The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors ended the Verde Connect road project on Jan. 6.
The meeting was also Yavapai County District 3 Supervisor Donna Michaels’ first as an elected official.
Michaels stated a series of falsehoods about the project in her rationale for voting against the project. In response to repeated inquires, Michaels refused to comment. She instead emailed a link to her personal website which contains talking points. However, she did not cite those points at the meeting, instead repeating numerous falsehoods and false claims that have been circulating on local social media pages, many originating on one Facebook group based in Camp Verde.
Michaels did not respond to inquires about why she repeated these falsehoods in a public meeting without checking their validity.
This is a fact-check of her false statements during the meeting:
First Michaels made the motion to kill the project in District 2, but after she began to make her case, was gaveled back by Chairman Craig L. Brown to simply make the motion before stating her reasons for her vote.
“Donna, we need to make this a motion, not a long discussion that we need a motion,” Brown said.
None of the five supervisors had any questions. Two had previously voted to kill Verde Connect in December and two others had penned a letter signaling they would kill it after being sworn in.
When the discussion again came to Michaels, she repeated the board’s concerns about the fiscal problems with the project, stating, “The project would not function effectively as a region connection, unless the entire project from the State Route 260 to Cornville Road was completed and funding for the project is not feasible without jeopardizing the funding of future roadway needs in the Verde Valley.”
Eberhard himself was the source for falsehoods on social media that he claims do not exist on social media.
However, Michaels then said, “According to a record poll, over 80%, I believe it’s now 84%, of the people in the Verde [Valley] were opposed to this project.”
Yet she made no indication from where this “poll” originated. Yavapai County conducted no such poll. No official nor scientific poll was funded by the county nor the Verde Connect project.
Michaels’ website provides no other details about the poll other than calling it a “Journal” poll. Larson Newspapers’ The Camp Verde Journal also conducted no such poll and all our polls come with the clear disclaimer printed on the results “* Polls should not be considered scientific.”
Michaels then said, “I would only conclude that every single municipality in the Verde Valley voted unanimously to oppose this.”
That claim is false. Of the five municipalities in the Verde Valley, the Camp Verde and Jerome town councils voted against Verde Connect. Cottonwood and Clarkdale put items on the agenda, but never voted for nor against. Sedona City Council never discussed it.
Michaels then said, “Every single municipality in the county … voted unanimously.”
That claim is false. There are 11 incorporated towns and cities in Yavapai County. Only two voted on Verde Connect.
Michaels said, “Every single unincorporated areas’ association … voted unanimously.”
That claim is false. Community councils and associations are 501(c)(3) nonprofits. They are not subject to open meeting laws, are neither government agencies nor sanctioned by the county to act in lieu of county government and don’t legally nor technically represent all members of the public. There are numerous regional homeowners associations that claim to represent various regions, which also did not vote.
Beaver Creek Community Association was the only such organization that sent a letter opposing Verde Connect. Because the BCCA is private, it is not clear if there was a vote.
Then Michaels said, “Every single fire district [and] every single medical district in the Verde” voted against.
That claim is false and in one case, functionally the opposite. Neither the Sedona nor Verde Valley fire districts ever voted on Verde Connect.
The board of the Copper Canyon Fire & Medical Authority, in Camp Verde, Beaver Creek and Rimrock, split 2-2. CCFMA Fire Chief Terry Keller spoke in favor of Verde Connect, saying, “Having this route would improve perhaps not our response times for our own staff here locally in Camp Verde and around the area, but it certainly would improve the opportunity to get backup support from other surrounding agencies.”
The CCFMA’s new fire station now under construction was located in its current site in anticipation of Verde Connect’s completion.
Michaels did not respond to inquires about where she got these false claims or why she stated them in a public meeting.
Michaels then again cited the nonexistent poll without any evidence before adding “most important is that this is not, nor was it ever, in the Camp Verde Community Plan.”
The Verde Connect route chosen doesn’t go through Camp Verde, but was sited to the northwest and north of town limits. A spur would connect a road in the town limits, but this is a connector, not the main road.
The Camp Verde Community Plan was approved by voters in August 2016. The Verde Connect grant was announced and awarded in December 2018, two years later. Community plans are drafted and voted on every 10 years.
