Political Notebook: Transportation plan could hinge on interim director Ortega

Tucson’s former city manager could be asked to rescue the Regional Transportation Authority’s next 20-year plan.

Michael Ortega has been named the interim director of the Pima Association of Governments and Regional Transportation Authority.

When asked Thursday, he said he isn’t sure how long he expects to be on the job or what his precise goals will be, beyond helping hire a new director.

“It’s going to be up to the board,” he said. “Once I chat with them, I can tell you our direction.”

But one board member, Mayor Tom Murphy of Sahuarita, said Thursday he expects Ortega to be in the job long enough to do three important things:

• Hire the permanent director
• Come up with a plan to close out the projects in the first RTA plan
• Put a RTA Next plan to the voters

That would likely mean Ortega would be in the job through March 2026, when Pima County voters may be asked to consider a RTA Next proposal. The current RTA plan and half-cent sales tax expires in June 2026.

Ortega, who served as the Tucson’s top administrative official for about nine years, was appointed by a unanimous vote to be the interim executive director of the Pima Association of Governments and the Regional Transportation Authority during Monday’s PAG-RTA joint meeting.

Oro Valley Mayor Joe Winfield, who serves as RTA board chair, said Monday Ortega was one of three candidates who stepped forward.

Ortega’s appointment comes on the heels of a turbulent few months for the regional board. In April, tensions came to a head when Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz pushed the board for a performance review of the former executive director, resulting in the resignation of the boards’ longtime legal counsel.

Then, less than two weeks before Ortega’s appointment, the boards fired then-executive director, Farhad Moghimi, in a narrow 5-4 vote.

The boards also tapped DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy, P.C., as interim counsel during Monday’s meeting.

Despite the transition to a more favorable executive director for city officials, who were critical of Moghimi’s leadership, the path forward still has its challenges.

The boards hoped that RTA Next, the next 20-year transportation plan, would have been going to voters late this year, but it has since been pushed back to a proposed March 2026 election date.

Ortega began his time as Tucson’s City Manager in June 2015 and resigned from the post after last year’s budget was approved, serving all that time on board of PAG and the RTA.

Shortly after announcing his retirement early last year, Ortega fired off what appeared to be a warning about RTA Next, the 20-year plan RTA hopes to present to voters next year once the current plan expires.

In a February 2024 memo, Ortega said the plan being worked on at the time would “in essence” force the city to give up about $640 million over the 20-year life of the plan, “or approximately $32M annually.” Later that year, the RTA Board approved a draft plan for public input that re-worked the city’s share, so Tucson would receive at least half of all funds generated.

Still, Murphy, who has sometimes disagreed with Tucson officials over RTA plans, said he expects Ortega “has the ability to be independent enough.”

“He understands this journey, for good or for bad,” Murphy said. “He understands the thinking and the personalities of the Tucson City Council better than anyone else does. He’s also had a good working relationship that I’m aware of with the other municipalities.”

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GOP candidate on probation

One of the Republican candidates for the U.S. House in Congressional District 7 is on probation after a felony conviction for lying on a Paycheck Protection Program loan application.

Jimmy Rodriguez exaggerated the number of employees he had and his company’s payroll when applying for a loan during the pandemic, court filings show.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty in October 2023 and was sentenced in July 2024 to five years of probation and to pay $116,218.

The online publication Arizona Luminaria first reported the conviction.

Court records show that Rodriguez said his business, a motorsports company called Keene Performance, had nine employees and monthly payroll of $58,230. This led to the company getting a loan of $145,500. This was false.

In an interview with the Star, Rodriguez noted his son had recently died and the pandemic made it “a rough time for a lot of people.”

“I made a mistake and I owned it, and I feel like it made me stronger,” Rodriguez said. “It made me feel like I know a lot more what people go through.”

While Rodriguez’s travel and other behaviors are restricted by probation, he said, “I don’t foresee it to be a problem.”

If he were elected, despite the heavy Democratic advantage in the district, a judge would certainly be flexible, Rodriguez said.

Sonoran governor in DHS sights?

The big political rumor in Sonora this week has it that the governor, Alfonso Durazo, will be arrested if he comes to the United States.

We’ll find out soon.

Journalist Luis Chaparro cited sources in the Department of Homeland Security who said that the Sonoran governor is considered a “suspected terrorist” in US government files and requires “mandatory detention.”

Chaparro reported that Durazo has been going to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix for regular medical treatments but stopped in late May, around the time this entry was made into federal records.

The “terrorist” reference could stem from the fact that Pres. Trump designated drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations,” Chaparro noted, meaning that people associated with cartels could be labeled suspected terrorists.

The United States has been revoking the visas of some Mexican officials, including the governor of Baja California, recently.

A spokeswoman for Durazo called the story false. The truth or falsity could become clear next week. Durazo is scheduled to meet with Gov. Katie Hobbs in Phoenix on June 26.