Tucson council raises City Manager Timothy Thomure's salary to $375,000, adds self-renewing contract term

TUCSON — The Tucson City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to raise City Manager Timothy Thomure's salary to $375,000 and give his contract a two-year term that renews automatically unless the council acts. Council members Paul Cunningham and Miranda Schubert voted no.

Mayor Regina Romero presided, and all seven members attended.

Thomure's original 2024 contract had no fixed term. The amendment, retroactive to Oct. 1, sets one through Sept. 30, 2028, according to the contract and a staff memo in the meeting materials. After that, the contract renews for two years at a time unless the council gives written notice by Oct. 1. Even after a notice of nonrenewal, Thomure would stay on for the rest of the term or one year, whichever is shorter.

Thomure remains an at-will employee whom four council votes can remove. If the council fires him without just cause, he still receives severance of half his base salary, now $187,500, plus six months of medical and dental coverage. The amendment drops a 2024 provision that also paid half of his annual deferred-compensation contribution. The memo says the raise will be absorbed within the City Manager's Office budget.

Council Member Nikki Lee made the motion for Ordinance 12273. She said every person, including the city manager, has room for improvement. She said the new salary is in range with comparable jurisdictions, the same measure the city uses for every other position.

Lee said the council should get evaluation feedback earlier so members can identify targeted improvements. She also asked that materials arrive in advance before the council reviews the city attorney, city clerk and city manager.

Cunningham said he had "zero misgivings" about Thomure's performance. He said he had not had the full experience to vet the proposal and holds to raises of no more than 10% at a time. He said he would have supported the same raise spread over two years, but "it's just a little too much at once for me."

Schubert said the city manager should be paid fairly and competitively. She noted the position oversees nearly 5,000 employees and a $2.4 billion annual budget. But she said she could not separate the raise from the city's finances. She said the new salary is $55,000 more than his current pay. His 2024 contract set his starting salary at $315,000 and allows raises after annual reviews, plus the cost-of-living increases other city employees receive.

She quoted a Feb. 3 study session warning that staff did not expect funds beyond the base budget. She said the city has raised recreation fees and parking rates this year, slowed and frozen hiring and reduced programs. "I cannot justify increasing the salary of our highest paid employee by roughly 17% in a single year," Schubert said.

Schubert said she would rather delay the item and negotiate a 4% to 5% raise now. She said that raise should come with a work plan that has measurable outcomes, including progress on reducing the city's poverty rate.

Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz supported the raise. She said the city has long had a culture of not compensating its employees, and that pay should be measured against comparable cities. She said the manager serves close to 600,000 residents and did not seek a salary increase the year before.

Romero said she was "frankly very surprised" to hear the concerns. She said the council discussed the salary in executive session and then voted unanimously on the compensation. City records show that on Sept. 9, after an executive session reviewing Thomure's performance, the council directed the mayor and city attorney to negotiate the amendment. She said no one had asked to delay the item in the more than a week it was on the agenda.

The mayor called the job a 24-hours-a-day position. "This is not a Monday through Friday, eight through five," she said. She said Thomure balanced the budget while providing $18 million in cost-of-living and market-rate increases for city employees this year.

Romero briefly stopped the discussion to warn an audience member against interrupting.

Thomure responded to the process concerns. He said his 360-degree feedback reached council members the day of their meeting, and that salary market data did not reach all members at the same time. He said materials for the city attorney's upcoming evaluation would be hand-delivered several days in advance.

Earlier, during call to the audience, a Ward 5 resident criticized the proposed extension and raise. The resident cited Thomure's handling of public meetings on the Project Blue data center proposal.

Housing money shifted

After a public hearing, the council voted 7-0 to amend the city's fiscal 2027 annual action plan for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The amendment reprograms $1.5 million in Community Development Block Grant funds. The money moves from community facilities and improvements to decent affordable rental and homeowner housing. One speaker addressed the item, urging support for homeownership programs such as Habitat for Humanity.

Downtown hotel incentives

The council approved two downtown hotel incentive agreements, each 7-0 without discussion:

A site-specific sales tax development agreement with Tucson Inn LLC for a hotel and retail project at 75 E. Broadway Blvd.
A Government Property Lease Excise Tax lease with Depot Plaza Hotel LLC for a proposed hotel at 45 N. Fifth Ave.

Santa Rita Avenue rezoning adopted

The council voted 7-0 to adopt an ordinance rezoning a 0.21-acre property at 932 S. Santa Rita Ave. from residential R-2 to industrial I-1. Technicians for Sustainability plans a commercial vehicle parking and storage structure at the corner of 19th Street and Santa Rita Avenue. No representative of the applicant attended.

Cunningham asked why the case had no public hearing. Staff said none was required. Adoption reflects that the applicant met conditions the council set when it first authorized the rezoning. One council member said the site sits directly next to homes and asked that the transition between industrial and residential uses be handled thoughtfully.

Pool fees draw swim families

Several speakers asked the council to reconsider pool rental fee increases approved June 9, 2026. A speaker said a high school team's season cost for four lanes rose from about $2,070 in 2025 to about $5,300 this season. She said the cost is projected to reach $6,000 in 2027, $7,300 in 2028 and $8,600 by 2029. She added that the hourly rate will rise to $20 per lane on July 1, 2027, then to $25 and $30. Another parent urged the city to charge admission at its free public pools.

Lee said Mica Mountain High School is in Ward 4. She said her office put $25,000 in Ward 4 funding into a foundation as a temporary offset. She said she voted against the fees and therefore cannot bring them back for reconsideration.

Other speakers raised downtown safety and homelessness. One asked the city to bring back bus fares, and another called for public reporting on homelessness spending and outcomes.

Several Tucson Electric Power employees spoke about their work. Two residents urged a no vote on Proposition 421, which one described as a 25-year license for TEP's parent company, Fortis. Two BMX advocates asked for youth action-sports facilities.

Consent agenda

The council approved the consent agenda 7-0. It included:

An update to the Reid Park Zoo master plan adding the Pathway to Asia expansion location.
An amendment to a state opioid response grant agreement with the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
An Arizona National Guard agreement for help during a significant cybersecurity incident.
An agreement for Tucson police to provide facilities and services to the Arizona Department of Child Safety's Office of Child Welfare Investigations.
A Pima Council on Aging agreement for congregate meals at six recreation centers.
An amendment to the city's FUSE Corps fellowship agreement.

Also discussed:

Schubert reported recent traffic deaths. A 20-year-old man died Oct. 2 in a suspected street-race crash, a 52-year-old woman died Oct. 3 after being struck by a pickup, and a pedestrian was killed Oct. 5. She said Ward 6's cooling center logged 2,250 visits from 300 unique visitors and provided 874 showers from late May through September. It will reopen Nov. 2 as a resource and shower center.
Council Member Selina Barajas said more than 5,000 people attended the reopening of Santa Rita Park after an $8 million renovation. She said Ward 5 received a Tohono O'odham Nation grant for basketball-court shade structures at Pueblo Gardens and Santa Rita parks.
Cunningham said the former Albertsons at Broadway and Harrison is not becoming a shelter. He said the property's broker is seeking mixed-use or retail tenants.
Santa Cruz reported on a city delegation's trip to study Albuquerque's transit safety and ambassador programs.
Thomure said applications for Ready, Steady, Open grants are open through Nov. 1, 2026. The grants are for small businesses affected by city construction projects.
Romero reminded voters that ballots must be returned by Oct. 27 for the Nov. 3 election.
The council forwarded two new liquor licenses, one transfer and 15 special event applications to the state with a recommendation of approval.

This report was drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 from a live transcript produced by Deepgram Nova-2, then reviewed and edited by Nicholas De Leon with Claude Opus 5.5, and published at 9:23 PM MST on October 6, 2026. Read more about how this is made.