5 of 6 candidates jockey for appointment to Pima Board of Supervisors seat during forum

Housing, workforce development, and the importance of Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan and the Prosperity Initiative were central issues during a public forum Wednesday night for the six applicants vying for the open Board of Supervisors seat.  

Earlier this week, six people applied to replace Adelita Grijalva, who announced last week she was stepping down to campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives seat left vacant by the death of her father, longtime U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva. 

The candidates include former state lawmaker Andres Cano, Pima Community College Governing Board Member Karla Morales, engineer Cynthia Abril Sosa Ontiveros, retired teacher Lewis David Araiza, Sr., county employee Kimberly Baeza and retiree Richard Hernandez.

Candidates had until Monday to submit their applications for the appointment, which supervisors plan to make at their April 15 meeting.

The forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters was held online, and Hernandez — a political gadfly who is often critical of the Board of Supervisors — did not attend. 

The moderator began by asking the candidates about what community organizations they have worked with in District 5 

Cano — who worked in the District 5 office starting as a teen-aged volunteer and then became a staffer to former Supervisor Richard Elias, highlighted his 15 years of public service, including his tenure in the state Legislature. He noted he worked with the now defunct group Pro Neighborhoods, as chair of a group that focuses on AIDS awareness among, Planned Parenthood, and Literacy Connects. 

Baeza noted her background in conservation and community involvement, including efforts to clean up the Santa Cruz River. Sosa stressed her engineering background, but said her “heart’s calling” has always been community engagement, while Morales said as the vice president for the Arizona Technology Council she has worked closely with local businesses, school districts and nonprofit organizations and government partners — including the United Way and Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. 

On the “root causes of the housing crisis,” the candidates each spoke about the complexity of the problem. Baeza noted efforts by the city of Tucson to build new low-income housing, including the recent Milagro, a 63-unit complex built on the former No-Tel Motel lot on North Oracle Road. 

Sosa said the county needs to address homelessness in “an ethical way” and remember the humanity of people living on the streets. 

Morales said the county needs to “comprehensive strategies” and seek wage growth by working with industry partners to provide “high-quality jobs” that provide opportunities. 

Araiza argued transportation and marginal wages are part of the problem. 

Cano went back to his childhood, telling the forum he grew up in single-parent household and his family used Section 8 vouchers to cover the cost of housing. He referenced his experience as a state legislator. He said as House Minority leader, he worked on a $16 billion budget, that included “a historic investment in our Housing Trust Fund.” 

“We were able to negotiate $100 million to go toward this critical lifeline for Arizona families” he said, adding that Dstrict 5 “has a housing and humanitarian crisis that we must address, and this is a holistic approach that’s going to need a regional all hands on deck intervention.” 

‘One of the smartest policies’ 

All the candidates praised both the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan and the county’s recent Prosperity Plan Initiative. 

Sosa said she wasn’t “well-versed” in the conservation plan, but argued water conservation was important and she focused on potential dangers of the planned build Interstate 11—a 280-mile highway that would loop around Tucson through what environmentalists have called “pristine desert.” 

Araiza told the forum that the region’s celebrated saguaros depend on bats to pollinate the species, and said the county needs to maintain a “balance of nature.” 

“The award-winning Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is one of the smartest policies that the Board of Supervisors has ever adopted,” Cano said. “I wish that it is modeled in all communities throughout our state.” 

“This is an environmentally conscious plan by the board that has encouraged smart growth in our region, that has protected our native species, and, most importantly, that has also ensured that our district five residents have access to safe and clean air, water conservation standards that will boost our region,” he said. He noted his relationships with Elias and Raúl Grijalva, who both mentored him and said he “looks forward to continuing their legacy.” 

Baeza agreed with Cano, calling the plan an “absolute gem” and said the plan has protected land in District 5, including the Tucson Mountain Park and Saguaro National Park, which “are what drew me out here in the first place.”

Similarly, the candidates praised the county’s Prosperity Plan Initiative, which includes 13 policies and was adopted in December 2023, with a similar plan adopted by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the Tucson City Council the following January. 

Morales said the county needs to think about District 5 from a future prospective “looking to  address the issues that are important to our community and to our district.”

This includes “focusing on economic development” and the “synergy between economic development and workforce development.” 

“I think the moment that we decide to focus on our constituents, on our community members and our districts, and elevating them and providing them those skills that they need to be successful and prepared for, the industry needs to both subsequently impact economic development as well,” she said. 

Araiza said the plan was built to reduce poverty and create economic stability, and he referenced Sunnyside Unified School District’s involvement in JTED, Pima’s Joint Technical Education District. 

“I want zero unemployment and maximum employment, especially in the rural areas,” he said. “I think we’ve got people in the rural areas that really are landlocked in terms of transportation and so many other obstacles. Yes, we need housing, we need jobs, we need action, and we can build that bridge with the city, with the state, with defense and be creative,” Araiza said. 

Cano said like the Sonoran Desert plan, the prosperity initiative is “historic.”

“I firmly believe the county’s prosperity initiative is one of those game changers for our region that will absolutely influence local policy for decades to come,” he said, telling the forum he is “a product of one of these prosperity initiatives that started many years ago, which was the Summer Youth Employment Program.” 

“These are the kind of initiatives that are super critical, and they are especially important as we face tremendous cuts from the federal administration, where we’re going to have to look within ourselves and within our existing capacity budget, capacity to be able to lift people up,” he said. 

Baeza said she was “proud of the initiative.” She said was she “grateful” the county is working on policies to help “people improve their quality of life” through affordable childcare. “I think we can be doing more to support working families and support them and the the people who are going to be, you know, working families themselves in the community,” Baeza said. “Later on, we want to give kids a leg up in in in early life, and it is a program that attempts to do this.” 

On their priorities on the board, Araiza said the county has done important work on public health issues, including measles, AIDS, and COVID prevention. He added the county has a lot of “movers and shakers” who “can help bring in economic resources, ideas, partnerships.” 

‘Unprecedented times’

“We are living in unprecedented times with Donald Trump and Elon Musk threatening our quality of life,” Cano said. He said the county could lose $20 million from direct cuts in federal funding.

“We’ve got to look for ways that we can partner with our jurisdictions to be able to talk and advance all of the programs that we talked about tonight,” he said. He added the county needs to be ready to battle against the state for cuts handed down by the legislature. “Pima County subsidizes state operations to the tune of about $120 million per year, and so we need to absolutely have that robust conversation about budgeting and ensure that county taxpayers are protected.” 

He added he would work to help Pima County’s 7,000 employees. 

“They’re telling us that they want better compensation. They want the ability to be able to be celebrated for the work that they do,” he said. “Without the workers of Pima County, our community does not function, and we need to invest in them.”

Baeza agreed, telling the forum “we are in unprecedented times.”

“We’re going to have to think about solutions for how we’re going to overcome the funding shortfalls,” she said. She added the county should “take a hard look” at RTA Next, the draft $2.46 plan for the Regional Transportation Authority over the next 20 years. 

Sosa called the RTA Next plan a “great example of how we have invested in safety and infrastructure.” Mendoza said the county needed to “act more strategically about economic development with the challenges that we have with the Trump administration.” 

“I think it’s important for us to really tap into the opportunities that we have with economic development,” she said, adding the county should with Mexico, “our number one trade partner and closest neighbor.”