Dear Editor,
Kingman taxpayers deserve accountability, transparency, and basic competence from their city council. Instead, we have wasteful mismanagement and priorities that do not reflect taxpayers’ needs. The city manager and city council lack a sense of accountability to Kingman citizens.
One example is a traffic light at Airway and Burbank. The cost was $277,000 over budget—an astonishing failure of planning and oversight. Meanwhile, residents continue to navigate crumbling roads, constant water-line breaks, potholes, and unpaved streets in parts of the city. These are the most fundamental responsibilities of city government, yet they remain neglected.
Rather than addressing collapsing infrastructure, the city has imposed new water fees, higher water rates, and increased waste-disposal charges—more than 18% in combined hikes within a year, despite national inflation of roughly 3%. At the same time, the city manager, enabled by the mayor and council, is moving to raise the already high city tax without a citizen vote, despite Kingman’s operating budget exceeding $350 million annually.
In the name of tourism, millions went into the old downtown revamp, an area many residents seldom visit, while daily frustrating bottlenecks on Stockton Hill Road remain unaddressed. The city manager and council have also been pushing a $54 million pay-to-enter community center, claiming their vanity project will somehow attract conventions and tournaments away from Las Vegas. To fund it, they plan a new city property tax for us on top of the existing Mohave County property taxes.
The city-owned pay-to-play golf course loses nearly $700,000 yearly, and its restaurant loses money. Despite ongoing losses, the city approved 90 new GPS-equipped golf carts, replacing 70 existing ones. The course reportedly has not been audited in more than a decade, yet taxpayers continue to fund specialty consultants costing tens of thousands of dollars annually.
City leadership spends taxpayer dollars on frequent trips to Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas—travel that could easily be replaced with no-cost virtual meetings. In contrast, many residents, on fixed incomes, are struggling with rising city fees. The spending on group travel is indefensible.
The city’s development strategy has distorted the housing market by approving rapid residential growth through a dominant builder. Mid-range pre-existing home values have stagnated. Builder fees have not been raised since before COVID, even as the city raises fees on ordinary residents, imposing the burden of infrastructure demands and shortfalls on us while they profit at our expense and negatively impact our quality of life as a community. Meanwhile, the vice mayor makes her living selling new homes built by the same developer—an arrangement that raises serious concerns about conflicts of interest.
Kingman is not suffering from a lack of money. It is suffering from a shameless lack of ethical leadership, prudent, strong oversight, and respect for taxpayers. Residents deserve an accountable government that prioritizes infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, and the people who call this city home.
Haven’t we had enough?
Your vote is your voice!
Elliott Chalew
