Tucson Weekly: The Skinny (December 10

Skinny HOW DIVINE: The Pima County Adult Probation Office has a transvestite male "client" who considers himself a female. When this particular probationer comes around to drop his urine for the mandatory drug test, he wants to use the ladies' room and be handled by a female probation officer. The supervising adult probation officer recently refused the request, since said probationer was outfitted with male plumbing.
But this decision was overruled by top management. In fact, the supervisor was disciplined and transferred for being "insensitive" to the probationer, who now gets to use the ladies' room. Many Adult Probation employees are quietly outraged, particularly some of the females, who feel the decision was rather insensitive to them.
So does this mean transvestite male prisoners could soon be housed in the women's unit of the Pima County Jail? We doubt if Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who oversees the jail, would stand for such nonsense.
The probation bureaucrats who made this call ultimately report to the Pima County Superior Court's Presiding Judge Gordon Alley, who may not be aware of it. He is now.
MONEY PITT: We reported earlier this year that Supreme Court Justice Stanley Feldman and then-Presiding Pima County Superior Court Judge Mike Brown were making the rounds of the Pima County bureaucracy trying to pedal the old Miller Pitt & Feldman law offices downtown. We thought this smelled a tad sleazy, since Feldman, a former partner in the firm, has an interest in the building, and Brown was a Feldman appointee. The deal didn't float.
But the building is still empty, and the standard procedure to peddle an old downtown office building no one else wants has always been to get a local government to buy it. We're now told the latest pigeon for this hustle is Pima County Wastewater Director George Brinsko, who's looking for a place to park more bureaucrats downtown.
Forgetting the relative merits of the Miller Pitt building, why do county bureaucrats have to be fortressed in the downtown area when the people they serve all live somewhere else? What's wrong with dispersing government and putting it where the people can get to it, with more satellite offices? That may make things a little more difficult for their bureaucracy, but would make it a helluva lot easier for the rest of us. And have they already filled up that relatively new county building called "Public Works"?
In the meantime, watch for continuing attempts to dump on the taxpayers an old building nobody seems to want.
RECALL REDUX: Oro Valley is facing its fourth recall in five years. Former Councilman Rudy Roszak, who resigned his seat to engage in more meaningful political activity (like sending letters to the editor), was successful in garnering enough signatures to force a recall election of former mayor and present Councilwoman Cheryl Skalsky. Roszak just missed a similar effort against Councilman Paul Parisi, his old running mate in a prior successful recall against two long-dead and forgotten Oro Valley pols.
The irony is that Skalsky supported that recall and became mayor in 1994 because of the election of Parisi and Roszak. Another recall was filed against her in early 1994, although it failed to draw an opponent. But back then, Skalsky was far more popular; that's before she had become a stooge for the Growth Lobby and their agents firmly implanted in the Oro Valley bureaucracy.
Skalsky is in big trouble this time. If a political putz like Roszak can get enough sigs to recall her and almost bag Parisi, the party is really over for both. Parisi is just lucky--for now. The big question for the Oro Valley Growth Lobby will be whether to support Skalsky or dump her for a new stooge like Mark Lewis, who's been slobbering for the job for years. Perhaps the cementheads will just play it cool and wait for the Oro Valley Coalition to come up with another dummy like current Mayor Paul Loomis or Councilman Fran Lasala, both of whom already appear to have been co-opted by the town's pro-growth bureaucrats.
At any rate, the recall election is set for March 9. We hope Oro Valley voters will have a choice that goes beyond a Growth Lobby stooge and another well-meaning dummy who doesn't know the game up there isn't on the level.
THAT DIAMOND TOUCH: Congrats to the Tucson Citizen's Blake Morlock and Joyesha Chesnick, who just told us that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt came to Pima County to endorse County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan because legendary land speculator Don Diamond asked him to. We always knew the Big D had more waterboys in D.C. than just Congressman Jim Kolbe.
But to quell the fears of many who find merit in the Huckelberry plan, one must note that Diamond no doubt likes it for his own reasons. Although the Citizen headline says "Big builder lures Babbitt," and Diamond is referred to in the article as a "developer," Don rarely builds anything. His development plans are just vehicles for rezonings. Diamond is a land speculator, and such a successful one that we've permanently added the title "legendary" to his name.
He likes Huckelberry's plan because it calls for buying lots of land. Some of it will be his; most won't be. That will make the land he'll still control--and there'll be plenty--worth more. And Diamond's already made about eight million bucks selling off pieces of his "proposed" Rocking K development to the feds at inflated prices. Diamond doesn't care what happens to the land after he sells it at a profit--open space, high-rise building, biker bar, it doesn't matter.
And he doesn't much care how little the county pays for anybody else's land. We suspect the Big D's endorsement of the plan is going to make some of the other small-fry in the land speculation business a tad goosey, but it's still a good plan for this valley. The Big D's personal motivation doesn't change that.
OH MY GOD, IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN: Time to start reviewing potential candidacies for Tucson city elections next year. Here's who's rumored to be in the hopper, or floating in the bowl, as the case may be:
Mayor: Among Democrats, who have held the office since 1987, George Miller may actually seek a third term; former two-term Ward 6 Councilwoman Molly McKasson may join the race, as may City Councilman Steve Leal, now in his third term in southside Ward 5; and three-term Pima County Supervisor Raul Grijalva is seriously considering it. We've also heard rumors about state Sen. Ruth Solomon, who'll be all dressed up with no place to go after term limits kick in for her in 2002. She's already got a pile of money and, considering her general "flexibility" in working with business groups and Republicans, along with her roll-over on last year's downzoning bill, she should be able to raise some Growth Lobby bucks and PAC money.
The only GOP name currently in circulation is Bob Walkup, who headed the failed petition drive for ward-only elections, a measure sabotaged by the efforts of City Clerk Kathy Detrick. Walkup's group couldn't come up with enough money to fight that battle in court, which probably means he doesn't have much of a mayoral launching pad, either.
Council: Democrats Jose Ibarra and Shirley Scott are expected to seek re-election. Ibarra, who graduated from the Grijalva aide school, is in good shape in westside Ward 1. If he draws any oppostion, it'll most likely be token. Scott's behavior on a variety of issues should draw an opponent in her own primary, but nobody's in yet in eastside Ward 4.
Ward 2 Democrat Janet Marcus may not seek a fourth term, but she's been mum on her plans. Maybe Mayor Miller, whose carried Marcus before, could get her to run again.
Republicans, who should be hustling after Fred Ronstadt proved a GOP council candidate can win citywide, have been their usual dormant and clueless selves.

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