Did Steve Kozachik want a job before he wanted on the council?

by David Safier

Back in April, the Star ran a short "Why I'm running" piece on Nina Trasoff and Steve Kozachik, introducing their runs for the city council seat. Here's Kozachik's statement.

Why running?: Because it matters. I reached out to Councilwoman Nina Trasoff's office in the middle of last year because I saw they were floundering. They didn't answer. It makes me crazy to use out-of-towners for Rio Nuevo. I'm tired of seeing tax money wasted. Now I'm at the point, if you can't join them, beat them. I have a track record of doing the stuff they're trying to do, on time, on budget and in the public sector.

Kozachik did reach out to Trasoff's office like he said, but it looks like it was less an offer to help than a job application. He wanted to head the Rio Nuevo arena project starting at the design stage and continuing as building ops manager when the arena was built.

Here's an email Kozachik sent to Alex Hingle in January, 2009. At the time, Hingle was a Council Aide to Trasoff.

Hi Alex;
Nice chat -glad to hear that you're upbeat re the TIF money staying home where it belongs.
Here's your memory jogger -who's the arena manager firm that the City's finalizing their contract with? I'm told that purchasing will be Including ~ me on the selection committee for the CM@R when they get around to that RFP -~~" ~ — ;~ and the arena mgr will also be a part of that team. I'd like to contact them for two reasons; #1, to discuss the CM@R process and what role they see themselves playing in it, and secondly, to discuss the prospect of my hiring on with them to oversee the actual construction of the arena, beginning with design, then as stakeholder representative through the building and finally building ops manager when the project is completed. It's exactly what I do for Intercollegiate Athletics -witness the recent completion of the Richard Jefferson Gymnasium (which you're still invited to come and see) -so I believe the fit is perfect, as is the timing.
With that, whatever you can get me re contact information / name, # , etc / so I can initiate some contact would be great.
Thanks -Steve K.

..let me know when you and cr would like to do a walk through. I think you'll see plenty of similarities between what I just finished here and where we may be headed downtown re the arena. I still believe we can make it work financially by building the structure sub-grade, as we just did here with Jefferson. Tunnel connections to the TCC, shared spaces over there – lots of value added considerations, but they have to be incorporated at design in order for them to make any financial and operational sense. If you think it's worth a meeting, I'll make myself available at your place, or down here.

In the context of that email, this line from the Star piece takes on a whole different flavor: "They didn't answer. It makes me crazy to use out-of-towners for Rio Nuevo." What made him crazy may have had more to do with getting passed over for the job than worrying about the best interests of the city.