The Tucson City Council has narrowed the list of potential appointments to the vacant Ward 6 seat to four candidates, with former councilmember Karin Uhlich emerging as the top choice of the majority of the council.
Joining Uhlich as finalists are current Ward 2 aide Ted Prezelski, attorney Vince Rabago and former state lawmaker Pamela Powers, who all made the cut from the 12 applicants for the job of completing the term of Steve Kozachik, who stepped down on March 31.
Mayor Regina Romero and the five remaining councilmembers will pick a replacement at a special meeting at 5:30 on Monday, May 6, at City Hall, 255 W. Alameda St. The appointed council member will serve out the current term, through the end of 2025. Voters will elect a new Midtown representative next year.
Applicants will be invited to make a five-minute public pitch and provide prepared responses to two questions at the meeting.
The councilmembers each ranked their top five choices in order of preference,with their first choice getting five points and their last choicegetting one point, according to a city memo released Tuesday afternoon.
Oncethe rankings were tallied, Uhlich emerged as the top choice of Romeroand Councilmembers Lane Santa Cruz, Nikki Lee and Richard Fimbres. Shehad a total of 25 points as she was the second choice of CouncilmemberDahl and and the third choice of Councilmember Paul Cunningham.
Prezelskicame in second place, with 22 points. He was the top choice ofCunningham, the second-highest pick of Dahl, Lee and Fimbres, the thirdchoice of Romero and the fourth choice of Santa Cruz.
Rabago camein third, with 15 points. He was the second-highest on Romero andCunningham’s lists, third highest on Santa Cruz and Fimbres’ lists andat the bottom of Lee’s picks.
Powers had 8 points as the third choice of Dahl and Lee and the fourth choice of Fimbres.
Earlier in the day, multiple sources confirmed the four finalists to the Sentinel prior to the city publicly releasing their names.
At a forum last week, Uhlich said she’d already done the job as a Ward 3 representative, both as an elected councilmember from 2005 to 2017 and then as an appointee for most of 2021, so she was ready to step right in.
“You have a full track record to measure me on and I think also many in the community got to know how I carry myself in the office, my temperament, my style, my way of delivering,” Uhlich said.
Powers, a freelance writer and political blogger who works as social media and technology editor for the American Journal of Medicine, told the crowd at the forum that her experience as a state lawmaker and her skill in working on budget issues would prove valuable to the City Council.
“I want to see Tucson be sustainable and keep its funky side into the future,” Powers said.
Rabago, a former chair of the Pima County Democratic Party, said his experience at the Arizona Attorney General’s office and various nonprofit efforts would prove valuable to the city.
Rabago said he’d worked on legal issues “having to do with housing, economic development, land use, government policy, working with different governments, whether it be the state, local or the municipality. I've worked with in criminal justice as a prosecutor but also in safety issues.”
Prezelski said his time as an aide to Councilman Paul Cunningham and his time on the city’s sign code committee and the county’s budget committee helped prepare him for the job.
Prezelski, who works as a soccer correspondent for the Sentinel, said two areas he’d like to focus on are water issues and developing programs to assist people with disabilities.
Among the applicants who did not make the final five:
Pima Community College Boardmember Theresa Riel got 7 points as the top choice of Dahl and the fourth choice of Cunningham.
KXCIcommunity radio staffer Miranda Schubert, who lost a primary raceagainst Kozachik in 2019, won 6 points as the second-highest pick ofSanta Cruz and fifth place on Dahl’s list.
TUSD Board member Ravi Shah had 3 points as fourth pick from Lee and the fifth pick from Cunningham.
The remaining applicants who did not make the rankings included former Tucson City Council member Nina Trasoff (who withdrew her name from consideration at the end of last week's candidate forum), former city staffer Chris Leighton, former state legislative candidate Charlie Verdin and political newcomers Alejandro Terrrazas and Avi Erbst.
