An inlet, or break, in a concrete curb allows rainwater to be harvested in a landscape basin. Tucson’s commercial rainwater harvesting ordinance requires all new commercial developers to harvest enough rainfall to supply half the water needed for their projects’ outdoor landscaping.

 Rebecca Sasnett, Arizona Daily Star

All seven members of the all-Democratic Tucson City Council have agreed the city must improve enforcement of its law requiring commercial developments to harvest rainwater and use less drinking water on landscaping.

But they couldn’t agree last week on whether to spend about $284,000 to create three new city staff positions β€” a landscape architect and two city inspectors β€” to beef up the admittedly subpar enforcement.

The Tuesday vote to create the jobs was only 4-3, with Mayor Regina Romero in the unusual position of being in the minority. The motion adopted also calls on city staff to come back to the council in six months with a progress report on a list of steps to improve ordinance enforcement recommended by City Manager Michael Ortega.

The main point of contention was over whether the three staff positions should be approved now, or if the city should wait until the council considers a full budget for the entire city workforce for fiscal year 2022-23. The differences were sharp enough that the debate continued after the vote was cast, with Romero and other council members largely repeating earlier arguments.

The City Manager’s Office is scheduled to release its proposed budget on April 19. Opponents of the immediate job creation β€” Romero and council members Lane Santa Cruz and Nikki Lee β€” all said they strongly support better enforcement of the harvesting ordinance, but that the city shouldn’t create the jobs before all budgetary needs are considered.

Supporters of the new staff positions, however, said a delay would amount to β€œkicking the can down the road” on enforcement of the 14-year-old rainwater harvesting ordinance, which was approved in 2008 and went into effect in 2010.

They said it’s essential to get going on the enforcement now because they see rainwater harvesting as a key tool for adapting to Tucson’s continually worsening heat.

That commercial ordinance had been adopted with no council dissent. It required all new commercial developers to harvest enough rainfall to supply half the water needed for their projects’ outdoor landscaping.

The council acted with equal unanimity in 2012 when it approved rebates of up to $2,000 to help homeowners buy cisterns for water harvesting for their gardens and trees.

Just two months ago, the council unanimously ordered the city staff to come up with ways of improving enforcement of the commercial ordinance.

That followed a belated public release last year of a December 2018 report by outside consultants that was highly critical of how the ordinance was implemented.

The review found a large majority of a sample group of recent commercial developments had failed to install landscape layouts friendly to rainwater harvesting as shown on their city-approved plans.

That report also found, and a subsequent city analysis agreed, that large majorities of commercial projects studied were using far more than 50% drinkable city water supplies on landscaping. The city concluded that from 2016 through 2020, nearly half of 41 projects it reviewed were β€œgrossly out of compliance” with the 50% requirement.

In a memo to the council before Tuesday’s vote, the city manager wrote, β€œCommercial rainwater harvesting is complex. It requires coordination between civil engineers, landscape architects, city staff, hydrologists, commercial business interests and property owners. It requires complex math, hydrologic knowledge and attention to detail.

β€œThe technical nature of the program requires specialized review, inspection and long-term maintenance and reporting,” Ortega wrote.

Romero told the council it was β€œabsolutely appropriate” for the city to have previously commissioned a consultant to audit the enforcement, β€œto try and find a solution as to why we’ve not been using this ordinance more effectively. I support the intent of putting the ordinance to work much better than it has.”

But while agreeing with the need for these new jobs, she said, β€œI would say that it is a very slippery slide that includes hiring staff outside the budgeting process for all the departments.”

Councilman Kevin Dahl, who introduced the job-creating motion, rebuffed Romero’s request that he replace that provision with language β€œincluding the possibility of hiring staff to run the program, as opposed to specific direction as to how many staff should be hired.”

Dahl said, β€œIf we take that out, all we’re asking for is another report in six months. So I think (the motion) has to have something about the staffing.”

β€˜β€™Passage of this ordinance was visionary and groundbreaking, thanks to the council,” Dahl said, singling out Romero as one of two still active members who had approved it in 2008, along with Richard Fimbres.

β€œIt’s part of the response to climate change. It reduces water bills, while still making sure that cooling trees and vegetation will grow with rainwater,” Dahl said. β€œToday, Tucsonans use 30% of our drinking water to grow things outside. It can change and it must change.”

The three staffers won’t be hired until after the new fiscal year starts. Councilman Paul Cunningham, who supported the new hiring, said it may take a long time to fill the positions because the city is having trouble filling many vacancies.

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Contact Tony Davis at 520-349-0350 or tdavis@tucson.com. Follow Davis on Twitter@tonydavis987.