This August we’ll mark 20 years since I was first hired by Larson Newspapers. Starting off as a copy editor before becoming an assistant managing editor, news editor and finally managing editor — a position I’ve now held for over 10 years — I’ve seen a lot of councils come and go. By my count, it’s been some 60-plus council members in Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Jerome, Clarkdale and Sedona.
We’ve seen all manner of political drama and small-town scandals, allegations or evidence of corruption, resignations and recalls. But we’ve also seen good, dedicated public servants trying to do the best for their communities and persuade their four or six colleagues — depending on their councils’ sizes — of the merits of their point of view for the betterment of their communities, or of the values in public policies and responsible public spending to mitigate the problems caused by all manner of human and natural circumstances.
Whether it was a quorum of council members accidentally or intentionally meeting in violation of open meeting laws, or a mayor illegally accepting a trip to a foreign country in an official capacity without approval by his council, members trying to embarrass a former colleague or council members surreptitiously trying to benefit a family business, the scandals have been minor in the grand scheme of things.
The business of governments, the small-town bureaucracy that keeps streets clean, police officers on duty and professional staff on the job has never wavered, even as the political wrangling by councils has been mostly courteous and civil, though often heated.
■ Being so small, Jerome is really a council of neighbors trying to mitigate the troubles of tourism.
■ With a longer history in the Verde Valley, Camp Verde is a mixture of both prominent families and newcomers tries to keep alive the Western spirit and tradition that brought ranchers to the area while also partnering with the Yavapai-Apache Nation as a permanent partner, inexorably linked to the town and its functioning.
■ There’s Clarkdale, a former mining company town turned quiet artists enclave with council members generally agree on most issues even when on opposite sides of a political issue.
■ Or Sedona, a former pass-through agricultural town made famous by Western movies, later by the New Age movement and by tourism as residents seek a balance between the influx of visitors, retirees seeking a quiet place for their final years, while young families and workers keep the tourism-driven economy functioning day in and day out whether in the quiet winter or the hot summer when businesses beg for someone to come in and spend a dime or in the heavy tourist season when parking lots are full, roadways become parking lots as trails are overloaded and overcrowded by tourists lumbering for that “perfect” photo not already snapped 1,000 times earlier in the day.
To the councils of Jerome, Clarkdale, Camp Verde and Sedona, we thank you for your civility, duty to public service and thick skin in taking both constructive criticism from this newspaper acting as a watchdog for our communities and our tax dollars and the anger and sometimes vitriol from residents — especially on social media.
Most importantly, council members, we thank you for not being Cottonwood City Council right now.
Oh, dear Cottonwood, once the quiet workhorse of the Verde Valley that kept the rest of us functioning. The commercial hub home to our big box stores. The only place I can find pants or inexpensive clothes for three growing children.
What happened to you, and when did you lose your minds? How did your council become the laughingstock of the Verde Valley?
Council members lob personal accusations against each other and threaten and cajole members of the public for exercising their First Amendment rights to speak freely at meetings, write letters to the editor without retribution, petition for a redress of grievances and serve their community on boards and commissions without petty, tiny, cowardly “men” exerting what little political power they actually have to threaten their neighbors personally, by name, to their faces.
What disgust your council’s actions engenders among your residents for your pitiful behavior, your complete lack of sanity, your abandonment of civic duty to serve your community and your utter betrayal of your oaths of office.
The catastrophic Cottonwood City Council drove away perhaps the best city manager in decades, caused a talented lawyer to resign and forced one of the most respected law firms in the state — one that dutifully provides 15 other cities in Arizona with sound legal advice — to fire you for your council members’ overt — and embarrassingly easy to disprove — naked falsehoods, leaving you now without any legal representation whatsoever.
Your council flirts with stupidly proposing unconstitutional actions that will lead to near-immediate court injunctions and litigation you’re 100% certain to lose — no lawyer, remember — wasting tens of thousands of dollars or more to win culture wars being fought on a national stage by better, or at least more politically powerful, public officials.
Council members, you are not Congress nor even the Arizona State Legislature. Your authority extends to keeping streets safe, enforcing building codes, improving the business environment and fixing the sewers — but it’s only a sewer you want to play in.
Daulton Venglar/Larson Newspapers
Your petty drive to “save the children” from the “evilness” of your own residents — and their parents — would be laughable if it wasn’t so mean-spirited and so ineptly executed.
Cottonwood City Council, the rest of the Verde Valley and your own residents are laughing at you for the dumpster fire you have become and continue to be.
Cauterize the hemorrhaging wound that is your governance. Attend a meeting of the Clarkdale, Camp Verde, Jerome or Sedona councils and see how adults govern properly.
Your recent history is an embarrassment. Fix it.
Behave like adults, not Gettr.com users, put aside this pettiness, remember that you yourselves declared Cottonwood a “Bill of Rights City” and act like it. If you can’t, resign, and run for the state legislature or Congress, where you can do less damage to your community.
To the other council members in other cities, thank you for not being Cottonwood. You don’t realize how good your city can be until you can see how another can be so terrible.
Once this madness ends, we will still be here covering Cottonwood, as we have for decades before you served. We’re not going anywhere, nor are our readers, letter writers and concerned citizens.
Right now, your legacy is a black mark in Verde Valley history. You can repair it, but that’s all on you. If you don’t, residents will do so at the ballot box with a righteous fury.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
