By: Wayne Smith Although not intentional, it seems that Mohave County government has almost become by definition tyrannical. The problem seems to be when residents vote a person into office, they assume that person will represent his or hers constitutes. Instead of this being the case, our local politicians seem to have their own agendas in mind. One can only guess why this is, but I think most of us know!
Let’s take a quick look at how this cycle goes. Each member of the BOS has been voted into office. Each supervisor gets to appoint three commissioners to Planning and Zoning!
The three Supervisors vote on and approve a County Manager! The County Manager gets to appoint who is on the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). In our case, it is all of the power brokers of Mohave County. The TAC members are revising the General Plan to be more business friendly all at the expense of the residents and their quality of life. Now, obviously, all three Supervisors will appoint people to each position that will agree with them! That’s just human nature, but the problem comes when there are no checks and balances to this system. Or another way to say it, the voice of the people still needs to be involved in this process! With the elimination of the “Call to the Public” at public meetings, the lack of participation by ordinary residents on the revision of the General Plan, with the elimination of any water resources element, and the words of must and shall being replaced by should and may ,in my opinion is weakening the General Plan.
With the weakening of all guidelines in the General Plan, it will allow for everything to be up to interpretation by the BOS. THIS SCARES ME! Another way to look at this is, it eliminates any arguments by residents and once again their voices! The argument by the county will be that I still have the ability to speak at the P&Z and the BOS. My answer to this is by the time it gets this far, both P&Z and BOS already have their minds made up! Remember the wet cooled solar plants and the diesel plant? Whether it was intentional or not, this county has orchestrated a step by step process to eliminate any and all public participation in the decision making process! With this said, the county can do business however it pleases! To sum up what I just stated, the BOS and the P&Z and the County Manager are in lockstep with their ideas, the County Manager appoints only people that agree with him to be members on the TAC, which can change the general plan to suit what there goals are! All of the TAC members will benefit financially from the changes! They have basically eliminated any and all voices or opposition. Which makes Mohave County an absolute ruler over its citizens. Is this not the definition of a tyrannical government?
Wayne Smith
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