Teri Tafoya selected as new Holbrook Council member

Each applicant was asked the same four questions, Why do you want to be on the city council? What do you believe are the major challenges facing the City of Holbrook? Where would you like to see the city in the near future? and What do you hope to achieve by serving on the council?

“I feel very strongly about civic duty and engaging, and being part of a solution rather than somebody who sits back and points out problems, which is why I ran for council to fill Vice Mayor Wade Carlisle’s position several years ago,” stated Marsh on his reasoning for wanting to serve.

Tafoya stated one of her reasons for applying was she would like to see more small businesses in the city and a growth in pride that has been dwindling over the years. “Holbrook needs to become as beautiful as the people that live here. The one good thing about Holbrook is the people. The people make Holbrook.”

Church also mentioned the importance of Holbrook citizens and the need to revitalize tourism. “I’ve had a chance to talk to so many people; and there’s just wonderful people here. I think that they want to be represented and they want to see the town come back to life.”

All three applicants believed that Holbrook had a lot of work that needed to be done and were excited to be part of its improvement.

Tafoya’s win came with three votes from Mayor Kathleen Smith, and councilmembers Karina Pack and Robert Black. Marsh received two votes from councilmembers Tim Dixon and Mike Nilsson, and Church received one vote from Councilmember Arcenia Pacheco.

Tafoya will be sworn into her position at the next city council meeting on June 22.

During call to the public prior to the appointment of Tafoya, local business owner Mark Romo addressed the board regarding the previous council meeting. “We need to put our differences aside, whatever they may be. And we need to have some clarity here for this town,” he stated. “We chose you guys to be our leaders. We need to be able to come together as a group and you guys need to move forward for this town.”

Romo also noted that the council does not have an attorney present at the meetings, either in person or on the phone, which is needed. He voiced his backing for council applicant Tafoya as well, stating she is a long-standing citizen and a lovely lady.

Former Vice Mayor Payne also spoke her concerns of allowing the vacant council member position to go to special election, which would be the case in a tie vote. “It would be an unnecessary expense to have an election and I was worried about that when I was considering putting my resignation in. But I do think that if you’ll just listen carefully, you’ve got good candidates, give them a fair shot, take the very best one.”

Gerald Hancock also spoke, stating that city council is meant to be a place of integrity, and referred to the previous meeting in which Councilmember Pacheco stated she did not want to support a recommendation by Mayor Smith for Rebecca Slade to be the charter review committee because she didn’t know her. “I know that Arcenia made a mistake last time, she does know Rebecca Slade.” To which, Pacheco admitted she did in fact know her.

Hancock then addressed examples in which he believed the city fell short. “Two plus years ago the city knocked the wall down at the cemetery. They got it fixed. The next council meeting it was stated by you and your staff that they were going to start painting it the next week. How long’s that been?”

He also discussed other issues, such as the city employee who stated to The Tribune that he had used city equipment without permission to help a private business to remove concrete but that the next day the city claimed they had a “handshake deal,” noting “that stuff is still up there so the handshake deal wasn’t very good.”

Another concern was the lack of road maintenance and the unfulfilled promise by the city to fix the problem last November, claiming months later that there was no money and no equipment. “What’s wrong here? I just don’t understand you people. You ran on this agenda to get elected, step up.”

“I don’t know where the road department is at. I never see them, and I travel this town daily. What are they doing all day?” All I can say is that I think it’s time for you to step up and do something for the city, not just for yourselves.” He asked if the council ever went out to see if they got done what they said they were going to do.

Hancock stated this was why he would like to see Tafoya as a member of the council. “She tells you something, that’s the truth and she’s going get it done.” He also voiced his respect for Payne for stepping down from her position after she served the four years she was elected to serve. Regarding council members Dixon and Nilsson who are now serving extended terms he said, “It’s going to be interesting with the next election since you stretched this thing out so long.”

During summary of current events, Councilmember Black spoke about a recent issue with the city’s recycling of cardboard. “We moved all the cardboard from the recycle yard and took it out to the green waste to be burned. That’s kind of a slap in the face. Citizens of Holbrook were not happy at all about that.” Black stated upon further investigation he found out the baler from the recycle yard was since moved to the city waste transfer station, which he believes is a wreck waiting to happen. “The best place that we could have done it was where we had it, because you had all kinds of room. The only issue was it wasn’t getting done. So, we need to look at the issue on why it wasn’t getting done.”

Black also asked if the owners of the marijuana grow facility on the west end of Hopi Drive had a permit for the fence that was recently put up. Soltis stated he was unable to comment at that time. Black continued, “I don’t think that thing is up to code and I think it needs to be looked at. I don’t even know how they got permission to build it, if they did.”

Also, during the summary of current events, Soltis stated that two historians from Yuma told staff it was the nicest and cleanest cemetery in the area, to which Soltis thanked staff efforts. He also discussed attending the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG) Economic Development council meeting where a variety of topics were discussed. “It’s really a good opportunity to work together on economic development in our area.”

During the meeting, the council also:

* Adopted the Fiscal Year 2023 tentative budget.

* Appointed Randy Sullivan as the city’s Chief Fiscal Officer (CFO) for the purpose of submitting the Annual Expenditure Limitation Report (AELR).

* Approved an intergovernmental agreement with Navajo County for animal impoundment services, where the county will pay $1,600 per year to the city for acceptance of up to 30 dogs brought in by the county’s Animal Care and Control Officer.