“I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible”.
These wise words by Senator Barry Goldwater will guide me as your Mohave County District 4 County Supervisor.
ISSUES
WATER
Mark Twain is often credited as saying: "Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over". Water is life, It's a shared resource, and it is the single most important issue facing our County. I will work with the Legislature and the Arizona Department of Water Resources, so that they can effectively deal with alfalfa farms, commercial power generating projects which remove our water to create hydrogen or use steam turbines, commercial large scale mining, and other high end water users. Residential property owners should have an adequate and safe water supply in perpetuity.
I stand with the other property owners in the Golden Valley Improvement District against unreasonable rates and over priced capitol improvements. The Board of Supervisors has not been following Title 48 Chapter 6 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, and it's long past time to start following the law and acting in the public interest with the consent of the governed. The property owners and rate payers of all of the improvement districts.deserve transparency, oversight, and accountability. If I had not initiated litigation against GVID Resolution 2023-01 then the illegal and unnecessary surcharge would never have been repealed and rate payers would be on the hook, potentially for years, to construct a new well that had already been fully funded with federal ARPA money. Currently I'm still in litigation to repeal the arbitrary and punitive two tier water use rate. I fully support GVID, and any other water district that so desires, in having and elected board comprised of residents instead of the County (mis)managing an improvement district, and I would be willing to commit my time to .ensuring that GVID residents have safe and affordable water.
ROAD REPAIR AND IMPROVEMENT
As your County Supervisor this will be one of my top priorities. This is a public safety issue. I will fight to fund the road projects District 4 needs, not waste millions on projects that only benefit a select few. I will vote to approve bringing District 4 roads into the County maintenance system. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) should not waste millions of tax payer dollars on dangerous and ineffective roundabouts, and use the savings to maintain existing highways and fill pot holes. It is critical to make sure that Highway User Revenue Funds (HURF) are not swept from local government by the legislature so that our County, city and rural roads can also be properly maintained. As your County Supervisor I will oppose roundabouts in Mohave County and support road maintenance, as well as taking additional roads into the County maintenance system.
TAXES AND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
I will never vote to increase your taxes, and will fight for a fiscally responsible budget that does not grow government. I look forward to being an aggressive advocate to actually lower your taxes, so that you keep more of your hard earned money in this difficult economic time. Despite current propaganda, The County is not actually facing an "$18.5M" deficit next year, I have done the research and look forward to sharing what I've found so that we can get to the real amount and make the needed cuts for a balanced budget.
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Our current County Supervisor has budget of $280,006 to run her "department", and none of the supervisors have a limit on what they can spend. That's unacceptable. When elected, I will run the leanest budget on the Board. I will buy an RV with my own money as a mobile office and drive it to each community on a rotating basis, so that I can meet face to face with constituents who cannot drive to the County building. I will attend out of County meetings on Zoom or Skype, and if I must travel out of the County then I will do so at my own expense and not at yours. I will not drive a tax payer funded vehicle, or take a taxpayer funded health insurance plan, and I will not take a tax payer funded pension, in order to reduce my official budget so that that more money can be re-allocated to public safety. We are all in this together and budget cuts should start at the top, if required. I lead by example.
PUBLIC SAFETY
I support properly funding the Mohave County Sheriff's Department. If elected I am willing to reduce my own department budget in order to sponsor an additional patrol deputy for District 4 if necessary. Supervisors should not be using your money to travel to Washington DC, or anywhere else, when our Sheriff's Department is not adequately funded. In these difficult economic times we cannot sacrifice public safety in order to fund the largess of ever growing government.
ELECTION INTEGRITY
I support protecting our sacred elections by hand counting votes at the precinct level, in conjunction with machine tabulation, to ensure accuracy. We must restore voter confidence in the process to prevent mistrust and divisive rhetoric. Every legal vote must be counted. I will not vote to outsource our real time voter data to third party out of state vendors, as is the current practice.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The 1st Amendment is first for a reason. I will advocate for more public comment, not less. A few months ago, the Board suppressed citizen input by forcing people to speak to consent agenda items during the 3 minute "Call to the Public". It's often impossible to say what needs to be said in 3 minutes, especially if there are dozens of consent agenda items and you wish to address more than one before they vote. I would like to see all the items that legally require a "public hearing" placed on one agenda per month and hold that meeting in the evenings so that more people can attend and have their voices heard. The other bi-monthly meeting can be for less controversial items and held at the current time. And we could even allow 5 minutes for public comment, because many people don't need that much but some do and every voice is important, even those who disagree with you. When I am District 4 Supervisor I will buy the largest print of the iconic Norman Rockwell painting "Freedom of Speech" that I can find and gift it to the County to hang in the Board room, to remind every board that meets in and uses that room that they work for the People, and the right of the People to redress their government should always be prioritized.
RURAL LIVING AT ITS FINEST
Each community in District 4 is unique and changes to land use must be carefully considered. I will not vote to make major changes to zoning that could adversely affect current residents without listening to their concerns and personally inspecting the site if necessary. I support keeping currently undeveloped lots in the rural areas no smaller than 1 1/4 acre. People choose to live outside of the cities because they want a rural lifestyle and I respect that. Large scale planned communities and developments in the rural areas should be required to submit an environmental impact report to Arizona Fish and Game before and changes to zoning are considered or any construction permits granted. Mohave County is home to burrowing owls, desert tortoises, and gila monsters which are protected species, as well as many other animals that call the desert home.
CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE
The 4th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized". Civil asset forfeiture allows police to seize, and then keep or sell, any property they allege is involved in a crime. Owners need not ever be arrested or convicted of a crime for their cash, cars, or even real estate to be taken away permanently by the government, because the property itself is charged with involvement in a crime. Reform is not enough, I support The Institute for Justice initiative to end this abomination, and I will work with the Sheriff. to make sure it's no longer happening here. The County Anti-racketeering fund, listed on page 7 of the current Treasurer's Report, showed a beginning balance' of $8,248,787.16 and an ending balance of $6,914,701.44, with only + $665,089.66 in receipts but - $199,175.38 in transfers out (back to the County). This money can only be used for specific purposes, so why are we creating a multi million dollar civil asset forfeiture slush fund that is not even funding patrol deputies?
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Every business is "essential" and every paycheck matters. In an "emergency" the County can use the Preemption Doctrine, to decide if it is necessary to rescind a directive from a mayor or city council, if it is either over broad or too restrictive, such as the compulsory wearing of masks. The government should not interfere in the free exchange of goods and services between consenting adults, and local business owners should be allowed to set their own policies in an "emergency". Additionally, I will fight to roll back fees and regulations that make it burdensome to do business in Mohave County.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PENSION REFORM
The State charges us a rate of 7.4% (yes, you read that correctly) on the millions owed by Mohave County. I will not participate in the Elected Officials Retirement Plan. I will not take a pension from the taxpayers and I will work with our legislators for needed reform.
VETERANS' ISSUES
As a former Army wife who comes from a family of career military and someone who is currently married to a Viet Nam War Air Force veteran, I have always been and will continue to be an advocate for those who have served our country.
PUBLIC LANDS
I would advocate for the legislation to restore state control of our federally mismanaged land through the Enabling Clause in our Constitution, in accordance with the American Lands Council guidelines, because we cannot have prosperity and economic growth while we are land locked. Only 18.2 percent of all land in Arizona is privately held and only another 12.7 percent is State Trust Land, even less in Mohave County. We cannot continue to stand idly by while the use of the majority of our public land is restricted by the bureaucracy of federal alphabet agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which leases it away to foreign companies that pay no property taxes. Having state control of federal public land would reduce your tax burden and provide a pathway to education funding through the State Land Trust, instead of the meager Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) money we sometimes receive from our federal overlords. Public lands belong to everyone, and I oppose our precious desert habitat being used for so called "green energy" solar farms and wind farms that are a blight on the landscape and reduce the natural habitat for our native wildlife.