Tucson Council Approves Property Tax Levy, Splits on Police Review Board Term Limits

Tucson Council Approves Property Tax Levy, Splits on Police Review Board Term Limits

TUCSON — The Tucson City Council on Monday unanimously passed the fiscal year 2027 primary and secondary property tax levy ordinance and approved a University of Arizona contract to independently evaluate a border security surveillance program, while a proposed change to remove term limits on the city's Community Police Advisory Review Board narrowly advanced over one council member's objections.

Mayor Regina Romero was absent from the meeting. Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz presided.

Property Tax Levy

The council voted 6-0 to pass Ordinance No. 12262, fixing and levying the city's primary and secondary property taxes for fiscal year 2027 at a rate sufficient to meet the annual budget after accounting for other revenue sources and unencumbered balances. No discussion preceded the vote.

Border Security Surveillance Grant Evaluation

The council voted 6-0 to approve a sub-award agreement with the University of Arizona authorizing the university to conduct an independent evaluation of the Tucson Police Department's use of automatic license plate readers deployed under a fiscal year 2025 Arizona Department of Public Safety local border support grant. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz pulled the item from the consent agenda, saying community concerns "deserve to be answered in the open, and not just passed quietly on consent."

Aeric Koerner, the Tucson Police Department's analysis administrator, confirmed the item authorized only the independent evaluation, not the grant program itself. He said the grant was appropriated under the Biden administration with priorities focused on reducing violent crime and narcotics trafficking along Interstate 10 and Interstate 19. Kerner said TPD policy prohibits license plate readers from being used for immigration enforcement in any capacity, and that the University of Arizona would receive no personally identifiable information, no license plate hits, and no criminal justice records — only geolocated calls for service and incident data from areas near deployed readers and comparison sites. The grant also includes $130,000 for a drone program covering software, pilot training, and hardware procurement, though Kerner said the program has not yet launched. Council Member Kevin Dahl said he supported the contract because named professors were conducting the evaluation and it did not create additional surveillance risk.

Council Member Miranda Schubert asked whether rejecting the sub-award would jeopardize the entire grant. Kerner said that was possible, as the state serves as a pass-through and the federal government could decline a grant adjustment modification, though he said he could not assign a probability either way. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz said on the record that she would ask staff to be "mindful of how we put these materials together so we don't lose community trust."

Community Police Advisory Review Board Term Limits

The council voted 5-1 to advance an amendment to the Tucson City Code eliminating the eight-year membership term limit for members of the Community Police Advisory Review Board. Council Member Schubert voted no after her motion to continue the vote for 60 days died for lack of a second.

Schubert said her concern was that removing term limits "allows for a group or an individual to control decision making on this important board." She attributed the recruitment difficulty driving the proposal to an 80-hour unpaid training requirement imposed by a 2021 state law, HB 2462, which she said was passed on party lines and signed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey over opposition from the ACLU of Arizona, the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, and both Phoenix and Tucson. Schubert requested data including average member tenure over the last 10 years, the number of cases heard in 2025, hours met, and quorum rates — information she said would help determine whether extending terms would actually solve the quorum problem. Her motion to continue for 60 days failed when no colleague seconded it.

Council Member Dahl, who seconded the motion to move the original item, said he wanted to retain board member Annabelle Nuñez, who he said had done outstanding work over eight years of service. City Manager Timothy Thomure said staff would prepare an off-agenda memo with the background information Schubert requested.

Affordable Housing Tax Credits

City Manager Thomure reported that the Arizona Department of Housing awarded low-income housing tax credits to two city-supported projects. El Rincon, a development by the city's nonprofit arm El Pueblo Housing Development, will create 67 affordable housing units across two vacant city-owned sites at 560 West Davis Street and 450 North Main Avenue. Separately, Stone and Speedway Phase 1, led by Gorman and Company, received tax credit funds to support construction of 44 affordable units and 12 market rate units at the southwest corner of Stone Avenue and Speedway Boulevard.

Pension Funding Inquiry

The council voted 6-0 to approve the fiscal year 2027 Public Safety Personnel Retirement System funding policy after Council Member Paul Cunningham pulled it from the consent agenda with questions about the methodology. Cunningham said the system was listed as 66% funded but questioned whether that figure accounted for assets in the city's 115 trust and PSPRS holdings net of a $30 million annual debt service payment. Thomure said staff would provide a report within 30 days detailing the number of retirees, annual payouts, and fund balances across both systems.

Circle K Liquor License

The council voted 6-0 to forward a liquor license application for Circle K Store No. 9618 in Ward 2 to the state liquor board with no recommendation — neither approval nor denial — after Council Member Cunningham declined to recommend denial. The store is proposing to relocate 600 feet east on Tanque Verde Road, demolishing an existing Bank of America branch at the northwest corner of Tanque Verde Road and Catalina Highway. Cunningham cited the store's cooperation on prior licensing compromises in Ward 2 but said he remained unsatisfied with an earlier outcome involving a Circle K at Grant Road and Craycroft. A second Circle K application in Ward 4, Taqueria Wild West, was denied 6-0 for failure to obtain required city development approvals; council members encouraged the applicant to return once those requirements are satisfied.

Also discussed:

• Vice Mayor Santa Cruz issued disability pride month and Holocaust Survivor Day proclamations on behalf of Mayor Romero, who was absent. Council Member Cunningham announced a $5,000 framework grant from his office to Tucson School for the Blind, which he said had recently found a new downtown location after losing its campus.
• Council Member Selina Barajas expressed condolences for 44-year-old Tiffanie Miguel, who died after being swept away by floodwaters during a microburst that struck Tucson's south side last week and downed more than 40 utility poles. TEP spokesperson J.D. Wallace confirmed power was initially lost to 9,500 customers and was restored to all residential customers before the weekend; the Ward 5 office was without power for the duration of the outage.
• Council Member Schubert reported the Ward 6 "Chill Space" cooling center had recorded 213 visits from 66 individuals since opening May 26, with 96 showers provided and 10 people receiving services from El Rio Health.
• Multiple public speakers urged the council to reject TEP's proposed 25-year franchise agreement renewal and consider creation of a public power utility.
• A mother, Kamika Washington, asked the council to place on a future agenda a proposal to name the new aquatic center at Mission Manor the Ocean Washington Memorial Aquatic Center, after her son who was shot and killed there in 2021.
• The next regularly scheduled council meeting is Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at or after 5:30 p.m.