Donna Branch-Gilby, active in the Pima County Democratic Party, started attending Pima County Board of Supervisors meetings two years ago.
Initially, she “went to the meetings around the issue of election integrity,” Branch-Gilby said.
And, as co-founder of the low-water, low-energy Milagro Housing development, “I was very eager to hear what the supervisors were planning about dealing with the drought, water conservation, zoning, all of those issues that related to how we live in our desert, how we manage water and effluent.”
Those subjects were “not on their agenda,” she said. “They asked very few questions, and the questions that were coming were coming from Supervisor (Ray) Carroll.
“Our supervisors ought to be providing some leadership,” Branch-Gilby said.
She seeks to provide it, and is running for the board for several reasons.
Branch-Gilby wants to “make sure we don’t develop beyond our water supply. Between enthusiasm for residential development that developers have, the drought, climate change and the fact we are depending on Colorado River water, I thought ‘hey, let’s check things real carefully before we get ourselves in the same pickle that Southern California did, and all of a sudden stop issuing building permits’.”
She would support moderate growth in Pima County, “and it all depends on what we find when we have realistic water law. Right now, the water law that requires this 100-year assured water supply does not make any distinction how many times that supply of water has been counted by how many developers. It’s political, not scientific. We need to get back to the scientific data, and see where we’re at. That will give us some idea about how much we can grow, and how we can grow. We still have a lot of room, some infrastructure, and a water ethic here where people pay attention. We need to see what we can accomplish, when we know what our real water situation is, and build accordingly.”
Branch-Gilby would like a review of Pima County’s comprehensive land use plan to emphasize water availability. She would look at the building code to make changes that “would improve our sustainability.” And she would “push for enforcing the ordinances that are on the books. Two years ago, the supervisors passed the drought plan ordinance” which reads in part “’no person shall water landscapes between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.’ It hasn’t been enforced that I can find. The health department is supposed to enforce it. They’re short-staffed; they’re working double time. It looks nice, you can wave it around, but it’s not being enforced.”
Branch-Gilby is also running “to ensure that taxpayers get their tax dollar and bond dollar worth.” She would watch “very, very close” to see that the approved amount of bond money is spent as advertised.
She calls for fiscal responsibility, with tax dollars spent on “the necessary, primary responsibilities of government, instead of the nice to have things” like spring training baseball.
“Wastewater treatment, road safety, law enforcement, from the sheriff’s to the courts, is primary, and I would push to see that those things are properly funded, managed and staffed first,” Branch-Gilby said.
The candidate is “not satisfied with the budget-making process,” she said. “It needs to be an open process, there need to be study sessions, the heads of departments should be present to answer questions from the supervisors, which this year they were not.”
Branch-Gilby believes her opponent, Sharon Bronson, goes along with what administrator Chuck Huckelberry wants.
“These people are trying to grapple with big decisions that affect hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, and you see how those meetings go with very little inquiry, very little input. It’s disappointing, to say the least. He’s a very smart guy, he has very good staff, but there’s a possibility he won’t think about absolutely everything.”
Branch-Gilby, who spent 20 years working in the Arizona Department of Economic Security, wants to work with other supervisors and county management “to get a clear vision of where Pima County is headed, and to get some consensus on that. That’s essential.
“My challenge is going to be to step back from saying how something should be done, and to say ‘here’s the policy, here’s what a good result would look like,’ and leave the “how we get there’ to the administrator and the staff,” Branch-Gilby said. “Which is fine with me, I don’t need to know all the details, I just need to know we’re following healthy, sustainable policies and we’re getting some results for the time and effort.”
Her Milagro experiences, and the success of the project, “encourages me that many of these ideas are adoptable in other residential developments in an economical way. It encourages me as to what we can accomplish with water and development in Pima County, and in Tucson.”
