The city has invested millions of dollars to address the issue and may have to spend more as it waits to be reimbursed by the Department of Defense, the incumbent said.
Kozachik said he wants to address the problem regardless of when those federal funds arrive in order to ensure Tucsonans have safe drinking water.
“Our role is more than simply leaning on the federal government; our role is managing and monitoring the problem right now with Tucson Water,” he said. “We’re active participants in monitoring this problem and may even have to come out of pocket for it.”
Romero’s top priority is strengthening the Tucson Police Department through increased staffing, a longstanding issue in Tucson and nationally.
The Police Department here has about a 12% shortage of sworn officers when trainees who can’t be deployed in the community are taken into account. City officials have said the problem is driven by a lack of qualified candidates.
Romero’s plans to bring more officers to Tucson by promoting community engagement with the police. He said he would consider a marketing plan to highlight the positives of working as a police officer here, like the warm weather.
“I know there was in the past a lot of community watch where the community, a neighborhood and some officers from there would kind of come together. They’d have meetings, they’d get to know the people,” Romero said. “It’s just bringing the community together where we’re working together as opposed to working against each other”
