This week the Verde River Basin Partnership Tango took another step forward, another back – another dip, another swoop, more smoldering glances.
The Partnership received a copy of a letter that they understood to remove any shadow on their legitimacy, which had been questioned by Yavapai County Supervisor Carol Springer last month. Sen. John McCain’s letter to President Bush requested him to budget $600,000, to go to the US Geological Survey for studies that USGS judges are needed for the first part of the Partnership’s work, thus tacitly accepting that this VRBP embodies the requirements of Title II.
Clarkdale Mayor Doug Von Gausig, who as coordinating committee head for the Partnership spearheaded the request to McCain for this funding, may have hoped that this new legitimacy would persuade the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors to renew their temporary six-month membership in the VRBP. However, when he presented the letter at the Supervisors’ meeting scheduled to vote on renewing, a predictable 2/3 of them did not accept this legitimacy.
Supervisor Carol Springer spoke first, rejecting the way the Partnership had arrived at its current structure. She said, “You have not seated the group that you voted that you would seat, so I’m confused at this point if your intent is to go forward with the current membership that you have now, which I consider to be primarily made up of special interests.” She warned, “When Sen. McCain does realize that you have not seated that membership structure you agreed to… you may find that he may have a little different perception.”
Von Gausig explained why the structure decisions had proceeded as they had, countering that the Partnership was moving its planned structure forward, that the organization is evolving as all such groups do and that he hoped the county would join in this evolution. He read from the newspaper report quoting Prescott City Councilman Bob Roecker on McCain’s letter: “I think that we should reconsider our position, I guess…It certainly changes the reality of the issue.” Von Gausig commented, “When [other groups] see that their interests are being well represented, they’ll join also.”
Supervisor Tom Thurman’s “No” vote sprang from a fear that he first expressed thus: “Let’s say the [Partnership’s technical group] came out with a statement that we need to stop growth completely right now because the Verde River is drying up due to growth. Well, that would create a statement that would put fear in the hearts of…the legislators down in the valley…they’ll start creating legislation that’s gonna overrule local rule. You see what I’m sayin’?
“No,” responded Von Gausig, chuckling. “I think we’ve set up a hypothetical situation that’s not realistic,” he said, adding that the Partnership is a scientific organization whose purpose is not to make policy decisions but to provide information – “to get federal money in here to do the studies that we all need” – to elected officials so that they can make the wisest, most appropriate decisions. Thurman repeatedly expressed the opinion that the “pressure” should be on elected officials, by which he appeared to mean that there should be a committee made of just elected officials, which would guide the Partnership’s work and present all of its conclusions to the public.
Thurman and Springer both affirmed that the county’s vote not to join the Partnership would not “kill” the group.
Thurman had opened his comments with appreciation for what Von Gausig had done, especially considering how he had been “shoved around left and right.” Supervisor Chip Davis echoed Thurman, adding “I’ll do the other end of it, I’ll prop you up and dust you off,” and praised the “awesome job” Von Gausig had done. “I think what we’re discussing now, whether to join the Partnership and whether we have the ability to kill the Partnership, it’s irrelevant. The Partnership has been established and it has been legitimized,” Davis said.
The Supervisors didn’t bother with the formality of their agenda action item #1, a vote to renew Partnership participation, it being clear what the outcome would be. Instead Supervisor Davis moved that he be allowed to continue his membership in the group, representing only his District 3 constituents. Springer objected that while “we [the supervisors] may understand” that Davis’s presence did not represent the county, the public would assume that he did. Thurman voted with Davis, however.
All sides in the discussion repeatedly commented that Yavapai County’s decision to sit this one out would not harm the Partnership. Davis noted that the reverse was also true: “It doesn’t matter where we’re gonna put $8 million of studies in Yavapai County, because it’s all gonna benefit the whole county.” Partnership proponents did not appear concerned by Springer’s warning regarding McCain. The Tri-Cities' councils have not voted one way or the other on joining the group, and so the tango has not reached its end. For now, though, the Partnership will glide across the floor without Districts 1 and 2 of Yavapai County.
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