The following is a statement from Steve Kozachik, Tucson's Ward VI councilman.
SB 1070 has been signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer and is scheduled to go into effect 90 days after the end of the current legislative session.
The bill includes several elements that cause me concern. First, it creates an untenable situation for our public safety officers, in terms of understanding how to enforce it without violating citizens' civil rights. The bill is unacceptable without the provision of a standard for enforcement that prohibits racial profiling.
Second, I'm concerned about the impact on our City's resources and our ability to provide an adequate level of public safety. The bill will create an increase in the workload of our public safety personnel, straining agencies that have already suffered significant budget and staffing cuts.
In addition, there is a provision in the bill that opens the door for private individuals to file lawsuits if they feel the new bill is not being enforced properly. I am concerned that this portion of the bill contains the potential for a flood of litigation that may have little or no merit and impose a further drain on the already limited resources of our judicial and public safety system. For those reasons I am not supporting the bill in its present form.
Since the bill was signed by Governor Brewer, the emotions in our community, and throughout the state, have been at fever pitch on both sides of the issue. We need to de-escalate reactions. One result of the heated discussion was the call by Congressman Raul M. Grijalva for what amounts to an economic boycott on our state.
Our region and our state are heavily dependent on tourism for our economic well-being. Many of the workers in the tourism industry are exactly the constituents Congressman Grijalva expresses concern over as it relates to the impact of SB1070. His call for the boycott is ill-considered and inappropriate, and may well injure those whom he says he wants to protect.
In her State of the State speech on January 15, 2010, Governor Brewer announced that "Public safety cannot be compromised, and my recommendation honors that principle...recognizing that budgets are strained at all levels of government, I will use $20 million in discretionary federal stimulus dollars to fund grants for local public safety to help cities and towns struggling to provide these critical functions in these difficult economic times."
I call on Governor Brewer to immediately release $8 million of those discretionary dollars and allocate them to the Tucson Police Department to help offset the additional operational burdens she has imposed on that agency as a result of her signature to SB1070.
Since the call for an economic boycott on our state by Congressman Grijalva, numerous hoteliers have announced cancellations of previously booked travel into Tucson. In addition, the University of Arizona has announced that families of a number of out-of-state honors students have advised University Admissions that they are changing their plans and will be sending their children to universities in other states. If Congressman Grijalva believes these results of a call for a boycott reflect a productive manner in which to represent his constituents, he and I must simply disagree.
I call on Congressman Grijalva to rescind his call for an economic boycott of the State of Arizona and reverse his rhetoric by encouraging travel into our state in order that those coming support the jobs our citizens need to feed their families and support our economy. The citizens of our state are not racist and the Representative needs to communicate that fact in his speech and actions.
Finally, the Federal Government has yet to allocate nearly $300 million in COPS funding that is to be earmarked to support local public safety agencies. Leaders at both the City and County level should immediately lobby our Congressional delegation to get a significant amount of those dollars awarded to Tucson in support of our public safety personnel. Passage of SB1070 has placed our first responders in the middle of a heated debate that legitimately raises concerns over the civil rights of our citizens. Public officials must now call upon those who have their hands on the monies needed to support our public safety workers to release funding and thereby assist those who are on the front lines of this debate to ensure that they are fully trained and staffed to properly enforce the provisions of this new law.
