A special meeting is set for Monday night to choose who will fill a vacant seat on the Tucson City Council.
The seat was vacated by Steve Kozachik, who resigned at the beginning of April.
The finalists were picked through a ranking system that Mayor Regina Romero and the council completed late last month.
All the candidates’ rankings were compiled by city staff, and the four with the most points were chosen to participate in Monday’s meeting. Here are the scores:
Karin Uhlich — 25 points: Uhlich was one of two candidates who received votes from every council member. She received first-place votes from Romero and councilmembers Santa Cruz, Lee and Fimbres. She was Cunningham’s third choice and Dahl’s fourth.
Uhlich has both been elected to the council and has filled in for a departing council member. She was first elected to represent Ward 3 in 2005 and was re-elected twice. Then, in 2017, Paul Durham won the Ward 3 race after Uhlich did not seek reelection. Once Durham resigned in 2021, Uhlich was appointed to complete the remaining 10 months of his term.
Outside of her work capacity as an elected official, Uhlich has been the director of housing and health services for Arizona Complete Health since October 2015. She also founded the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity in 2002, according to her résumé.
“When I stepped in on an interim basis, as this is, one of the first things I did was ask the staff in that office if they would consider serving with me ... I recognize the importance and the critical role of a well-established staff with a good reputation,” she said to an onlooking crowd during the April 29 candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson.
“(Kozachik) established that with his team, so if I were to make the top four, I would certainly meet with them first thing and discuss that further,” Uhlich said. “I’m concerned that we have a new city manager coming on and that’s one of the reasons that I stepped in. I’ve served with five and I want to support this next one.”
Uhlich told city officials she would not run for the seat in 2025.
Ted Prezelski — 22 points: Prezelski received votes from all council members. He ranked first for Cunningham, second for councilmembers Dahl, Lee and Fimbres, third for Romero and fourth for Santa Cruz.
Prezelski has been an aide in Cunningham’s office for over 11 years, and since 2011 he has been a freelance writer, most notably for the Tucson Sentinel. From 2001-11, Prezelski worked as an educational assistant for Las Artes, working with students “who had dropped out of school to help them get their GEDs,” he said in his résumé.
Prezelski said in his cover letter that there are two primary issues in the city.
“The most important issue for our long term viability as a city is managing our water resources. We’ve been blessed that our Mayor and Council are keenly aware of the nuances of water management and I’d like to be a part of shaping policy that area,” he said.
“The second issue is around our citizens with disabilities. The staff I am on now includes three people with disabilities,” Prezelski said. “Working with these staff members and participating in outreach to the wider disability community taught me a lot about what we should be doing as a city to serve all our citizens, no matter their ability. I hope in my short time on the council I can advocate for better access for them.”
Prezelski said he is offering himself “as an interim councilmember.”
“I pledged not to run for a full term, and I think that’s very important that Mayor and Council don’t put a thumb on the scale for what’s going to be a very exciting primary,” Prezelski said. “Let’s let the voters decide who gets the full term.”
Vince Rabago — 15 points: Rabago received second-place votes from Romero and Cunningham, third-place votes from Santa Cruz and Fimbres, and a fifth-place vote from Lee.
Rabago has over a decade of experience inside the Arizona Attorney General’s office, and he spent over four years as an assistant attorney general for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, from 2019-23, according to his résumé.
In 2012, Rabago was appointed by Ward 5 councilman Fimbres to the city’s redistricting committee, and in 2014 he served as co-chair for the “Pets Are Worth Saving” bond campaign of Prop 415, which was successful in building a new-$22 million Pima Animal Care Center, he said in his cover letter.
He currently serves as a member of the University of Arizona’s Mexican-American Studies Community Advisory Board, and previously he served on the University of Arizona President Shelton’s Hispanic Advisory Council from 2008-09, as well as on the National Board of Directors for the University of Arizona Alumni Association from 2001-08.
Rabago has owned his own law office in private practice for more than a decade.
“(The recycling program) needs to continue. I’m a huge supporter of both recycling plastics and other things out in the world. We need to invest and really educate, and embrace those policies of repurposing, reuse, recycling.,” Rabago said during the forum. We also need to look at policies that push the need on reduction of use of those single-use plastics ... We have to make sure that the people’s needs are taken care of and look at all the aspects.”
Rabago has said he does not intend to run for the open seat in 2025.
Pamela Powers — 8 points: Powers was Dahl and Lee’s third choice; she was Fimbres’ fourth choice.
Powers served in the Arizona House from 2017-22. In that time, she served on the state’s banking and insurance, commerce, regulatory affairs and the “Ways and Means” committees, which handles state budgets.
Powers is currently a freelance writer, as well as the social media and technology editor for the American Journal of Medicine, she said in her résumé. She has also spent time working in various capacities at Pima Community College as an adjust instructor, as well as at the University of Arizona, in both instructing roles and as a principal investigator for many College of Public Health special projects.
“I want to help Tucson move forward while protecting our city’s eclectic characteristics, historic architecture, multicultural lifestyle and fragile desert environment,” she said in her cover letter. “As a former legislator, I have a unique perspective regarding the challenges and opportunities our city faces in the Arizona Legislature.”
Powers has said she is undecided about running for the seat in 2025.
The person chosen to fill the vacancy will serve the remainder of Kozachik’s term, which is set to end in 2025.
Proposition 413 raised the pay for city council members from $24,000 per year to $76,500.
