This is part of a series of Cottonwood City Council candidate essays that will be published prior to the election on Tuesday, Aug. 28.
I came to the Verde Valley 14 years ago and Cottonwood has been at the center of my business and social life.
I have been self-employed all of those years and have been very successful, in no small part, with the help of many local people and businesses. This has allowed me to become more involved with the local community in serving as a volunteer and becoming knowledgable about Cottonwood’s civic affairs.
I have learned a lot by attending Cottonwood City Council meetings for almost two years and researching the budget and council/government activities of the last decade.
I have met with many current and past council members and a consistent story emerges and one that is a bit disturbing. Many mistakes were made. Positively, the last election that swept council members Tosca Henry and Deb Althouse into office was a message as to which direction the voters want the city to go. We need to continue that in this coming election to ensure the majority shifts to reflect that sentiment.
I believe that government should be limited in its scope and authority and unable to place unfair mandates and economic pressures on certain sectors of the community for the benefit of the few or itself.
The problem is, expenditures are not vetted with the eye of a shareholder or investor, but that of a government bureaucrat, a person whose personal fortunes are not invested in his expenditures.
The bureaucrat retains no incentive to keep costs down, in fact, his goal is the exact opposite. If his office were to use less money than the year previous, he faces getting his budget cut.
When faced with the prospect of being the captain of a smaller ship, the bureaucrat will always push expenditures to the maximum level and beyond, to ensure the larger growth of funding of his budget.
He will also say that his need represents the need of the public. All of this comes at the expense of the people living under such a bureaucracy — the taxpayer, the property owner, the business owner and the consumer. As the government grows, more and more money must be siphoned out of the economy to support its activities, and in a small town like Cottonwood, the effects are painful and noticeable. The waste of taxpayer dollars and the growth of big government plagues the city’s residents and businesses like a cancer.
It feeds on the labors of the healthy sectors of the economy: The homeowners, the consumers, the merchants, the producers and the laborers and then excretes big-salaried department heads and their wellpaid employees who then get to retire on the taxpayers’ dime, overseen by a City Council with handpicked members to protect their agenda.
All the while, the list of pet projects gets longer and longer, begging the need for more taxes and fees, more employees and paper-pushers.
This is the legacy of the last 10 years and it must end.
Regarding salaries: There is only so much money to spend and we are paying so many employees over $100,000 in salary and benefits, many approaching and exceeding $200,000, somebody has to pay the price.
To quote one official, “the city manager has created a monster.”
For example, the median wage for management occupations in Arizona is $85,000. It just so happens that the nationwide average salary for a city manager is $86,000 with only 10 percent of them making more than $160,000. Our city manager is above that.
The salary of the governor of Arizona is $95,000. Let that sink in.
Perhaps we should have a graduated increase with a higher percentage for those at the bottom to middle of the salary range and a smaller percentage to the highest earners?
Does anybody really think there is no room for improvement here? We need to make some changes and bring more balance to our employees salary structure.
Regarding debt: All cities must run on a certain level of debt. Many believe we have an unreasonable amount of debt. The national median debt per capita is $1,525. Cottonwood’s debt per capita is $5,847. That does not include the millions of unfunded pension liabilities we inherited.
Does that sound healthy?
Perhaps we need to implement a debt policy?
We don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.
Please join me in the fight to restore Cottonwood’s financial health, bring balance to our employees salaries, protect our valued services and most importantly, leave a positive legacy for the next generation
