Mayoral candidates share their views at forum
The two candidates running for the office of Yuma mayor shared their views in a forum held Thursday at Arizona Western College.
The Yuma County Chamber of Commerce hosted the forum as part of its monthly “Good Morning, Yuma!” networking event with Yuma Sun Editor Roxanne Molenar as the moderator.
Doug Nicholls, the current mayor and a business owner, is being challenged by Karen Watts, a current council member and healthcare provider. Nicholls could not attend in person due to illness. However, he still participated in the forum through videoconference.
However, because of technical difficulties with the audio, the Yuma Sun reached out to Nicholls after the forum and asked him to repeat his answers to the first two questions. The first two answers quoted here are from the comments he later provided to the Yuma Sun.
OPENING STATEMENTS
In his opening remarks, Nicholls said that it’s been his “greatest honor and privilege” to represent the people of Yuma for the last eight years. His focus has been on “the safety and security of our community,” including national security and public safety efforts, he said.
He also listed economic growth, broadband progress and sensible government, “making sure we’re using your tax dollars effectively,” as priorities.
Watts, a registered nurse and nurse practitioner in the area for more than 30 years, said her experience on the council since being first elected in 2017 “has given me a new community service interest.”
She explained that public safety is her No. 1 priority. “Public safety is in crisis. I want to put them at the seat of the table, and we can do this through a meet and confer. I want to make sure public safety and our first responders are at the table to express their needs,” she said.
The opening statements were followed by a question-and-answer session, with each candidate answering different questions.
QUESTION: Do you believe that city government should be run like a business?
NICHOLLS: A business
exists in order to make a profit. A city organization does not. If a city makes a profit, it’s overtaxing. So a city should not be run like a business. However, many business principles can be utilized in city operations. We’ve been doing that for the last two terms, looking for ways to be more efficient and transparent.
QUESTION: As downtown Yuma continues to be redeveloped, how would you address the parking issues?
WATTS: I do believe a parking garage is in the works. I think it’s a private-public partnership … I don’t parking has ever stopped people from coming to our downtown events. As we get more development or business down there, people will get creative, business owners will get creative, and provide more parking. We certainly don’t want parking to be an issue to keep people from coming to downtown. Honestly, I think there’s plenty of parking and people will make more as it’s needed. I think that’s more on the private end of it.
QUESTIONS: How could you propose building transparency between the city and the public?
NICHOLLS: Increasing transparency is always a goal in the city. We’ve been working on ways with different departments throughout the city, things like trying to make the budget more accessible with different ways it’s presented. Having access to fixings like the Click and Fix app where residents get updates as their issues are pushed through the system.
QUESTION: A major topic across the Southwest is the drought and the shrinking water supply in the Colorado River. What should Yuma do in response to this issue?
WATTS: Being good stewards of the environment is very important. We need to protect our natural resources. We need to think about transitioning to clean energy. We are living in an arid, dry desert, and we need to make sure we are sustainable and that we are thinking about efficiency, resiliency and working our way toward making Yuma, which is the sunniest place on Earth, use that to our advantage and be the leaders in clean energy. That is something that is very important in water conservation, and getting our sustainability experts (working) with us to make plans that are strategic for our area that make sense.
QUESTION: Do you support using taxpayer funding to nongovernmental organizations or nonprofits that aid undocumented immigrants entering the country in Yuma County?
NICHOLLS: The simple answer is no. We work with a lot of great nonprofits. In 2019 when we had the surge and we didn’t have a lot of notice or any sort of resources in the community, I brought together the nonprofits. We talked about how we could come together to address the numbers of people being released into the community, up to 5,700 in three months in Yuma,
None of that was done with city funds. It was all done either through separate fundraising from the nonprofits or other resources the nonprofits had access to.
That’s the way we need to make sure we are addressing issues that are federal issues. If we cannot get the federal government to actually pay for those federal issues, it should not become the burden of the Yuma taxpayers. It should come from the taxpayers throughout the United States.
QUESTION: What do you feel is the single biggest issue in Yuma, and what would you do to address it?
WATTS: The biggest issue in Yuma is our public safety. We are in a crisis. We are losing experienced, talented detectives, officers. We need to make retention of our officers an important priority because our first responders will only be as good as the people we have on the force. That is a huge issue right now. We have lots of overtime, low morale. They can’t even fill some of the positions that are needed. People just really want to support public safety, but if we don’t do anything to change, then it’s going to be a problem. That’s why I feel it’s so important that we address retention of our public safety officers.
QUESTION: According to the Cost of Living Index from the Council for Community and Economic Research, the cost of healthcare in Yuma is 18% higher than Tucson, 21% higher than Prescott, and 29% higher than Phoenix. What do you believe the city can do to support lower healthcare costs for its citizens?
NICHOLLS: Healthcare costs are one of those things that a lot of people in industries struggle with. In my private business, the cost of healthcare, in particular, insurance is also pretty high. It’s one of the things we struggle through the years as we try to find the right solutions. We adjust one thing, something else in the market changes too. It’s a continual effort, first of all, to make sure the health insurance that we’re offering to our public safety, as well as to all the employees, meets the cost that it needs to be, and that’s not just the premium. It’s also the copay, maximum out-of-pocket, all those elements that are part of insurance. When we look at the size of the city, the number of employees we have on insurance, we should be able to have a positive impact on pricing. That’s why I look forward to addressing here and soon, later in this session.
QUESTION: The cost of living in Yuma is increasing, but wages are not keeping pace. What do you believe the city’s role should be in alleviating this issue?
WATTS: One of the issues that is causing an increase in the cost of living is the shortage of our housing, so addressing our housing supply would be one way to do that and encouraging investors and developers to our area, making maybe some tax abatement opportunities zones to bring in our investors, and that would help with affordable and market value homes.
There’s other incentives we can use. We can make plan reviews more efficient, expedite them, incentives, just working with our stakeholders to get our housing issue corrected. That would bring the cost of living down greatly because our rents and mortgages are going up due to the increased demand and not enough supply.
QUESTION: Considering the housing shortage and the rising price of single family homes in Yuma, do you support rezoning more land for lower cost multi-family high-density residential?
NICHOLLS: Just out of the gate, rezoning isn’t connected to income, so when we talk about rezoning, we’re talking about rezoning opportunities for everyone. I do believe, and we have over the last two terms, looked up ways to provide opportunities for low-income housing. We worked on the Mesa Heights project, which brought 46 apartments for those that needed assistance.
We have developed and implemented an infill overlay plan which allows higher density and relaxes some of the development codes, providing lower-cost product. Those are the things we worked on, and (we) will continue to work on elements that reduce restrictions on the development as well as provide opportunity for greater housing variety within our community.
QUESTION: What role do you believe the city has in supporting mental health in Yuma?
WATTS: I’m going to bring this back to what I know best. As a forensic nurse examiner and medical director at Amberly’s (Place), I know our first responders need trauma-informed mental health. They see the worst things that happen in this city. They’re involved with some of the people who are experiencing their worst days of their lives, and some of these images, they can’t get out of their head. And I think working perhaps with Amberly’s, because I know they are at the forefront in the mental health or trauma-informed issues, that they perhaps can work with law enforcement to help them with these issues. That’s where we can start as far as the city because they are our employees.
QUESTION: How do you believe the city can work with businesses to create or enhance a business friendly regulatory environment?
NICHOLLS: The business environment in Yuma is pretty strong, but it can always be improved. … Private-public partnerships, whether it’s for Yuma infrastructure or the opportunity for additional housing, those are the things we can focus on, working on and finding out what the obstacles are, with roundtables, which I have had in the community to find out what are the things that prevent growth in different areas and how can we have a positive impact or change to make the impacts real and not just something we do for attention.
The other thing we need to look at is supporting education, promoting the Yuma multiversity project and our partnerships with (Arizona Western College) and the high schools. Those are the things that help businesses at a very practical level.
QUESTION: What would your priorities be to attract new business to Yuma?
WATTS: Bringing the stakeholders together. Listening is a big thing because I need to know what people want, what’s available, what our experts are saying, listen to our administration for their ideas. We do have a vibrant community and making sure people know that and being positive about our area. I think also economic diversity, and that’s where clean energy can come in. Diversifying and continuing to do what we are doing already. We have increased our revenue because we have lots of building, commercials going up. I think we are doing a good job, and we can continue doing that.
QUESTION: The government per diem is having an impact on the city’s ability to meet the hotel needs of our military bases and other government entities. How would you help address this as mayor?
NICHOLLS: The per diem rate is a big issue especially when we’re talking about our military installations. We work with (the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp.) to look to adjust the per diem rate for the area and also with the Realtors Association to make sure the per diem rate matches the cost, at least at an appropriate level of the cost, for the people coming into town, especially on federal contracts. We have an extensive amount of that activity in Yuma. Focusing on the process with Washington, D.C., utilizing our contacts with the Department of Defense as well as local teamwork to get that done, is how we address that.
QUESTION: What is your position on the proposed continuation of the 2% hospitality tax?
WATTS: (It’s) very important that we continue this tax, the 2% hospitality tax, because it funds lots of the Parks and Rec events that we do, the fields that our children play on, the pools our kids swim in, and also for the adults too because the adults use that, our art center. It also funds our Heritage Area, our Yuma Crossing, those wonderful parks, the east and west wetlands. Without this 2% tax, we will not be able to fund those because we have different priorities on the budget and we could not make up those millions of dollars that come through with the 2% tax. And I do hope that people vote for that. It is a continuation, it’s not a new tax. It’s for the quality of life and the benefit of our citizens.
CLOSING STATEMENTS
In his closing remarks, Nicholls said he hopes to continue serving Yuma “to bring local issues to the national stage as well as discuss national and international issues to a greater audience to address the needs and concerns of the citizens of Yuma.”
He noted that the concerns that citizens have expressed to him are the safety and security of the community, local public safety and national security, as well as economic growth and bringing opportunity, “not just today but into the future for our youth.”
Nicholls stressed the need to effectively use the “precious tax dollars we’re given,” keeping taxes low and planning and designing the city “as we look into the future for the growth and the benefit of Yuma and all the citizens.”
Watts stated that the citizens of Yuma are her focus. “With my experience as medical director for Amberly’s and doing forensic exams, I do have a unique perspective of working with first responders,” she said.
She also singled out as important the retention of public safety personnel, using natural resources wisely and efficiently, bringing experts and stakeholders together to strategize and “making sure our city provides equitable services for all our citizens.”
Watts added: “I want to use my skill in listening, compassion and love of Yuma to guide me.