shueman
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Alta Loma CA
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Posted: Sep. 15 2005,12:02 am |
Post # 1 |
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Looks like out with old, and in with the new.... 
New council members face future
By Brian DiTullio
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 10:43 PM MDT
Now that the election is over, the four new City Council members have only about two weeks to get up to speed on the issues facing Lake Havasu City residents.
Bruce Hinman, Margaret Nyberg, Allan Sturtevant and Harvey Jackson were elected to replace City Council members Carolyn Bruce, Don Clark, Kristin Lietz-Aldridge and Mayor Bob Whelan in Tuesday's recall election. The four winners were part of a committee formed last December against the incumbents.
City Manager Tim Ernster said he will be scheduling a series of individual meetings with the incoming council members to try and speed the learning process along. Ernster also said he will try and arrange meetings between the incoming officials and department heads to give them a better idea of how the city is run.
While transitions in the Mayor's Office and City Council are normal, Ernster said it was unusual to bring in four people at once.
"Normally you don't have four positions turn over," he said. "The staff is going to have to take extra care and make sure the new City Council is properly briefed."
The incoming council members said they were eager to get going and spoke about what they planned to accomplish.
Jackson did not return a phone call from Today's News-Herald on Wednesday.
"We have no intention of stopping the sewer project," said Hinman. "We need to evaluate it and really understand what's going on."
Sturtevant agreed the project, originally estimated at $463 million, needs to be looked at again, possibly by an outside engineer.
The sewer expansion project, approved by voters in 2001, has had cost estimates rise to about $500 million in the last year.
Nyberg also spoke about re-evaluating the project and expressed a desire to speak with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality about the sewer issue again.
All three incoming City Council members promised to take a harder look at what issues are reserved for executive session.
One of the recall committee's main platforms was an accusation that city government had begun discussing too much of city business behind closed doors.
Lake Havasu City also is facing several growth questions, and Hinman said there is a real need to "take the pulse of the city" on the subject.
"We don't need 20-story buildings on the Island," said Nyberg, who said she would have voted against the parking space variance on the mall project as well as the $2.7 million loan City Council forgave for the former property owners.
The reason for the OK given in June was for improvements made in the area due to projected tax revenues from the proposed mall being more than the money due under the agreement.
Nyberg also was interested in returning bus service to Horizon Six and Desert Hills so people with transportation problems had better access to city services.
"That's tax dollars they're spending here," said Nyberg.
Whatever their goals, all the incoming council members agreed they're going to have a steep learning curve in the coming weeks.
"It's already starting," said Sturtevant.
"I need to get the nuts and bolts now," said Nyberg.
"For the next couple of weeks, we've got to be good students," said Hinman, adding he wanted to be part of a more active City Council. "We have to ask the right questions."
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