Next month, Democrats in Tucson’s Ward 3 have a choice between incumbent City Council member Kevin Dahl and Sadie Shaw, a sitting governing board member for Tucson Unified School District.
Whoever gets the Democratic nod will face Republican Janet Wittenbraker in the Nov. 4 general election.
Dahl is seeking a second term representing Ward 3, which encompasses midtown and the northwest boundaries of the city, after first taking office in December 2021. He is a longtime conservationist who led the environmentalist groups Tucson Audubon Society and Native Seeds/SEARCH.
Prior to being elected in 2021, he served as the Arizona senior program manager at the National Parks Conservation Association. His focus on the council since being elected has been in the environmental and conservation vein.
Shaw, who grew up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Ward 3, served as president of the neighborhood association for two years before being elected to the TUSD Governing Board in 2020. She won a second term on the board last November.
Shaw also currently serves on the Tucson Juneteenth Festival Board and is the public art and community design administrator for the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, which facilitates public art in neighborhoods and manages the SaludArte program for the Pima County Health Department.
Homelessness, affordable housing, climate change and the city’s use of precious resources are all at the top of mind for the two Democrats heading into the Aug. 5 primary election.
But during the July 1 candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson, a different issue was a focal point for criticism of Dahl: his office’s hours. Currently, it’s open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays, except for the first Friday of every month when staff works remotely.
Both Shaw and Wittenbraker took shots at Dahl for what they said is a lack of availability.
“That just doesn’t cut it for the amount of need that we have in our ward, but that’s something that Kevin has doubled down on on the campaign trail, that he’s not changing, that he won’t budge,” Shaw told the Star. “That’s taxpayer dollars. You know, it’s not just Kevin sitting there. He has a staff of six who could help out.”
But Dahl thinks it’s grasping at straws.
“It’s such a nerdy issue ... when the office is open for walk-ins, it’s just a small portion of our engagement with the community,” he said. “And this is a nerdy answer, but a well written email with a photograph of the problem gets much quicker response than someone having to drive to our office, spend 20 minutes explaining it, we take notes, then we put it on our computer and then we contact (a department).”
“I think it’s such a diversion, and maybe it shows that there isn’t a whole lot to differentiate or criticize me about,” Dahl said.
Kevin Dahl
Dahl says there are a few things coming up in Tucson that are priorities for him if elected to a second term. As a conservationist at heart, he said one of those issues is Tucson’s water supply.
“It’s Project Blue this time,” he said, referring to the big data-centers proposal coming before the City Council in August. “But who knows what it will be next year. Our climate resiliency plan, our Climate Action Plan, it spells out a lot of great stuff,” Dahl said. “We’re not doing everything in one year because we can’t, so I want to follow through with the Climate Action Plan because that’s so important to me.”
Dahl recently told the Star: “I am a hard no on Project Blue and will not support the requested annexation. Valid and vocal concerns have been raised about large water usage, large energy consumption, and the negative impacts to air quality.”
It’s the day-to-day issues and events in Tucson, not just Project Blue, that Dahl said he’s focused on for a second term. One of those is the city’s recycling contract, which is up in about two years. He said he’s focused on getting the best deal possible.
But overarching, long-term concerns impact residents’ day-to-day lives, too, he noted. Homelessness and the city’s push to boost affordable housing supply in Tucson are among those, and the city will have to figure them out on its own as federal funding dries up, Dahl said.
“Surprise, surprise, we’ve been doing it for the last year,” he said. “Plans were in place before the election. ... As a long-term social change activist, I’m no longer interested in ‘hey, well, you got to take a stand and shout.’ There are plenty of people shouting, and God bless them,” Dahl said, “but we have to be very strategic.
“We’re going to face some budget realities, and we’ll have to be careful about how we protect the programs that we like, and maybe become more efficient in some areas. And it will be those nitty-gritty details that, as an experienced member of the council, that I’ll be (honed in on),” he said.
“A simple example, maybe we don’t run (a certain) program. Maybe we fund a nonprofit partner who can be leaner and more efficient in providing services. We do that to some degree, and I think we need to explore more of those options,” he said. “I hope people recognize (my) experience and say, ‘okay, Kevin, keep doing it until you really mess up,’ and I’ll try not to really mess up.”
Sadie Shaw
Shaw says Ward 3 needs new leadership because Dahl, by and large, “votes as a bloc” with the other Democrats on the board (all six City Council members and the mayor are Democrats).
“There have been times recently where he defects and votes independently, but (often) you see that he says his piece and then turns off his microphone. He doesn’t do much to really push his colleagues to see the light and vote as he sees it,” Shaw said.
Shaw points to the City Council’s passage of an incentive agreement to bring an American Battery Factory production facility to Tucson, which Dahl voted for. She says for a conservationist like Dahl, voting for a water-intensive facility is a key example of his bloc voting.
“The city is incentivizing their build-out by giving them a tax break of almost $1 million, but unfortunately this is a company that is going to have a pretty big environmental impact,” she said.
“(Dahl) didn’t check and do his homework, and you know, I would expect that from someone who claims to be all about the environment,” Shaw said. “Being that I’ve served, I know how to do my homework. I know how to research an agenda item and look into things beyond what we’re given.”
Shaw herself has had to defend her record on climate-related votes. Last October, she was one of two TUSD board members to vote against approving a student-led, student-written climate action plan.
It wasn’t because of policy, she told the Star. A big hold-up for her was that the plan called for complete electrification of TUSD school buses. Shaw said this isn’t feasible, even though she supports the plan’s intent. “I totally support their activism and all of that, but being that TUSD is in a budget crisis right now just like everybody else is ... it’s not something that we can prioritize as a school district, above teachers getting a livable wage, above having librarians at every school, or above having P.E. for every elementary school.”
In May, Shaw changed course and voted in support of funding the plan.
When it comes to approaching a potential City Council term, Shaw’s biggest priority is homelessness, “and all of the things that are overarching with that issue.”
“There’s a lot of surplus city property that we can activate so that people have a place to go,” she said. “I would love to utilize some of our city surplus property as designated campgrounds, have bathrooms, have showers and have wraparound services so that people can find stability and then work up to getting emergency housing and then permanent housing.”
Shaw said she would also want to work with local groups and experts to help draft a policy or ordinance to increase protections for tenants, and if possible, deploy the city’s lobbyists to get state law changed to allow rent control.
“I would love to tackle rent control, but I know that’s more of a state issue, but I think we need to direct our lobbyists to try to politic with our state Legislature to make that something we can actually do in Tucson, because many people are priced out now of having quality homes,” she said.
Get your morning recap of today's local news and read the full stories here: tucne.ws/morning
