The top issues in Camp Verde over the next two years, according to the candidates for Town Council, are growth, water, building out the sports complex and increasing sales tax revenue.
Incumbent Camp Verde Councilwomen Robin Godwin and Patricia Seybold, former councilwoman Jackie Baker and political newcomer Tanner Bryson spoke at a candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Northern Arizona on June 18.
Baker served four nonconsecutive terms starting in 1999 but was not reelected in 2024.
Bryson sought the mayor’s seat in 2024, but was removed from the ballot by a judge after allegedly collecting petition signatures prior to filing a statement of interest for the mayor’s seat; with 87 signatures of Bryson’s invalidated on his nomination petitions, he was ineligible to run. He instead ran as a write-in candidate for Town Council, but did not advance out of the crowded primary election.
Godwin was first elected in 2009, under her previous surname Whatley, and is seeking reelection to her fifth term after being reelected in 2013, 2018 and 2022.
Seybold was appointed to council last June to fill a vacancy and is seeking election to a full term.
“We can get all the residents we want to come to Camp Verde, but if theyhave no place to shop, no place to work, then it’s a failure,” Tanner Bryson, said during a candidate forum the League of Women Voters of Northern Arizona hosted on Thursday, June 18. “I heard a statistic today for every new resident that moves into Camp Verde, for each dollar the town makes, it costs them 43 cents above that. So to bring in more residents without your business infrastructure, I think is a mistake.”
“We have recently instituted an increase inhotel bed tax,” Seybold said, about the 3% to 8% increase. “We’re hoping that revenue will help offset some of the things that we have all been wanting to happen, but couldn’t afford in Camp Verde.”
The Town of Camp Verde doesn’t collect property taxes; the main source of tax revenue is sales tax, which doesn’t apply to food.
One thing all candidates agreed upon was the need to bring businesses to the State Route 260 and I-17 corridors.
“We need to get infrastructure out there, so that the big box stores, the corporations, the UPS, those kinds of entities can come in and be part of our sales tax base,” Godwin said. “But then we can also keep our small town atmosphere on Main Street, where we can have local businesses, [and] local restaurants.”
The four candidates are vying for three open seats in the Tuesday, July 21, primary election.
Affordable Housing
At the forum, council candidates shared differing views on affordable housing, one aspect of growth.
“I’m not a big fan of manipulating markets and using government funding to bring in affordable housing,” Bryson said. “I’m a believer in free markets and the idea that we’re going to use government money to artificially impactthe market, so that people that can’t afford here can come and live here, I just don’t think that’s a good thing.”
Baker said there are still things the town can do to try and help alleviate housing concerns.
“We can offer tax incentives to developers — although we did have an opportunity zone on Highway 260 West, but that is expiring this year, so, that may not any longer be something that we can offer — but we can offer ease of permitting, ease of addressing these issues and offer incentives where we are able to,” she said.
The two incumbents said they want to continue working with developers to get affordable housing projects started.
“A simple solution for some of this would be to allow people that have acreage to host an RV on their property,” Bryson said.
“They can get rent from their property, it’ll help their mortgage and it gives somebody a place to live in an interim until they’re ready to go buy a house.”
Water
Conservation of the Verde River is important to the candidates as well as ensuring water is available for residents’ use and managed well.
“It is vitally important that we work with our partners, we work with people in the Verde Valley to make sure that all of our needs are being met,” Seybold said. “If the Verde River is not flowing towards us, we’re not going to have ariver. We need to make sure that the watershed above us is maintained.”
Most drinking water comes from wells, which need to be treated for public consumption.
While private land-owners still have access to their private wells, town water is managed well, Godwin.
“The water companies need to expand, obviously, with our infrastructure as well as the sewer,” Bryson said. “But those are all problems that we’re going to face in the future, but Camp Verde is pretty on top of the water, and we are working regionally with different entities to make sure that the water is there before we build.”
Underestimated Issues
The moderator of the forum, Mary Chicoine, asked the candidates what issues they believe are largely underestimated or ignored.
“I’ve run several arenas, built arenas, had events, and I’m not sure that anyone knows the amount of effort and work and cost involved with that,” Bryson said.
“So, I think that the arena, especially, and the sports complex are two areas that I think have been maybe underestimated.”
Baker’s reasoning was also about being more fiscally responsible.
“I believe that we need to focus more in a real educated professional manner, marketing our town,” Baker said. “Each year we talk about the revenues that we are short. What do we need to do? Review our fees? Eliminate some things that may be a negative to businesses that would like to come in? But we certainly need those services for our citizens, and we need it for revenue.”
Godwin’s rationale for the underestimated issues was more about town identity.
“One thing that I think that we are kind of ignoring, my opinion, is our dark skies,” Godwin said. “We’re a dark sky city. Let’s be a dark sky city. Our ordinances are only, we only go to complaints through citizen complaints. Somebody has to complain before someone will go out and see if someone’s violating the dark sky ordinance. I think we need to be more vigilant on that.”
Seybold agreed with Godwin’s assessments of the Dark Skies ordinances.
“There are a lot of ways to do path lighting on and off switch, motion detector lighting, but when you drive down 17 and you get off the 260 corridor, you are greeted with a spaceship of lights,” she said. “So, I’m truly hoping that during the ordinance changes we will be able to get better lighting ordinances in place, especially for developments.”
Proposition 498
Proposition 498, which is the voters’ approval of the General Plan, will be on the ballot in November.
The general plan gets approved every 10 years, and designates planning and zoning codes and acts as recommendations for the town in what it wants and where it wants it.
Town Manager Miranda Fisher “put together a working group of stakeholders, a few council members, business leaders in the community and citizens to come up with this wonderful document,” Godwin said. “There are 10 character areas in here, and we all live in one of those, and it’s very interesting to read about your own character area.”
Baker said the plan is a living document and provides a clear way forward for the town.
“If you can’t follow the plan, then it really is ineffective,” Bryson said. “One of the things me and one of the people that helped develop this plan is we were cognizant of the fact that we don’t necessarily want to be Prescott Valley, we don’t necessarily want to be Cottonwood, we definitely don’t want to be Sedona.”
Visit journalaz.com or the League of Women Voters of Northern Arizona’s YouTube page to watch the full forum.
