Charles German has been mayor of Camp Verde for seven years.
After a career as an educator, including several years as a principal in the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District, as well as a brief stint on the Camp Verde Town Council replacing a previous council member who left, the mayor rose to the position in 2013.
On Wednesday, Nov. 4, German’s term ended, with Vice Mayor Dee Jenkins being sworn in to replace him at the Camp Verde Town Council meeting, after having beat him in a close election in August.
After shepherding the town through nearly a decade of change, the former mayor is optimistic about the future of Camp Verde.
“I don’t see anything that gives me any kind of real concern, if it’s of our own doing,” German said. “What is crucial is that we’ll always have a Camp Verde.” German expressed support for the Camp Verde General Plan that was ratified by voters in 2016, which he believes provides the town with a framework that allows changes that follow the goals of the town as more people come in and more economic activity develops, with certain types of development being relegated to certain regions. He argued against what he saw as a “no growth philosophy,” believing that if growth is managed, it can improve the town.
He said he plans to develop the State Route 260 corridor as an economic zone as something he felt hopeful about.
The biggest potential problem that German said he sees down the line relates to water, with more people coming to the Verde Valley meaning risk for the Verde River that is the community’s source of life.
“If it goes dry, that’s a lot of things for a lot of people,” German said. “There comes a point in time — you keep sticking sippy straws into the Verde River and along the Verde River, at some point you’re going to have a real awakening and you’re going to have to drill deeper or you’re going to have some consequences of that groundwater pumping.”
German does, however, see positive signs not only in the efforts of organizations such as the Friends of the Verde River and the Nature Conservancy, but also in the cooperation of local governments in the area. He hopes that efforts to increase the use of water credits with the help of the state legislature could help prevent the loss of water resources.
Increased government cooperation is one of the key positive changes that German looks back on over his tenure as mayor. He believes that the governments of Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Sedona, Clarkdale and Yavapai County are working together more than ever before, a positive change he is proud of participating in.
“There seemed to be a real receptiveness in the whole Verde Valley — the recognition that we were all in this thing together, that we’re in this valley living together, and the decisions affect the rest of us,” German said. “The thing that really made it real to me was whenever we were talking about realignment of SR 260.
“I almost had a cardiac arrest when I found that when we went to the [Arizona Department of Transportation] board to lobby for the realignment on this third leg of SR 260, and we all spoke with the same voice for three-and-a-half hours. I couldn’t believe it …. And it got results because it was the whole Verde Valley along with the Yavapai-Apache Nation that was along with us.”
German said he sees the addition of the Northern Arizona Healthcare Immediate Care center on Finnie Flat Road as his greatest accomplishment during his time as mayor, believing that it was a necessary addition to the town that now allows anyone to take advantage.
Likewise, he touts the Camp Verde Community Library as a welcome addition during his tenure, as well as his participation with the council in helping the brand new Camp Verde Equestrian Center get built.
One of the major projects that German spent time focused on, the construction of the Camp Verde Sports Complex, has not moved so quickly, with the large park off State Route 260 still un-built after a series of setbacks. However, the mayor still feels good about the project, and hopeful that it will soon be finished to a standard that will make up for the delays.
“I know it will be [built],” the mayor said. “The way I look at it, from 1985 until we actually broke ground for the park was many, many years, and that was a promise made to the parents of children who didn’t have adequate parks and playground areas and ballfields and all of that stuff.
“Like I’ve said so many times before, that was one of the reasons we incorporated. People agreed to vote for the incorporation if [it meant] ballfields, a better police force and paving our roads.”
“That was a promise to the community,” German said. “That promise was never delivered on
until we broke ground, and now it’s underway and it’s costing a whole lot more than what I thought it would when we were incorporating, but everything is costing a whole lot more.”
German laments that he had become a lightning rod for controversy on some issues, including the park, among some of Camp Verde’s population. In later years, he said he had sometimes made an effort to step back in order to avoid some of the attention, hoping that would allow progress to be made more easily. He sees hope for the council in the future to perhaps be able to deal with issues before the town with less personal fighting.
For his successor, Jenkins, who German served alongside for years, German expressed well-wishes, as well as a hope that she would be able to marshal the council in a good direction.
“She needs to remember that she’s one of seven,” German said. He hoped that the whole council would be able to work together for the good of the town.
“What you need to do as a group of seven is to turn over every rock to find out all the facts and then make your decision for the majority of Camp Verde. Sometimes it’s not the best or most popular decision, but it’s the right decision for not only the immediate but for the long term,” German said. “And there’s decisions that are going to have to be made that may not be popular, but in the long haul, the track record of those decisions being made will pay off in the long run. That’s what leadership is all about.”
German has expressed no desire to return to politics after he leaves office, but remains interested in public service in the Camp Verde community. He has joined the Rainbow Acres advancement team and is helping to organize a Cash 4 Trash project in order to raise money to clean up garbage in the town.
