With the August primary fast approaching, Ward 3 candidates Janet Wittenbraker, Sadie Shaw and Kevin Dahl squared off earlier this month at a community forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson.

Held at the Flowing Wells Library on June 21, the forum offered an opportunity to hear how each candidate would tackle Tucson’s most pressing issues.

The first topic addressed was accessibility, with candidates asked how they’d make themselves available to all residents, including busy parents, the elderly and disabled.

Ward 3’s current office hours, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., drew criticism from both Shaw and Wittenbraker.

Wittenbraker, the lone Republican candidate, promised to extend office hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. She criticized incumbent council member Dahl’s office hours, saying it is unacceptable that city council members are paid an annual salary of $97,000 yet only in their offices four hours a day.

Wittenbraker said not everyone is able to attend during the current office hours, with Shaw echoing the sentiment and the need for improved accessibility.

“Many folks who are working can't show up before 5. Kevin's not working solo, he has six other staff members and all of those folks are well paid and they should be available to all constituents,” she said. “I've also heard that the folks at the Ward 3 office aren't as accessible as they should be. Depending on the issue that you're bringing them, they may not even call you back.”

As tensions flared, the moderator called for professionalism and asked candidates to focus on issues rather than personal attacks. Shaw snapped back, saying as the incumbent, Dahl’s record should be challenged.

Dahl defended his office hours, saying they serve 95% of constituents and that he was insulted by the criticism of his staff. He was quick to defend their commitment, saying his office manager often works after hours to help visitors.

“This is not the 1950s,” Dahl said. “Walking through the door is not the only way to reach us. There's the internet, there's phones.”

Given the growing number of families affected by strict immigration enforcement, the audience understandably sought candidates’ views on ICE overreach and deportations without due process. Wittenbraker voiced strong support for ICE’s role.

“We have legal immigration in this country, and those immigration laws have been broken, and ICE is doing what their job is. It is not the city of Tucson's job to get involved,” Wittenbraker said. “The city charter is very specific on what the city government is to do for you. The moment you have a city government that overreaches those responsibilities is the moment you lose control of your city government.”

Democratic candidates Shaw and Dahl expressed outrage over ICE’s recent actions in the community. Dahl said that while the immigration system is broken, local police won’t cooperate with ICE investigations, reminding attendees that their duty is to protect residents in the community.

“The weaponization of ICE to remove people who are not criminals, who are caught in an immigration system that has broken," Dahl said. “We had a bipartisan immigration reform package that Congress was going to pass until President Trump asked his Republican counterparts in Congress not to pass it.”

Shaw expressed her belief that ICE is violating the constitutional rights of both citizens and noncitizens, describing the situation as alarming and emphasizing the need to protect everyone’s right to due process.

When another immigration-related question arose, Wittenbraker quickly distanced herself, expressing unfamiliarity with the displacement of multigenerational families caused by the Tucson Norte-Sur project. She said that, according to the city charter, the issue falls outside the city council’s responsibilities, adding that the council should prioritize concerns such as crime, poor roads, inadequate parks and the high poverty rate.

“You have a council that has overextended themselves rather than focusing on what the core charter requirements are. They've gone beyond what is asked of them, your tax dollars only go so far,” Wittenbraker said.

The candidates also discussed Tucson’s VIVA program, which aims to reduce violent crime through community engagement.

Wittenbraker was skeptical of the program’s success, recalling a past meeting she attended.

“I think I dislocated my eyeballs from rolling my eyes so often,” she said, adding that people in the meeting were “talking in circles.”

She suggested instead partnering with other groups like the Tucson Crime Free Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on improving public safety in Tucson.

Dahl disagreed, voicing support for the initiative but saying he also wants to bring focus to the root issues that lead to crime.

Shaw said she supports the VIVA initiative and that it’s a great resource beyond calling 911. She said she only recently learned about the VIVA initiative and that there is a lack of promotion for it in the community.

“They're not being promoted, we don't know those resources are available. If we knew about them, perhaps we would be able to do more,” Shaw said.

The candidates also weighed in on Tucson’s hybrid election system, where council members are nominated by voters from the ward they wish to represent in the primary election but ultimately elected to the city council at-large in the general election.

Dahl expressed support for the current system, emphasizing that council members make decisions affecting all Tucson residents, who therefore deserve a voice in choosing their representatives.

Wittenbraker and Shaw both opposed this system, arguing that only Ward 3 residents should vote for their council representative in both elections.

Homelessness remains a persistent challenge in Ward 3, where extreme desert heat leaves those living outside with few safe, cool places to go. Despite this, the city recently passed a policy banning homeless encampments in parks and washes, sparking controversy.

Shaw said that clearing encampments is inhumane and that displacement only pushes people into neighborhoods, creating more challenges for residents and unhoused individuals.

“In Sugar Hill, when they cordoned off the park to move the encampments, those folks moved into the alleyways of our neighborhood, moved onto the sidewalks, and honestly that creates a difficult situation for residents,” Shaw said.

Dahl shared a similar view, reminding attendees that he had voted against the city’s encampment ordinance.

Although he agrees with the safety concerns camping in washes poses, especially during monsoon season, he said it’s a complicated issue and advocates for safe camping options and expanded shelter resources for the unhoused.

Only Wittenbraker supported clearing encampments, calling it compassionate care and saying that allowing people to camp in washes is inhumane and bad for the environment.

“We're not helping people by just ignoring the problem,” Wittenbraker said. “There is nothing compassionate about allowing someone to suffer alone in our washes and in our parks… There are shelters that, on any given day, are only at 50% capacity.”

Angelina Maynes is a University of Arizona alum and reporter with Tucson Spotlight. Contact her at angelinamaynes@arizona.edu.

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