The Holbrook City Council attempted to elect a new vice mayor from their membership, but ended in a deadlock that required a call to the city’s attorney, Marlene Pontrelli, to weigh in the matter at the meeting on June 12.
Councilman Tim Dixon initiated the discussion by nominating Councilman C.J. Wischmann to be the new vice mayor, while Councilwoman Francie Payne nominated Councilman Richard Peterson.
In a roll call vote for Wischmann, Dixon voted in favor, as did Wischmann and Mayor Bobby Tyler, but Payne, Peterson and Councilman Earl Kester voted against the nomination.
In a roll call vote for Peterson it was the opposite, with Payne, Kester and Peterson in favor and Tyler, Wischmann and Dixon in opposition.
Pontrelli was called and after being advised of the situation, she asked if one of the two candidates had seniority, stating, “Go by the seniority of the person and they will be the interim vice mayor until we can look into this further.”
Wischmann disagreed, stating, “I think there should be no vice mayor until the next council member is brought on.”
After more discussion, Pontrelli said that it would be okay for the council to go without a vice mayor until another vote could be taken at the June 26 meeting. Both Peterson and Wischmann agreed to that stipulation.
Interim Police Chief Nathan Christensen provided an update to the council, reporting that the five officers on staff had taken 407 calls last month, with 102 taken by one officer.
Regarding the Magnuson Hotel fire, Christensen said a witness had identified four subjects who were located and interviewed. Two of the suspects confessed and the case was turned over to the Navajo County Attorney’s office to determine charges. He had no new information on the Knights Inn fire.
Christensen also noted that another seasoned officer Sgt. Mario Parra retired, resulting in the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office loaning the city one deputy Monday through Friday and two deputies on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All the overtime accrued by the deputies will be paid by the city.
He said that there have been no applicants for the open positions at the police department, but said that an officer is graduating from the Arizona Post Academy on June 21, with a second one graduating in August. With these two on board and with the chief’s position open, there will still be five vacancies.
“This problem of vacancies is not unique to the City of Holbrook,” said Christensen. As he explained how the Sheriff’s Office went through 14 applicants before being able to hire one person. “In the past year, Holbrook has only had 16 applicants, so attempting to fill the positions is going to be difficult as the hiring pool is limited.”
In other business, the council authorized the interim city manager to spend up to $15,000 in the purchase of a street sweeper.
The council also agreed that Tyler, Wischmann and Kester would attend the 2018 Annual Conference for the League of Arizona Cities and Towns on Aug. 21-24 at a cost of $645 per person, which includes $295 for the conference and $350 for the motel.
