Although I continue to be fully engaged in local Kingman City politics, I wish, like the rest of you, we could all get back to everyday regular life and move forward instead of backward as we did in this last local election cycle. Unfortunately, as the old adage says, “ If wishes were fishes, we’d all swim in riches.” No rank-and-file Kingman citizen is going to be swimming in riches, but a few special interest folks in the city certainly will with the ratification of the new Kingman General Plan. Yes, you read that right, and something is stinking like rotten fishes.
I have done my very best to alert the people of Kingman about the General Scam through Social Media and the newspapers. Thousands of you read my publications and embraced the same fears I have. Sadly, our worst nightmares have come to fruition with this counterfeit plan.
The first thing that stunk was that the city had publicly posted the General Plan had passed and was ratified before Election Day. How could that be possible unless the intent was to skew or rig the election? Once that was pointed out on social media, the city, without a word, redacted that notification. Perhaps the intent was to make the people believe it was over and, therefore, they no longer needed to vote on it (Prop 417). There was a lot of confusion, and many people reported inconsistencies about receiving a copy of the 116-page Plan to read and make an informed vote. Some reported it being on their ballots, and others reported it was not.
You’d better be sitting for this. They claim there were 6619 YES votes, and the Plan passed by 50.16%. There were 6576 NO votes, 49.84%. This highly contested “con job” rip-off was ratified by 43 votes. You have to be holding your nose because this stinks so bad of tampering or some kind of manipulation that only a fool would rule out those possibilities.
This General Plan, and its phony ratification, was literally a blank check from your pocket to Kingman City. The City can claim the people voted it into law and hide behind that while they O.D. on Economic Development, creating insane urban density, raise your taxes and utility bills and continue to ignore our critical infrastructure and, what’s more egregious, ignore you, the people, yet again.
Months ago, I contacted the County Election Department and demanded a recount. I requested verification on the signatures of every voter who voted on this proposition. I wanted to ensure all who were eligible to vote were included and received the proper ballot.I also requested from the Mayor a written explanation of how and why it was posted as ratified days before the election. I fully believe Arizona Revised Statutes have been violated because sufficient Preliminary Information about the plan was not provided before ballots were sent out. Since I never received the information I requested from the Election Department, I used the FOIA to request from the City all records proving they had done all required by law and the mandatory preliminary steps before putting the General Plan (Prop 417) on the ballot. They acknowledged my request and but have never responded. This is another utter violation of the law. They remain silent on this genuine grievance, which speaks volumes about their credibility and the integrity of Kingman leadership, aka the City Council and City Manager.
I make a sincere, emotional, and intellectual plea to the Kingman public. It is now or never. We can no longer allow the City leadership to kick the can because, at this point, they might as well be kicking us in our teeth. Today, we are fighting establishment landowners and home builders from destroying our property values and creating horrific urban density. Tomorrow, we might have to fight even the slightest possibility that the stench in the air is from the unimproved sewer infrastructure network and not inequities in voting for Prop 417.
If you considered taking a pass on showing up at the upcoming P&Z, City Council, and Board of Supervisors meetings to protest all the absurd zoning changes, you might want to reconsider. We are being buried alive by the Status Quo elected to represent us. I do not know about you, but I am not ready to read the Obituary for the City of Kingman.
We might not be the shining city on the hill, but we damn sure are not indentured servants to the Kingman Company Store. We are not here to serve the Kingman Establishment, but rather the Kingman Establishment to serve us. Please feel free to email, and please do not be fearful. chalew@gmail.com