Dear Editor,
By now, after almost a full year since I first introduced the idea, you are likely tired of hearing about a Kingman Townhall meeting. You can also bet your bottom dollar so is the Kingman City Council. The Council is so desperate that they have hired a new Public Information Officer to cover, dilute, and hide their doublespeak.
As you might recall, the city Mayor refused to hear the topic at the city council meeting. Next, the city said in a letter sent to me, “Town Halls have not been a successful avenue for the city to receive feedback or address concerns”. Then, in mid-September, they announced that Kingman would hold the FIRST-EVER Town Hall meeting. If they claim Town Hall meetings had not been successful, how could they now say they are having the first ever? With all deserved respect, I feel like I am listening to lyrics of the 1966 Yardbirds classic “Over Under Sideways Down; Backwards, Forward, Square” and RUN a Round.”. This psychedelic boogie double talk has to stop; the city council is not being forthright with me or YOU the people. Why are they willing to do the two-step? Why all the smoke and mirrors? Why are they afraid of the people who elected them to serve?
The bogus Town Hall did take place on Oct. 8, 2024, and it might as well have been a classified top-secret meeting. It never appeared on any Kingman City Calendar. However, the city website posted one small, obscure flyer among a dozen others you could scroll through. The event was called a “Town Hall Work Session Meeting.” Talk about an obvious Bait and Switch!
After waiting a year, I had to tune into YouTube to watch this counterfeit town hall, along with eight other viewers and likely as few in the audience. This was NOT a Town Hall meeting. Meeting chairperson Mayor Watkins announced at the very beginning the public was not allowed to speak unless he said so. Mayor Watkins did allow 6 people from the meager audience to speak at the podium: a business owner; a candidate for the Board of Supervisors; and a member of the Kingman Chamber of Commerce, all Special Interest people. Three members of the public did get 3 minutes to speak on homelessness. The word Townhall was a misnomer; this was a County/City Work Session with the county and the city chasing its own tail.
I will admit the meeting was interesting and heartfelt in addressing crime and homelessness in the county and the city, but it was yet more disingenuous chicanery; those topics are NOT the two most important topics to the people of Kingman, yet another mendacious fabrication. The city took a survey of 212 people (likely the in-crowd). Two hundred twelve people are barely one-half of 1% of Kingman’s population, another huge deception. The letter in my hand, which the city sent to me, also says: “For hot topics, such as street repairs and maintenance, there are periodic reports provided to the Council during Council meetings.” Crime and homelessness were never mentioned. By the way, the city just raided the city’s road and maintenance fund to pay another five million dollars overdraft on the Rancho Sant Fe fiasco, while you drive on potholes and chip-seal.
The problem in Kingman, in a nutshell, is a clash of the Titans: Economic Development versus Community Oriented Services. The Elephant in the room is gross UNCONTROLLED GROWTH. Your electric bill is skyrocketing because our local grid cannot sustain the growth and we must buy at a higher price from elsewhere. Your water is in danger because the people only use about 10% yearly from our aquifer, the rest goes elsewhere often to foreign businesses and farmers. The city spent millions on old downtown for tourists and favored businesses. The Kingman people struggle, suffer, and often die from a lack of medical providers. The list goes on and the silence is deafening.
My ideas propose a true balance and equilibrium taking the burden off the people’s backs and pocketbooks, but as you can see, the city will do anything to avoid a heart-to-heart, face-to-face discussion with the MAN ON THE STREET. The illusions, the deception, the run-around, the backward, forward double speak, and the skullduggery must come to a stop before Kingman does in traffic gridlock, overcrowding, and lack of community services. The atomic inflation is due to poor planning and inadequate infrastructure. The clock ticks, the time is overdue to have your voices heard. As a citizen of Kingman and a community activist, I will continue to fight for you the people. The microphone should be in your hands not in the hands of Special Interests, the In-Crowd, and Big Money.
Elliot Chalew
