Letter to The Editor:
Outraged Cottonwood Municipal Water Utility customers

So glad something is being done. I signed the petition as the city of Cottonwood foisted this on us in the Verde Villages without a vote years ago. Our rates have skyrocketed and somehow we are even paying 1% to finance the recreation center in town that as outsiders we have to pay a higher rate to use! This is outrageous!

During the Great Recession which officially lasted from Dec.2007 to June 2009, as the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 mil. jobs, or 6.1% of all jobs, the City of Cottonwood was on a rampage–a spending spree. They were busy spending taxpayers’ and water bill payers’ monies, including using water bill payers’ money to buy real estate properties. That’s right. From 2004 to 2010, the City of Cottonwood used millions of dollars of CIty water bill payers’ hard earned monies to buy six private water companies, and in 2009 the City’s Municipal Water Utility bill payers’ monies were used to buy the 2-acre Foxworth-Galbraith property on Main St. that today houses the City’s Planning Department, the City’s Police evidence–but only half of the property is used to house the City’s Water Utility Department!!! Outrageous! In 2009, the City of Cottonwood purchased the former Foxworth-Galbraith 2-acre property for $650,000 USING UTILITY BILL PAYERS’ MONEY – not the CITY’S MONEY, for a “public works and community services building that serves the City Planning and Police Departments (the two-acre Foxworth-Galbraith property serves two basic purposes: provide a home and storage for the Water Utility Department, The City Planning Dept. and provides storage for police evidence for the Cottonwood Police Department.)

Foxworth-Galbraithe properties were purchased with $650,000 of water utility bill payers’ money, according to City Council records. But only about 5,800 sq. ft. are devoted to the Utilities Billing and Operations because Planning Dept. and Police Dept. 10,758 sq. ft. (about 10,000 sq. ft. houses police evidence).

On July 23, 2009, the Verde News published, “Editorial: Recession in Cottonwood? You wouldn’t know it by watching the City Council…It’s as if the folks at City Hall have money to burn. The proposed City Hall budget for the coming fiscal year is $132 million, the largest in the city’s history. In addition to the outdoor pool expansion, the city is in the midst of constructing a $17 million community recreation center, which also will have its own swimming pool. Earlier this year, the city purchased the former Foxworth-Galbraith property for $600,000 [$650,000 according to City records] to serve as a public works and community services building. Also, the city plans to build a new Riverfront Park Reclamation Facility, a wastewater line along SR 260 to bolster commercial development there. The price-tag for all those projects will be more than $10 million. The city also earlier this year purchased the Spring Creek Water Co. for an estimated $825,000 and has had closed-door discussions about also buying the Quail Canyon Water Improvement District [the City purchased Quail Canyon in 2010]”, https://www.verdenews.com/news/2009/jul/23/editorial-recession-in-cottonwood-you-wouldnt-kno/ stating “the Cottonwood City Council this week approved the spending of $570,000 for the expansion and renovation of the municipal pool”.

Sadly, these are only a few examples of the incredible spending rampage by City leaders over the past 12 years. Overcharged Cottonwood water bill payers created a petition to ask state legislators and lawmakers to investigate huge spikes in water bill rates to cover undisclosed, Cottonwood bond debts, covenant and reserve fees hidden in the City’s water bills for the past 12 years. To sign the petition, go to: https://www.change.org/p/sherry-twamley-overcharged-cottonwood-az-water-bill-payers-demand-investigation