Christopher DeSimone – Candidate for Town Council

Christopher DeSimone

ILoveOV Candidate Questionnaire

Christopher DeSimone submitted answers after ILoveOV’s 2026 Election Q&A page had already been published. His answers are presented below in their entirety 

1. Please describe your vision for Oro Valley four years from now. Be specific about what you want to see different, what you want to see preserved, and what you believe the Council’s most important work will be during your term.

I envision an Oro Valley that, after my four years in office, will be efficient, creative, small business friendly, friendly to the taxpayer, and a fun place to bring people together. This can happen while not changing the beautiful aspects of our community, keeping it a great place to live for all types of residents, from our amazing retired brothers and sisters to the professionals raising families in a safe, beautiful environment.

2. Oro Valley’s 2025-2026 budget projected further revenue declines due to declining residential development, and the Town’s CFO has described a structural deficit in which future expenses are projected to exceed incoming revenue. If elected, which of the following would you support: additional business-side taxes such as commercial lease or use tax, a primary property tax (Oro Valley currently has none), service reductions, more aggressive commercial development to grow the sales tax base, or some combination? Please be specific.

Those revenue and expense lines have been getting awfully close over the last few years. Plugging the gap with reserve money doesn’t seem like a vibrant, steady budget to me. On the expense side, we have to learn how to manage the manager and actually perform a real audit of our operations. I asked our finance director, Mr. Gephart, at an Oro Valley Chamber event last fall about this. He said he’d been with the town for five and a half years, and they’d never done anything like that. My response was, “Why are you asking me for more taxes to pay?” The more I study the actions of the town manager and get input from his employees, the less confidence I have that we’re running efficiently. Hopefully, once elected, we can start having hard conversations and real analysis of what’s going on.

Then we have to raise revenues, but not by raising taxes. Smart, incremental annexation to the south of us is key here. These are viable businesses that are already generating taxes and already have their own water sources. The pitch to these folks would be: join a safe town with the best police department in the country, guarding your businesses and homes. With crime rising north of us in Tucson, this could be an easy sell. I’ve had multiple business owners in those potential areas complain about council dysfunction and meddling as a turnoff, and I see this kind of annexation as essential to our future financial viability.

3. Roughly 65 percent of Oro Valley’s drinking water comes from groundwater, with the remainder from CAP (Colorado River) and reclaimed sources. Federal rules governing post-2026 Colorado River operations expire at the end of this year, the Bureau of Reclamation plans to finalize replacement criteria by October 1, 2026, and the seven Basin States have not reached consensus. Tier 1 shortage conditions remain in place. How should the Council balance water availability against future development approvals, and should a project’s water demand be a stand-alone basis for approval or denial?

Water is the one department I know the town is doing well. Our water director is a real pro with great knowledge and the proper relationships throughout the region. As a town, our residents are great at conserving water. With only four percent of developable land left, there’s not much more to argue about. If anyone wants to talk about annexation to the north involving undeveloped land, it better have water resources that would support it.

4. On May 6, 2026, the Council approved a General Plan amendment and rezoning of the 141-acre Oro Valley Town Centre parcel at Oracle Road and Pusch View Lane (also known as Rooney Ranch). The approved plan preserves roughly 88 acres as open space, allows limited townhome and commercial development closer to Oracle, reduces maximum building heights, and eliminates the previously allowed five-story hotel option in Area 3. Next steps include appraisal, bid solicitation, and eventual sale to private developers. Do you support the approved plan as it stands, what would you change going forward, and what principles should guide the Council’s votes on appraisal, bid, and the eventual sale?

Yes.

5. Road maintenance costs in Oro Valley doubled in four years, climbing from $1.5 million to more than $3.1 million annually. Arizona’s shared-revenue formula is declining, and gas-tax revenue is shrinking with EV adoption. What’s your specific plan for funding infrastructure, including pavement, stormwater, and utilities, over the next four to eight years?

This is related to the previous discussion about revenue. In the current budget, the town delayed some capital improvements because we don’t have the money. If you want nice things, you have to pay for them. That’s why getting our expenses and our revenues where they need to be is critical. The current process for identifying needs isn’t bad. We just need the money.

6. Short of annexation or significantly increasing residential density, the tools available to grow Oro Valley’s sales tax base are limited. Redeveloping vacant retail. Recruiting specific commercial tenants. Expanding tourism and bed-tax revenue. Which of these do you see as the most realistic, and what concrete steps would you take in your first year to advance it?

After a small business meet and greet I did about two months ago, I learned that Oro Valley has retained the anti-small-business reputation it had years ago. I’ve seen this at Pima County too. In their effort to control developers, a culture can develop where a person coming to that counter to open a business is sometimes treated poorly. Talk to the folks who just bought Noble Hops last year, or the gentleman who opened Desert Drifter Coffee. I think they’d tell you this is still true.

We still have a bunch of empty dirt in Innovation Park. It’s time for the council to work with staff to develop a real strategy for putting the right businesses in that area. It’s amazing that the town failed to work with Starbucks to open a coffee shop at Innovation Park Drive and Tangerine. Who needs the extra tax revenue, anyway?

I’ve also seen a lack of creativity and effectiveness in our tourism efforts. We haphazardly dropped out of Visit Tucson to try to do tourism promotion on our own, a bad choice we’re doubling down on. As a member of the tourism advisory commission, I’ve seen this earn the disdain of staff. Both El Conquistador and Westward Look, which we recently annexed, have come out of their own pockets to rejoin Visit Tucson without town support. The relationship between the town and the resorts is pretty broken. The town spent $154,000 on a poor, uninspired boilerplate tourism plan that most of the tourism advisory commission is very unimpressed with, and I won’t even get into the $170,000 Explore OV website. Tourism is a clean industry that doesn’t require extra development, and it provides needed tax revenue to the town and to the restaurants that would like to remain open and viable. A change of attitude, backed by a real strategy, would really help the revenue side of our budget.

7. The Town’s CFO has noted that Oro Valley’s aging demographic creates a structural revenue challenge. Older residents consume more medical and professional services, which generate significant income but little local sales tax. How should the Council respond to this demographic reality, through the tax code, through economic development strategy, or both?

As to our wonderful retirees in Oro Valley, let’s not keep taxing fixed-income seniors. Pima County has raised its property tax for at least four or five years in a row. Local taxes are digging into their discretionary income and limiting their quality of life. There are ways of handling this without moving to an OV property tax. If we keep electing the same mindset, that tax is coming. During my campaign, I noticed a lot of our seniors use the Oro Valley Community Center, and we have to keep that up to date. I’d also look at charging non-residents a higher monthly fee to use the center, to keep it beautiful and operational.

I’d also like to look into having Parks and Rec work with the library to facilitate a literacy program for local kids. A lot of our seniors would be great assets working with kids on their reading at the library. It’s a win-win for everybody.

8. How do you personally intend to gather resident input beyond formal public comment at Council meetings? Please describe specific practices you’ll commit to during your term, including neighborhood meetings, office hours, digital tools, and written communication.

I can affirmatively say I’ve had more public events during this campaign than any of my fellow candidates. This is something I’ll continue once elected. I’d like to hold a monthly Coffee with Chris, in various locations, from local businesses to the parks, the community center, or even the farmers market. I’d encourage one or two of my fellow council people to join me. It’s a great way to get input. I’ve noticed some of our current council people show up to talk to people only when there’s a ribbon getting cut. We have to change that dynamic.

9. Describe one decision made by the current Council that you believe was correct but politically unpopular, and one decision you believe was popular but incorrect. Explain your reasoning.

I don’t know that a small number of residents paying close attention to what the council does makes “popular” an accurate term here. But I can tell you a couple of council processes that bothered me. The ham-handed treatment of the police memorandum of understanding was bizarre and unacceptable. The treatment of the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene in their sanctuary expansion was also a mild train wreck. We can do better.

10. Beyond your professional and civic resume, what personal qualities, and what specific limits on your time and other commitments, should voters weigh when deciding whether you’re the right choice for Council?

Doing the best radio and podcast show about local politics and government for the last 17 years, I’ve learned the best and worst of how local governments run. My experience dealing with municipalities, their bureaucrats, and their elected officials gives me an edge over my competition. No one understands the threats to our town from the City of Tucson and Pima County better than I do.

In addition to serving on the town’s tourism advisory commission, I’ve served on the City of Tucson TCC Commission, the Pima County Transportation Advisory Commission, Visit Tucson’s marketing committee, and the Leman Academy board of directors. This has rounded out my knowledge and experience, including how to build coalitions within a board to advance policies that benefit the greater good.

Seventeen years of interviewing people gives me a big advantage in representing and serving Oro Valley. I know how to ask the right questions, and how to track what people are saying to ask the important follow-up question. I’m also pretty good at coming up with game-changing ideas with big effects. Years ago, I started what became the “Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food” concept with Visit Tucson, which we then grew into the “Best Mexican Food City in America” campaign, one of Visit Tucson’s longest-running and most successful. It was recently featured on Pati Jinich’s PBS show about Mexican cooking.

I have an enthusiasm for this town, and an enthusiasm to make it better for all of our residents.