The Holbrook City Council met on Feb. 24, where Mayor Merrill Young addressed the current recall petition for him as the city’s mayor.
Mayor Young began by accusing The Tribune News Editor Linda Kor of writing the statement pertaining to the recall saying that Kor is spearheading the effort. He stated that he and City Manager Ted Soltis have done their jobs correctly and have improved the city. “In my opinion, what she (Kor) is doing is putting out an intent to deceive people in the community. And I’m not happy with it, I don’t like it and it needs to stop.”
Young did not elaborate as to why he believed the recall statement was Kor’s doing. When asked regarding Young’s claim, Kor denied authoring the statement and said she was unaware of how Young came to his conclusions.
Mayor Young went on to address the points listed for the recall, stating while there are positions that have not been filled, there have been no safety positions eliminated and that workloads have been taken on by other city staff members, adding that the money saved by not filling those positions have been used for giving pay raises and repairing and replacing equipment, paying for the minimum wage increase, insurance and supplies. “This minimizes the need to increase the fees, the rates, the taxes,” he said.
He continued to defend his position by countering the statement found in the recall that Mayor Young violated city charter by facilitating and canceling the 2021 city election cycle, which resulted in an extension of the terms of the council and his office. “First off, I did not facilitate that. The cancellation of the 2021 election cycle based on the direction given by the state to consolidate elections,” he said, adding, “It was voted on by the council and I believe it was unanimously passed.”
Young warned that a recall would serve to deter people from running for office, and for those who are interested in a seat on the council to come to the city offices to file a packet. “We have three seats open and one packet taken out. My suggestion is put yourself up here, be the solution.”
In response to his statements, each of the council members present voiced their personal support of Young, with Councilman Kip Woolford present by telephone stating that he was unable to hear all of Young’s comments due to the poor connection and as such would refrain from commenting himself. Councilman Adam Marsh was absent from the meeting.
Woolford stated, “The very First Amendment is freedom of the press. Our forefathers did this for us and that was a way to keep leaders in our communities in check. I will always support our media for that purpose. We’ve lost our radio station and I’d sure hate to see us lose our local newspaper because it’s a very important source of information for our community. I hope that Mayor, I’ll see a rebuttal in the next paper as a letter to the editor so you can get your position out there.”
In other business, City Manager Ted Soltis stated the city received a Water Infrastructure Finance Authority grant in the amount of $289,500, which will be used to defend the city’s water rights in the ongoing water litigation case.
In other business, the council:
* Held the first reading regarding the sale of property in Snowflake located at 4506 Mountain View Road in the amount of $6,251.
* Approved the Corral, located at 865 E. Navajo Blvd., bar license ownership transfer application to Ofelia Lange.
* Received a Navajo County Fair update from Fair Board President Mike Sample. Sample stated that the fairgrounds will be busy most weekends with rodeo events, and that the fair will be held Sept. 14 – 17. “It’s a year full of big events and it brings a lot of people to our community,” Sample stated.
* Reappointed Mike Sample to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
