A Tucson real estate developer is so fed up with city’s elected officials that he’s attempting to oust three of them from office.
The developer, Humberto Lopez, visited city hall on Monday to find out how to initiate a recall of Mayor Bob Walkup and City Councilors Regina Romero, who represents Ward 1, and Karin Uhlich, who represents Ward 3. A special election to replace the officials could cost Tucson taxpayers an estimated $650,000, said Assistant City Clerk Suzanne Mesich.
“I’ll try to help out and offset some of the cost,” Lopez said. “The city has budget problems — why should we put any more stress on the city?”
Lopez said poor decisions, such as the Rio Nuevo development project, made by Tucson’s elected leaders have already lost the city millions of dollars in revenue. So even if a special election costs several hundred thousand dollars, Lopez said, he thinks “it’s a small price to pay.”
Walkup could not be reached for comment. Uhlich and an aide for Romero said a recall would only be a waste of taxpayer money, especially when the city is already dealing with a $32 million budget shortfall.
Uhlich said Lopez’s efforts were “sapping the community” of strength at a critical time.
“There is a time for campaigning, and that’s during an election, and then there’s a time to govern and to unite as a community, to invest in it and improve this great city,” she said. “That’s what we need to do now.”
Diana Rhoades, an aide to Romero, said there was no point trying to oust Romero halfway through her first term.
“She’ll be up for election in 2011,” Rhoades said, “so it makes sense to not spend the extra money in a budget crisis to hold a special election to recall members that could just get voted out of office.”
According to the State Constitution, in order for Lopez to force a recall, he needs the support of 25 percent of the registered voters who cast a ballot for those positions in the last election. That means he would need to collect about 14,500 signatures against Romero, about 18,000 against Uhlich and nearly 16,000 against the mayor.
Rhoades said Lopez’s efforts wouldn’t change Romero’s focus, which has been on families and neighborhoods.
“Councilor Romero believes that she’s doing the work that the people who elected her have asked her to do,” she said.
Lopez said he was serious about the recall and planned to return to the city clerk’s office on Wednesday.
“I’m not doing this for fun,” he said. “This is very stressful and a lot of work.”
He said he would have moved for a recall earlier but was confident that Uhlich’s challenger in Ward 3, the Republican Ben Buehler-Garcia, would win last November, the most recent election.
“Later is better than never,” Lopez said. “And if this effort is not successful, I’m sure I’ll be paying the repercussions, but I’m willing to — I’m a big boy.”