Kozachik tapped to lead Pima Animal Care, temporarily replacing outgoing director
Former Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik will serve as the interim director of the Pima Animal Care Center and shepherd the process of finding a new leader by April 2025, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said Friday.
In a memo, Lesher told the Board of Supervisors that Kozachik will begin managing PACC on Dec. 7 — replacing outgoing director Monica Dangler, who announced her resignation earlier this month.
Kozachik will lead PACC and assist in the process of find a permanent hire to fill the vacancy left by Dangler, Lesher said.
As the interim director Kozachik will run a “listening and learning process” to find the next director, which will involve staff, the Pima Animal Care Advisory Board, Friends of PACC, rescue and animal care groups, and other agencies.
Lesher said the process will ensure PACC can “continue to serve as a national model of a large public animal care facility.”
Lesher praised Dangler’s leadership, which has “continued to solidify animal services as a true community resource center that focuses on helping people in order to help pets putting public health and safety at the forefront.”
PACC serves as role model to the country on “what a large, government funded can and should look like,” Lesher wrote.
“As director, Ms. Dangler has assembled an outstanding management team that is prepared to continue to fully implement the lifesaving programs, policies, and protocols required of a public animal care facility,” she said.
Under Dangler’s tenure, Pima County dramatically reduced the number of dogs who are put down and also mitigated dog bites by 22 percent since 2010.
“Unnecessary deaths” at the Pima Animal Care Center have been “systematically” cut by 94 percent with a change in strategy to focus on “compassion and care,” Dangler wrote in report published in August.
Dangler attributed the decrease in euthanasia and bites alike to a focus on animal rehabilitation and training rather than punitive animal control over the past decade.
In March, Kozachik resigned from the Tucson City Council after serving as the representative for Ward 6 since 2009.
After leaving that seat, Kozachik was hired by Lesher to tackle the Mosaic Quarter—a public-private athletic development on Tucson’s South Side.
Kozachik was a sports facilities associate director at the University of Arizona, but he was pushed out of that job in November 2020 when his criticisms of college administrators’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic became more pronounced.
Kozachik began working for UA athletics in 1988.
Lesher said Kozachik has worked “closely” with Deputy County Administrator Carmine DeBonis, Jr. to finalize lease and financing agreements with Knott Development to build the Mosaic Quarter.
In 2021, the county agreed to partnership to build a “multi-facility sports and entertainment complex,” to expand the Kino Sports Complex. The facility will include ice and indoor court sports facilities, a stadium, a parking garage and “supporting hospitality” as well as restaurant and retail spaces, Lesher said. On Oct. 17, Lesher said the privately-funding financing for the project was complete “clearing the way for construction activities” to start within weeks.
“The completion of this phase of the partnership with Mosaic Quarter, which has taken considerable time by all involved allows Pima County to benefit from Mr. Kozachik’s experience with PACC and its many constituents,” Lesher wrote Friday.
Lesher said Deputy County Administrator Dr. Francisco Garcia will lead efforts to find a new director for PACC and aimed to have a new person in place by April 1, 2025.
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