Voters have a pretty clear choice between the candidates running for the open District 3 seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
Democrat Jen Allen, who won a four-way primary on July 30 with 53 percent of the vote, said part of her motivation to run was recognizing the many ways that county government can touch people’s lives: land planning, running parks and libraries, building roads in unincorporated areas, safeguarding public health and deciding property taxes and sewer rates.
Related: Jen Allen turns to Nov. race for Pima County D3 supervisor after Dem primary win
“Seeing all that made me make the decision that I wanted to be part of it and help ensure that all of the communities, particularly those who often feel like they don’t have a voice and seat at the table, were represented but also getting the resources and services that they need,” Allen said.
Related: GOP Supe candidate Wittenbraker: Pima County trying to do too much
Republican Janet “JL” Wittenbraker, who captured 32 percent of the vote in her race for mayor of Tucson last year, said she worries the county is spending too much money and trying to do too much, putting pressure on businesses that are suffering because of high property taxes and too much crime.
For Wittenbraker, it’s philosophical: “People sometimes want things that feel good, that feel right, but not understanding that that’s not a function of their government. And we need to distinguish between what a society function is and a governmental function is.”
Here’s where the candidates stand on a variety of county issues.
Immigration
While the federal government is responsible for managing immigration, the Board of Supervisors deal with some of the consequences of the current broken system, including the autopsies of undocumented immigrants who die while crossing the border in the Sonoran Desert.
In an effort to reduce deaths, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 (with Republican Supervisor Steve Christy opposed and Democratic Supervisor Rex Scott absent) in June to renew a $30,000-a-year contract with Humane Borders, a nonprofit organization that has filled blue water barrels marked by blue flags at various locations in the desert near Pima County’s border with Mexico.
Allen said she would have voted in favor of the contract.
“In the absence of congressional action that overhauls our broken immigration system, humanitarian aid will continue to be essential, and so I think the role of Humane Borders, along with other humanitarian aid organizations, is really important in our region,” said Allen, who two decades ago co-founded and served as an executive director of the Border Action Network, a nonprofit organization that supported the rights of undocumented immigrants and was frequently critical of the Border Patrol.
Wittenbraker said she would have voted against the contract because she believed the effort should be handled by the nonprofit sector. She said the county is spending too much money and needs to tighten its belt.
“I would argue that filling up the water tanks is a function by society and charitable organizations, not a function of your government,” Wittenbraker said. “It seems harsh to say it that way, and I fully acknowledge that, but when we start turning to our government to take care of everything for us, that’s when we have no autonomy, that’s when we have no responsibility.”
Pima County also uses federal grant dollars to support the temporary shelter of documented migrants who have been processed as asylum seekers and released from Border Patrol custody. Over the last five years, Pima County has received $98 million in federal dollars to shelter more than 480,000 people. Until recently, the county partnered with nonprofit Catholic Community Services to run Casa Alitas, where asylum seekers could spend a few nights and arrange transportation to other parts of the country. While Catholic Community Services is still involved in the program, it is now overseen by private firm AMI.
The program sought to avoid “street releases” of migrants after they are processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Since 2021, the effort—aided by state emergency managers—also helped transport thousands of people dropped off by CBP in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties, relieving pressure on the smaller counties.
The number of asylum seekers has been significantly lower in recent weeks after the Biden administration announced this summer it was tightening the rules under which undocumented immigrants could make an asylum claim. In the week ending July 17, 913 asylum seekers passed through Casa Alitas, including 295 single adults, and 618 people spread among 227 families. That’s a 90 percent drop from the record number of 9,111 people who passed through Casa Alitas in the week ending Dec. 27, 2023.
While the pressure has been reduced, county officials are still hoping to get out of the business of assisting the migrants altogether. At a June board meeting, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said the county should “transition out of the business” of sheltering asylum seekers but finding a new nonprofit to take over the responsibility has been difficult because of the uncertain future of federal funding, among other challenges.
Allen said that as long as federal funding is available and no other nonprofit has stepped up to take over the job, the county should continue its efforts.
“I would not turn down federal pass-through money providing support to asylum seekers,” Allen said. “Again, in the absence of much-needed congressional action that can fix our broken immigration system, I think we have to do what we can to support human needs.”
Wittenbraker said she would have voted against accepting the federal dollars for the program from the start. County officials, she said, have “transported people who have crossed into our country illegally and people who have not been vetted,” Wittenbraker said. “They’ve sheltered and transported over 473,000 people throughout the interior of our United States.”
While the Border Patrol does have a vetting process before it releases asylum seekers, Wittenbraker said it was insufficient.
Homelessness, drug addiction & crime
Both candidates said that the nexus of fentanyl addiction, homelessness and crime is a complex problem with no easy solution.
Allen said taking more people to jail, particularly one as old and broken down as the current facility, is not the answer.
“We are using jail as a one-size-fits-all solution,” said Allen during a June forum. She added that too often, cops respond to incidents involving people experiencing a mental health crisis who end up in jail, where their problems worsen, instead of a facility that can provide treatment.
“We need to put less people in jail,” Allen continued. “We also need to be investing in a different kind of first-responder system” that would use community health workers who can better deal with people experiencing a mental-health crisis or a problem with drug addiction.
Allen said she supported the Housing First model used by Pima County and the City of Tucson, which helps people with housing without requiring them to sober up and provides services to help them beat addiction and find employment.
Wittenbraker said she doesn’t support the Housing First approach.
“Housing first doesn’t work, we know that,” she said. “Tough love, in my opinion, does work.”
People who are arrested for using drugs such as fentanyl, she said, should have two choices: They get treatment or they go to jail.
Wittenbraker added that while the current approach does not work, “I’m willing to bet, if these charitable organizations came together in partnership with the government and the community, they could find something that actually works. But let’s stop throwing good money after bad. Housing First doesn’t work, and what we’re doing now is not working, and it is hugely inhumane to allow some of these conditions in some of these homeless encampments.”
Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan
The Pima County Conservation Plan serves as the blueprint of future development in Pima County. The document is a science-based map of the county’s sensitive environmental areas, wildlife corridors and protected open space that has won numerous awards. County officials launched the planning effort in the late 1990s, partially in response to the listing of endangered species in Pima County.
Allen said the plan is a visionary effort, while Wittenbraker said she was largely unfamiliar with it.
Cooling centers
This year, for the first time, the Pima County Health Department opened more than three dozen “cooling centers” in libraries, nonprofit shelters and government offices during the summer months. They range from places where people can find relief and drinking water to air-conditioned spots where people can rest to “hydration centers,” which are indoor and outdoor spots where people can find bottled water and various donated items.
The county has an online guide as well as a printed brochure of the locations, along with details about how people can take the bus to the cooling centers, gender and pet restrictions, and details on the symptoms and dangers of heat stroke and heat exhaustion.
This year, Pima County has recorded 16 cases of heat-caused deaths (excluding border crossers) as of Aug. 1. Last year, the number of heat-caused deaths (excluding border crossers) hit 43.
County officials estimate that more than 10,000 people have visited the cooling centers, although county officials say that could be an undercount as they rely on the staff at the cooling centers to track the numbers.
Allen said the effort is “a really important, urgent step that we have to take as part of our larger plan … to ensure that we are protecting the people who are hit first and worst by the impacts of climate change and extreme heat. A lot of the cooling centers are sited at existing community centers, so they’re actually not utilizing unique additional staff. … So I think that they are an excellent example of collaborative efforts to protect those who really need a place to be able to get out of the intense sun and rest and utilize essential services and seek some medical care.”
Wittenbraker is skeptical of the effort. She said the cooling centers are too hard to reach and have limited hours, and it’s not Pima County’s job in any event. She said there are “better ways we can help people and we just have to talk through that. But again, even if I’m elected, that’s not my job. That’s the community’s job, that’s society’s job.”
In general, Wittenbraker said that while “we have been harmful to Mother Earth,” she’s still not sold on the notion that the planet is warming. “We first need to have an honest conversation, and let’s compare temperatures 100 years ago to today.”
She opposes mandates from the county to reduce greenhouse gases but is open to discussing incentives, although she said that she’s not a fan of electric cars and charging stations because slave labor is used to mine the minerals necessary for electric car batteries.
At a June forum, Allen called climate change “an existential but very real crisis” and said the county’s sustainability action plan has been a good first step but more needs to be done to decrease the county’s greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency and investing in electric vehicles for the county’s fleet.
Early childhood education
Beginning in 2021, Pima County launched the Pima Early Education Program Scholarships, or PEEPs, to pay for kids between the ages of 3 and 5 to attend Early Childhood Education programs run by local school districts, charter schools or private schools. The program uses dollars from the county’s share of the federal American Rescue Plan Act alongside additional funding from the City of Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley and nonprofit United Way of Tucson & Southern Arizona, which pass through funding from private business and individuals.
Families are eligible for assistance if they earn up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or $93,600 for a family of four. As of Dec. 31, 2023, the program was serving nearly 1,700 children.
Allen said the PEEPS program is a “core part” of the Pima County Prosperity Plan, providing kids with an early start on their education and providing working parents with stable childcare.
“Early Childhood Education is a precursor to a child’s success in education throughout their life, and it benefits the family and parents and our community,” she said. “Yes, I would absolutely want to continue the PEEPS program.”
Wittenbraker said it was another instance of the county being involved where it does not need to be.
“I understand that daycare is expensive,” Wittenbraker said. “There are state programs where you can seek assistance, charitable programs that provide assistance. It’s not—again, at risk of being repetitive—the function of our government to provide daycare to individuals, low income or otherwise.”