Ward 2 Council Member Paul Cunningham

At Tuesday’s Mayor and Council meeting, my colleagues and I voted to make Deputy Chief Chad Kasmar the Chief of the Tucson Police Department as current Chief Chris Magnus was confirmed to lead US Customs and Border Protection. 

Magnus has been a reformer at our police department. Things haven’t always been smooth or perfect, but he’s brought change and that counts. I know he’ll do a great job at the CBP. 

I can’t leave unaddressed the two incidents involving the Tucson Police Department this week. I’m limited in what I can say given that there are ongoing investigations, but I will say that both left me very concerned and angry.

The old Pima County Courthouse is an icon, sometimes not necessarily of our community. It showed up in an establishing shot on an episode of the X-Files once and was identified as the San Diego County courthouse. It also stood in as the Cochise County courthouse on the show Sheriff of Cochise back in the 1950s. Long time Tucsonans can name a friend or relative that was an extra on the 1970’s drama Petrocelli, where the building served as the courthouse for the fictional city of San Remo. 

I received an update from Police Chief Christopher Magnus about TPD recruiting. I wanted to share it with you. 

Given our staffing challenges, we thought it might be useful for you to get a sense of some of our outreach and recruiting efforts.  If you have ideas or suggestion about other opportunities to recruit new officers or CSOs, please let me know and we will happily follow-up on them. 

Former Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood Association president Kathleen Flasch passed away. I’d like to extend my condolences on behalf of my staff and our Ward 2 friends to her husband Frank and her whole family. 

Kathleen was born in England and came to Tucson by way of Chicago. She was a world traveler, a huge fan of the Rolling Stones and a tenacious advocate for her neighborhood since first moving there in 2001. 

You may be hearing the initials ADU, which stands for Accessory Dwelling Unit. Basically, these are smaller, second houses built on a lot with a larger house. My colleagues and I are considering making code changes that will make them easier to build in Tucson. 

László Veres announced that he is “winding down” his tenure with the Tucson Pops Orchestra this summer. 

It’s a loss for Tucson, to be sure, but those of us who enjoy the concerts of the Arizona Symphonic Winds, an ensemble he founded in 1986, have at least a few more seasons to hear them play at Udall Park.