Positions
I believe all working families, regardless of their income, should have the opportunity to own a home and to have sidewalks, street lights, parks and decent streets in their neighborhoods. I work to ensure county budgets and bond programs contain substantial funds for construction of affordable housing and for development of basic neighborhood amenities that enhance the quality of working families' lives. I also work with public and private mortgage lenders to encourage them to provide adequate affordable financing for working families' home purchases.
In District Five and other older urban and rural areas of Pima County we have seen residential streets, sewer lines, bridges, petroleum pipelines, and other basic infrastructure deteriorate while city and county government's attention and spending have focused on building new infrastructure to serve new development on the urban fringe and beyond. In recent months we have witnessed a major sewer line collapse in Barrio Hollywood in District Five and the rupture of a 1950s petroleum pipeline, also in District Five on the west side. I work to ensure that new growth pays for itself so tax money freed up as a result is redirected to upgrade the aging infrastructure upon which working families rely.
I promote the creation of high-paying jobs in Pima County that offer health and pension benefits and include apprenticeships for young workers and those launching new careers. I am a staunch supporter of the Adult Basic Education program that the county helps support at Pima Community College to provide working people with basic reading, writing and mathematics skills and other tools needed to obtain and keep good jobs.
The county's vital public health functions, which utilize more than a third of the county budget, have been neglected in recent years and I am committed to renewing a public health emphasis that county residents need and deserve. When I assumed office in February 2002 the county's Kino Hospital, the only hospital south of Broadway in eastern Pima County, was stripped of so many basic services that the county administrator proposed its closure in October 2002. I fought hard to keep Kino open and to restore it to a full array of quality services. The county now has a contract with University Physicians Inc. for the non-profit entity to restore Kino to a quality full-service hospital within a few years.
One problem affecting Kino Hospital and other county health programs' such as its Pima Health Systems medical services, its Posada del Sol nursing-care facility, and its Health Departments is the severe local and national shortage of trained professional nurses. I am exploring ways to develop job-training programs for nurse professionals to relieve this crippling problem. This fits in with my work to elevate the budget and attention priority of the county's Health Department and many other health-care programs. I believe more funding for and emphasis on the county's public health functions can improve our record on disease prevention, and thereby save us money on expensive after-the-fact treatment of diseases.
Preserving and restoring our unique and beautiful Sonoran Desert environment also are keys to maintaining the quality of working families' lives and preventing diseases that impair and shorten people's lives. I am a strong advocate for environmental protection measures, and effective action to clean up pollution sites that are the result of past bad practices. I promote the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan and work to enact specific programs necessary for it to be a meaningful working document. I support bond issues earmarked for buying land along riparian areas and in other vital wildlife habitat to carry out the plan's goals. The unique beauty of the Sonoran Desert is a pleasure that has enriched the lives of multi-generational local families such as mine, and that has drawn many thousands of newcomers to our area. As more people are born here and more migrate here I strive to accommodate that growth while preserving substantial and critical Sonoran Desert areas for those future generations as well as for unique desert wildlife.
I oppose rezoning and other land use changes that promote leapfrog urban and suburban sprawl. This type of growth devours pristine desert areas and adds tens of thousands of miles a year to the crush of pollution-spewing car and truck commuting. New fees to make fringe and distant growth pay for itself while providing a financial disincentive for continued leapfrog development away from city centers have my support. I promote the filling in of vacant lands in the heart of our existing urban area to take advantage of existing infrastructure, build on unsightly litter-strewn lots, make our urban areas more pedestrian-friendly, and improve the viability of public transit, including light rail service.