Yavapai County District 2 Supervisor and current Board Chairman James Gregory [R] spoke at the Mingus Mountain Republican Club luncheon at the VFW Hall in Cottonwood on Tuesday, Aug. 8, on county issues related to criminal justice, transportation, county government building needs and broadband.
The county recently retained the architecture firm Gensler to conduct an evaluation of its owned and leased properties. Gregory said that the study is expected to take four or five months to complete.
The space study will include an evaluation of the former Big Park Community School in the Village of Oak Creek, which District 3 Supervisor Donna Michaels [D] has been urging the county to buy under a lease-to-purchase agreement. Michaels represents Sedona, the Village of Oak Creek, Cottonwood and northern Cornville. Gregory represents southern Cornville, Camp Verde and southeastern Yavapai County.
While Michaels’ letter of intent for the purchase was approved by the Sedona-Oak Creek School District, it was issued on her own behalf, not on behalf of the county or the board as a whole, and does not bind the Board of Supervisors to any specific action.
Gregory refrained from commenting on the proposed lease pending completion of the space study.
“With the [increase] in population, we’re looking at co-locating resources within municipalities,” Gregory said, naming the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office’s effort to add a substation near the newly-constructed Prescott Criminal Justice Center as one example. “We’re also in the process of looking at, down here in the Verde Valley, [to] regionalize our police facility for Camp Verde with tribal, state and sheriff’s office.”
Gregory views consolidation as a financially prudent move since the same taxpayers are already funding the facilities.
“In addition to that, we’re looking at regionalization of [emergency services] dispatch,” Gregory continued. “I think we have six or seven different dispatch centers in Yavapai County. We would like to see that consolidated into one, to have police and fire be able to co-locate. That way, if we have a significant event like an active shooter, it’s not going to be one police department, one fire department responding, it’s going to be a whole [gamut] of everybody in the Verde Valley. Police and fire need to be communicating and I think that’s going to help.”
Gregory also observed that he would like to see similar arrangements considered in other areas of county operations, such as education.
“We have that open space study consultant coming in to evaluate our existing capital, but also they’re going to be reaching out to our elected officials and our department heads along with other community leaders,” Gregory said. “So if there’s opportunities elsewhere, that we can co-locate services, hopefully [the] consultant will find those services. Because it makes no sense to duplicate services when we can consolidate at the county and municipality level.”
One of county officials’ short-term concerns is hiring enough staff to be able to open the new county jail in Prescott. However, Gregory said that he has received assurances from Sheriff David Rhodes that YCSO is currently processing enough applicants to fill the vacancies and that the facility will be open on Sunday, Oct. 1.
While arguing for election security improvements related to ballot drop box locations, Gregory also said that he had a “tremendous amount of confidence in our elections.” He touted the county’s election transparency measures, such as ballot tours that allow voters to see how ballot processing works, as well as the ongoing remodeling of the Yavapai County Elections Center, which will allow visitors to watch ballots being counted.
“Some of what I’d like to see is improved surveillance cameras, or occupied locations so the [ballot] drop boxes aren’t left in the middle of nowhere,” Gregory said. “I don’t know exactly what the plans are at this point [for 2024]. But that’s discussions that we’ve been having with the elections director and the county recorder.”
During his remarks, Gregory commented that if it was up to him, photo identification would be a requirement at polling stations.
The county is examining infrastructure improvements for area roads, and Gregory touched on the Northern Arizona Council of Governments’ plan to perform a comprehensive safety study of Verde Valley traffic fatalities to identify hazardous areas.
“We’re going to get together with all the town managers and the mayors Verde Valley-wide,” Gregory said. “[To] identify five good projects that we think need to be worked on and meet with our legislators later on and try to get that all in place so we can start seeing some transportation outreach to our community. If you look at Cornville Road, we’re putting a ton of money in Cornville Road right now. It just takes a lot of time, and with our explosion of population here in the Verde Valley, it’s hard to keep up with the transportation needs.”
Gregory also stated that no additional funding is available at the moment to extend the ongoing I-17 Improvement Project, which passes through his district, all the way to Flagstaff. He urged residents to lobby their legislators if they want to see the project expanded.
Also in attendance at the luncheon were Superior Court Division 7 judge Michael Bluff, Yavapai County Assessor Judd Simmons and outgoing Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Steve King, who were all collecting signatures for next year’s Republican primary elections.
Bluff was first elected in 2008, and won reelection in 2020, running unopposed.
“I am circulating petitions for my last election,” Bluff said to the attendees. “I’ll be 70 by the time the next election cycle is over, and then of course we have to retire at 70. I’m kind of looking forward to that, to be honest with you.”
Simmons also won reelection while running unopposed in 2020.
“Everything’s going great at the office, property values are holding steady [but] a couple of communities are down,” Simmons said to attendees.
King is running for the post of Yavapai County school superintendent. The current superintendent, Tim Carter, is retiring.
