TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — There’s a change of leadership coming for the Tucson City Council. A longtime council member is stepping down.
You can see a lot of Steve Kozachik’s influence in a large slice of midtown, in downtown and the city as a whole. But after 15 years on city council he's moving on to another type of public service.
At the end of this month, Steve Kozachik will step down from Tucson City Council and take a job with Pima County, overseeing the development of Mosaic Quarter, a multi million dollar, sports and entertainment complex expected to bring a powerful economic boost across the region.
Kozachik has experience developing and managing sports facilities for the University of Arizona.
On Tucson’s City Council, Kozachik had a reputation for being outspoken and cutting straight to the heart of the issues.
He says, “We're spending other people's money. And on the council, we have budgets we have to balance and we've gotten to a structurally balanced budget successfully. When I first started doing this, we were looking at a $40 million deficits.”
Kozachik played a large part in the drive to wake up Tucson’s downtown and make it the lively spot it is today.
“I’m sad to see him go”
Diana Lett is President of Feldman’s Neighborhood, proud of its historical designation and pleased with how open minded Kozachik with difficult issues like allowing accessory dwelling units, small houses added behind existing homes.
“And Steve was really able to work with us and work with people who were pretty radical in their ideas about what an accessory dwelling unit should be to come up with a compromise solution that I felt was very reasonable and very acceptable.”
And she hopes City Council will appoint someone with similar qualities to finish the rest of Kozachik’s term.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
