Unsolved Problems and Inexplicable Politics of Pima County

According to a March 18, 2014 memo from Pima County Administrator, C.H. Huckelberry to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, “Only recently has the issue of pavement repair and rehabilitation become an interest in public policy discussions regarding transportation expenditures.” Apparently, Supervisor Miller first made the other board members aware of the need to do road maintenance when she requested a review of general funds in surplus for road work.

Only recently? All we can say is thank-you Supervisor Miller, it’s about time!

The Administrator’s memo goes on to say in November 2012, the City of Tucson passed a $100 million bond issue for pavement repair and rehabilitation. Tucson ranking is #5 of the top 20 cities with the highest percentage of pavements in poor condition (53%) and #7 of the top 20 cities with the highest vehicle operating costs at $723 per year. So, Tucson took action in 2012.

It would have seemed appropriate for the Board of Supervisors to find time for this ‘public policy discussion’ back then. But, even if has taken well over a year since Tucson took action, we welcome that discussion now.

The Administrator then goes on to say that Smart Growth America sent out a report in March 2014 warning ‘spending too much on new roads and neglecting the repair and maintenance for existing roads could become an issue.’ This is exactly what has been happening in Pima County.

Well, welcome to the party I say, better late than never Pima County.

In this same Administrator’s memo, he states Pima County roads in failed to poor condition account for 74% of the total local roads, and 61% of all major roads in the county. He then proceeds to break these facts down by district:

District One with 32% of the paved roads (604 miles) having 77% in failed or poor condition. That’s a whopping 465 miles of failed or poor condition roads!
District Two with 6.2% or 122 total miles of paved roads, having 53% in failed or poor condition.
District Three with 28.25% or 588 total miles of paved roads, having 59% in failed or poor condition.
District Four with 26% or 503 total miles of paved roads, having 77% in failed or poor condition.
District Five with 7.65% or 146 total miles of paved roads, having 74% in failed or poor condition.

Again we need to point out that the two districts that pay the most taxes, do have the most failed and poor condition roads. See full story Real Estate Daily News February 27, 2014 “District Paying Most Taxes Gets Lease Road Repairs in Pima County” .

The 1997 HURF bond issue and the 2006 RTA did nothing to help this situation; their primary purpose was to add transportation system capacity, and was not for pavement repair and rehabilitation, Huckelberry goes on to explain in his memo.

The plain and simple fact appears to be that Pima County Board of Supervisors simply failed to plan for the road maintenance needed; allowing only $5 million to be allotted for road repairs in 2013 fiscal year. This is less than one-quarter of 1% of the Pima County Budget.

The March 18^th memo was also written in response to Supervisor Miller stating that last month the board unfairly took $872,000 previously allotted to her district for road repairs on Thornydale Road when this money was reallocated for road improvements along Colossal Cave Road, a project in Supervisor Carroll’s District Four.

Sidebar:

Colossal Cave Road serves approximately 1,300 students per week.
Thornydale Road serves approximately 5,800 students per week
Colossal Cave Road is running at about 10,000 cars on average per day (2013), which is under the road’s capacity.
Thornydale is running at about 18,000 cars on average per day (2013), which is over the road’s capacity.
There has also been two fatalities on Thornydale in the past two years; none on Colossal Cave Road

A recent drive along Colossal Cave Road could not produce any noticeable potholes. In fact the road appeared in good condition, compared to most in Tucson and District One.

Road repairs are not unsolvable, other communities such as Oro Valley and Marana have done it. Put the inexplicable, weird politics aside, and we’ve got to believe Pima County can do it too. Isn’t this just basic government 101?”