Inside Tucson Business 03/16/12

Fast food to pharmacyFoothills to get new Walgreens

Page 23

Mariachis on the moveConference leaves downtown after 29-year run

8

4 orators of achievementPolitical strategist Dick Morris heads Chamber forum

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Your Weekly Business Journal for the Tucson Metro Area

WWW.INSIDETUCSONBUSINESS.COM • MARCH 9, 2012 • VOL. 21, NO. 41 • $1

FINDING THE BEST BALANCE

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Harris Environmental works in middle of

growth and preservation

UA entrepreneurs show off their works

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Rio Nuevo property delinquent on taxes By Patrick McNamaraInside Tucson Business

Among the thousands of delin-quent tax debts up for sale at the Pima County Treasurer’s annual tax lien auction this year was the bal-ance of unpaid taxes on a property the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facili-ties District owns.

“Th is is how we fi nd out about this stuff ,” Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Chair Jodi Bain said in response to questions from Inside Tucson Business.

Taxes have not been paid on a multi-house unit on Washington Street and Court Avenue downtown since September 2010, when the

City of Tucson wrote a check for the amount due.

Rio Nuevo, while still under the auspices of the city, bought the property in 2000 for about $100,000. Its assessed value now is more than $551,000.

While government-owned prop-erties normally do not pay property taxes, the property is subject to the City of Tucson Business Improve-ment District tax, which was estab-lished in 1998. Th e taxing authority covers portions of the downtown area.

Including interest, the Rio Nuevo district owes $750 in delinquent taxes for the second half of the 2010 tax year.

District taxes on the other par-cels it owns were current, according to Pima County Treasurer’s offi ce records.

Records with the treasurer’s of-fi ce show that tax statements and bills for the property are sent to a PO box that the City of Tucson owns.

City of Tucson spokesman Mi-chael Graham confi rmed the city owns the post offi ce box and that mail for Rio Nuevo does get deliv-ered there. Graham was not imme-diately able to confi rm if the city had received and forwarded Rio Nuevo tax bills and statements to the dis-trict’s offi ce, but said in general the city does forward mail to the appro-priate recipient.

A Pima County Treasurer’s of-fi cial said such tax information can only be sent to a single address. If a property owner wants tax state-ments and bills sent to a diff erent address, the owner would have to go through the Pima County Asses-sor’s offi ce to offi cially change their address.

Bain was unsure if the district had received tax documents the city had forwarded.

Th e tax lien on the property was not among those purchased dur-ing the recent auction. If the debt remains unpaid, it will be available for an over-the-counter purchase at the treasurer’s offi ce in April.

2 MARCH 9, 2012 INSIDE TUCSON BUSINESS

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CARTOONISTWES HARGIS

Assessor valuations fi nally recognize drops in property valuesInside Tucson Business

At long last, the plummeting values of commercial real estate in the Tucson re-gion are fi nally being noticed by the Pima County Assessor’s offi ce for taxing pur-poses.

An analysis of the 2013 Valuation No-tices sent last month by the Pima County Assessor shows that after continuing to raise valuations in recent years on most types of commercial real estate, this year those increases were kept in check.

“Th e county assessor is starting to un-derstand that certain properties are hurt-ing and we’re seeing some progress in lowering values,” said James Wezelman, an attorney and owner of Sage Tax Group. “Other than a few categories, things are not that much diff erent than last year. But unlike the go-go years of 2005 to 2007 when valuations shot up like a rocket, to-day’s values are not coming down as fast.”

Th e Sage Tax Group’s analysis shows that county-wide property values totaled $59.7 billion, down $3.3 billion, or 5.5 per-cent, from valuations issued a year ago. Th e valuations sent this year will apply to property tax rates that will be set by tax-ing entities in August 2013 and sent out in bills the following month.

Of the 396,000 properties in the coun-ty, 238,000 are single-family residences where there have been about 15,000 fore-closures over the past two years. Overall, owners of about 17,000 residential and commercial properties appealed and won reduced valuations last year that were kept frozen this year, as required by law.

Th at left about $55.9 billion worth of parcels that were due for valuations this year by the Pima County Assessor.

As one example, Wezelman said about 500 industrial parcels won reduced valua-tions on appeal last year for a collective re-duction of about $412 million. Overall, val-uations on industrial properties were down this time by 5.6 percent to $1.15 billion.

“For parcels not frozen, the assessor has free reign. His hands are not tied,” Wezelman noted.

For example, despite bankruptcy and foreclosure issues involving the Dou-bletree Hotel at Reid Park, Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa and the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa, valuations for the category of hotels, motels and resorts as a whole are up 17 percent, the highest increase of any category.

“Overall, we’re see-ing more movement down than the prior year. But in some categories like resorts and restaurants, we’re still scratching our heads over the increases,” said Wezel-man.

Property owners who feel the assessor’s offi ce has over-valued their property have until April 3 to fi le an appeal. Th e form can be found on the assessor’s website — www.asr.co.pima.az.us — click on “appeals process” for more information.

Property valuations are just one part of the formula for computing property tax-es. Tax rates set annually in

NEWS

August by government and schools are the other major component.

“Th e irony is, I have clients who saw re-duced valuations. Yet I have told them to fully expect an increase in their total tax bill when the tax mill rates are set later this year,” he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

2013 Property Values ChangeHotels/Motels/Resorts 17.0%Restaurants 13.3%Automotive 9.2%Retail 8.7%Nursing Homes 6.0%Agricultural land 5.0%Banks 3.4%Schools/Daycare 3.1%Medical 2.7%Retail Centers 1.0%Offi ce - 0.8%Apartments - 2.1%House on acreage - 5.1%Industrial - 5.2%Vacant Land - 5.6%Homes - 7.0%Mobile Homes - 8.6%Condos - 9.3%Source: Sage Tax Group data

Scottsdale No. 2 picked as new CEO of MTCVB

Th e No. 2 executive at the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau has been picked to take over as the new CEO and president of the Metropolitan Tucson Con-vention and Visitors Bureau.

According to numerous sources, Brent DeRaad, who has been executive vice presi-dent of Scottsdale’s bureau since June 2005, has been introduced to local leaders as the search committee’s selection. An announce-ment was pending his offi cial acceptance of an off er.

DeRaad takes over the position of Jona-than Walker, who announced in November he would retire at the end of this month.

In his current position, DeRaad oversees the Scottsdale bureau’s $9 million, includ-ing contracts with the agency’s public fund-ing partners; the City of Scottsdale, Town of Paradise Valley, Arizona state government, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Commu-nity. He also oversees the Scottsdale agen-cy’s convention sales department.

Before he was elevated to executive vice president at the Scottsdale bureau, DeRadd spent three years as its vice president of marketing and 19 months as vice president of membership and corporate communica-tions.

He earned both his bachelors and mas-ters degrees in mass communications from Arizona State University.

Marana Aerospace Solutionsis new name for Evergreen

More than 300 employees, elected offi -cials and other dignitaries were part of an event Tuesday (March 6) in which the 460-acre facility in Pinal Airpark was rechris-tened as Marana Aerospace Solutions. It had formerly been named Evergreen Main-tenance Center.

Th e name change was a result of the commercial aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility being acquired in June 2011 by the private equity fi rm Relativity Capital.

As part of Tuesday’s event, newly ap-pointed CEO Hal Heule was introduced. “With the growth we have planned, along with added training, enhanced processes and updated tooling, we intend to build our extensive range of service off erings to meet the needs of our expanding global base of customers,” he said.

Public Notices 6Lists 8-10Inside Media 12Arts and Culture 13 Meals and Entertainment 13 Profile 15

People in Action 19Briefs 20-21Finance 22 Real Estate &Construction 23Biz Buzz 24Editorial 24


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Students unveil entrepreneurial creations at UA’s Innovation Day

By Patrick McNamaraInside Tucson Business

Th e University of Arizona’s best and brightest student entrepreneurs fi lled the ballroom at the Student Union Memorial Center on Tuesday (March 6). Th e venue was apropos for the event, Innovation Day, which had the feel of a debutante ball for students eager to give their ideas a fi rst public showing.

Student teams from the UA McGuire Entrepreneurship Program presented

business concepts that they had worked on throughout the school term at the Innova-tion Showcase.

Some students are hopeful that their concepts will get noticed, create interest and attract investors. Others have already have begun to market their creations.

EquiSight, a student-led venture to sell helmet-mounted cameras to horse racing facilities, has been in talks with Santa Anita Park racetrack in the Los Angeles area and NBC.

“It’s similar to what NASCAR did,” Da-

vid Matt said, one of the EquisSight team members.

Matt said the team hopes to remake the horse-racing experience for fans in a way similar to auto racing, where cameras have long been standard fi xtures in race-car cockpits and on drivers’ helmets.

“It will virtually place fans in the sad-dle,” Matt said, adding, “We’ve been stuck in the binocular era.”

Other teams focused on more altruistic ventures.

Students with Onward Packs plans to donate a portion of the proceeds from its backpack sales and donate them to needy schools.

“We’re targeting schools with a high percentage of free and reduced lunch stu-dents,” team member Amanda Wieland said.

Th e minds behind Testab envision a future when school will use touch-screen tablets to take standardized and other tests instead of the ubiquitous paper scan-tron bubble sheets.

“Students now don’t get their test re-sults back right away,” Eric Smith said. He said Testab would not only simplify test taking by allowing students to select their answers with one touch, forsaking the old No. 2 yellow pencils.

Not only would the product provide an ease in test taking, but grading would be nearly instantaneous easing the burden on instructors as well, Smith said.

Another innovation proposal seeks to assist preschool children in learning a sec-ond language.

NEWS

Attendees and exhibitors mingle at the ninth annual UA Innovation Day event.

Attendee Lars Marshall watches as students with Testab describe their product.

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UAE solar cell maker buys Solon, parent

Solon Corp., which has its U.S. headquar-ters in Tucson, and key assets of its now de-funct German parent company Solon SE, have been acquired by Microsol, a solar cell manu-facturing fi rm based in United Arab Emirates.

Business will continue at Solon’s plant, 6950 S. Country Club Road, where it is manu-facturing a new racking system in part replac-ing the manufacturing of solar panels which was shut down last year because it was no longer cost-eff ective to compete against the lower prices of foreign manufacturers.

Solon has licensed a material called Fibrex from Andersen Windows to build the rack sys-tems meant for commercial rooftop solar in-stallations. It has just begun to put the systems out on the market, according to Dan Alcom-bright, president and CEO of Solon.

Terms of Microsol’s acquisition were not disclosed and approval is still pending from authorities in Italy, where Solon has a major operation in Carmignano di Brenta. Th e ac-quisition covers about 600 employees world-wide, including about 60 Tucson employees. Microsol has about 325 employees.

Under the new corporate name Solon Energy GmbH, the company says it plans to expand, not only in North America but into India, Asia and the Middle East.

Alcombright said Microsol is supportive of Solon’s business plan that is now focusing on large-scale commercial installations. Besides its Tucson headquarters, the U.S. division has offi ces in Phoenix and San Francisco.

Unable to renegotiate loan terms, Solon SE fi led for insolvency, the European equivalent of bankruptcy, in mid-December.

Grijalva bill seeks tohalt post offi ce closure

U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., on Wednesday (March 7) introduced a bill that would prevent the U.S. Postal Service from closing any postal facility serving a “high-growth” zip code.

Grijalva’s bill would require postal service offi cials to work with the U.S. Department of Commerce so no closure would negatively im-pact a zip code defi ned by the Commerce De-partment as “high-growth” at the beginning of each year.

“If this is about planning for the future, let’s really plan for the future instead of saving a penny today by costing ourselves a dollar to-morrow,” Grijalva said. “Cutting off economic activity in the highest-growth areas in the country is the opposite of responsible long-term budgeting. Th is is about saving Tucson and other rapidly growing parts of the country from getting cut off at the knees. It’s as simple as that.”

Last month, postal service offi cials con-fi rmed their intention to close the Tucson sort-ing facility at 1501 S. Cherrybell Stravenue. A date for the closure was not set and the postal service had agreed it would not close any facil-ities until May 15, pending action in Congress.


Red Red Balloon would create and sell apps that introduce children to languages and facilitate learning though interaction.

“We want to provide a meaningful in-troduction to language for preschoolers,” team member Lily Yu said.

Th e computer apps are based on es-tablished teaching concepts like interac-tion theory, input theory and sociolin-guistic theory — where culture and social values of a culture factor into the learning process.

Th e fi rst app will help students learn French, with English, Mandarin, Italian, Portuguese, German and Arabic language apps planned for the future.

Innovation Day events also featured an award ceremony where student and fac-ulty innovators and entrepreneurs were honored.

Th is year’s faculty researcher honorees were:

Eric A. Betterton, Ph.D., whose research in atmospheric and environmental chem-istry focuses on creating an atmospheric model to forecast wind-blown dust from natural and man-made sources;

Leslie Gunatilaka, Ph.D., who explores the potential medicinal compounds of exotic plants from the arid zones of Asia, South America and the Sonoran desert;

Larry Head, Ph.D., whose research on priority based traffi c signals is aimed at saving the lives of fi re and rescue fi rst re-sponders;

Sharon Megdal, Ph.D., who works on state and regional water resource man-

agement and planning to meet future wa-ter needs of growing, semi-arid regions;

and James T. Schwiegerling, Ph.D., who is developing a design for an accom-

modating intraocular lens, which could be used as a replacement in cataract sur-gery.

Th is year’s faculty Technology Innova-tion Award recipient was Ronald S. Wein-stein, M.D. Weinstein is an acclaimed academic physician who invented “tele-pathology,” a healthcare delivery system that uses the power of broadband tele-communications. He also is the founding director of the Arizona Telemedicine Pro-gram (ATP).

Doctoral candidate Alexandra Arm-strong, who studies veterinary sciences and microbiology, received the student Technology Innovation Award. Armstrong works in preventing bacterial food borne diseases and was the driving force behind a vaccine to reduce Campylobacter jejuni, a bacteria found in animal feces that can cause food poisoning.

Th e student team honored for their presentations at the Innovation Showcase included:

Mindful Monkee, which received the People’s Choice award and a $200 cash prize;

OnwardPacks, which won for booth appeal, and received $250;

Advanced Armor Applications, took second honors and $150 in booth appeal;

MistoBox, received $250 for communi-cation and fl uency; and Testab, won sec-ond place and $150 in the same category.

Contact reporter Patrick McNamara at

[email protected] or (520) 295-4259.

A demonstration of Testab, one of the student-led innovations that would eliminate the need for scantron sheets in test taking.

Lauren Wicke, right, of Park Genius, describes her groups’ concept to an attendee.

This Week’s Good NewsWho likes soccer?

By all accounts FC Tucson’s second annual Desert Diamond Cup was a success — bigger and better than the fi rst year. And the four Major League Soccer teams that came to Tucson for their Spring Training said positive things about their visit.

At the rate things are going, next year’s events could be bigger and better yet and that would get them closer to replacing the much-lamented departure of Major League Baseball Spring Training.

Consider this, in the last year of baseball Spring Training in 2010, total attendance for games at what was then known as Tucson Elec-tric Park was 99,698 and the year before it was 121,281. Th at made for an average attendance per game of 6,647 in 2010 and 6,738 in 2009.

Th is year, total attendance at what is now Kino Stadium, totaled 30,445 or an average at-tendance of 7,611. Th at’s at least 13 percent more per game.

The Tucson

INSIDERInsights and trends on developing and

ongoing Tucson regional business news

Baltimore looks good Offi cials at Tucson International Airport are

constantly reminding us that when it comes to airline service, we either “use it or lose it.” Th at’s why it’s good news that passengers seem to be responding to Southwest Airlines new season-al service to Baltimore.

Bonnie Allin, president and CEO of the Tucson Airport Authority, told her board of di-rectors this week that bookings are strong for the fl ight and, from personal experience last weekend, a fl ight she took appeared to be about 80 percent fi lled. Th at was good consid-ering that Southwest’s Dec. 7 announcement of the new fl ight that started Feb. 12 didn’t al-low for a lot of advance advertising and promo-tion.

It turns out there was a reason for that short notice. Southwest lost a bidding contest in De-cember with JetBlue Airways to get some land-ing “slots” at Reagan National Airport in Wash-ington, D.C. Th e aircraft Southwest had been planning to use at Reagan suddenly couldn’t be used there so the airline’s schedulers started to look to Baltimore, where they have a major operation, and found the numbers indicated there could be signifi cant demand for the fl ight.

Th e seasonal fl ights to Baltimore are sched-uled to end April 9 but, fi ngers crossed, Tucson airport offi cials are hoping they can continue to make their case for the fl ights to return.

“Th e wildcard is the cost of fuel,” Allin said.


Legislators to off er mid-session progress report on March 23Inside Tucson Business

At the fast-pace that proposals can make their way through the Legislature, the challenge can be keeping up and be-ing prepared for a quick trip to Phoenix to be heard. Th e Arizona Small Business Ad-ministration (ASBA) is turning the tables a bit on that scenario and is bringing state lawmakers to Tucson for a special Legis-lative Luncheon.

Senate President Steve Pierce, R-Prescott, will be the keynote speaker at the luncheon, which will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 23 at the Westin La Palo-ma Resort and Spa, 3800 E. Sunrise Drive. Other scheduled participants include

Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, and Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, who will provide the Southern Arizona perspective on the cur-rent session.

“Each year the governor visits Tucson and delivers the State of the State which is always well received. However, we in Southern Arizona don’t normally have the opportunity to receive an update until after the session concludes,” said Jerry Busta-mante, senior vice president for public policy of ASBA and whose responsibilities include the Southern Arizona offi ce.

“We are pleased that Senator Pierce has accepted our invitation to come to Tucson while still in session, as well as Representa-tive Farley and Senator Melvin, to provide

Southern Arizona with a legislative up-date.”

Bustamante said the event is intended to provide Southern Arizonans with a non-partisan update from legislative leaders.

Th e luncheon will address the issues that have become a priority in this session and gain insight as to what measures are likely to get passed into law.

In addition to the participants, Busta-mante said all lawmakers from Southern Arizona have been invited to attend the luncheon.

Tickets for the luncheon are $50 each or tables of 10 for $450 with discounts for ASBA members. Register online at www.asba.com or (520) 327-0222.

NEWS

BANKRUPTCIESChapter 11 - Business reorganization Daeros Pacifi c Group LLC, 40 N. Swan Road #118. Principal: James Webb, member. Assets: $18,854.38. Liabilities: $78,679.41. Largest creditor: Internal Revenue Service, $61,351.27. Case No. 12-03992 fi led March 1. Law fi rm: C.R. Hyde

Michael G. Byrne, 5084 E. Fort Lowell Road. Principal: Michael G. Byrne, debtor. Assets: $1,532,711.00. Liabilities: $1,766,399.00. Largest creditor: Chase, Columbus, Ohio, $460,617.00, and Bank of America, Simi Valley, Calif., $417,000.00. Case No. 12-04197 fi led March 5. Law fi rm: Eric Slocum Sparks

LIENSFederal tax liens Aloha Appraisals & Real Estate LLC and Michael A. Herrington, 1145 N. Craycroft Road, Suite 101. Amount owed: $22,595.28.Meridian Design & Construction Inc., 10651 E. Calle Nopalito. Amount owed: $5,073.51. Fit Center and Specialty Fitness LLC, 5555 E. Fifth St. Amount owed: $2,943.47. Better Bodies Wellness LLC and Jeramy James Price, 7285 E. Tanque Verde Road. Amount owed: $6,416.28. Steve Reno Inc., 7956 E. Nicaragua Drive. Amount owed: $7,258.45. Reata Equine Veterinary Group LLC and Michael Conaway, 9100 E. Tanque Verde Road, Suite 100. Amount owed: $1,167.53.Perfect View Landscape LLC, 2171 W. Holladay St. Amount owed: $8,057.74. Liberty Tax Service and Willingham Accounting Services LLC, 1016 W. Prince Road. Amount owed: $2,730.00. Nelson Works Inc., 4140 W. Camino Del Yucca, Sahuarita. Amount owed: $28,744.96. Hunter’s Tile Interiors LLC and John Pesquiera, 4115 W. Ironwood Hill Drive. Amount owed: $28,656.38. Catalina Limousine & Transportation Services Inc., 3365 S. Country Club Road. Amount owed: $7,813.77. Diamond Jade Concrete Cutting LLC, 512 E. 28th St., South Tucson. Amount owed: $8,593.87. Old Pueblo Human Resources LLC and Christy Dotson, 5175 W. Ajo Highway A-15. Amount owed: $4,905.46. GFG Metalworks LLC and Marla Ruane, 3448 N. Scott Mine Lane. Amount owed: $5,983.96. Refl ections at the Buttes Limited LLC, 9800 N. Oracle Road, Oro Valley. Amount owed: $4,258.32. A&L Auto Care and Arturo Estrada, 4325 S. Sixth Ave. Amount owed: $3,555.77. Settle Enterprises Inc., 5725 W. Bopp Road. Amount owed: $2,151.68. Print Room Inc., 4633 E. Broadway. Amount owed: $80,107.83 (refi le) Chariot Pizza Inc., 3930 N. Flowing Wells Road. Amount owed: $30,226.39 (refi le)Arizona Academy Leadeership Inc., 6262 S. Sun View Way. Amount owed: $22,306.91. All That Vending and Norris Williams, 1664 E. Calle Grandiosa. Amount owed: $6,318.23. Ram Electric Inc., 4532 E. 32nd St. Amount owed: $47,875.64. CJ’s Services LLC and Milton James, 9661 E. Moonbeam Drive. Amount owed: $1,506.43. Cowboy’s Sweetheart LLC and Ellen Stateler, 4729 E. Sunrise Drive 267. Amount owed: $2,869.72. Envision Corp., PO Box 90676, 85752. Amount owed: $4,873.21. Gateway West Realty Inc., 2151 W. Felicia Place. Amount owed: $37,296.15. Paul’s Dental Lab and Paul M. Anderson, 4463 N. Avenida De Pimeria Alta. Amount owed: $10,589.67. Carefree Landscaping Inc., 2075 E. Benson Highway. Amount owed: $9,357.57. Affordable Window Tinting, 932 W. Grant Road. Amounts owed: $36,786.19 and $137,080.58. Desert Pines Eldercare LLC and Ronald G. Cavelero, 17420 S. La Canada Drive, Sahuarita. Amount owed: $18,418.83. Kidsville and Deborah Nickell, 4055 N. First Ave. Amount owed: $7,210.10.

PUBLIC NOTICESPublic notices of business bankruptcies, foreclosures and liens filed in Tucson or Pima County and selected filings in Phoenix. Addresses are Tucson unless otherwise noted.

Dick Morris highlights Metro Chamber’s ‘Outlooks’ Th ursday Inside Tucson Business

Tuesday (March 13) is the fi nal day to register to hear four widely recognized ex-perts, highlighted by Washington insider Dick Morris, who will reveal their insights on topics crucial to the Tucson region and its future.

“Outlooks, Taking Charge of Change,” being put on by the Tucson Metro Chamber, will take place from 8 a.m. to noon Th ursday (March 15) at the Casino Del Sol Resort & Conference Center, 5655 W. Valencia Road.

Mike Varney, president and CEO of the chamber, said the focus of the event is “business intelligence, to help the business community shape business decisions and public policy going forward.” He said he hopes to be able to make it an annual event with diff erent nationally recognized experts addressing current event topics Tucsonans fi nd important.

Th is year’s speakers are:• Morris, a former Republican political

strategist and consultant to among others Bill Clinton, will provide his insight on the latest happenings in the presidential elec-tion.

• Ron Clark, who has gained notoriety for his success as a teacher working in poor rural schools and in Harlem in New York, will share strategies to improve American education.

• Grady Gammage Jr. is a senior research fellow with the Mor-rison Institute for Public Policy at Ari-zona State University and a practicing law-yer and author, will speak on the topic “Tucson’s Place in the Sun Corridor.”

• Todd Landfried, executive director of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, has been a leader in immigration reform, an issue he says “has divided our state, dam-aged our reputation and our economy.”

Th e cost to attend “Outlooks” is $49 for members of the Tucson Metro Chamber, or $75 for non-members. Reg-ister online at www.Tuc-sonChamber.org or call (520) 792-2250 ext. 132. Reservations are be-ing requested, though tickets will be available at the door.

Th e event Wednesday starts at 7 a.m. when the venue opens with exhibits and food items

for a “walking breakfast” and networking. Th e exhibits and food will remain open after the speakers until 1 p.m.

Th e program for “Outlooks” is inserted as a special section in this week’s issue of Inside Tucson Business.


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Snowbirds and the business — and money — they bring to ArizonaBy Christina DawidowiczArizona-Sonora News Service

Nancy Bale and her husband last owned a home in Colorado before they decided to sell and travel state to state. So where do they go in the winter? Arizona, of course.

Welcome to the snowbirds.Shortly after Th anksgiving, snowbirds

suddenly seem to appear in large numbers and take over the road, shops and RV parks. With them comes something good for the state: money.

Statistics on snowbirds cannot be easily found. Data of winter visitors in Tucson are kept but are not separated into a separate snowbird database. According to a study done by Arizona State University professors, during the 2002-2003 winter season, more than $600 million was put into the Arizona economy by snowbirds living in RV/trailer/mobile homes.

Researchers estimated 300,000 snow-birds in Arizona for that season. Elizabeth Farquhar from the School of Business at ASU, also worked on the study said they stopped collecting snowbird data due to changes in “bird behavior.”

“We used to survey RV parks, since most were using mobile homes as their win-ter residencies. We found however, that increasing numbers had second homes, eliminating check in records, which made it diffi cult to know when they came and left,” said Farquhar.

According to the Arizona Offi ce of Tour-ism, no studies on snowbirds have been done in the past 6 years. With a research cost of over $100,000 and a lack of fund-ing, the department had to prioritize which studies to conduct.

“Our agency is currently looking into an

other winter visitation survey,” said Kiva Couchon, the Arizona Offi ce of Tourism public information offi cer and communica-tion manager.

“We cant to know and understand the economic impact,” Couchon added.

According to Couchon, a snowbird study takes a lot of coordination of people and they are looking into more partnerships to conduct the study.

“What’s not to like?” said Carmen Geog-grion, a snowbird from New Mexico. Geog-grion comes to Tucson to visit friends and family and shop.

“Th e traffi c here is fantastic compared to Phoenix,” she said.

According to Mariam Saleh, a former business owner on Tucson’s Fourth Avenue, and Rhonda Valentino, a real estate agent for Tierra Antigua Realty, snowbirds gener-ally come from the upper-midwest states such as Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and other norther states including Washington and Oregon.

Saleh, says that January to April is the strongest time for business from snowbirds. However, she adds that, “from time to time,

I would see some snowbird business in No-vember and December. “

With December being a time for students to return their families, business can be ex-pected to be slow. With Saleh’s business, she saw the opposite for a combination of rea-sons. November to December sales would increase due to the holidays.

“If I were to characterize winter break spending, I would roughly estimate 35 per-cent local shoppers, 20 percent tourists, 25 percent snowbirds and 20 percent students,” Saleh said.

As for what did Saleh’s business supply to cater snowbirds? Toys.

“I ordered more toys for children during snowbird season. Th ey were much more likely to spend money on nice homemade gifts for grandkids than a parent with young children,” Saleh added.

For snowbirds, it is all about the weather, restaurants and activities Tucson has to of-fer, such as the Tucson Gem and Mineral show and the Fourth Avenue Street Fair.

“Weather is the biggest thing,” said Mi-chael Tantillo, a snowbird from Chicago who has been coming to Tucson for 11

years. “Chicago is full of high humidity and it’s cold,” he added.

Valentino believes that snowbirds bring a lot to Tucson’s economy. According to Valentino, a new change that started about a year ago is the snowbirds’ ages.

You can now fi nd snowbirds in their 50s who “make purchases now while they are still working and when prices are lower,” Valentino said.

Snowbirds, who come from as Valentino puts it, “states that have a nasty winter,” are now shopping for homes in southern states as their second residence.

From her experience, when a snowbird starts house hunting, especially in this buy-er’s market, they rarely give up.

“Th ey usually make a purchase before they leave,” said Valentino.

Snowbirds also contribute greatly to RV parks. Pericles Wyatt owner of Desert Trails RV Park located west of the Tucson Moun-tains near Ajo Highway and San Joaquin road, has owned the RV Park for 14 years and greatly depends on snowbirds for busi-ness.

“Th is business wouldn’t be here without them,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt sees snowbirds leaving the cold weather behind from northern states and even from some parts of Canada. His big-gest state visitor is Colorado.

“Without the good weather we would not attract them,” he said.

Wyatt fully understands the value of the snowbird and knows that any business can and will benefi t from visits of snowbirds.

Wyatt said he believes that snowbirds are self-suffi cient and that more RV parks are needed to boost Tucson’s economy.

“Th e more RV parks the better for the economy,” said Wyatt.


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GOOD BUSINESSPR CORNER

You can learn a lot about your business through associationsRemember the days when there was

a public relations department staff ? Of course, those were the days of the three martini lunch. Not only are we all dry now — at least at lunch — we are often a staff of one wearing many organizational hats. With demands on our time and attention coming from so many directions, it can be diffi cult to be fresh or brainstorm as a lone wolf.

If you don’t think you’re going to be able to grow your staff , why not reach out to fellow professionals. An excellent place to connect with profes-sional peers is in local industry asso-ciations; use these to make connections and let the brainstorming begin.

As a former membership chair of Tuc-son’s chapter of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), I was often asked, “Why should I become a member?”

If you’re going to hire a plumber you do your re-search, check the professional orga-nizations, creden-tials and reviews, correct? Th e same should hold true if you are looking for advice, refer-rals, contractors or

fresh ideas on a professional level. Turn to a trusted group of your peers to point you in the right direction, to exchange ideas, to just to do a sanity check.

When you operate in a void, it’s easy to second guess your instincts and arrive at the conclusion that you are crazy. You’re not. You are just lacking fresh peer perspective.

My professional group is the Southern

TERRY MARSHALL

Arizona chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Th is chapter off ers a rich continuum of industry and life experiences to anyone bold enough to reach out. You don’t need to be a social butterfl y but you can’t be a couch potato either. Coff ee or lunch with a peer can be informative and a way to jumpstart a new direction for a campaign — or a career.

When you invest in yourself as a professional do you buy an iPad? Often, association dues are half the cost. Do you register for a conference? Dues are less than half of an industry conference and you don’t need to leave town. So you can leverage your time and limited funds by joining your professional or-ganization. What are you waiting for?

Not sure how to start? For commu-nications, you can contact the Southern Arizona chapter of PRSA — prsatucson.

org — or the International Association of Business Communicators — iabctucson.com. For marketing check out the Ameri-can Advertising Federation of Tucson — AAFTucson.org — or the Tucson American Marketing Association — tucsonama.com. If you are a real estate agent, lawyer, doctor or even a chef, you can visit Inside Tucson Business’ annual Book of Lists and fi nd one that should fi t your area under the list-ing for Business and Trade Associations.

Terry Marshall is the associate director

of marketing and public relations for the Tucson

Symphony Orchestra and is the 2012 president

of the Southern Arizona chapter of the Public

Relations Society of America, whose members

produce this monthly column. Marshall’s

career includes more than two decades as a

rock music journalist.






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TOURISM IN TUCSON

VisitTucson website gets visitors excited about Tucson happenings

Tucson is largely a leisure destination, at-tracting visitors from across the globe to ex-perience the authenticity of Real Southwest.

To support the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau mission to enhance the economic prosperity of the region through tourism, the MTCVB Mar-keting department oversees the develop-ment and execution of the bureau’s multi-media ad-vertising campaigns that are strategically designed to increase awareness of — and travel to — Tucson and Southern Arizona.

Th rough research-driven and results-oriented metrics, we utilize several distribu-tion channels to reach key audiences in domestic and inter-national markets, driving consumers to our website — www.visitTucson.org — to connect, infl uence and convert travelers. Th is is a strategy that contin-ues to produce an impressive return on investment. In 2011, for every $1 the MTCVB invested, an estimated $4,542 was returned in direct travel spending.

Since 2008, the MTCVB has worked with TNS, the world’s largest custom market research company, to determine the economic impact and market reach of visitTucson.org. TNS, founded in the 1960s as Taylor Nelson Sofres group, the fi rm’s clients include several For-tune 500 companies and the U.S. Travel Association. Th e most recent website evaluation was conducted from January through May 2011, during which time TNS intercepted online visitors to survey and assess consumers’ website usage and determine the economic impact that visitTucson.org has on visitation.

Website visitors were queried by TNS about their primary travel activi-ties and intentions, whether the content they found on visitTucson.org was relevant to their specifi c trip-planning needs, and most importantly, if the website infl uenced their decision to choose Tucson over other compet-ing travel destinations. According to TNS, online consumers are, on aver-age, looking at seven diff erent destina-tions when they’re deciding where to take their next vacation and utilizing 22 diff erent websites for comparison.

TNS also conducted follow-up sur-veys from May through August last year to determine conversion and travel spend-ing. Th at is, did respondents actually visit the Tucson area? And if so, how much

did they spend while they were here? Here are the TNS fi ndings: • Nearly 80 percent of all visitTucson.org

traffi c is new visitors — an indicator that new awareness for Tucson is being created.

• 79 percent are extremely likely to visit Tucson — an indicator that brand positioning is having an impact.

• 73 percent actually visited Tucson.• 50 percent of all visitTuc-

son.org unique website visi-tors actually came to Tucson.

Further, on average, visitors stayed fi ve days and spent $1,600. Among overnight visitors, 66 per-cent stayed in hotels and 28 percent stayed with friends and family.

To determine the ROI of visit-

Tucson.org, TNS multiplied the 56,773 monthly unique visitors by the 50 per-cent conversion rate, then multiplied the 28,387 by the actual, on average, travel spending per party to reach a $45.4 mil-

lion monthly economic impact.Utilizing visitTucson.org to attract more

overnight hotel visitors and generate more revenue through longer stays, increased spending and repeat visitation is a key strategic initiative. Adopting newer digital technologies has enhanced our online marketing eff orts, producing measurable results across digital platforms. Taking visit-Tucson.org mobile and creating mobile-optimized content for a Spanish bilingual app primarily for the Mexican visitor and a Gem Show app for showcase attendees have connected travelers in real time to our partners, creating new business demand.

Of visitTucson.org’s 4 million page views, nearly 700,000 were MTCVB partner listings.

MTCVB’s marketing department contin-ues to employ cutting-edge technol-ogies that deliver engaging online experiences to increase Web activity and social sharing. We’ve initiated a new website redesign with Simplev-iew, a Tucson-based company that serves more than 200 destination marketing organizations across North America, as well as destina-tions in Australia and Malaysia. It is scheduled to be completed in September 2012, which will have ad-vanced interactivity, seamless navi-gation and improved user interface.

Tourism is the door to economic development. And eff ective tour-ism promotion, according to the U.S. Travel Association, is one of the best investments local govern-ments can make as it will drive visitation, increase travel spending, produce greater tax revenues that lessen the burden on residents, and create new jobs. Th e association reports that for every dollar state and local entities invest, tour-ism can produce as much as a 31-to-1 return on investment.

Th e recent performance audit by Pima County of the MTCVB re-ported that the bureau was respon-sible for generating $170 million in revenue in 2009, an impressive 30-to-1 return on investment.

Contact Allison CooperJane

Roxbury, director of Convention

Services at the Metropolitan Tucson

Convention and Visitors Bureau at at

[email protected] . Th is monthly

column is prepared by the MTCVB. Allison

Cooper is the Director of Marketing at the

MTCVB. She can be reached via email at

[email protected].

ALLISON COOPERR

TOURISM


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KVOA 4, Arizona Public Media fi ll high-profi le vacancies By David HatfieldInside Tucson Business

To fill a couple of high-profile news anchoring vacancies, KVOA 4 is bringing back two faces Tucson viewers are likely to recognize: Allison Alexander, a former weekend anchor on KGUN 9, and Rebecca Taylor, a former morning and weekend anchor at KVOA 4.

Alexander, who will anchor the noon and 4 p.m. weekday newscasts, is returning from Phoenix where she was a morning news anchor on independent station KTVK. Her career also has taken her to the ABC affiliate in Providence, R.I.; the CBS affiliate in Cleveland; and the CBS affiliate in Shreveport, La.

She’s a graduate of Arizona State University’s the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

She is in part replacing Martha Vazquez, the long-time anchor who suddenly resigned last month after being accused of shoplifting from Dillard’s at Tucson Mall.

KVOA says Alexander’s first day should be March 19.

Meanwhile, Taylor is returning from

Nashville, Tenn., where she was a business manager for Christian Dior and worked in the country music entertain-ment industry since she left KVOA in October 2010. She’s due back at the station March 21. She will return to co-anchoring KVOA’s weekend news-casts with Brandon Gunnoe and be a reporter three days during the week.

Taylor grew up in Tucson and graduated of the University of Arizona, which also included a stint as an intern at the station. She was part of the launch of KMSB’s original local news team in

2003 and moved to Phoenix where she was an anchor at KTVK before coming back to Tucson and KVOA in August 2007.

Taylor replaces Emily Guggenmos, who with her husband, former KMSB 11 anchor Lou Raguse, left this month to go to work for a station in Buffalo, N.Y.

KVOA News Director Cathie Batbie-Loucks noted the fact that both Alexan-der and Taylor already know Tucson and add “tremendous depth of our on-air news talent.”

person in Jacqueline Kain, who has come from Los Angeles where she has been an independent new media consultant since July 2009 and before that spent 19 years at the PBS station there; the first 11 years as director broadcasting and program development and then as senior vice president of new media. (The station, KCET, by the way, was one of the founding stations of PBS but ended that relationship at the end of 2010.)

Kain’s career also included being a curator in New York for Britain’s Chan-nel 4, a consultant to the British Film Insistute and director of TV and video exhibition for the American Film Institute.

Jack Gibson, director and general manager of Arizona Public Media, says the goal is for Kain to focus on “creating, acquiring, and distributing distinctive and relevant content about Southern Arizona, the University of Arizona, and the Southwest.”

In the announcement, Kain said, “My first goal will be to review and refresh our existing productions and online resources. The next objective will be to broaden program offerings and increase audience engagement here in Southern Arizona.”

Arisona Public Media outlets include KUAT-TV 6 and its digital channels PBS Kids, PBS-World, Ready TV and V-me and radio stations KUAZ 89.1-FM/1550-AM and KUAT-FM 90.5-FM/89.7-FM.

Contact David Hatfield at

[email protected] or (520) 295-4237.

Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.

MEDIA

Allison Alexander Rebecca Taylor Jacqueline Kain

Public Media content officer

A couple of years ago, the University of Arizona’s Arizona Public Media created a position called chief content officer. It was a high-ranking position within the organization and it was made clear that it was more important to find the right person than to rush to fill it.

Well, they’ve finally found their


ber ale. Th e new brew, 1922 Amber Ale — named for the year El Charro opened — is now being served at all fi ve of the restau-rant’s locations.

• El Charro Café — www.elcharrocafe.com — loca-

tions: 311 N. Court Ave. (520) 622-1922; 6310 E. Broadway in El Mercado (520) 745-1922; 7725 N. Oracle Road in Oracle Crossings, Oro Valley, (520) 229-1922; 6910 E. Sunrise Drive in Ventana Village (520) 514-1922; and 15920 S. Rancho Sahuarita, Sahuarita, (520) 325-1922

Pastiche goes Irish Pat and Julie Connors will celebrate

their Irish heritage and transform their Pastiche Modern Eatery into an Irish pub for St. Patrick’s Day March 17. It will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. featuring special menu items.

Th e apppetizer menu will include leek and bacon tart, Irish potato soup (with bacon and chopped chives) and soda bread. Main course choices include corned beef and cabbage; a hamburger steak topped with porter cheddar, gravy made with Guinness stout, pepper bacon and a fried egg; grilled lamp chops with Irish whiskey cream sauce and trout coated in oatmeal and cooked in brown butter. Top off the meal with a cheese-cake made with Bailey’s Irish Cream, pie made with Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey or cake made with Guinness stout.

• Pastiche Modern Eatery, 3025 N. Campbell Ave. in Campbell Village — http://pasticheme.com — (520) 325-3333

Contact Michael Luria at mjluria@gmail.

com. Meals & Entertainment appears weekly in

Inside Tucson Business.

will jog west one block to Church Avenue then north to Franklin Street where it will turn west to Main Av-enue to Alameda turning east to end up back at El Presidio Park.

MusicTh e Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra

and Choir will perform Johann Bach’s Mass in B Minor at 7 p.m. Sunday (March 11) in Centennial Hall, 1020 E. Univer-sity Blvd. on the University of Arizona campus. Th e group was assembled by conductor Ton Koopman to record all of Bach’s secular and sacred cantatas and has won numerous awards for their work. A 25-member choir joins the 27-mem-ber orchestra to present the work as it has rarely been performed. Buy tickets at UApresents — www.uapresents.org.

Also, the Tucson Winter Chamber Mu-sic Festival wraps up this weekend in the Leo Rich Th eater in the Tucson Convention Center downtown and the dinner gala and concert takes place Saturday night at the Arizona Inn. To check tickets and avail-ability for the concerts go to the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music’s website — http://arizonachambermusic.org.

FilmA few interesting fi lms of note are

scheduled to open on Tucson screens this weekend. First up is “Friends with Kids,” starring Jon Hamm, of “Mad Men.” Also out is the comedy “Jeff Who Lives at Home,” with Jason Siegel and Ed Helms, and the horror fl ick “Silent House,” with Sundance starlet Elizabeth Olsen. All are compet-ing against the mega-million Disney fl ick “John Carter” for audience dollars.

Contact Herb Stratford at herb@

ArtsandCultureGuy.com. Stratford teaches

Arts Management at the University of

Arizona. His column appears weekly in

Inside Tucson Business.

HERB STRATFORD

ARTS & CULTURE

After taking a fourth-month respite, Broadway In Tucson resumes its 2011-2012 season with “Rock of Ages” next week in the Music Hall at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave. Nominated for fi ve Tony Awards, this smash hit is a 1980s-themed musical that is part comedy, part love story about a small-town girl who falls in love with a big-time star at a Los Angeles rock club. Th is trip back in time will bring back memories of mullets and leg warmers along with music by Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar and others.

A big-screen movie version of the play is due out this summer star-ring Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin.

Meanwhile, the curtain goes up on performances of the Broadway In Tucson presentation at 7:30 p.m. March 13-15, at 8 p.m. March 16, at 2 and 8 p.m. March 17 and at 1 and 6:30 p.m. March 18. Buy tickets online at www.broadwayintucson.com.

Railroad, Irish celebrationsOn March 20, 1880, a monumental

event occurred that forever changed Tucson’s destiny — the railroad arrived. And it arrived from California at 11 a.m. about an earlier than it was ex-pected. Each year the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum celebrates the arrival of the raiload and this year that celebration will take place at 9 a.m. March 17 at the Historic Depot on Toole Avenue, between Fourth and Sixth avenues. Th is year’s events include a re-enactment of the arrival along with period music, a 1911 Stoddard-Dayton touring car and a display of the origi-nal silver spike that was used in 1881 at Deming, N.M., to connect the nation’s second transcontinental railroad.

Afterward, stick around downtown for the 25th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade that begins with a festival start-ing at 10 a.m. in El Presidio Park Plaza, 160 W. Alameda St. Th e one hour parade gets underway at 11 a.m. and will follow a diff erent route this year, starting at Stone and Pennington avenues and head north on Stone to Council Street where it

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Broadway hit ‘Rock of Ages’comes to Tucson next week

MICHAEL LURIA

MEALS & ENTERTAINMENT

Film, food, brews combine for fun fundraiser at Fox

New Belgium Brewing, brewers of Fat Tire, six local restaurants and the Fox Tucson Th eatre are teaming up for a special event next Friday (March 16) as part of a “‘Clips of Faith’ Beer and Film Tour.”

Here’s the deal: Tucson is one of 18 stops across the country on a tour that will include a showing of a movie titled “Clips of Faith,” a movie made for New Belgium that is supposed to be a collection of “short fi lms about folly, fans and fun.”

In addition to the fi lm, six restaurants — Th e Hub, Delectables, Renee’s Organic Oven, Zona 78, Union Public House and a combined the Abbey/Jax Kitchen — will each create a menu item featuring one of New Belgium’s brews in a compeition.

Next week, leading up to the event, each of the participating restaurants will off er their menu item along with a pairing of a New Belgium brew in their restaurants giving patrons a chance to sample and vote on them. Th e win-ning restaurant will be presented with a “Golden Globe” at the March 16 showing.

Th e whole thing is a fundraiser with proceeds going to benefi t Cyclovia Tucson, which will hold its third annual event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 18. Five miles of city streets in downtown Tucson and South Tucson will be made car-free and people will be invited to walk, bicycle, tricycle, roll-er skate, skateboard, run or use any non-motorized transportation to explore areas around six main areas: Armory Park and the Children’s Museum, Santa Rita Park, South Tucson’s Fourth Avenue “restaurant row,” Arizona Children’s Association and Mission View Elementary School, Santa Rosa Park, and Ochoa Elementary School.

Th ere will be acitivities, food vendors and entertainment at each of the areas.

Organizers say they hope to double last year’s 10,000 participants.

Information about the event at the Fox is on the New Belgium South-ern Arizona Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NBSouthernAZ and more about the Cyclovia event can be found at www.cycloviatucson.org.

El Charro, Barrio team up To help mark El Charro Cafés’ 90th an-

niversary, the Flores family is partnering with Barrio Brewing to create a custom am-

NEWS TO YOU!Business news delivered to you from Inside Tucson Business. Go to http://bit.ly/37USS7 to sign up. BEST PART – IT’S FREE!


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PROFILEHarris Environmental Group strikes balance in environment and economy

By Christy KruegerInside Tucson Busines

In a society often torn between econom-ic growth and preservation of our natural resources, it’s comforting to know there are

individuals working to provide a balanced viewpoint and leading the way in responsible decision making concerning our planet and its

inhabitants.Lisa Harris moved to Tucson from

Chicago in 1987 with an appreciation for the Southwest’s expansive wilderness and million-dollar scenery. After earning her doctorate in wildlife biology from the University of Arizona, she opened Harris Environmental Group, a consulting fi rm with offi ces in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Tempe, in addition to its Tucson headquarters.

Supported by a staff of biologists, archaeologists and mapping specialists, Harris guides clients through policies and regulations designed to protect the area’s

plants and animals, waterways and cultural artifacts. “We work with everyone from private land owners to the Department of Defense,” Harris said.

She points to a Bureau of Land Manage-ment job on Tucson’s eastside as an example of government agency work she’s been hired to perform. “Th ey were doing mesquite thinning to prevent wildfi res,” Harris explained. “Th ey needed an archaeological survey. We found artifacts and created maps of the area so they’d know to stay away from them.”

One of her private sector jobs involved digging in advance of residential construc-tion near Speedway and Euclid Avenue, once the site of a cemetery, according to Harris. “At one time people came and relocated family members, but there are still some bodies there. We dug and we didn’t fi nd anyone.”

On another occasion, she said, they did fi nd someone. Northwest Fire District was building a new station near the Santa Cruz River, an area known for its early commu-nities. Th ere, Harris Environmental archaeologists uncovered the remains of a Native American burial.

Records refl ecting sites that were once inhabited by early populations are held by the Arizona State Museum. “Th ere’s a database we pay to be part of. We plug in a property address and do a search for a one-mile radius. It points to what’s been discovered. Th ey keep the access tight — it’s to safeguard artifacts or they’d be dug up and sold on eBay,” said Harris.

One of her favorite types of projects is exemplifi ed in the Starr Pass development

Lirain Urreiztieta, biologist with Harris Environmental Group, rappels into a cave west of Mission Road in search of bats before Bureau of Land Management sealed the opening.

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BIZ FACTS

Harris Environmental Group Inc.58 E. Fifth St. www.heg-inc.com(520) 628-7648

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Lisa Harris, founder and president of Harris Environmental Group.


WE’RESTRONGER WHEN WE WORK TOGETHERStrengthening the foundation of our community is our cause. Through the YMCA’s Strong Kids Campaign, people from all across our community come together to make our community stronger. Your donation provides much needed financial assistance and valuable program support, ensuring the Y is available to those who need us most.

At the Y, we strive not to turn a child away based on their inability to pay.

MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY!When you give to the Y, your gift has a meaningful, enduring impact right here in Tucson.

To donate online please go to:

TucsonYMCA.org/giving

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PROFILEin the Tucson Mountains on Tucson’s westside. “I like working with developers interested in creating experiences where they integrate resources, such as trails or a golf course. We did the environmental work for Starr Pass. Th ey were very conscious of the footprint they’re leaving.”

Harris has performed work for Pima County, including surveying for cultural artifacts and tortoise burrows on the Arizona Trail and a massive riparian mapping project for all county areas, which involved a total of 2 million acres. She also works for Department of Homeland Security on border projects where she must be escorted by armed guards.

Th e expertise Harris has developed over the years hasn’t gone unnoticed. A representative from a book publishing company was in the audience during a workshop Harris presented a few years ago in conjunction with the Wildlife Society’s annual conference in Tucson. Harris was invited to contribute to a book project for CRC Press titled “Cumulative Eff ects in Wildlife Management.” She is credited as co-editor and she co-authored two chapters.

Intended for use by wildlife biologists and in upper level public management college courses, the book emphasizes the importance of looking at human encroach-ment from a “bigger picture” standpoint,

Harris stated.Personally, Harris is an avid hiker and

nature lover. She serves on the Friends of Saguaro National Park board of directors, which helps raise money for research and park eff orts. She and one of her daughters participated in last October’s BioBlitz, a 24-hour species inventory of Saguaro National Park that attracted over 5,000 volunteers. Harris is also a supporter of Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and is a past member of its board of trustees.

Since moving to Tucson 25 years ago, Harris has seen a change in attitudes concerning protection of our desert and its natural resources. “I think we’ve become more conscious and aware of the environ-ment and more willing to support it. A lot of us moved here because of the moun-tains, blue sky, the saguaros and all things wild. To have those, you need to be supportive and have guidelines to preserve and persevere.”

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Safeguarding cacti on Tumamoc Hill during construction of a new gas pipeline.


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SPECIAL EVENTS

Knowledge Transfer: “The IRS & You: Five Tricky Small Business Tax Deductions”Tuesday (March 20)11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.Tucson Metro Chamber 465 W. St. Mary’s Road Info and RSVP:: [email protected] (520) 792-2250 ext. 135$10 for members; $20 for general admissionwww.tucsonchamber.org

Going Solo: Starting and Building Your Own BusinessWednesday (March 7 and 21)10 a.m. (March 7) and 11:30 a.m. (March 21)Venue: Joel D. Valdez

Main Library 101 N. Stone AvenueContact: [email protected] of (520) 791-4010www.library.pima.govFree

REGULAR MEETINGS

Varsity Clubs of AmericaMidtown MixerFirst Tuesday5 to 7:30 p.m.3855 E. SpeedwayRSVP: [email protected]: (520) 918-3131Cost: free, cash bar, menu available

Alliance of Construction TradesThird Wednesday5 to 7 p.m.Hotel Tucson City Center475 N. Granada Ave.Information: www.actaz.netRSVP: By noon on Monday prior to meeting, (520) 624-3002Cost: $20

American Society of Training and DevelopmentThird Friday (excluding August) 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.Breakfast and professional development meeting El Parador 2744 E. BroadwayInformation: www.ASTD-Tucson.org

ANNUITY INVESTMENT SEMINARS

Common mistakes of annuity ownersEvery Tuesday 3:30 p.m. Bookmans 6230 E. SpeedwayInformation: (520) 990-0009

Arizona Business Leads of Tucson NorthEvery Wednesday except the fi rst Wednesday of the month7:30 to 9:00 a.m.Mimi’s Café 4420 N. Oracle RoadInfo and RSVP: [email protected]

Arizona Real Estate Investors AssociationSecond Tuesday, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.Windmill Suites 4250 N. Campbell RoadInformation: (480) 990-7092 or www.azreia.org Cost: Free, members, $15 nonmembers pre-registered ($20 door)

Arizona Small Business AssociationSO/HO (Small Offi ce/Home Offi ce Community) First and Third Wednesdays 8:15 to 9:30 a.m.ASBA conference center, 4811 E. Grant Road, Suite 262Information: www.asba.comCost: Free to ASBA members

CALENDAR

Now your business can tell Inside Tucson Business about new hires, promotions and special awards online. Go to www.insidetucsonbusiness.com and click the “People in Action” button. From there you can submit your announcement and we’ll publish it online and in print.

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Southern Arizona business leaders fi ght border warning billBy Hank StephensonInside Tucson Business

PHOENIX — Saying it could be the worst thing to hit Arizona tourism since SB 1070, Southern Arizona business and govern-ment leaders are calling on lawmakers to kill a bill that would create a border-region safety warning system.

Th e measure (HB 2586) would require the director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security to monitor and dis-seminate to the public, via social media and email, information considered to be a warning about “dangerous conditions” up to 62 miles north of the border with Mexico. Th at would include parts of the Tucson re-gion.

Th e bill was passed with an initial voice vote of the House and is awaiting a full vote before it can move to the Senate for consid-eration.

Rep. Peggy Judd, R-Willcox, said she de-signed the measure to keep her constituents on the border abreast about the latest safety concerns and to make sure travelers and residents have a reliable source to consult regarding inherent and specifi c dangers of the border area.

But Southern Arizona business and gov-ernment leaders called the bill “reckless” and “damaging to the businesses and econ-omy of the region.”

Th e Tucson Metro Chamber so far hasn’t taken an offi cial stance on the bill, but Rob-ert Medler, vice president of government aff airs, said it is putting up red fl ags and the chamber will oppose it if it moves further.

Medler said the idea that warnings are needed as far north 22nd Street in Tucson are baseless and send a bad message about the region and Tucson.

“It’s going to cut down on our tourism,” he said. “It’s just like a (U.S.) State Depart-ment warning about going into Puerto Pe-ñasco, into Rocky Point — the way that that cuts down tourism, it’s a big concern.”

Bruce Bracker, owner of Bracker’s De-partment Store in Nogales and president of the Nogales Downtown Merchants As-sociation, said the bill will fan the fl ames of border hysteria and further the undeserved bad image border cities are fi ghting.

His longtime family business relies on tourists from both sides of the border and tourism has slowed in recent years for nu-merous reasons, including unfounded fears of safety. Constant email blasts, tweets and Facebook updates about dangers in the area would unnecessarily scare travelers and hurt his bottom line, he said.

“Th is bill has the potential to do more damage to tourism in our state than SB 1070,” he said. “Who wants to go visit a war zone?”

Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino has simi-lar concerns, and he drafted a letter to state lawmakers asking them to kill the bill. He has also been in contact with other mayors along the border including Douglas Mayor Michael Gomez, who are voicing their op-position to the bill.

Garino’s has been fi ghting the negative image of the border, stressing the area is safe, citing FBI crime statistics showing that Nogales has a much lower crime rate than most towns of the same size. He said this new bill, like many measures out of the Leg-islature lately, seeks to pick on and harm the border region to score political points.

Garino is used to warnings south of the border, but said to issue a steady stream of them about part of Arizona is unfair and will hurt the area’s already strained economy.

“Yes, it’s going to hurt us,” he said. “It will stop people from coming to Nogales. We’re struggling as it is, and we need American tourists.”

But Judd, who sponsored the bill and represents a large swath of the region cov-ered under it, said she doesn’t think the bill will harm businesses or towns.

Last year, she got an email from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to fi re-fi ghters working along the border that had some helpful tips, and she wants to make sure someone is culling those government sources and getting that kind of useful in-formation out to the public.

Judd said the memo warned to not au-tomatically trust offi cial looking vehicles or people dressed like police offi cers in the border region; to return with caution to ve-hicles parked in the desert; and to assume anyone approaching you in the border re-gion, even if they say they are sick or hurt, is armed and willing to hurt you.

“When I saw that warning, I never imag-ined that would be a problem, yet knowing that would potentially keep me safe,” she said.

She said she understands the concerns from the business community because her family owns a real estate business but she says people have a right to know the truth.

Instead of stirring up fears of the border region, Judd said the bill will calm fears and dispel rumors by giving people access to ac-curate information in a timely manner from a trusted source. She said she trusts the di-rector of the Arizona Department of Home-land Security to issue pertinent warnings and not needlessly stoke fears.

For his part, Gilbert M. Orrantia, ap-pointed director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, said the bill could

damage Southern Arizona businesses.“I think that when we make a warning it

is a very careful thing that we must do,” he told a House committee hearing on the bill in February. “If we were to warn with regard to a certain area or a specifi c community, that can aff ect commerce — that can aff ect trade to that community.”

Th e warnings are meant to be sent to those who need the information, Judd said, and she is considering amending the bill to exclude social media and only send the information by email to those who request it if it, or to put it up on a state website in-stead, if it will calm her constituents.

But an amendment wouldn’t be enough to calm the concerns of Mindy Maddock, president of the Tubac Chamber of Com-merce and an associate broker with Brasher Real Estate in Tubac.

She sent a letter to lawmakers asking them to oppose the bill and saying the measure “will harm all of our communities including Nogales, Rio Rico, Tubac, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Bisbee and Tucson, to name only a few.”

Maddock said the bill’s sponsor may have good intentions, but she doesn’t un-derstand the reality of the situation along the border. Th e real problem in border communities isn’t crime, she said, it’s the heavy hit from the economic recession, due in part to the negative image propagated by lawmakers’ with bills like this.

“Th e way we look at it, this bill, in its best light, is impractical and irresponsible and in its worst light is highly destructive,” she said. “It is harmful to our economy, it paints our area and all of the Arizona-Mexi-co border as dangerous and uninviting. Our communities and businesses are struggling enough as it is.”

NEWS


BIZ FACTS

Tucson International Mariachi ConferenceApril 28 – 28Casino Del Sol Resort5655 W. Valencia RoadTickets go on sale today(March 9) at tucsonmariachi.org

Table of ten: ASBA Members $400 | Non-members $450Individual seats: ASBA Members $45 | Non-members $50

To register, visit asba.com or call 520.327.0222.

Guest Speakers:

Presented by:

Sen. Al MelvinRep. Steve Farley

Legislative UpdateFriday, March 23 | 11am - 1pm

LUNCHEON2012

Please join us for a special, non-partisan luncheon to learn about the issues that are the top priority of this year’s Arizona Legislature and how this year’s session might conclude.

Keynote Speaker:Arizona Senate President

Steve Pierce

Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa | 3800 East Sunrise Drive, Tucson

Next month’s mariachi conference moves to Casino Del Sol By Lee AllenInside Tucson Business

Th e assorted violins, trumpets, guitars, and on occasion, harps and accordions that make up Tucson’s annual International Mariachi Conference will assemble next month in a new home at the Pascua Yaqui tribe’s Casino del Sol Resort.

“We had a good 29 year run downtown and it was sad to consider leaving, but we needed to make a change and now have a new oppor-tunity to rebuild,” said confrence chairman Alfonso Dancil.

Th e conference has signed a three-year agreement to be staged at the southwest side venue.

“Th is will be the 30th anniversary of the largest and longest-running event of its kind in the world,” according to Daniel Ranieri, presi-dent of La Frontera Arizona, the umbrella or-ganization that uses profi ts from the event to fund community services. “Th is partnership will help us remain the home of the nation’s premiere mariachi conference and allow us to share a common vision which is to preserve the tradition we treasure and establish this as a must attend event.”

Th e annual mariachi conference has raised more than $3.5 million for programs support-

ed by La Frontera.With both good and bad years recorded

over the history of the annual event, in some ways the conference became a victim of its own success.

“We’ve seen similar events spring up throughout the country and in Mexico that were patterned after our eff orts. As a result of that increase in mariachi music availability and a changing economy — coupled with an increase in expenses — it got more diffi cult for us to keep up, even s p a w n i n g p re m a t u re rumors of our demise,” Ranieri said. “We had to fi nd a way to do things diff erently and the partnership with the Pascua Yaqui tribe and Casino del Sol Re-sort should work well for all parties.”

Tribal Council member David Ramirez said the multi-year pact amounted to a win-win as a fundraiser and also represented a milestone for a tribe with 40,000 Yaquis born

in Mexico that were close to the centuries-old musical style.

Casino CEO Wendell Long told report-ers: “Th e tribe decided to step up, not to just subsidize a great event, but to work to make this event even better than in years past. Th e mariachi conference is a shining example of large-scale events that Tucson has become known for hosting. We weren’t interested in a one-year deal because we want to work to make this another of Tucson’s major marquee presentations, ranking right up there with oth-er spotlighted events like the All-Star football game, the golf world’s match play competition, the rodeo, and the gem and mineral show.”

Standing quietly at the back of the press conference Monday (March 5) where the partnership was announced was Steve Neely, executive director of marketing for Sol Casino, who was pondering the reality that just weeks remain to pull the event together. “Th is will be quite an undertaking, but we’re prepared for it and to be involved at this level shows what our new venue is capable of doing,” he said.

Th e conference and festival will run April 25-28, culminating with a grand concert April 27 and a day-long music and dance Fiesta de Garibaldi featuring Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlan and Femenil Nuevo Tecalitlan from Guadala-jara on April 28.

Casino del Sol CEO Wendell Long, at podium, introduces La Frontera Arizona Chairman Daniel Ranieri at a news conference announcing International Mariachi Conference’s new home at Casino Del Sol.

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www.azbiz.com


PEOPLE IN ACTIONAPPOINTMENTS

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney vice president and portfolio manager Alan F. Willenbrock, CFA, has been appointed to the fi rm’s Pacesetter’s Club, a global recognition program for fi nancial advisors who demonstrate the highest professional standards and fi rst class client service. Willenbrock has been with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney since 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA in fi nance from the University of Denver.

PROMOTIONS

The Arizona Small Business Association has promoted Jerry Bustamante to senior vice president of public policy for Southern Arizona.

The Arizona Small Business Association has also promoted Kristen

Wilson. Her new title is chief operating offi cer.

ELECTIONS

Eric D. Eberhard has been elected as the chair of the board of trustees of the Tucson-based Udall Foundation. Eberhard has been a board member since 2000. Eberhard is a Distinguished Indian Law Practitioner in Residence at the Law School at Seattle University. He received his B.A. degree from Western Reserve University in 1967, a J.D. degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1970, and an L.L.M. from George Washington University in 1972.

The Bank of Tucson has elected local insurance industry veteran David Lovitt Jr. to its board of directors. A native Tucsonan, Lovitt has served as principal with the D.M. Lovitt Insurance Agency since 1988 and has nearly 45 years experience in the insurance industry. Lovitt has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the 2008 Paul H. Jones Agent of the Year Award by the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Arizona.

NEW HIRES

Tucson-based HTG Molecular has hired

three professionals to its executive team: Shaun McMeans, vice president of fi nance, administration and CFO; Timothy J Holzer, Ph.D., M.A., vice president of clinical diagnostic development; and Sam Rua, vice president of regulatory affairs and quality systems.

The University of Arizona Department of Surgery has hired Tolga Turker, MD, and Jiyao Zou, MD, assistant professors in the Division of Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery. The two surgeons specialize in the transplantation and replantation of severed digits or extremities and microsurgical reconstruction of damaged areas of

the body from injuries or cancer. In addition to transplantation, Turker and Zou treat all types of hand problems, including nerve compression and degenerative diseases, and perform upper-extremity repair and free-tissue transfer for trauma injuries and skin defects, vascularized-bone transfer for fractures and deformities and toe-to-hand transfer for thumb and fi nger reconstruction. Turker earned his medical degree at Istanbul University in Turkey. Zou received his medical degree from Shandong Medical University in China.

TERRY GALLIGAN MELISSA FROWNFELTER GEORGE BON ISABLE KIM DEBORAH LAHTI BRYAN TUBAUGH

GOOD BUSINESSSMALL BUSINESS

Hidden roadblocks that will stop you from achieving goalsYou’re now two-thirds of the way into the

fi rst quarter of the business year and already, you can see you aren’t on track. If you feel you aren’t achieving what you set out to do as quickly as you wanted, it is time to step back and dig deeper and ask some hard questions about your business goals.

Have you made it real? So many of us are fuzzy about what the goal really looks like. We don’t give it detail and because of this, there is lack of focus.

I encourage clients to set fewer goals and be really clear about them. Set precise, positively worded goals with times, dates, amounts and action steps.

Th en make them visual. Your goals can be written or you can get a pictorial representation. By being creative, you can make your goals more concrete, visual and ever present by putting them where you can see them regularly.

Someone once said “Th e confused mind never buys.” In this case, your mind won’t “buy” your goals unless you help it get clear. Put them where you can see them and enjoy the process.

What are your hidden negative beliefs about this goal? Do you really believe you

can achieve this goal? Does some part of you say this is too hard? Is someone going to get hurt if you achieve this? Is it you?

Many of us are raised with cautions about reaching too far

and getting a big head. Do you believe this goal might have repercussions you aren’t ready to handle?

Sometimes on the path to achieving a goal we see that certain actions will set things in motion we weren’t prepared for. By examining the goal carefully, and looking at your reaction to taking the necessary steps required, and the actual results you will achieve, you may uncover the very thing, usually a fear of some sort that is holding you back.

Is this “your” goal? Or did you set it because it seemed right because the “experts” or your superior said so. If you are your own boss, is it society’s goal, your

parent’s goal or your spouse’s goal? Goals set by others, spoken or unspoken are doomed to failure at some point because unless we are clear about why we are doing it, when problems arise, we will lose momentum.

Sometimes we set a goal because we think we should be at a particular place in our life. We try to live up to a false self-image of where we think we “ought” to be. Goals set from a place of ego enhancement or duty just don’t fl y.

You must own the goal and be sure it is in alignment with your overall plan for yourself and your business.

Is it about give as well as take? We set goals because we want to get something more from our eff orts in our business. Th is is good. Th e question then is, what are you going to give? Better service? An improved product? Improved customer relation-ships?

Focusing only on what you can get shows in every way we relate to others. Don’t think people won’t notice. Th ey may not tell you, but they will know if think of them as the latest kill. Always being on the hunt is exhausting. Creating give and take

business relationships is far more reward-ing.

If you need a bit of guidance and accountability, you may want to consider meeting with a business coach or mentor. Th e Arizona Small Business Association has a valuable coaching program off ering members the opportunity to meet one-on-one with an experienced, credentialed business coach. You can fi nd out more about it by calling the Tucson offi ce at (520) 327-0222.

In his book on achieving success, Deepok Chopra writes, “Success in life (and we assume this means business as well) can be defi ned as continued expansion of happiness and the progression of worthy goals.”

With this attitude, combined with a fearless look at our roadblocks and a commitment to doing our best, we are likely to not only achieve our business goals, but be a lot happier over all.

Louise Abbott works in the Southern

Arizona offi ce of the Arizona Small Business

Association, 4811 E. Grant Road, Suite 262, in

Crossroads Festival, phone (520) 327-0222.

LOUISE ABBOTT

Old Pueblo Community Services Director Terry Galligan received honors in the White House as one of eleven housing counselors and HUD-approved organizations being recognized as Champions of Change. Galligan was recognized for his hard work, perseverance and dedication to the Tucson community, for outstanding commitment and achievement representative of the collective work of thousands of housing counselors across the United States.

Tucson’s Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa has hired Melissa Frownfelter, George

Bon, Isabel Kim, Deborah Lahti and Bryan Tubaugh. Frownfelter is a ten-year hospitality veteran who worked in Minneapolis and Denver. She has B.A. in interior design from Kendall College of Art and Design. Bon has ten years in the hospitality industry. He has a B.S. in sociology from the University of Arizona. Kim is a ten-year Westin La Paloma veteran now serving the Arizona market. Kim earned a B.A. in fi ne arts from Marymount Manhattan College. Lahti serves Northeast region, Washington D.C., and Virginia-based clients. Lhati earned a B.S. in hotel, restaurant and tourism management from New Mexico State University. Tubaugh serves the Midwest market and HelmsBriscoe clients. During his ten-year hospitality career, Tubaugh has contributed to successful sales and marketing programs at Aloft in Tempe and Sheraton Four Points in Tucson.

Now your business can tell Inside Tucson Business about new hires, promotions and special awards online. Go to www.insidetucsonbusiness.com and click the “People in Action” button. From there you can submit your announcement and we’ll publish it online and in print.

{TELL US ONLINE}


CORPORATE REAL ESTATE SERVICES3709 N. Campbell Ave, Suite 201 | Tucson, AZ 85719 | 520.881.8180 | FAX 520.881.5844Contact us at 1.800.831.4090 or at www.cotlow.com | Dean P. Cotlow [email protected]

Whatever you’ve told us drivesour every move.Therefore, what you want iswhat we pursue.What you need is what we get.We never forget that we workfor you.

Whatever you’ve told us drivesour every move.Therefore, what you want iswhat we pursue.What you need is what we get.We never forget that we workfor you.

GET ON THE LISTNext up: Airlines service Tucson, Top airline destinations from Tucson

Inside Tucson Business is in the process of getting data for the 2013 edition of the Book of Lists. Categories that will be published in upcoming weekly issues of Inside Tucson Business are:

• March 16: Acute-care hospitals, Reha-bilitation centers, Nursing care centers and

Home healthcare agencies• March 23: Airlines serving Tucson, Top

airline destinations from Tucson • March 30: 501(c)(3) organizations, Unit-

ed Way allocations, Charitable trusts• April 6: Landscape architects, Swim-

ming pool builders• April 13: Banks, Credit unions If your business fi ts one of these catego-

ries, now is the time to update your profi le. Go to www.InsideTucsonBusiness.com and click the Book of Lists tab at the top of the page. New and unlisted businesses can cre-ate a profi le by following the directions.

Th e Book of Lists is a year-round reference for thousands of businesses and individuals. To advertise your business, call (520) 294-1200.

TECHNOLOGY

Tucson fi rms team on IT solution for mines

Modular Mining Systems Inc., which provides information management solu-tions for mining operations worldwide, has formed an alliance with Tucson Embedded Systems Inc. to develop the hardware of the Modular AssetAlert System, which is billed as an aff ordable asset tracking and manage-ment solution for surface mines.

Th e AssetAlert system allows mines to remotely locate missing equipment, opti-mize equipment utilization, prevent misuse or theft and receive alerts when thresholds are exceeded. AssetAlert runs as a stand-alone system, with a Web-based server and viewers.

Tucson Embedded Systems, headquar-tered at 5620 N. Kolb Road, Suite 160, de-veloped the hardware, which consists of a small, durable device called the Asset Node. It is equipped with on-board GPS, analog input, two digital inputs and outputs, and digital accelerometer.

“Traditionally, mines have struggled to eff ectively manage the hundreds of moving and fi xed assets at their sites. AssetAlert gives mines the tools to not only track equipment, but to better allocate, control, and maintain equipment, saving considerable time and money.” said Lucas Van Latum, manager of technology and innovation at Modular,

Modular Mining Systems’ corporate headquarters are at 3289 E. Hemisphere Loop.

MANUFACTURING Raytheon gets $79M contractfor anti-rocket system

Raytheon Missile Systems has received a $79.2 million contract to develop a system for the U.S. Army that would detect and de-stroy incoming rockets aimed at troops.

Th e system, known as the Accelerated Improved Intercept Initiative, is scheduled for a demonstration in 18 months. Raytheon will develop the interceptor in Tucson and the Army will provide the launcher, fi re con-trol, and command and control systems.

Th e goal, offi cials said, is to protect troops from incoming arms fi re while mak-ing use of existing technology.

“By making extensive use of existing technology and weapon systems, Raytheon will keep down both cost and risk,” said Rodger Elkins, director of advanced Army systems for Raytheon Missile Systems. “Our experience in developing missiles, combined with our expertise as a mission systems integrator, will help us provide the Army with an aff ordable, eff ective weapon system capability.”

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE Negotiations continuefor Starr Pass resort

A foreclosure auction of the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa has been post-poned for a second time as negotiations continue between the lender, US Bank, and a potential buyer.

According to a person familiar with the situation, it’s believed the two parties are close enough to a negotiated settlement that the foreclosure auction will not take place. Oftentimes that is what happens and in this case it was unusual that the lender

appeared headed to take the foreclosure all the way to auction.

Th e source would not identify the po-tential buyer.

An auction of the 525-room resort in the Tucson Mountains was initially sched-uled for Feb. 2 but was postponed at the last-minute to March 2. Technically, the latest postponement has an auction scheduled for

April 2.Th e resort has been

in receivership since developer Christopher

Ansley’s Starr Pass Resort Developments defaulted on a $145 million loan made in August 2006.

Despite the foreclosures, the resort has continued to operate and the management relationship with Marriott remains un-changed.

Antonio Procopio, left, vice president and co-founder of Tucson Embed-ded Systems, and Michael Lewis, vice president of sales and market-ing for Modular Mining Systems, announce partnership for AssetAlert System.


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GOVERNMENTSupervisors decide againstappealing Rayheon valuation

Th e Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (March 6) reversed course and voted against pursuing further legal ac-tions to raise the property valuations for tax purposes for a portion of Raytheon Missile Systems main site south of Tucson Interna-tional Airport.

Th e dispute centered on a reduction fi rst won in the 1950s by the late Howard Hughes. Raytheon, which acquired Hughes Aircraft in 1998, had successfully maintained the lower values through appeals. In December, the supervisors had voted to take their case to the next level but after consulting with attorneys Tuesday, they reversed that deci-sion.

For Raytheon Missile Systems, which pays about $130 million annually in state and local taxes, the reduced valuations have saved the company about $1.7 million in taxes the past three years.

EDUCATION/RESEARCHPCC to off er behavioral health services certifi cate

Pima Community College plans to launch a new program in behavioral health services to help meet demand for entry-lev-el professionals in the fi eld.

Students completing the 18-credit pro-gram will receive a Basic Certifi cate for Di-rect Employment.

In Pima County, the U.S. Bureau of La-bor Statistics projects 16 percent growth for social- and behavioral-health technicians through 2018, and 15 percent growth in psy-chiatric technicians.

Th e new program will be headquartered at Desert Vista Campus and will be off ered in partnership with the Native American Pathways Out of Poverty Network.






TUCSON STOCK EXCHANGEStock market quotations of some publicly traded companies doing business in Southern Arizona

Company Name Symbol Mar. 7 Feb. 29 Change52-Week

Low52-Week

HighTucson companiesApplied Energetics Inc AERG.OB 0.09 0.11 -0.02 0.04 0.89CDEX Inc CEXI.OB 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.01 0.10Providence Service Corp PRSC 15.26 15.05 0.21 8.35 16.10UniSource Energy Corp (Tucson Electric Power) UNS 37.38 36.79 0.59 32.96 39.25

Southern Arizona presenceAlcoa Inc (Huck Fasteners) AA 9.55 10.17 -0.62 8.45 18.47AMR Corp (American Airlines) AMR 0.47 0.50 -0.03 0.20 6.96Augusta Resource Corp (Rosemont Mine) AZC 2.84 2.97 -0.13 2.65 5.66Bank Of America Corp BAC 8.02 7.97 0.05 4.92 14.69Bank of Montreal (M&I Bank) BMO 57.06 58.61 -1.55 51.83 66.64BBVA Compass BBV 8.34 8.99 -0.65 7.02 13.01Berkshire Hathaway (Geico, Long Cos) BRK-B* 78.82 78.45 0.37 65.35 86.91Best Buy Co Inc BBY 24.39 24.70 -0.31 21.79 32.98BOK Financial Corp (Bank of Arizona) BOKF 53.44 53.68 -0.24 43.77 59.59Bombardier Inc* (Bombardier Aerospace) BBDB 4.08 4.75 -0.67 3.30 7.29CB Richard Ellis Group CBG 17.70 18.33 -0.63 12.30 29.88Citigroup Inc C 33.24 33.32 -0.08 21.40 46.90Comcast Corp CMCSA 29.24 29.41 -0.17 19.19 29.92Community Health Sys (Northwest Med Cntrs) CYH 23.91 25.24 -1.33 14.61 42.50Computer Sciences Corp CSC 30.93 31.76 -0.83 22.80 51.43Convergys Corp CVG 12.19 12.88 -0.69 8.49 14.66Costco Wholesale Corp COST 87.89 86.06 1.83 69.54 88.68CenturyLink (Qwest Communications) CTL 38.69 40.25 -1.56 31.16 43.49Cvs/Caremark (CVS pharmacy) CVS 44.71 45.10 -0.39 31.30 45.39Delta Air Lines DAL 9.37 9.81 -0.44 6.41 11.64Dillard Department Stores DDS 62.00 61.14 0.86 37.87 62.29Dover Corp (Sargent Controls & Aerospace) DOV 61.39 64.02 -2.63 43.64 70.15DR Horton Inc DHI 13.99 14.34 -0.35 8.03 14.79Freeport-McMoRan (Phelps Dodge) FCX 38.99 42.56 -3.57 28.85 58.75Granite Construction Inc GVA 27.73 28.60 -0.87 16.92 30.49Home Depot Inc HD 47.39 47.57 -0.18 28.13 48.07Honeywell Intl Inc HON 57.74 59.57 -1.83 41.22 62.28IBM IBM 197.77 196.73 1.04 151.71 201.19Iron Mountain IRM 28.87 31.05 -2.18 25.91 35.79Intuit Inc INTU 57.13 57.84 -0.71 39.87 62.33Journal Communications (KGUN 9, KMXZ) JRN 5.04 4.75 0.29 2.69 6.07JP Morgan Chase & Co JPM 39.95 39.24 0.71 27.85 47.80Kaman Corp (Electro-Optics Develpmnt Cntr) KAMN 32.71 34.49 -1.78 25.73 38.40KB Home KBH 11.13 11.42 -0.29 5.02 13.67Kohls Corp KSS 48.22 49.68 -1.46 42.14 57.39Kroger Co (Fry's Food Stores) KR 24.07 23.79 0.28 21.14 25.85Lee Enterprises (Arizona Daily Star) LEE 1.10 1.13 -0.03 0.49 3.47Lennar Corporation LEN 23.62 23.38 0.24 12.14 24.35Lowe's Cos (Lowe's Home Improvement) LOW 28.87 28.38 0.49 18.07 29.00Loews Corp (Ventana Canyon Resort) L 38.21 39.14 -0.93 32.90 44.46Macerich Co (Westcor, La Encantada) MAC 55.36 53.99 1.37 38.64 56.51Macy's Inc M 38.47 37.97 0.50 22.50 38.22Marriott Intl Inc MAR 35.90 35.28 0.62 25.49 39.29Meritage Homes Corp MTH 25.39 25.89 -0.50 13.68 28.66Northern Trust Corp NTRS 43.64 44.41 -0.77 33.20 52.57Northrop Grumman Corp NOC 59.96 59.81 0.15 49.20 70.61Penney, J.C. JCP 38.79 39.60 -0.81 23.44 43.18Pulte Homes Inc (Pulte, Del Webb) PHM 8.50 8.82 -0.32 3.29 9.31Raytheon Co (Raytheon Missile Systems) RTN 50.71 50.52 0.19 38.35 53.12Roche Holdings AG (Ventana Medical Systems) RHHBY 43.78 43.58 0.20 34.02 45.65Safeway Inc SWY 21.03 21.45 -0.42 15.93 25.43Sanofi -Aventis SA SNY 37.21 37.03 0.18 30.98 40.75Sears Holdings (Sears, Kmart, Customer Care) SHLD 73.90 69.66 4.24 28.89 87.66SkyWest Inc SKYW 11.12 11.42 -0.30 10.47 17.28Southwest Airlines Co LUV 8.49 8.98 -0.49 7.15 12.88Southwest Gas Corp SWX 42.70 42.65 0.05 32.12 43.22Stantec Inc STN 29.02 29.52 -0.50 20.96 31.89Target Corp TGT 56.64 56.69 -0.05 45.28 56.92TeleTech Holdings Inc TTEC 15.12 15.27 -0.15 14.10 22.39Texas Instruments Inc TXN 32.65 33.35 -0.70 24.34 35.98Time Warner Inc (AOL) TWX 36.59 37.21 -0.62 27.62 39.24Ual Corp (United Airlines) UAUA 19.79 20.65 -0.86 15.51 26.84Union Pacifi c Corp UNP 107.84 110.25 -2.41 77.73 117.40Apollo Group Inc (University of Phoenix) APOL 42.51 42.64 -0.13 37.08 58.29US Airways Group Inc LCC 6.91 7.41 -0.50 3.96 10.35US Bancorp (US Bank) USB 28.64 29.40 -0.76 20.10 29.79Wal-Mart Stores Inc (Wal-Mart, Sam's Club) WMT 59.86 59.08 0.78 48.31 62.63Walgreen Co WAG 32.79 33.16 -0.37 30.34 47.11Wells Fargo & Co WFC 30.41 31.29 -0.88 22.58 32.97Western Alliance Bancorp (Alliance Bank) WAL 8.06 8.14 -0.08 4.44 8.51Zions Bancorp (National Bank of Arizona) ZION 18.33 19.00 -0.67 13.18 24.92Data Source: Dow Jones Market Watch

*Quotes in U.S. dollars, except Bombardier is Canadian dollars.

FINANCEYOUR MONEY

Travel journal: Getting to know foreign investments

Foreign investments can play an important role in helping to diversify a domestic equity portfolio. But before plunging into international waters, it’s important to understand the diff erences between developed and emerging markets and the risks inherent to each.

Emerging trendsOnce upon a time, the United States was

considered an emerging market. In the late 1800s, British fi nanciers, noting America’s growth potential, invested in the compa-nies that were building the nation’s infrastructure, particularly the early railroad companies. In doing so, they were accepting more risk than they would have with investments in their own market. Th e United States, after all, was still maturing, and political and social change, as well as many other factors, could have made it a volatile investment market.

Th e same risk/reward characteristics apply to today’s emerging markets, which are found in every corner of the globe. Because they are still maturing, they may have more room for growth than long-established markets, such as the United States. But because the road to maturity is not always a smooth one, there may be bumps along the way.

In general, emerging markets have three characteristics:

• Low or moderate personal incomes.• Economies that are in the process of

being industrialized.• Financial infrastructures, including

stock markets that are still being devel-oped.

A developing infrastructure is what may give an emerging market its growth potential. For example, in an emerging market an industry such as banking might be just beginning to establish itself and therefore have above-average growth potential.

Of course, you need to keep in mind that emerging market investments are generally appropriate for patient investors with long-term time horizons. Emerging market

stock prices can take dramatic swings, and it is essential that you have the time to ride them out or in a worse case scenario, the ability to lose some or all of your initial investment.

Ongoing opportunity

Developed markets typically have higher average incomes than emerging markets, well-established fi nancial institutions and markets and modern infrastructures.

Of course, they may still off er investors the potential for continued growth.

By the same token, like emerging markets, developed foreign markets may be subject to greater risks than domestic investments. Foreign markets may be less effi cient, less liquid and more volatile than those in the United States.

Th ey are also subject to the eff ects of foreign currency fl uctuations and diff ering regulations.

If you decide to build an international element into your investment portfolio, mutual funds and separately managed account strategies that focus on interna-tional investing may be ideas to consider. Professional portfolio managers often have access to information that’s not widely available, not to mention the time and experience required to track events in a variety of markets.

Before expanding your portfolio beyond U.S. borders, contact a qualifi ed fi nancial professional who can help you prepare for this investment journey.

Contact W. David Fay, a second vice president in wealth management and fi nancial advisor with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, at http://fa.smithbarney.com/thefaymillergroup or (502) 745-7069.

W. DAVID FAY


INSIDE REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

By Roger YohemInside Tucson Business

During February, more distressed homes entered the foreclosure pipeline than were sold at the other end. New trustee sales no-tices spiked 30 percent, jumping to 918, from 705 in January.

Notices for the month were up 20 per-cent from February 2011 (see chart).

A trustee’s notice is the fi rst legal action in the foreclosure process. It notifi es owners their property is in default and scheduled to be sold at public auction.

Actual sales of foreclosed homes totaled 437 in February, a 6.6 percent drop from 468 in January. In February 2011, there were 662 foreclosures sold. Th e data comes from the Pima County Recorder’s Offi ce.

Despite the erratic numbers, notices and foreclosures are both expected to decline this year. Th e last wave of fi ve-year adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset in the third quarter. Th ese adjustable loans caused many of the problems in the housing market. After that time, the resets are almost zero.

“As we come to the end of the resets for toxic mortgages, we will see the volume of foreclosure activity begin to lessen,” said housing analyst John Strobeck, owner of Bright Future Business Consultants. “Some who were going to be aff ected took action on their mortgage before the reset date. Many of these were situations where people left their homes to be repossessed by the fi -nancial institution.”

Since the housing market crash began in 2006, there have been 48,700 trustee’s no-tices issued in Pima County. Of those, about 26,300 have gone through the entire foreclo-sure process and been sold.

Th e remaining 22,400 homes represent a combination of multiple notices and bank-owned properties being held as “shadow” inventory.

Foothills WalgreensTh e northwest corner of Swan and Sun-

rise roads will be transformed from fast-food to a Walgreens. Th e drug store-phar-macy chain has acquired the vacant Burger King, 5601 N. Swan Road, and is close to fi -nalizing a deal to acquire the neighboring Pizza Hut, 4655 E. Sunrise Drive.

Th e Burger King property sold for $2.47 million, the site’s land value, according to CoStar. Th e restaurant closed at the end of January and the 3,134-square-foot building will be demolished.

Th e property was sold by the Steven A. Harting Revocable Trust, represented by Robert Nolan, Oxford Realty Advisors. Wal-greens was represented by Rob Tomlinson, Picor Commercial Real Estate Services.

Picor top achievers

Picor Commercial Real Estate Services has honored several executives for their achievements in 2011, with two of the high-est honors going to principals Tom Nieman and Rob Glaser.

Nieman, a commercial broker since 1977, received the President’s Award for ex-cellence. Th e honor from President Michael Hammond recognizes an employee who best represents the Picor brand and reputa-tion in the community.

Nieman has been with Picor since 1995. His prior career experience includes work-ing at Del E. Webb Corporation, Grubb & Ellis and Foothills Mall.

Glaser was named Top Producer. He has been with Picor since 1985 and specializes in industrial properties. He is one of only three Tucson professionals to hold both CCIM (Certifi ed Commercial Investment Member) and SIOR (Society of Industrial and Offi ce Realtors) designations.

“Like Tom, Rob’s award is very signifi -cant. For seven of the last 10 years, he has been our top dog, our top producer,” said chief operating offi cer Barbi Reuter.

Joining Glaser as overall top producers were Peter Douglas and Greg Furrier. By di-vision, the leaders were Glaser in industrial, Furrier in retail, Rick Kleiner in offi ce, and Bob Kaplan in multifamily.

Picor awarded its Property Management awards to: Bob Baker as MVP; Dana Elcess as Manager of the Year; and Linda Montes-Cota for tenant relations. Receptionist Es-tella Armstrong was Administrative Em-ployee of the Year; bookkeeper Maria Cota won the Cost Savings award; and Fast Start honorees were Brandon Rodgers and Liz Parker.

Wild Ride ticketsTicket prices to Wild Ride 2012, present-

ed by the Metropolitan Pima Alliance, are going up to $100 from $85 on March 14. Th is year’s development and land use road show goes northward for “Marana March Mad-ness: Navigating Toward Opportunity.”

Th e event is March 28. It begins at noon at the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain, 15000 N. Secret Springs Drive, Marana, and in-cludes a hosted bus tour that will take riders

Despite spike, foreclosures projected to decline to Sargent Aerospace’s newly expanded fa-cility, Marana Regional Airport, and the Ma-rana Municipal Complex.

Tickets are on sale through March 23. Register online at www.mpaaz.org and click on “events.”

Sales and leases• Walter Hoge purchased the 17,331

square foot Giaconda Offi ce Building, 205-215 W. Giaconda Way, for just over $1 mil-lion from Giaconda Tucson LLC, repre-sented by Mark Biery, Prudential Foothills Real Estate. Th e buyer was represented by Tom Nieman and Bob Kaplan, Picor Com-

WEEKLY MORTGAGE RATES

Program Current Last WeekOne

Year Ago12 Month

High12 Month

Low

30 YEAR 4.00% 4.25%APR 4.00% 4.25%APR 6.18% 6.88% 3.88%

15 YEAR 3.50% 3.75%APR 3.50% 3.75% APR 5.94% 6.75% 3.25%

3/1 ARM 3.00% 3.375%APR 3.13% 3.375% APRThe above rates have a 1% origination fee and 0 discount . FNMA/FHLMC maximum conforming loan amount is $417,000 Conventional Jumbo loans are loans above $417,000

Information provided by Randy Hotchkiss Peoples Mortgage Company, 3131 N. Country Club Suite-107 Tucson, AZ 85716. (520) 327-7600. MB #0115327. Rates are subject to change without notice based upon market conditions.

3/6/2012

THE PULSE: TUCSON REAL ESTATE

2/27/2012 2/20/2012

Median Price $127,000 $137,815Active Listings 6,017 6,634New Listings 389 351Pending Sales 475 86Homes Closed 350 224Source: Long Realty Research Center

Notices of Trustees Sales Pima County Recorder Foreclosures

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012January 346 699 882 863 975 705February 276 598 1,016 982 762 918March 305 661 1,154 1,089 948 April 300 700 1,093 985 721 May 396 720 991 890 748 June 377 742 1,002 862 693 July 419 721 1,063 1,111 666 August 503 814 1,130 1,067 917 September 394 782 1,008 1,090 797 October 483 921 948 1,019 816 November 540 675 859 829 754 December 475 923 1,038 876 636 Total 4,814 8,956 12,148 11,663 9,433 1,623 Monthly avg. 401 746 1,015 973 786 812

mercial Real Estate Services.• 20th Street 691 LLC purchased a 31,962

square-foot building at 1440 S. Euclid Ave. for $450,000 from Champion Shuffl e Board Ltd. Patrick Welchert, Russ Hall and Rob Glaser, Picor Commercial Real Estate, han-dled the transaction.

• Elizabeth and James Allen purchased a 2,953 square foot building at 2447 N. Stone Ave. for $125,000 from Tessman LLC, repre-sented by Gordon Wagner, Coldwell Banker Commercial Group. Th e buyers were repre-sented by Mark Hays, Tierra Antigua Com-mercial.

• Bookmans Exchange leased 13,548 square feet at 3330 E. Speedway from Ran-cho Center LLC, represented by Debbie Heslop, Volk Company. Brian Harpel, the Harpel Company, represented the tenant.

• Doug Zanes & Associates leased 7,922 square feet at 3501 E. Speedway, Suite 100, from Monte V LLC, represented by Michael Gross, Tucson Realty & Trust.

Email news items for this column to

[email protected]. Inside Real Estate &

Construction appears weekly.

Rob Glaser Tom Nieman


In looking over our editorial this week about some of the positive things beginning to take shape in the region, it hit me that it’s probably a good — if not overdue — time to mention a long-standing off er we make in the news pages of Inside Tucson Business.

Traditional journalists might cringe at it, but shortly after I got here in 2004 we decided we would off er to run a brief story on the opening of any new business. Th e reasoning is that considering all the work and eff ort it takes to launch a new business, we could at least acknowledge the new ventures. Besides, we fi gured people are always interested hearing about new things.

Th at’s how we came to start the “New in town” heading in our briefs section.

I was warned that by routinely publishing these announce-ments we would not only be abdicating some “journalistic” responsibility, we would be opening a can of worms.

If there is a “journalistic” argument, I would suggest that’s a problem with some unyielding standard. But yes, it does amount to “free” publicity.

As for the can of worms, that hasn’t been much of an issue. We didn’t publish something from a car wash operator who had installed some new equipment because it wasn’t really a new business. Th ere have probably been some others that we didn’t use for similar reasons. Sometimes information was missing that we couldn’t track down. We even had one company send us an announcement about a person being brought in to run their new business in Tucson but when we called to get some more information about the business, the person who sent us the announcement said the business wasn’t interested in getting that kind of publicity. Th ey just wanted us to use the personnel announcement.

Oh well, to each his own.If you’re involved in a business in the region that’s made it

through the hoops, trials and tribulations to get to opening day, please drop us an email and tell us about it. Th at’s assuming you can squeeze out the time. We know we’re probably not on the list of things to do to get opened.

We’ll include the basic information, including when the business anticipates opening, an address, phone number, website, and hours along with a description of just what it is the business does. You’re also welcome to include the names and a biographical line or two about the principals in the business.

Th ese announcements don’t have to be formal. And don’t worry about leaving out a detail. Just be sure you include info on how we can contact you to ask questions if we have them.

We can’t guarantee when these items will run, especially in the print edition of Inside Tucson Business because that can get tangled up in space limitations.

But the off er stands. As we point out in the editorial, things are starting to happen in the region that will help propel us into the economic recovery. If you’re part of that good news, we’d like to share it with readers of Inside Tucson Business.

Please send emails to [email protected].

Contact David Hatfi eld at dhatfi [email protected]

or (520) 295-4237.

EDITORIAL

DAVID HATFIELD

BIZ BUZZ

Opening a business?Let’s hear about it

EDITORIAL

Time for an attitude adjustment?Maybe it’s a case of early Spring Fever but there’s

something in the air and it isn’t just the pollen.It’s an air of excitement. Take a look around, the

signs are there. Positive things are happening.We don’t want to oversell this, but workers are

moving dirt. Th at’s a sign that at least some construc-tion is once again happening. Work is underway on a 10,000 square-foot Shoe Carnival retail store in El Con Mall. Work also has begun at River and Craycroft roads for a multi-use project that will include a Basis Charter School, QuikTrip and a potential offi ce complex.

QuikTrip also has acquired property on Alvernon Way south of 22nd Street for its newest concept while competitor Circle K is combining multiple parcels into one at Speedway and Craycroft for its new larger format store.

Work is about to get underway for a second phase at Th e Corner, a retail complex on the southeast corner of Oracle and Wetmore roads between Nordstrom Rack and Paradise Bakery.

It’s not just retail that’s showing signs of life. As reported on the front page of Inside Tucson Business two weeks ago, development is underway near 22nd Street and Park Avenue on a 183-unit luxury cottage-style student housing complex to be called Th e Retreat. Meanwhile, a smaller student housing project by Town West Design and Development on the northeast corner of Campbell and Fifth Street is nearing completion.

And the District on 5th, 248 E. Fifth St., isn’t even fi nished and its 126 condominium units are reportedly all sold.

Demolition work also is about to get underway on the old Vista Sierra apartment complex, 2002 E. Fort Lowell Road. Th e plan is to build a new kind of residen-tial complex. It could be perfect housing for the kind of high-tech complex that’s supposed to appeal to the hip,

young professional who has money but doesn’t want to spend it on buying a house.

Commercial real estate brokers also are telling anecdotal stories about how their business is picking up. (All except brokers who specialize in offi ce and industrial space.)

As we said, these are just signs. We’re not ready to say the boom times are back for the Tucson region. Many of these deals came about due to unique circum-stances directly attributable to the economic recession. None of them are risky speculative deals.

When you combine these signs with the success of the region’s big February events this year, the outlook for the future gets even more exciting.

Who didn’t get a call from some relative in a colder clime watching the Accenture Match Play Champion-ship drooling for an invitation to come out here? We heard about an email making the rounds of the champi-onship’s organizers from someone watching from Europe. Th e emailer was asking if the cactus, those magnifi cent saguaros unique to the Sonora Desert, were staged for the event. Yes, it looked that stunning on high-defi nition TV.

And then there was the success of Major League Soccer Spring Training and the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup event, the Tucson Rodeo and the annual gem and mineral shows.

Some economists have been telling us the recession technically ended in June 2009 and that since then, we’ve been in a painfully slow recovery mode. Econo-mists also say the recovery will pick up momentum once consumers regain their confi dence.

Tucsonans can’t be blamed for thinking the recovery was passing us by but now there are real, tangible signs it is reaching us. We may need to make an attitude adjustment.


OPINIONWAKE UP, TUCSON

Pima County, business friendly or not? You decide In the Feb. 10 issue of Inside Tucson

Business we had a column titled, “It’s an election year, so Pima County is concerned about business.” It has caused quite a stir.

On one hand, we have been overwhelmed by calls, text messages and emails from business owners lauding the column. On the other hand, we inspired Pima County Board Chair Ramón Valadez — a man we like and respect — to write a defense in the March 2 issue titled “Facts trump rheto-ric, Pima County is business-friendly.”

It’s interesting, there are plenty of items we didn’t include in that original column:

• Like the Dallas Firefi ghter Fund’s ongoing battle to get water rights on a piece of party it spent $24 million to buy as a long-term investment. Th e supervi-sors have done all they could to stop it and the City of Tucson wouldn’t annex thereby denying access to water. Now they’re run-ning up a bill at the state Capitol.

• Like the eff ort by owners of property at the southeast corner of River and Craycroft roads who are seeking to be annexed into the city of Tucson and comments by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry that nearby residents might be surprised by the eff ort because it could allow construction of a building taller than three stories, which are not allowed in unincorporated Pima County.

• Like the county’s plan to pur-sue a legal challenge over valuations for tax purposes on part of Raytheon Missile Systems main prop-erty south of Tucson International Airport. OK, we did include this in that fi rst column, but on Tuesday the super-visors suddenly had a change of heart and decided against pursuing the fi ght against the region’s largest private employer. Despite words from county offi cials about how they wanted to keep and encourage Ray-theon in Tucson,

their deeds were doing just the opposite. It may seem lazy, but we would like to

fi nish with a comment left on the Inside-TucsonBusiness.com website to Supervisor Valadez’s column by Brad Richards, owner of Mr. Electric and active in the Tucson Metro

Chamber’s government aff airs committee:“Unopposed political offi cials too often

fi nd themselves with similar perception dif-fi culties. Supervisor Valadez appears to be oblivious to the problem. Perhaps too long in the bubble of staff and too far removed from the fact that 10s of thousands of Pima County residents are unemployed, have faced bank-ruptcy, foreclosure, and their lack of ability to fi nd a job have cost them broken families and increased alcohol and drug abuse along with the strain on social services. People need to get back to work and businesses are who hires.

“It takes a special kind of audacity to claim Pima County is pro-business. Th ank you for not fi ghting Target. Th ank you for not fi ghting Caterpillar. But taking credit for Davis-Mon-than and spinning a debt load of $800 million as pro-business is sophistry at best. It is a strain to call lack of action pro-business and dishonest to call a mountain of debt positive.

“Pima County has the reputation for being anti-business because of it’s hostility to business. When others watch from the outside and see the County not just uphold regulations, but intentionally create ob-stacles for businesses they determine they just don’t want or feel they can get a pound of fl esh out of in order to get approval for it earns it’s anti-business badge each time.

“NOT getting in the way is what you’re

SUPPOSED to do. Actively fi ghting a source of long term jobs ala Rosemont Mine, SUING Raytheon while you bless a developer with a sweetheart deal for land ‘for Raytheon’ (wink wink), fi ghting Solar, fi ghting your very own municipality, this is the most recent examples of what people on the outside of your bubble see and what businesses looking to locate to Pima County see. And when site locators see anti-business government they pass us up without ever making the fi rst contact.

Judging from your misperception of Pima County’s reputation it would ap-pear you are not going to be working to fi x the problem. You don’t see the prob-lem, how could you fi x it. You need to get a better perspective Supervisor Valadez. It’s not rhetoric, it’s a genuine problem.

Perhaps a strong political opponent is what you need. Maybe that will get you out of your bubble and into your District where you can hear from your constituency about if THEY feel like these are good job opportunities. Un-opposed political offi cials too often fi nd them-selves with similar perception diffi culties.”

Amen, Brother Brad. Contact Joe Higgins and Chris

DeSimone at [email protected]. Th ey host “Wake Up Tucson,” 6-8 a.m. weekdays on Th e Voice KVOI 1030-AM. Th eir blog is at www.TucsonChoices.com.

SPEAKING OUT

Saying farewell to Connie and Shaba is the right thing to doTucsonans have said “good-bye” to two

good friends, Connie and Shaba, our aging elephants at the Reid Park Zoo. Th ey moved to the San Diego Zoo. In exchange, a male and a female elephant have come from San Diego to Tucson’s zoo.

During the past fi ve years, Tucson’s zoo has established a relationship with the San Diego Zoo, which has had success in breeding elephants. Th ey will send our zoo a breeding herd that includes another adult female and two male youngsters. Our zoo’s new Expedition Tanzania can easily accommodate its new “residents.”

Tucson has had elephants at the zoo since 1966. At that time, the only elephant was Sabu, a cranky male elephant who became diffi cult for keepers to manage. Th e City Council wanted him euthanized, but the public went to bat for Sabu, and he contin-ued to live at the zoo until his death in 1981.

Connie, an Asian elephant, was rescued from a petting zoo temporarily located in the parking lot of a Montgomery Ward store and she had been at the zoo since she was two years old. Eventually Shaba, an African elephant, joined Connie, and the two have co-existed ever since.

What do we know about the zoo’s

Expedition Tanzania? Th e Zoo Master Plan was developed in 2001, and it included an expansion of the zoo by seven acres. Th is would become the Africa Zone. A new exhibit that would accommo-date an elephant

herd was one of the Africa Zone features.Today that Zone is known as Expedition

Tanzania, and construction is complete. Th e new elephant exhibit area features a large barn with extensive outdoor space and a pool for the elephant herd coming from the San Diego Zoo.

In 2005 and again in 2006 the Tucson City Council affi rmed its support for the Africa Zone expansion. It also determined how the project would be funded. Certifi -cates of Participation (COP) and general obligation bonds acquired through a future bond issue would be included.

Fortunately back in 2006, the private Reid Park Zoological Society was support-ive of the Africa Zone expansion and

helped to raise money for the project.Th e COP pay back supporting the project

comes from revenues recovered from zoo users, Reid Park Zoological Society funds, and other zoo-related sources for 10 years.

Critics of plans to move the two aging elephants have said that money is needed instead to open the swimming pools and to maintain recreational facilities. However, the money used for the pools and other parks programs is a separate pot of money from the zoo. In fact, in 2006 the Mayor and Council specifi cally stipulated that the zoo fi nancing plan could not use funds from the city’s general funds.

Both the Tucson and San Diego zoos have committed to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s new standards for housing elephants. Th e purpose is to “provide a healthy, long-term elephant population and to require excellent facilities for animal well-being.”

Th e Reid Park Zoo is small, and visitors tend to connect with the animals. Tucso-nans love the elephants, and people were quite vocal in their disapproval of the plans for Connie and Shaba’s move to San Diego. Th e two elephants are moving into a new San Diego Zoo facility designed for older

elephants. Some Tucsonans wanted Connie and

Shaba to remain together in San Diego. Local zoo offi cials believe that may occur, but they cannot guarantee it. Standards require Asian and African elephants to be separated because of diff ering behavioral and social needs.

Th e herd into which they will be inte-grated is made up of older Asian elephants and one African elephant. Th is provides a unique opportunity for Connie and Shaba to enjoy the company of additional elephants in an enhanced exhibit.

Animal welfare is a wide-ranging concern. Elephants are still slaughtered for their tusks. Wildlife experts say that “large seizures of elephant tusks made 2011 the worst on record for elephants since ivory sales were banned in 1989,” according to an Associated Press report. Th is is occurring in both Asia and Africa. Zoos may well be a safe harbor for elephants who are becom-ing endangered.

Contact Carol West at [email protected]. West served on the Tucson City Council from 1999-2007 and was a council aide from 1987-1995.

CAROL WEST

JOE HIGGINS

CHRIS DeSIMONE


• Letters to the editor — Opinions on business-related issues or coverage of is-sues by Inside Tucson Business are encour-aged and will be published. Submit letters to the editor via email at [email protected]. Letters also may be mailed to Letters to the editor, Inside Tucson Business, P.O. Box 27087, Tucson, AZ 85726-7087. Let-ters must include the writer’s name and telephone number. Inside Tucson Business reserves the right to edit and may not print all letters that are received.

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OPINIONLETTERS

Who’re yougonna call?TO: The EditorFROM: Keith McLeod, business brokerRE: The vacuum of Tucson and Arizona leadership

When Congressman Jim Kolbe learned of the pending closing of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, he called Dorothy Finley. She marshaled Tucson and Arizona forces and kept D-M here.

Congressman Kolbe and Congress-woman Gabrielle Giff ords have stepped down. Dorothy Finley has retired. With the pending closing of the Tucson Post Service distribution center, whom do we call?

1. Th e Business Community: Virtually non-existent are Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, the Tucson Metro Chamber, and Th e Tucson 50. How many businesses are going to bypass Tucson because of the mail delay?

2. Th e Political Community: Th e governor, U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl have been non-existent. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful cap to Senator Kyl’s career to prevent the distribution center closing for Tucson?

3. Th e University of Arizona is in transition with a new president. Th e Arizona Daily Star has written few news stories about the closure. Th ese two institutions joined together for the Tucson Festival of Books that is leading the nation for Southern Arizona. What leadership are they providing to prevent the distribution center closing?

Ultimately, the decision is a political matter. While there may have been individual comments and statements made, consider the impact if the community institutions listed above were woven together and joined forces to keep the distribution center open.

With apologies to Frank Sinatra’s “Th ere Used to Be a Ballpark Right Here” lyrics: Very shortly we’ll say “there used to be a Post Offi ce distribution center, right here. Th e community will try and fi nd it and they can believe their eyes because the old community leaders are gone and the new leaders hardly try. It used to be so clear and yet this opportunity went so quickly this year.”

Yes, there used to be a season when a timely letter still mattered.

InsideTucsonBusiness.comI

Next week’s poll: Do you think city and county government should partner with private business to fi x roads and medians?

Do you think local leaders will be able to stop the proposed closure of the postal process-

ing center in Tucson?

No 34%Yes 66%

Next weeshould par

A burden on businessus with a poor version of driver’s license and forged birth certifi cate, and we check the half-right E-Verify system, and we hire the guy and he turns out to be illegal even though his Eng-lish is perfect and he says he went to Harvard, WE got the hoosegow and not the illegal immi-grant. Th ey get deported and are allowed to re-turn as soon as the Rio Grande is low enough.

Th e bill also would require the Iowa Attor-ney General and county attorney to investigate “complaints” of illegal immigrants. Th is sets up a state mandate to take on a federal chore: enforcing the federal government’s immigra-tion laws without the resources. Sure, the Buena Vista County Attorney’s Offi ce will do a bang-up job where the entire U.S. Department of Homeland Security apparatus appar-ently cannot fi nd José at the packinghouse.

Th e bill is burdensome and unnecessary.Small businesses have enough problems

and state red tape without adding some more. We thought the Republican Party was supposed to be all for small business and getting government off our backs. Th is bill puts more weight on us than Obamacare ever did. Second, it could put local police in the unwanted role of chasing down illegal Guatamalan mothers when the crack dealer born and raised in the USA goes unheeded.

Th e bill is unncesessary since illegal immi-gration is not even that big a problem in Storm Lake. Th e cops have a bigger problem with the immigrants from Chicago and LA thanthey

do the ones from rural Mexico. Remember the guys who tore up Malarky’s recently? A few of them were football players from Iowa Central Community College, born and reared in Th e Tall Corn State. Immigration has gone down steadily over the past fi ve years. One reason is that Mexico is winning back much of the manufacturing it lost to China, which purred huge immigration numbers to the U.S.

So knock it off .Th is bill is an insult to Storm Lake. It’s

hypocrcisy to small business from the Republi-can Party. It is not worthy of Gary Worthan. Th is is not Arizona full of nutty people. Th is is Iowa, where we fi gure out how to make things work in a practical way. Leave your tired ideology at the door leave alone busi-nesses strangled in government red tape.Status update: Th e bill is awaiting a vote by the

full Iowa House of Representatives after being

approved Feb. 21 by the House Judiciary Com-

mittee, which changed some key provisions of the

original measure. Among the changes, com-

plaints would be investigated by law enforcement

agencies and not the Iowa Attorney General or

county attorneys and the Secretary of State’s of-

fi ce and not the state Attorney General would be

responsible for posting a list of businesses using

the E-Verify system. Th ere also is growing senti-

ment among the state’s lawmakers to remove a

provision allowing for anonymous complaints to

be fi led against businesses.

EDITORIAL The Storm Lake Times

Editor’s note: Brent Davis, a public policy

consultant and former Tucson City Council-

man, brought this editorial from the Storm

Lake Times to our attention. It’s in response to a

local state representative’s introduction of a bill

in the Iowa Legislature modeled after Arizona’s

employer-sanctions law that was passed in 2007.

It off ers a perspective, including a fi nal para-

graph that is a look from the outside in to how

Arizona is viewed.We criticized Democrats for it a couple

years ago, and now it’s the Republicans’ turn: Quit putting your political chores on the backs of small businesses. We did not start this news-paper to be health insurance plan adminis-trators, child support garnishers or income and sales tax collectors. And we surely do not want to end up in jail for “knowingly” hiring an illegal immigrant who could sure fool us.

It’s silly enough that the publisher of this newspaper had to demand from his own brother a driver’s license and birth certifi cate before said brother could edit this newspa-per. Now state Rep. Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, wants to add to the burden by forcing us into the cumbersome E-Verify program, a federal database that is supposed to identify illegal aliens. It works about half the time.

Th is is called House File 2156.If we hire someone “knowingly” — and

that’s always where the rub lies — then we are criminally liable. So if someone provides


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