Downtown maven and virtual walking Wikipedia of people, projects, places, politics and policy; Donovan Durband, was brought on staff of the newly elected Ward 6 Councilman; Steve Kozachik, who will be installed on December 7th, 2009.
Durband; the former Executive Director of the Tucson Downtown Alliance, and its birthed Tucson Downtown Partnership, comes to the table with a wealth of knowledge about the activity in Ward 6 and a ton of associates who will afford the new Councilman a bit of a shorter learning curve.
The announcement of Durband’s addition to the Ward 6 staff is exciting for the veteran community, as he always worked hard at including our local veterans in many of the downtown events in the capacity of volunteers and trained ambassadors for the Central Business District.
Both the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars had their roots in the downtown. The Legion Post 7 has been operating the Veterans Day Parade for nearly 90 years! The VFW once occupied the building that Access TV now calls home. Both of these organizations along with a handful of Disabled Veterans would supply personnel “on call” for a variety of events like Downtown Saturday Night and Dillinger Days and First Night.
Durband’s successor disbanded the volunteer program in a rather perfunctory way, sprinkled with a bit of perfidy, leaving some third and fourth generation Arizona families feeling a bit disenfranchised from their own roots.
It is refreshing to see that our Midtown Council Office will be staffed with veteran friendly persons and open to hosting some of our events.
The probability is pretty high that a few platoons of Vets helped push Steve K. over the top in the election.
Welcome aboard ship First Mate Durband! We hope to be seeing more of you.
Mike, maybe you could host your next Veteran’s forum at the Ward 6 office instead of Himmel library. What will Donovan’s job title be for Councilmember-elect Kozachik?
Carolyn, not only have they agreed to host a forum , but they intend to have an ongoing liaison with local veterans. This has been a dream of mine for years. A vet can return to her/his community and check with a Registry at the Council Office to locate comrades for purposes of storytelling and identifying resources for their vocation and welfare.
Durband’s role will involve the Downtown of course. And I believe he will be the outreach staffer for 4th Ave. Merchants. That bodes well for us Trolley fans! He is quite simpatico with John Sedgwick, their Executive Director, which is also good for the order.
Congratulations Don,
I look forward to you helping to make some positive changes in the district downtown!
What a terrific asset for Downtown and all of Ward 6. Real communication instead of grand standing and fluff of the former regime
Just to fill in a couple of gaps, my staff will be comprised of Donavon, Teresa Olsen (formerly with the Tucson Assoc. of Realtors and a dynamo in several policy areas as well as in neighborhood related issues) and Carmen Cousins (she has worked with about 4 other ward offices, both Republican and Democratic.) My staff is comprised of R’s, D’s and I’ve been registered as an I in the past – so we’re not going to be putting a stanuchly partisan face on the issues we face as a community. Each staff aide will be working some specified neighborhood associations, with Donavon’s beginning on the west side of campus, moving into the Fourth Avenue area and into downtown. Teresa has the UA area and out east to the 4 courners neighborhood area, and Carmen will take on the eastermost neighborhoods. This is a broad brush of how we’re dividing the pie, and we all look forward to working directly with you and your groups as things develop in the days ahead. Give us a little grace as we get our feet planted, and yet feel free to contact any of us with your thoughts and concerns. There’s some healing that needs to occur, particularly in the downtown area, and we’re each committed to stepping towards that as a first step in terms of making our community all that it can and should be.
Steve K
Thanks Councimember-elect Steve Kozachik for responding to us directly in answer to my question above about Donovan, whom I just met. Now we know that you do read our blogsites at the Tucson Citizen. I also look forward to working with you through my neighborhood association in Ward 6.
Regards — “Carolyn’s Community”
“hope springs eternal” If you can clean up the downtown financial swamp, you will be in office longer than Strom Thurmond!
Steve K – I hope you are friendlier and more open to your constituents, small businesses and entrepreneurs than your predecessor who was arrogant and uninterested, and actually do something for your constituents, small businesses and entrepreneurs than your predecessor unlike your neighbour Karen.
Good choice in selecting Durband. Sort of like recruiting a Defensive Co0rdinator for the Wildcats!