fimbres for council 2013 email update 042913

7/30/2019 Fimbres for Council 2013 Email Update 042913

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E-MAIL CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Dear Friends:Four years ago, I had asked for your support in my effort to be the nextCouncilmember for Tucsons Ward 5. Thanks to you, for your contributionsand volunteer efforts, my campaign was a success, garnering the most votes inthe 2009 election.

Much had been accomplished during this time, but there is some more work tobe completed and that is why I am running to again represent the constituentsof Tucsons Ward 5 on the City Council. Through updates on the Facebookpages, the blog and the campaign website, many of you have receivedupdates on this effort but this is the premiere Email update with more tofollow. The campaign can be found online at the following sites:

http://www.fimbresfortucson.comhttp://www.facebook.com/richardgfimbreshttp://www.facebook.com/fimbresfortucson

Thanks to the grass roots effort so far, we have gotten the maximum number ofsignatures needed to qualify for the Ward 5 ballot, 482 and will be filing theseshortly.


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The campaign is in the final verification stage for the donation effort aswell. Under the City public matching fund program, a minimum of 200donations from city residents (people who reside within city limits) are neededfor a candidate to be eligible for funds. For the entire campaign, the candidatewill be allowed to spend, no more than $114,500 for a Council race, whichmeans these efforts can raise $57,250 in contributions. Campaigns will submittheir donations to the City Clerks office for review and to see if they have metthe requirements to qualify for matching funds.

Mark your calendars for this week, AFSCME Local 449 will be holding afundraiser for the Fimbres for Council Campaign on Friday, May 3, 5:30 to 7 pm,at the IBEW Hall, 750 South Tucson Boulevard. I hope to see you there at thisevent.

I cant believe though that how nearly four years has passed so quickly since Iwas sworn in as your Councilmember. During this time a lot has happened,but as I have said, when times are tough, Tucsonans rolled up their sleevesand come together to solve the issues at hand.

Just eight days after being sworn into office in 2009, the Mayor and Councilhad to deal with a $33.5 million dollar budget shortfall. In the following three

fiscal years, this Mayor and Council has had to deal with budget deficits, $44million, $55 million, $20 million and a projected deficit of $15 million for theupcoming fiscal year starting July 1. Unlike other cities, this Mayor and Councildidnt lay off public safety employees, shut down fire or police stations oreliminate parks. This City Council rolled up its sleeves and worked together toput folks back to work, and also to maintain city services.

Over the past four years, some of the accomplishments in Ward 5 include:

development of the U of A Bioscience Park project, the construction at theBridges Project, the opening of the many retail stores, such as: Costco, Wal-Mart Super Center, Quik Trips, Goodwill Stores and Curacao - resulting in thecreation of 1,100 jobs alone in the Ward.

As your Ward 5 Councilmember I have held Town Hall meetings, BusinessForums and updating constituents on issues of concern as well as through E-


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mail, a personal blog, Facebook and a newsletter. Communications withneighborhoods are essential to my work as your Ward 5 Councilmember, forwhich many meetings around the table have taken place as well on issues ofconcern to reach a consensus.

During my time as your Ward 5 Councilmember, some of the proposals Ibrought forward included:

Streamlining the Certificate of Occupancy Process: With these changes, 71new businesses have opened in the City of Tucson since August 2010 whenthe new rules were implemented.

Other changes to city procedures were made, such as streamlining the Land

Use Code, changing parking rules and creating Infill Incentive Districts,resulting in more than $475 million in commercial and constructiondevelopment permits being taken out by Planning and Development Services.

For Tucson to succeed again, revenues must be generated to cover thecosts of the services constituents expect and over these past four years,we have seen revenues increase again. Tucson is getting back to work.

Working with the private sector, I helped to form Bring Back the Splash,which raised $100,000 in sponsorships and opened six city swimming poolsthat were to be closed due to budget cuts through sponsorships andadvertising - lifting the 25 year old restrictions that had been placed upon theParks and Recreation Department.

In addition, in 2011, I brought forward a proposal to lift the limitations of bus

advertisements that could be placed on Sun Tran busses. Since 2011, thisrevenue for the transit system has more than tripled.

For Tucson to succeed, the City government must spend its limited dollarwisely, and with that, in August 2010, I brought forward changes to how theCity spends its money for goods and services by using the P-Card Program. Ihave led the effort to change how the City purchases materials by utilizing the


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P-Card, instead of writing checks. To be implemented over the next two years,with a potential savings of more than $10,000,000 dollars. The City of Tucsonalso gets a rebate for using the P-Card, which has increased to $440,000 (orfour times what it was in 2010), thanks to Mayor and Council actions taken toget more use of the P-card program.

I worked with the business organizations to bring forward the Local Purchasefor Procurement Policy, so that locally owned businesses would receivepreference points on RFPs (Request for Proposals) for City contracts forgoods and services. This new policy will benefit Tucson owned businesses.

I also brought forward a review of city contracts to ensure that Tucsonans werebeing hired to do the work and a study showed that 88% of those hired werefrom the Old Pueblo. To compare, the City of San Francisco has only a 25%local hire rate.One of my proudest achievements was getting the City of Tucson to use an all,vote-by-mail election system, which increased turnout city wide by more than15% (36% alone in Ward 5) and saved the City $600,000 through this process.

My diligent staff and I have worked to try to keep you informed of what is going

on and to make Ward 5 a better place to live, work and raise a family. Duringthese tough economic times, the Ward 5 office has worked to provide the bestconstituent services possible. I have strived to keep the costs down and tooperate the office under budget. My predecessor in this position had 6.5employees, I have operated the office with 3.5 employees. Unlike the previousoffice holder, who had a budget of more than $460,000 for staff and expenses,I have had less to work with. This year alone, the staff and expense budgetwill total a little more than $279,000.

This has been a long, initial E-mail update but during my time as yourCouncilmember for Tucsons Ward 5, a lot has been accomplished but thework is not completed. I am running again and hope I will have your supportagain for this years election.

More updates to follow.


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Peace.Richard G. Fimbres

fimbres for council 2013 email update 042913

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