During the Sept. 12 meeting of the Holbrook City Council, the council discussed rescheduling the strategic planning session that had previously been canceled. After Vice Mayor Wade Carlisle introduced the item for consideration, Councilman Richard Peterson expressed his concerns over the matter.
“We did schedule it and we did have a facilitator and four of the seven council members chose not to participate. If we are going to go ahead with this, what will be different and will everyone participate or will some decide that they don’t want to do it?” inquired Peterson, referring to a questionnaire distributed to the council members by facilitator Jason Foutz prior to the scheduled work session.
Councilman CJ Wischmann said that he misunderstood what was being asked. “I thought we were going to have a program by which we were going to list and determine the direction that the city was going to go in. I did not know I was going to have to list my intention of why I ran (for office). There was a lot in there that was personal and I didn’t feel, frankly, was anyone’s concern or business,” he said.
Councilwoman Francie Payne stated that there was a question on the questionnaire that she didn’t answer because it asked what was something that people didn’t know about her and she felt that after living in Holbrook for 30 years, everyone pretty much knew everything about her. “So I just didn’t answer that question, but I was happy with the other questions, which included ‘What do you think Holbrook’s strengths are?’” she said, noting that it made her stop to think and evaluate not only the perceptions of the people who live in the town, but also its visitors. “I saw them (the questions) as starting points.”
Wischmann said he felt that could have been achieved at the meeting without a questionnaire, and that he felt it prohibited having an open minded discussion. “To think about those questions, fine, but to have them on a printed form and say ‘This is our starting point’… I thought we were going to start with a blank sheet of paper,” the councilman explained.
City Manager Randy Sullivan said that he believed that Foutz was seeking a starting point from which to facilitate the meeting for his own understanding of how to plan the meeting.
“Just because four people didn’t respond doesn’t mean we were not going to be interested in the direction,” said Wischmann.
Carlisle suggested that if council members would state the topics that they felt were most important to the city, those topics would be written down and presented to Foutz in order for him to prepare. “This way he will have a response on his email and I think that will be what he needs,” he said.
Councilman Earl Kester stated that he felt tourism was an important matter and that he would like to have an understanding of why the transients are in the town. “It’s my understanding that the Bread of Life (Mission) is bringing in people from other cities and I would like to know more about that,” he said.
“I’d like to have a needs assessment of our infrastructure with a five-year plan, not only of our needs, but the amount that it’s going to cost,” said Wischmann. “I would also like to have a look at the personnel process…the process of job descriptions and posting of job descriptions.”
Councilman Tim Dixon stated one of his chosen topics is the beautification of the city. “There has been some good progress on streets and roads and that sort of thing, but I think we could do a lot more that would cause people to have the ‘wow’ affect,” he said, referencing some car repair shops that he says have become “wrecking yards.” He also cited a lack of code enforcement, updating the city website, improving advertisement along the interstate, developing city owned land for visitor use and participation in the Sister City Project. “Holbrook needs a makeover,” he said.
Peterson said that identifying the city’s strengths is key, such as the parks in the community and the historic downtown. “Our downtown old Holbrook is an eyesore and that’s been a shame through the years, but I think we have a lot of things we can exploit,” he said.
Payne shared Wischmann’s opinion that a needs assessment is important. “I’d like to throw the water rights question in there, too. We’re paying a lot of attorney’s fees to be in this consortium to save money on attorney’s fees, but I’m not quite sure how that washes out,” she said. Another priority she noted was to create partnerships and try to assist business owners who promote the city along with their business endeavors, specifically noting Atsuo Sakurai, who brews Arizona Sake in Holbrook and has worked tirelessly to promote the city.
Payne also cited code enforcement as a priority. “We also have to back the city staff when they do it,” she said, referencing the building at the southeast corner of Hopi Drive and Navajo Blvd. and an issue that should have been resolved more than a decade ago. “We took (the owner) Dusan Pesut to court over that illegal sign above the old bus station. The court ruled that it was not a legal sign and that he had to take it down and the council said, ‘Oh, well that’s okay’ and it still stands.”
Carlisle stated that all the topics mentioned were ones he is in agreement with.
The council made the decision to ask Foutz if he will facilitate a future meeting and if so, what dates he would have available. Once that is determined the council will work within that schedule to ensure as many council members could participate as possible.
