This is part of a series of Cottonwood City Council candidate essays that will be published prior to the election on Tuesday, Aug. 28.
My name is Doug Hulse. I am 70 years old, married, father of two adult sons and a fourth-generation Arizonan who has lived in Cottonwood over 20 years at the same address.
Education: Flagstaff High School graduate. College: Northern Arizona University, bachelor’s degree in police science and administration; bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education.
Elective and advisory experience: Arvada: Design Review Board, member of Fostering Better Community Board, Crime Free Multifamily Housing adviser, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design adviser, field training officer in charge of Community Policing program.
Cottonwood: Parks and Recreation Commission for 17 years, the last 14 as chairman, member of Verde Valley Forum, Trails Master Plan Committee, various other committees including budget committees.
Civic Affiliations: Past president Telegraph Hill, Optimist Club and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in Arvada, Colo.; American Radio Relay League; Cottonwood BPOE; American Legion; veteran supporter of the Verde Valley Veterans Service Park; ordained deacon at Clarkdale Baptist Church.
As a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, I work with residents to provide the kinds of parks, recreation and events they have requested. The commission has been fiscally responsible assuring that the funds for these amenities did not present a hardship to the city budget.
Currently, I am working with Verde Village 8 residents who reside in Cottonwood. The goal is to upgrade Fir Street from Monte Tesoro to Chuckawalla and Monte Tesoro from the Willard extension to Fir Street. Planned upgrades to this portion of Fir Street have not materialized since 2001. Traffic increased dramatically on both streets in 2008, with the completions of the Willard Avenue extension. Dr. Daniel Bright School will become a kindergarten to eighth-grade school in August. Residents are requesting upgrades to the streets to include curbs, gutters and sidewalks for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists including the children attending this expanded school.
The city continues to be fiscally responsible while continuing to be a full-service city. Through proper management, the city has been able to provide services without the need for a property tax.
Water rates have been an issue in Cottonwood. The costs for service outside the city are greater due to several factors including distance, terrain, greater percentage of leaks, difference in distribution systems — in city, 70 percent is gravityfed; outside city is a pressurized system using pumps and electricity. There are 14 small wells outside the city limits compared to nine wells inside the city. All require daily monitoring and regular maintenance. The city purchased Quail Canyon Water system exclusively for Verde Village units 6 and 7 at a cost of $889,107 with $200,000 more for installation of lines, pumps and other equipment.
The role of the council is to ensure a diversified economy that supports base industries, service suppliers, tourism, medical services, education, construction, recreation and other key sectors. It is the responsibility of council to foster an inviting environment and to promote these industries in our city. The council continues toward achievement of this goal as evidenced by new business growth in the city.
On the question of the city’s debt, it is difficult to compare other communities to ours. Population alone does not dictate reasonableness.
The real issue is the needs of our community and facilities required to meet those needs. Many cities our size and larger do not have all the services we provide and, therefore, have less responsibility, less staff and in some cases pass on the cost of municipal services through property taxes or special districts.
Although not perfect, debt per capita is one means of comparison. I compared 25 cities in Arizona and found that several communities have a larger debt per capita than Cottonwood.
Considering all of the above and Cottonwood’s owned assets, I am satisfied the debt level is reasonable. Having said that, the lower we can get our debt level the better off we will be. I would work towards reducing the debt level as quickly as possible.
There have been concerns about city employee salaries being too high. I researched cities within the population range of Cottonwood and smaller to compare salaries. I used the 2018 Local Government Salary and Benefit Survey conducted by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns for my comparisons.
My findings show that Cottonwood employee salaries are within the ranges of cities the same size or smaller within the state.
We must pay competitive salaries to attract quality employees.
