On Mondays, just as I finished cleaning out a few hundred emails, Steve Kozachikโs weekly newsletter would hit the inbox, demanding to be read.
It was a mixed blessing: I couldnโt delete it quickly and be done with it, like so many politiciansโ emails, so that was a shame. But at least it was substantial. Every newsletter was a journey through the quirky council memberโs mind.
Sure he talked about roads, proposed developments and the other essential topics of a City Council memberโs work, but he also indulged his varied and changing personal interests. Lately, itโs been photos from a live cam on a bald eagleโs nest in Big Bear Valley, California. For ages, heโs dwelt on topics like American gun violence, sex trafficking, recycling of plastics and animal rights.
On Monday, the newsletter arrived with a surprise: Heโs resigning from the council this month to take a job with Pima County, as point man for their new Mosaic Quarter development.
Since there is more than a year left in his term, that means the City Council will appoint his replacement to represent Ward 6. Thatโs the district that sweeps across central Tucson, from downtown, across midtown, and east to Wilmot Road.
In Tucsonโs too-small set of six wards, it might be the most important, and I donโt say that just because Iโve lived there for the 27 years Iโve lived in Tucson. It contains all the problems and promise of our city: The U of A, Grant and Alvernon, North Fourth Avenue and downtown, even the cityโs biggest homeless camp at the 100-Acre Wood, across from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
But Kozachikโs departure isnโt just important because of what his ward contains; itโs also because of what Kozachik himself represents, and the threat it will disappear.
Kozachikโs evolution
Kozachik arrived on the Tucson City Council as a Republican, challenging and defeating well-known Democratic incumbent Nina Trasoff. She, in turn, had replaced two-term Republican Fred Ronstadt.
In that first run, Kozachik had the support of Tucsonโs branch of the Tea Party political movement, which grew in opposition to Pres. Obamaโs first year in office, and which criticized officials like then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as a โsocialist.โ
After Giffords was shot at the infamous 2011 congressional event on the northwest side, Kozachik launched into activism against gun violence. A local gun buyback event organized by Kozachik deepened the divide with Republicans, and he switched to the Democratic Party before his first re-election bid.
At the time, I labeled Kozachikโs switch a sign that he knew the way the political winds were blowing and switched in time to catch them and ride into a second term. It wasnโt the last time I got crosswise with Kozachik in writing this column.
Going through my emails, I see a message from 2016. Kozachik responded to a column in which Iโd written about a local law requiring the destruction of seized guns, โIt is our right to have pointless ordinances.โ
His emailed response: โYour comments that our ordinance is foolish indicate to me that you havenโt read the ord. You certainly didnโt call to talk or get any context.โ
Weโve taken opposing positions about the recent plan to expand the Reid Park Zoo into Barnum Hill and the adjacent duck pond. Iโve crossed him by indirectly criticizing his admittedly innovative way of pushing further recycling of plastics by partnering with a company that makes construction blocks about it.
Some Monday afternoons, Iโve found heโs ripped me in his newsletter.
Valuable attributes
The two keys about Kozachik are that he works hard for his ward, and even if he gets mad at you, the acrimony doesnโt last. He can be fractious, querulous, cranky, grouchy โ pick your synonym โ but heโs also hard-working and hard-thinking, often generous in ways that people may not notice. Heโs an unpredictable original.
And we need people with those characteristics on the council.
Iโm worried weโll have too little of it when Steve is replaced. The tendency of the council majority will likely be, following normal political logic, to appoint a replacement who is in line with their priorities.
Their decision, too, will come after picking replacement for City Manager Mike Ortega. His deputy, Tim Thomure, is on track for the job โ another pick in concord with the councilโs political drift.
Kozachik hasnโt exactly been an opposition figure, but heโs been unpredictable, sometimes prickly. Recently, he was the only vote against moving forward with the first phase of a plan to shrink the layout of the Randolph and Dell Urich golf courses in order to improve public access and trails in the area.
โIf youโre talking about shrinking the footprint for either or both of those courses, youโre not going to come out of this with a championship course. You just canโt,โ he told his colleagues.
It was typical Kozachik. He has his interests, golf being one of them, and he is unafraid to go against the crowd to voice his views. I donโt agree with him on this issue, either, but I like that he sometimes stands against the crowd.
Hard work, willingness
Itโs ironic that Kozachik is leaving just after the council members began receiving a huge pay increase, from $24,000 per year up to $76,500 per year, and scheduled to top $90,000 next year. He, of all people, had deserved that sort of pay down through the years.
I hope that the council appoints someone who earns that level of pay the same way Kozachik has, through his hard work and willingness to stand out.
But I fear that, no matter who is appointed, the next Ward 6 council member will follow the herd on the council. Our system is built to create that sort of uniformity of opinion.
As you know if youโve been here any length of time, the Tucson elections system features primary elections by party, in which only the residents of a given ward vote for the candidates of their party. Then in the general election, the whole cityโs voters can cast ballots for the representatives of every ward.
The result is that sometimes, especially on the east side, the Democratic-leaning electorate of Tucson overrules the Republican-leaning electorate of a given ward.
Iโve long argued that this is against the spirit of democracy โ the idea that council members representing a ward could be the second-place finishers among their wardโs voters.
With this shake-up in the council and the loss of an unpredictable voice, Iโm tempted to change my position on possible state-imposed changes in Tucsonโs electoral system.
In the past, Iโve said only Tucsonans should decide how their elections are run. But now, once again, Republicans are running a possible state ballot issue that would allow state voters to change Tucsonโs system. Only a wardโs voters would be allowed to cast ballots for their council members in the general election.
If this ballot issue comes to us, Iโll probably vote for the change, even though I donโt like outsiders interfering in our election.
Itโs one way to ensure more diversity of views and interests on the City Council, something Kozachik has often provided and something Iโll miss as I clear out my inbox every Monday.
