KINGMAN, Ariz. – The Mohave County Board of Supervisors were almost half hour late emerging from their 9 a.m. executive session Monday where they had discussed and sought legal counsel for items on the agenda. There was much to talk about and vote on – from Valle Vista water problems to the Laughlin-Bullhead Airport – taking the meeting into the afternoon.
A proclamation was read by Sup. Ron Gould, Dist. 5, honoring the return of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Chase Vaughn who served in the Middle East in support of Operation Fury. Sgt. Chase was not present to accept the proclamation and folded flags prepared for him, but Supervisor Gould said he would present them to Chase at the VFW in Golden Shores.
A presentation was made by Jason Gee on the Advanced Manufacturing Training Center at the Kingman Airport. He announced that Mohave College has been approved for four Bachelor’s degrees – Biology, Elementary Education, Human Services and RN to BSN.
Many residents attended in support of Sup. Chair Travis Lingenfelter’s letter requesting the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) engage Foothills Utilities (Valle Vista water) and obtain a briefing on their operations and customer service practices. “It’s a heavily populated area, many senior citizens and this is problematic because it’s not resolved. It’s frustrating to this board to not have control over utilities. I wish we did. We need to work with the ACC to get this approved.” The Valle Vista residents all spoke of water outages, sometimes for days, low pressure and unusually high water bills. That agenda item was approved unanimously.
Also approved was the contract with Motorola authorizing the purchase of new surveillance cameras replacing the old Flock cameras for the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Doug Schuster said these surveillance cameras would be only be activated to find a missing child or senior or to apprehend criminals. The board approved the contract.
After some discussion, the board approved a comment letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding a proposed lease sale. Sup. Don Martin, Dist. 4, said they claimed the land was to be used for oil and gas. “It’s near the Davis Dam on the Colorado River,” Supervisor Martin said. “There’s no oil and gas there.” He said they may want to lease the land, instead, to install windmills. The comment letter was approved.
The board additionally approved to accept and authorize expenditure of a $600 donation from the Friends of the Library, Kingman Branch, to be used for cleaning and repair of a DVD resurfacing machine.
Also approved was continuing the contract with the same vendors for purchasing library books, non-print and media and to authorize the procurement director to sign the necessary documents.
City Attorney Tingwei Chavez said the space the hospital wants to lease has to be published for four consecutive weeks which would open up the possibility of other bidders vying for leasing that space without unanimous vote. Sup. Gould voted “No.” Sups. Martin and Lingenfelter voted to approve. Lettman did not vote nor did Borrelli, who attended by video. It has to be published four weeks as stipulated by ARS 11-256.01(B).
The new parks administrator, Bo Hellams, gave an update on Mohave County Parks – Hualapai, Davis Camp, and the Mohave County Fairgrounds. He said they cleared trees from the trails in Hualapai, cleaned walking shorelines at Camp Davis in Bullhead City and did some remodeling at the fairgrounds. He said revenue was up $43K in Hualapai and up $26K in Davis Camp; but that parks is currently operating in the red, but they’re working on turning that around.
Supervisors approved a motion to direct staff to research and develop a plan to recreate the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and present the plan to the board within 30 days.
Chief Financial Officer for Mohave County, board member and Mohave County Airport Authority (MCAA) treasurer in Bullhead City, Linda Green, reported on the Laughlin-Bullhead Airport Director, James H. Scheller, who is under scrutiny for actions taken. She said he and the MCAA failed to supply sufficient time to review the FY27 budget before their meeting. She stated that Dir. Schiller signed an unauthorized, unapproved contract for $700K to Titon Fuels.
She continued that the Bullhead Airport continually refuses to give her financial reports she requests, that the only budget they show are items requested with no comparisons for previous fiscal years.
Sup. Rich Lettman, Dist. 2, said the MCAA had bad operational audits, poor decision making, lack of transparency, allegations of fraud and said that wasn’t even mentioning the embezzlement in 2024.
After about an hour of discussion the board approved for Mohave County representatives on the MCAA Board to move to make necessary changes to require the purchase of any goods or services over $5,000 to be approved by the Board of Directors before the execution of any agreements.
They also voted unanimously to authorize the board’s attorneys to proceed with all necessary actions to condemn the leasehold interests of the MCAA and to take immediate possession of the Laughlin-Bullhead International Airport.
Connie “Ceejay” Jones
