Rio Nuevo District Board Chair Jodi Bain and board member Rick Grinnell received notice Tuesday that they will be replaced on the board overseeing Tucson's downtown redevelopment work.
State Senate President Steve Pierce sent letters to Bain and Grinnell thanking them for their service and saying he will seek new members.
The Rio Nuevo board was set up by the Legislature to oversee Tucson's downtown redevelopment district, which receives state sales tax money. The board's chief work has been to reach agreements with the city on Tucson Convention Center improvements, development of a downtown convention center hotel and other projects.
The board and the city have been in a continual state of disagreement since its formation, with accountability accusations going in both directions as the two sides have struggled for control of funding, projects and property.
The Legislature stepped in two years ago after revelations that the city had spent $230 million in Rio Nuevo funding with what many said was little to show for it in the way of downtown revitalization. While some infrastructure work had been completed, major renovation needed at the convention center and the need for a convention hotel made no headway.
Grinnell says he was removed while watching out for taxpayers.
“I was removed because I wasn’t willing to sell my integrity and basically take the city out of being responsible to the taxpayers,” he says.
The Rio Nuevo board recently filed a $25 million claim against the city as potential prelude to a lawsuit over control of property that would be part of downtown renovations. In turn, the city terminated mediation in which it was engaged with the Rio Nuevo board.
Bain is a Tucson lawyer specializing in real estate and Grinnell a businessman who ran for mayor last year as a Republican, losing to Democrat Jonathan Rothschild.
“I worked real hard for five months to try to get some resolution on it and I wasn’t successful," Rothschild said this week on working with the Rio Nuevo board.
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