Tucsonans got some good news this month when the mayor and City Council unanimously approved $453.5 million in bonds over the next six years to fund major projects in the Rio Nuevo downtown development district.

That should be a positive step toward delivering on promises made shortly after the State Legislature passed a law enabling the venture and Tucson voters also approved it in 1999.

A new convention hotel, arena, convention center, museums and other structures could begin rising soon.

Oops. Let me rephrase that.

Those buildings could be visible soon if they can avoid the red tape, stalling and bureaucratic hostility nearly every other project encounters when presented to officials at City Hall.

Other news stories that didn’t mention Rio Nuevo should be a warning to all concerned.

I’ve mentioned the first in an earlier column. When 3,000 members of the Arizona Small Business Association were asked to name the state’s least-friendly local government for business dealings, Tucson came in first.

That’s not the kind of No. 1 ranking Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce or the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau will boast about when trying to lure new businesses, jobs and conventions here.

The other issue comes from City Development Services where Jesse Sanders, deputy director, told Inside Tucson Business between 60 and 70 percent of businesses in Tucson are operating illegally because they haven’t — or can’t — obtain a city certificate of occupancy.

Those items are connected. Let’s hope Mayor Bob Walkup, all six council members, City Manager Mike Hein and others see the link.

City-caused delays and indecision have played major roles in delaying significant downtown projects. Unless the city changes its procedures, we’ll have more Rio Nuevo delays, even though we finally have a funding plan.

When Arizona businesses cite the problems of operating here and rank Tucson as the hardest local government to deal with in the state, they simply echo comments from out-of-state firms and local companies as well.

If half the businesses can’t comply or slog through the morass the City Council has created for certificates of occupancy, that’s an obvious sign the ordinances, policies and processes need fixing now.

City officials must admit their errors and correct them. From the elected officials to the lowest-level city employees, attitudes toward business must change.

The first thought at City Hall shouldn’t be "How can I delay or stop this project?" Instead, it should be "How can I help this project succeed?" Employees should be praised and rewarded for plans they help make happen, not those they torpedo.

New companies, expanding firms and a lone entrepreneur considering a business venture should all be welcomed, assisted and guided so they can succeed in adding jobs, shopping options, new services and other benefits for Tucsonans.

That means officials should repeal petty ordinances, policies or requirements that may have once looked good to some councilmembers or bureaucrats but haven’t worked.

And elected officials, administrators and employees who still think business should be hassled and driven somewhere else should be removed from their jobs. They don’t understand basic principles of customer service.

Tucson’s anti-business reputation hurts all of us. Overcoming the rap will take time, but it’s worth the effort.

Suburb of what?

And that brings me to one more recent bit of news.

The Arizona Daily Star, which won a Pulitzer Prize and other awards in the 1980s while competing against the nation’s largest newspapers, has been named "Newspaper of the Year" by a group called Suburban Newspapers of America.

Since we’re too far south to be a suburb of Phoenix, do you suppose the judges think Tucson is a suburb of Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita or South Tucson?

Unfortunately, our city officials too often act like it.

Contact Steve Emerine or e-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Emerine, a Tucson resident since 1960, has run Steve Emerine Strategic Public Relations since 1994. He is a former local newspaper reporter, editor and columnist and served as Pima County Assessor from 1973 to 1980. He is a regular Monday guest on the John C. Scott radio talk show, which airs from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and from 11 a.m. to noon weekdays on The Voice KVOI 690-AM. This column appears weekly in Inside Tucson Business.