U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani doffed his jacket Aug. 4, inside the very warm future headquarters of the Oro Valley Police Department.

Before him, Oro Valley Town Engineer and Public Works Director Paul Keesler rolled out preliminary plans for OVPD’s eventual occupancy of the 50,500-square-foot former medical office building at 13101 N. Oracle.

“It’s exciting to see,” said Ciscomani, who is shepherding a $4.2 million grant request for federal Department of Justice dollars that, if approved, would help equip the new facility with the technology and equipment necessary “to support law enforcement and strengthen public safety across Southern Arizona,” he said in a release.

Federal money would be used for technology throughout the building — facility security, digital evidence and investigative needs, officer safety and operational equipment, and communications and interoperability, according to a summary document from Ciscomani’s office.

The House Appropriations Committee has given its consent, “the biggest hurdle” in the process, Ciscomani told Mayor Joe Winfield, Mayor-elect and Vice Mayor Melanie Barrett, Town Manager Jeff Wilkins, Chief Kara Riley, Deputy Chief Curtiss Hicks and others.

“We won’t see it before the election,” the two-term congressman said, but the Republican anticipates approval in the “lame-duck” session from mid-November into the new year.

“I feel pretty comfortable we’re going to get that through,” Ciscomani said. “It’s a privilege and an honor to play a small role.”

Ciscomani, who faces the challenge of Democrat Joanna Mendoza in the November general election, said local commitment to the project is “a selling point.”

“A part of being able to secure those dollars … is it’s a part of something bigger,” Ciscomani said. “What’s the skin in the game of the local community?”

Oro Valley is paying all acquisition, planning, renovation, and construction costs for the new OVPD headquarters. Those costs include:

 $5.45 million for acquisition and initial building repairs;

$1 million for planning, design, and project management;

$7.4 million for police headquarters renovation;

$100,000 toward facility security technology.

If the federal funds for technology come through, the total project is estimated at $18.95 million, according to the congressman’s fact sheet.

“Federal funding goes directly to operational law-enforcement capabilities, not bricks and mortar,” Ciscomani’s office said. 

 Oro Valley had estimated a new OVPD building, from the ground up, would have cost $35 million. Ciscomani’s staff lauded the cost savings of purchasing a building for retrofitting at half the cost of a ground-up police headquarters.

“This is a relatively easy TI,” or tenant improvement, Keesler told Ciscomani. “Seventy percent was already to suit.”

OVPD has been spread across four buildings in the community in part because its current, 15,800-square-foot building at 11000 N. La Canada has never been big enough. When the new building is fully available, “We’re bringing it all under one roof,” Keesler explained. “It’s that one-stop shop for PD they’ve been looking for forever.”

“You’ve got to trust the entity,” Ciscomani said. “That makes a big difference who you work with. It’s been great working with you guys. This couldn’t be done if it wasn’t for the leadership of the town.”

“We really appreciate your partnership, Congressman,” said Winfield, who leaves office in November after two terms. “You make such a big difference in Oro Valley.”

In 2024, Ciscomani secured $7 million for repairs to Oro Valley bridge decks. That effort was “the inspiration” for Ciscomani’s office to cluster similar funding requests from a local government under one line item within the Community Project Funding request process.

“I’m getting smarter,” he said. “I want to bring as much money as I can” to local governments in the district, Ciscomani continued. Local government “is where the real work gets done. If Washington behaved more like local communities do, getting stuff done, we’d be in a much better place.”

 And, he suggested, Oro Valley might be able to seek additional funds for the police headquarters in future years. “Let’s do another chunk,” he said.

Ciscomani asked when a ribbon might be cut on the new building.

“Not soon enough,” Winfield said.