tribal governments, and Pima county.

Citizens who volunteered their ser-vices to craft at a transportation plan that would benefi t residents of the region at-large also were on the committee.

Th e committee spent 18 months hashing out a 20-year multi-modal transportation plan.

“One of the key ingredients for our suc-cess involved informing the public about the contents of the plan so they could make an informed decision,” Hayes said. “We held 27 town halls and gave approxi-mately 400 group presentations during the plan development and prior to the vote.”

Th is is what voters in the region over-whelmingly approved on May 16, 2006:

• 35 major road improvement proj-ects — $1.16 billion — representing 58 percent of the total revenues to be raised from the half-cent sales tax. Many of the projects increase capacity and safety on existing roads — Grant Road from Oracle to Swan roads, for instance.

• New buses to replace the aging Sun Tran fl eet and to allow for expanded eve-ning and weekend service, along with an expanded route map, new express routes to areas not previously served by Sun Tran, and expanded neighborhood and special needs van services — $533 million — 27 percent of the total revenues to be raised.

• Safety elements like 200 intersection improvements, 200 new bus pullouts, and pedestrian and bicycle-friendly im-provements — $185 million — 9 percent of the total revenues to be raised.

• Environmental protection and economic vitality elements are 6 per-

cent of the total revenues to be raised. Projects include wildlife crossings and the much-lauded MainStreet pro-gram, which helps businesses prepare for and survive road construction.

Th e fi nal version of the plan, and the half-cent sales tax to help sup-port it, were presented to voters in the form of two separate ballot items.

After all those public meetings and citizen involvement, the RTA multi-modal transportation plan was approved by roughly a 60 percent of voters and the half-cent sales tax was approved by 57.5 percent of voters in that 2006 election.

Th ese results stand in sharp con-trast to fi ve previous major transporta-tion plans presented to voters: Which were shot down by substantial margins in 1984, 1986, 1990, 2002, and 2003.

A link to the most recent RTA list of com-pleted and in-progress projects is at www.rtamobility.com/images/stories/pdfs/RTA-Board/2012/RTABoard-2012-04-26-Item-8-CompleteApril2012-ProjectListing.pdf

Garry Duff y was a longtime trans-

portation and government reporter for the

now-closed Tucson Citizen newspaper. He is

a consultant to the Regional Transportation

Authority.

Do you support more high density, mixed use in the downtown core per the survey results of Imagine Greater Tucson?

Yes -58% I’d like to see a mix of development,

in and out of downtown -24%

No -18%

Next week’s poll: Do you support the $100 million bonds proposal for roads by the City of Tucson?


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Little Mexico Restaurant and Steakhouse (MEXICAN)698 W. Irvington Road ■ 573-29242851 W. Valencia Road ■ 578-8852

Flavor of India (INDIAN)12112 N. Rancho Vistoso Blvd #100 544-3005

V Fine Thai Dining (THAI)9 E. Congress Street ■ 882-8143

CeeDee Jamaican Kitchen (JAMAICAN)1070 N. Swan Road ■ 795-3400

Yamato Japanese Restaurant (JAPANESE)857 E. Grant Road ■ 624-3377

Govinda’s (VEGETARIAN-INTERNATIONAL)711 E. Blacklidge Drive ■ 792-0630

My Big Fat Greek Restaurant (GREEK)7131 E. Broadway Blvd ■ 722-60007265 N. La Cholla Blvd ■ 797-7444

Mays Counter (AMERICAN-SOUTHERN)2945 E. Speedway Blvd ■ 327-2421

Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurante (MEXICAN)16238 N. Oracle Road ■ 825-3040

D’s Island Grill (Food Truck) (JAMAICAN)SW corner of 6th Ave and Grant Rd

La Parilla Suiza (MEXICAN)4250 W. Ina Road ■ 572-72002720 N. Oracle ■ 624-43005602 E. Speedway ■ 747-4838

Participating Restaurants...

2012 ETHNIC RESTAURANT CHOW CARD MAIL-IN ORDER FORM(all information is required: orders will be confirmed via email)

2012 CHOW CARD $20.00 x ________________________ = _____________________Total number of cards Total amount

Name _______________________________________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________________________________

City _______________________________________ State ___________Zip _____________

Phone _______________________________ Email_________________________________

❏ Check or Money Order Enclosed $ ___________________________________________

❏ Charge my $ ___________________________________________

Expiration Date ___________________________ 3 Digit Security Code_______________

Account Number _____________________________________________________________

Signature ____________________________________________________________________

Documents

Inside Tucson Business 7/6/12