Each year, the American Cancer Society asks the Verde Valley to join in the Relay for Life, a fundraising event that invites community members to stay up through the night and walk in support of cancer survivors.

This year’s Relay For Life of the Verde Valley takes place Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13, at Cottonwood Middle School. Beginning at 1 p.m., relay teams check in for the event. From 6:30 p.m. on Friday until 6 a.m. Saturday, each team is expected to have one or more of its members walking the school’s track at all times in recognition of the fact that cancer never sleeps — and, thus, neither do relay teams.

From Wednesday to Sunday, May 3 to 7, approximately 25,000 people will go through the front gates of the Verde Valley Fair.

It’s an impressive number, made more impressive by the fact that Cottonwood’s Verde Valley Fair is one of a kind — the only fair in the state run by a nonprofit instead of a municipality or county.

A verbal threat that occurred at one of Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District’s schools has awakened interest in how local school districts deal with threats of violence.

The incident, conveyed to the Cottonwood Journal Extra by a parent, is alleged to have occurred last week between students at Mountain View Preparatory.

According to the parent, the threat involved specific acts of violence including killing, and featured a firearm, yet neither he nor the child’s mother were informed by the school’s administration that their child had been threatened.

Thanks to Camp Verde Community Library, the Verde Valley has become one of only eight places in the nation to host Discover NASA: From Our Town to Outer Space.

The all-ages traveling exhibition allows visitors a hands-on, insider’s view of NASA, covering six key organization areas: Human exploration, earth science, Mars exploration, the solar system and beyond, aeronautics and technology.

The latest group to appear on stage at the Sedona Performing Arts Center talked about how “hot” it is, with two of its members bragging about their scorpion tattoos, playing to the preponderance of Sedona Red Rock High School students in attendance.

Although dressed in robes, the group was not Spinal Tap performing “Stonehenge.”

And the group was not exactly the Supremes ... well, wait, actually it was.

A more permanent leadership structure will soon be in place at Yavapai College Verde Valley Campus.

According to YCVV Executive Dean James Perey, a new associate dean will likely be named by week’s end.

Though Salt River Materials Group owns approximately 3,000 acres of the Mingus Mountain foothills for its Clarkdale Cement Plant operation, it’s the facility’s control room that makes the
biggest impression.

Three men make it their home for a shift in the plant’s 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation, sitting before a bank of computers. Above their heads, an array of high-definition TVs broadcast live feeds of data, as well as views of the interior of the plant’s 2,500 degree-Fahrenheit, 3,000-tons-aday rotating kiln.The brilliance of the kiln’s massive flame washes out nearly a third of the visual feed.

Potential developers of Camp Verde’s Old Hwy 279 area, take note: The town is investing in your future.

On May 3, the Camp Verde Town Council unanimously authorized $358,000 in capital improvement project and reserved funds to install six sewer line crossings, locate two existing sewer line crossing locations and install 665 linear feet of eight-inch force main sewer line within the Arizona Department of Transportation’s State Route 260 improvement project.

It seems that nothing is simple when it comes to disciplining children in school.

Following last week’s story about a verbal threat that allegedly occurred between grade school students at Mountain View Preparatory — an interaction that included, according to the parent of a child involved, specific threats of violence featuring a firearm — MVP Principal Stephanie Jones reached out to the Cottonwood Journal Extra to express reservations about what had been reported.

The Yavapai-Apache Nation is constructing the largest low-income housing project in the Verde Valley. If you blink as you drive past it, though, you might not realize it’s there: The housing community, named Tunlii by the YavapaiApache, is tucked away off State Route 260 west of Interstate 17.

The high-end appearing units are located on a downward slope angled toward the Verde River, nearly hidden by the YAN-owned Conoco station north of W. Cherry Creek Road.

The first thing you probably notice about the city of Cottonwood Riverfront Water Reclamation Facility is its appearance: It looks less like a wastewater treatment plant and more like a recreation facility.

It’s no coincidence of design meeting function, according to Cottonwood Regulatory Compliance, Safety and Education Administrator Debbie Breitkreutz.

Home is where the job is.

Jerome Town Council met May 9 and discussed whether to keep the mandate that five positions in city governments be occupied by residents. 

The positions in question are town manager, town clerk, fire chief, police chief and public works. Town code requires those positions have a town resident.

As of April 24, the city of Cottonwood is working with a balanced 2018 budget of $84,995,470 — an increase of nearly $12 million over this year’s original balanced budget of $73,112,570.

For 2017, the revised budget was $64,950,295.

On June 6, the city will look at a revised budget for 2018. Following public input, City Council will adopt the new budget Tuesday, June 20.

The Town of Camp Verde is working with an expected inflow of funds to the tune of $8,405,425 for the 2017-18 fiscal year — only about $100 more than what the town audited for 2015-16 and budgeted for 2016-17.

Town Finance Director Mike Showers went over the basic structure of the next budget during a budget forum Monday, May 8, at the Camp Verde Community Gym. Few community members other than town employees attended, as Showers noted, joking that it must mean the town is doing a good job with its resources. 

It appears only two Verde Valley school districts are adhering to a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to verbal threats of violence — a feature or a bug, depending on your preference as a parent or teacher.

According to Camp Verde Unified School District Superintendant Dennis Goodwin, age doesn’t matter when it comes to disciplinary action for threats of violence.

One man is arrested while transporting drugs and cash in his car, acting as a “mule” for a drug cartel. Another is a young man who made one illicit errand while using his mother’s car to go to the bank. 

Both could be subject to having their cars and cash seized. 

The process for law enforcement seizing property linked to crime has become a contentious issue. Recently, the Arizona Legislature passed House Bill 2477, which has been described as moderate reform for the process known as civil asset forfeiture.

“Today’s important legislation strikes an appropriate balance between enabling law enforcement to do their jobs while upholding civil liberties,” Gov. Doug Ducey said upon signing the bill into law last month. 

Critics of Arizona’s handling of asset forfeiture and the funds they contribute to — sometimes known as RICO funds — saw a couple of concerns addressed in the new law. 

“I absolutely believe we need reform in this area,” said State Sen. Sylvia Allen [R: District 6], who voted for the bill. 

The first issue is the standard by which assets can be taken, including cash and property such as a vehicle. The new law establishes a higher standard, requiring “clear and convincing evidence” whereas prior law only required the lower “preponderance of evidence.” 

“I think there’s a lot of abuse,” Allen said. “I believe in due process …. Their property is taken before they have been found committing the crime.” 

Allen said that simply having a large amount of cash can be enough to trigger forfeiture.

“For some reason, they [police] believe right off the bat that you got that money illegally,” she said.

The move has been described as moderate by reform advocates as it does not elevate the forfeiture process to a criminal standard for conviction, proof beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt. 

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk said that the higher standard in HB 2477 means that the allegation is substantially more likely true than not. This could result in a few cases not being pursued but “Frankly, we usually have that high a burden anyway, even in the old system,” she said. 

Pushing for a criminal standard for seizure was going too far, according to Polk. Since civil cases only deal with property, as opposed to the loss of freedom, the cases are less severe, warranting the lower standard, she said. 

“It would elevate the rights of wrongdoers to their property far higher than the rights of anybody who is litigating property rights in the civil court,” she said. 

Allen said that during the legislative process, there was an “extreme amount of pressure put on the legislators about this bill,” from law enforcement lobbyists. 

“You’re going to have to do a lot of negotiating,” she said. “This is a good first step.” 

Polk said she worked closely with the Legislature on this bill. 

“I had worked with the sponsor [Rep. Eddie Farnsworth R-Distict 12] trying to come up with some compromises to address the sponsor’s concern … and trying to make sure the sponsor understood the purpose of our asset forfeiture laws,” she said. “What we ended up with will be some changes but it’s a law that we can definitely work with,” Polk said.

Eventually, Allen would like to see civil asset forfeiture held to criminal standards. 

“You are innocent until you are proven guilty,” she said. “The next step I believe is you get your day in court. 

“It’s got to be a criminal charge.”

Cottonwood Police Chief Steve Gesell said that the ability to seize property under the new rule shouldn’t affect too much of the department’s business. 

Law enforcement in general is affected by raising standards, though, he said. But a criminal standard would go too far in what he said was an important way to hit drug dealers: By taking their capital. 

Transporters of drugs are often easily replaced and their arrests do little to slow large-scale drug operations. 

“The push in some corners was to attach the civil forfeiture adjudication to only when someone is convicted of a crime. That would be, in my mind, and I think most of my colleagues’ minds, a complete calamity to our ability to protect the public,” he said. 

If held to a criminal standard, Gesell said that some drug transporters, who may even be unaware of their full involvement, would not have enough of a case against them to take funds. 

“What would be earth-shattering would be to raise this to a criminal standard,” he said.

Gesell has experience working with civil asset forfeiture in areas where it is more commonly practiced, such as Scottsdale, working with county state and federal systems. He has worked as a detective and lieutenant with the Drug Enforcement Agency. 

“Asset forfeiture is a very valuable tool,” he said. 

He said it would be a wait-and-see situation in the new raised standard. While money tucked into a secret compartment in a wheel well could likely pass the new bar, money in a suitcase may be more difficult to link. 

“That’s [seizing money] is where you really hurt these cartels,” Gesell said. The arrest of a mule “does nothing to disrupt them and their ability to continue to commit crimes. What hurts them is taking the proceeds and/or product.” 

Allen disagreed that the property was the main issue at hand. 

“It’s not the property committing this crime,” she said. 

She did agree that cartels and organized crime should still be fought with the law but praised the new law for its increased transparency.

Getting Property Back

An issue critics have of current standards is that no conviction or charge must be made in criminal courts before asset forfeiture can take effect. Once property is seized, it can be difficult to get back. Further, in order to recoup legal fees from the state, defendants must show that the property in question should have never been seized under standards at the time of the seizure. 

Allen said that this bill addresses those issues by allowing reasonable attorney fees to be compensated by the court upon recovery. 

“It shouldn’t be a huge, complicated process to get your property back,” Allen said. “It’s a nightmare to lose you car. Now you can’t get to work.”

Polk said Yavapai County is aware of situations that may occur in which property may be questionable whether it passes standards for asset forfeiture. She said that due process was still in place for those involved. 

“Early on, if you have an innocent owner of property — so for example, if your son took your car and is using your car to transport methamphetamine across the county and got stopped, we would look at forfeiting that vehicle but when you produce proof that the vehicle is yours and you weren’t involved in a conspiracy to transport meth, then early in the system your property gets back to you,” Polk said. 

Property owners can contact the county attorney’s office to notify it of such a third-party ownership to get property back, Polk said. She said her office works quickly to clear up these situations, as there may be timely legitimate business being held up as well. 

She gave the example of a cantaloupe company recovering its produce before it spoils from a stop wherein the driver — unbeknownst to the company — was also transporting drugs. 

“We don’t want to disrupt legitimate business,” shes said. 

Allen lives in Snowflake in Navajo County, which she also represents. She said that though the Verde Valley hasn’t called her with any complaints, there have been issues along Interstate 40. 

“The feedback I got from everybody was that this new law was great,” she said. “I don’t think that it will actually stop law enforcement from taking those dollars in large drug busts connected to cartels and then be able to use that for law enforcement.”

Gesell said that in his experience, most people do not seem concerned with how the law works. 

“I think it pretty much goes under the radar,” he said, though certain groups help drive the politics of the situation. 

“There’s always concern over the validity of the process,” he said, though he said he never has had a concerned resident bring it up to him throughout his career. Still, he was appreciative of the public calls for reform in media. 

“Some of the concern is healthy,” he said. “Even though there’s an adjudication process … there’s still that recognition that everything we do is public record and we need to follow the law.

Gesell said without these conversations, abuse in any area would occur with more frequency. Polk said Yavapai County has never received a complaint over asset forfeiture.

Transparency

HB 2477 changes the way the county will report its seizures to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, which compiles statewide reports. 

“HB 2477 does change how reports are received as well as the types of information required of each report,” said Jaime Watson, public information officer and legislative liaison for the ACJC. 

“HB 2477 mandates that new information be included on the RICO expense reports that provides a greater level of granularity to the various expense categories. In addition, HB 2477 creates an entirely new report on Forfeiture Orders that ACJC will now collect on the same quarterly basis. In addition to HB 2477, HB 2243 was also passed affecting the reporting process. HB 2243 mandates that ACJC accept the necessary RICO expense reports from participating agencies in an electronic format on a quarterly basis and provide a comprehensive electronic expense report on a quarterly basis to various listed state entities.” 

Polk said that the workload for this new reporting would fall on the attorney’s offices to provide. 

“The new reporting is very much expanded,” she said adding that she would have to see if current staff will be enough to keep up. 

“I understand the public’s desire to see how this money is spent,” she said. “The new law will create a summary for each case.” 

Transparency is always preferable, she said. 

“Time will tell whether the public will actually use that data,” she said.

Fund Use

Yavapai County civil asset forfeiture funds are pooled at the county level. Polk has meetings with heads of law enforcement and, under set spending rules, decides how the money should be spent.

Funds of this type must be spent on law enforcement, which includes payroll in Arizona. Polk said that primarily, the funds in Yavapai County are used to keep Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking up and running. PANT is a joint task force of county law enforcement used for drug arrests. 

Gesell said that having Polk in charge of the meetings provides an additional check of the system, providing accountability for law enforcement. 

In addition, departments can request certain specific amounts of “buyitem” requests on top of any regular installment. This was used in CPD’s case to purchase $5,000 of fencing for the evidence storage yard. 

Also, once fund levels reach a certain point, funds are dispersed. Cottonwood, over the last few years, received around $30,000. 

In the last year fiscal year 2015-16, for the state, total funds from state and federal resources were $86.3 million, according to the ACJC. Yavapai County ended with $27,821 the same year. CPD received $28,075 in that time.

“It’s a liberating tool,” Gesell said. “To be able to take those monies and reinvest them to protect the public.” 

These funds help initiatives, such as the Cottonwood Police Department’s app, which otherwise could be kicked down the road, Gesell said. 

One criticism of funding is that police department’s may work in a more for-profit model of enforcement.

“I think decisions on how money is spent is very removed from the peace officers on the street performing these seizures,” Polk said. 

In California, where Gesell previously worked, he said the process provided much more sparse funds, which affected enforcement. If funds were to dry up as a result of higher standards, Polk said that it would likely force PANT to cease existing. 

“I love the work of the PANT unit. PANT is able to work drug tips up the chain to go after folks who are trafficking,” she said. “Without RICO funding, we would not be able to keep that unit afloat.” 

Under the new law, local agencies will not be able to partner with the Department of Justice at the federal level for property worth less than $75,000. Gesell said that federal cases which partner with local agencies are not common in rural areas like Northern Arizona. Therefore, it would be unlikely that this change in what is known as “equitable sharing” laws will affect funds here. 

The issue of forfeiture, though mostly handled by the states, is a national one, Allen said. 

“This is being asked for across the country,” she said.

Furthermore, she noted the passage of HB 2477 was bipartisan. 

“We have got to be where we are not causing harm to innocent people who have not done anything wrong. That’s all I’m saying. There’s got to be a balance. I don’t want to be soft on anyone dealing drugs at all,” Allen said. “This bill will help put guidelines in place.”

Polk said that she is hopeful that any issues with the new law will be addressed by the Legislature in the near future.

With all the talk of funding woes, school board drama and the pressure placed on children to perform, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the Verde Valley boasts some truly incredible teachers.

On April 28, four Cottonwood and Clarkdale-area teachers were celebrated for their efforts at the 23rd annual Yavapai County Education Foundation Teacher of the Year Award Ceremony and Banquet at the Prescott Resort.

Owned by Cottonwoodbased Kestrel Aviation, the Wild Sky Aircraft’s Goat is a combination of hang glider, fan-powered go-kart and all-terrain vehicle.

The 80-horse-power engine and fabric-and-strut wings lift the 575-pound aircraft into the air at 45 miles per hour, after a 200-foot runway takeoff. Once in the air, the Goat cruises at about 55 mph and tops out at just under 70 mph. Landing at 35 mph requires about 400 feet of open space.

City of Cottonwood Administrative Services General Manager Rudy Rodriguez admits it: The budget is not the sexiest topic in the world.

Making matters worse, the budget is confusing, even in its simplest form. What might be immediately transparent to a municipal budget expert is obscure to the average person. For example, in the document prepared in advance of the city’s major 2018 budget discussions, Rodriguez presented three data points for the completed fiscal years 2007 through 2016: Original budgets, revised budgets and actual budgets.

Yavapai-Apache Nation Chairwoman Jane RussellWiniecki is one of Arizona Business Magazine’s “2017 Most Influential Women in Arizona Business.”

Winiecki will appear in the magazine’s July issue, alongside other women of influence in Arizona.