The Range is receiving word that Arizona Senate President Steve Pierce has removed attorney Jodi Bain and political gadfly Rick Grinnell from the Rio Nuevo Board. We’re told that Fletcher McCusker, who has been spearheading downtown redevelopment efforts and chairing the Fox Theatre’s board of director, will replace one of them.
Under Bain’s leadership, the Rio Nuevo Board had come under increasing criticism for preferring to fight with the city of Tucson and run up legal bills rather than investing in downtown revitalization.
Most recently, the board filed a new $25 million claim against the city of Tucson, blowing up a mediation process that had been going on for months.
More details to come.
ETA: We’re hearing that local developer Chris Sheafe will also be joining the Rio Nuevo Board.
There are two more vacancies on the board: Speaker of the House Andy Tobin has to find a replacement for former state lawmaker Jonathan Paton, who stepped down to focus on his congressional run this year, and Gov. Jan Brewer needs to name a replacement for Carlotta Flores, the owner of El Charro Restaurant who has also left the board.
This article appears in May 31 – Jun 6, 2012.
“Bain’s leadership” what an oxymoron. Never said it before, but thank you Steve Pierce and please don’t replace them with someone worse.
I never thought I’d say this about a Republican State Senator from Fennix, but THANK YOU Steve Pierce. It takes two to tango and this stagnation has gone on long enough.
McCusker appointment makes sense. He clearly wants downtown redevelopment to happen and is in it for the long haul. However, if Paton remains, it may not signal much of a change
Good riddance to representatives of The Cloth.
I’m not sure any mix of legislative appointees is going to lead to a more confident public, or more satisfactory outcomes. Remember, the district’s current governance configuration isn’t what the voters approved. As for McCusker, his Rio Nuevo related actions thus far haven’t demonstrated much regard for the city’s fiscal well-being as a whole. In particular, his recent support for legislation to give away certain sales tax revenues generated within the district is wrongheaded: we’re already planning property tax revenue giveaways through the city’s new Central Business District GPLET, and may well find ourselves giving away some of our state shared revenue against our will, if the next legislature decides—as some have feared—to use a little-known provision in Rio Nuevo’s enabling legislation authorizing it to withhold monies owed to Tucson if it deems the district isn’t properly performing.
Bottom line: we can’t afford to give away any more of our revenue, or any more of our land, or any more of our anything… and the community won’t be well-served by a Phoenix-appointed, right-wing Rio Nuevo board, invariably determined to use Tucson’s public treasure to feather the nests of their business associates. That’s what we had with Jodi Bain, and that’s what we’ll get with Fletcher McCusker. It’s not what voters want, and it’s not what they voted for.
Until America realizes that they need visionaries from the arts to lead them, and until the visionaries from the arts get their act together, uptightness will grout the imagination of urban development where the sun was supposed to shine in, and our cities will continue to be only bureaucratic caricatures of themselves.
Stop the dinero stop giving money to 501 theifs and tax the churches….f downtown..this city needs more than friends giving money to their butt buddies
I am very glad to hear that Chris Sheaf is going to be on the board. He is intelligent, honest, experienced and he truly loves Tucson. Good call.
“Republican State Senator from Fennix” – Steve Pierce is not from “Fennix,” he represents Prescott.
Flecher McKusker is the CEO of Providence Corp. They own a lot of land downtown. Isn’t it a conflict of intrest having a downtown land owner on the Rio Nuevo Board?
Steve Pierce has failed. Who is going to get to the bottom of the Rio Nuevo Swamp? I believe the Attorney general needs to investigate. Maybe even the FBI. City council and Mayor Walkup need to be held accountable.