While all five seats on the Pima County Board of Supervisors are on the ballot in the general election, only Districts 1 and 3 have competitive races. We are focusing our attention on those, and offer our recommendations:
The Star endorses Brian Bickel for the northwest-side District 1, and incumbent Sharon Bronson for the largely rural west-side District 3.
Bickel is running against incumbent Republican Ally Miller, who has routinely made false statements about Pima County, its personnel and her habit of using her personal email account to conduct county business.
We do not endorse Bickel as simply an βanti-Ally Millerβ position.
His career as a hospital administrator and in the military, specifically as a liaison with the civilian community, makes him an attractive candidate. Both roles required communication skills, the ability to negotiate details while keeping the big picture in mind and vision to guide a complex organization.
Bickel identified his top priority as the countyβs tax structure and diversifying its tax base, because, as he said, the budget is heavily dependent on property tax, which is a volatile revenue source that fluctuates from one year to the next depending on the market and property valuations.
Bickelβs approach to economic development is forward-looking and embraces collaboration.
He recognizes governmentβs role to help bring big businesses to Pima County, which happened with the successful joint public-private effort to land Caterpillarβs headquarters, but also wisely knows there is a limit to what elected officials can and should do with taxpayer money to lure new businesses.
βThe problems weβre dealing with arenβt partisan,β he said.
We find much to like in Brian Bickel as a fresh perspective on the board. And we find much to like in Sharon Bronson, an incumbent running against newcomer and Republican Kim DeMarco.
Bronson has the advantage of being the incumbent, but her time in office has been spent wisely.
She knows that the way to improve Pima County isnβt to slash and burn its budget, but to increase revenue β she also cited the Caterpillar deal as an effective use of public-private partnerships to build business.
Bronsonβs expression of regionalism was refreshing, especially given our areaβs tendency toward parochialism. Working together is powerful and the way forward. As she said, βTwentieth century economic development was different.β
Also valuable is Bronsonβs institutional knowledge of Pima County.
She has the long view and has been on the board when it worked well, even when members disagreed. βThere is a way to work together,β she said.
