Bullhead City Council Regular Meeting - February 4, 2025
Bullhead City Council Regular Meeting - February 4, 2025
The Bullhead City Council held its regular meeting on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, at 5:30 PM in the City Council Chambers. The meeting covered a consent agenda, public comments, and six action items, including approval of an amended water/wastewater contract, acceptance of the FY2024 audit, adoption of an impact fee audit, a supplemental grant for the River Fund, and repeal of the Franchise/License Commission. All items were approved, with one dissenting vote on the River Fund grant.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1: Minutes of the January 21, 2025 Regular Council Meeting were pulled for corrections (two typographical errors noted by Council). The minutes were approved as amended unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- A speaker expressed strong opposition to federal grants and nonprofit organizations like Catholic Charities, warning that grant funding may evaporate under the new administration, and urged the city toward self-sufficiency.
- Jamie Starr demanded a traffic light at Sterling Road and Highway 95, citing a recent fatal motorcycle crash, and criticized code enforcement, blighted properties, and road conditions on Marina Boulevard. He threatened lawsuits if issues are not addressed.
- Barbara Pape announced a Colorado River Republican Women meeting on February 5, 2025, with Supervisor Rich Lettman.
- Steven Brown (Bullhead Regional Food Bank) promoted a March 8 celebrity cook-off fundraiser and noted temporary food distribution at Rotary Park due to construction.
- Dr. Sheila Barnett (Mojave Health Coalition) announced a family health fair on March 1, 2025, at MCC, including free screenings and lunch-and-learn sessions.
- Tom Doman (Rotary Club) reported the Slab Brama BBQ challenge raised over $30,000 for scholarships and community projects.
- Dr. Christina Dumall announced a new Bullhead City chapter of the Arizona Republican Assembly (AZRA), emphasizing conservative principles and candidate support.
- Charles Lewin alleged police harassment and profiling since moving to Bullhead City eight months ago.
- Scott Farber complained about building department failures on a landscaping final related to an air conditioning condenser screen, requesting council intervention.
- A speaker criticized traffic ticket fees as excessive and suggested grants lead to over-policing.
- Sean Regan objected to the River Fund grant, stating his veteran father was denied services multiple times, and questioned accounting for the funds.
- A final public comment criticized the city for distributing taxpayer money without proper oversight of nonprofits.
Discussion Items
- Item 2 – Amendment to Water/Wastewater Repair Contract: Utility Director Mark Clark presented an amendment increasing the job order contract (JOC) with Premier Backhoe, Inc. from $182,000 to $400,000 annually. The increase primarily funds installation of 80 fire hydrants per year (as approved in August 2024) and adds asphalt/concrete repair services. The contract was awarded via a competitive bid process; Premier was the lowest bidder at $25,226.55. Council approved unanimously.
- Item 3 – FY2024 Audited Financial Report: Auditor Brian Hemmerley (Baker Tilly) presented results. The city received a clean (unqualified) opinion with no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. Key statistics: General fund equity increased $6.8 million; actual revenues were in line with budget, expenditures were $4.8 million under budget; water fund charges exceeded expenses by $2.2 million; wastewater fund had a $3.4 million equity decrease due to operating losses. Federal grant single audit covered three grants (CDBG, rural transit, COVID-19 relief) – all clean. Expenditure limitation was $60.1 million; actual spending $43.8 million, leaving $16.3 million under limit. Council accepted the report unanimously.
- Item 4 – Biennial Impact Fee Audit: City Manager Cotter noted the audit confirms Bullhead City’s impact fees are the lowest in the state and comply with state law. Council adopted the audit after a public hearing with no comments.
- Item 5 – River Fund Transportation Assistance Grant Amendment: Human Services Director Jeff Tipton requested an additional $20,000 from contingency to supplement the $50,000 already budgeted for FY2025 due to high demand. The River Fund assists homeless individuals with bus tickets, temporary shelter, and car repairs. Tipton reported 202 encounters in the last three quarterly reports, including 57 bus trips out of area, 17 stranded/car repairs, 26 temporary shelters, and 46 gasoline/repair cases. Public comment criticized denial of services to veterans. Councilmember asked for an end-of-year report on expenditures. Motion passed 6-1, with Councilmember O’Neill opposed.
- Item 6 – Ordinance Repealing Franchise/License Commission: The council adopted Ordinance 2025R-2 to repeal Chapter 2.96 of the municipal code, a final step after a prior public hearing. Unanimous approval.
Key Outcomes
- Approved consent agenda minutes as amended (unanimous).
- Approved Item 2 (water/wastewater contract amendment) unanimously.
- Accepted Item 3 (FY2024 audit) unanimously.
- Adopted Item 4 (impact fee audit) unanimously.
- Approved Item 5 (River Fund grant amendment) 6-1.
- Adopted Item 6 (ordinance repeal) unanimously.
- Manager’s report: Senior Enrichment Center grand opening set for March 4, 2025; Parkway Safety Grant project stalled until April due to waiting for polls.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. This is Tuesday, February 4th, 2025, 5 30 p.m. We're here for a regular schedule council meeting. Can I call this meeting to order? Can I get a roll call, please? All council members are present. All right, we're gonna start with the invocation from Pastor Tim Imey from Community Lutheran Church. If you'd like to join us, please stand. Let us pray. Oh God who guides the strong and lifts up the weak. Be with these city council members who are making decisions for our community. Give them ears to hear the voices of the people they serve. Give them courage to speak and act on behalf of the powerless. Give them wisdom to quell division. Give them eyes to see the children and others affected by the laws they enact. Give them a sense of your compassion, your justice, and your abiding peace. And help us all, Lord God, to remember that there is nothing that you have made that you hate or disregard. Through your love, we know we are fashioned in your image. Help us to find the dignity that you give to your creation through the routine and ordinary sense of our everyday lives. May we see in others the dignity that you see in us, and may we find ways to affirm them as shining stars of your creation. Amen. Please join me in the plan. Please be seated. All right, we're gonna do our call of public. If you are here as a group, you have five minutes. There must be four or more here with you. Let us know that you're a group so we can make sure your time. Welcome, council. Today is a great day. Members of the public, it is just unbelievable what has been exposed and the changes that are happening. Catholic charities 5013C classification will be revoked by Trump and Musk. So you need to be prepared to stop doing business with them as a uh nonprofit because they are not. I mean, it's been exposed that of a hundred and seventy seven billion dollars of US money that went through USAID to go to Ukraine. That uh Zelinski has admitted that he received less than 77 billion dollars of that money, and that the rest was stolen by these corrupt NGOs. So hopefully that's gonna come to an end. And if it does, which I think it's pretty inevitable, and we should all hope for that. A lot of your uh grant money funding for a lot of things is likely going to evaporate rapidly, not just here, but all throughout the country. Uh and we're gonna have to learn to be self-sufficient. So you guys really need to take with a grain of salt uh the way you're spending money and how you're budgeting things, and not assuming that this grant money is gonna be forthcoming. I certainly hope that it's not, and that we can get back to the to our great American heritage of taking back our liberty, our freedom, and our individuality and sense of self-responsibility and return charity to those that actually have the ability and want to give back rather than government taking and then having us have to beg and plead and bow and uh tailor to the whims and speech of what a totalitarian government wants us to do to get our daily food. We need to get back to self-sufficiency. We need to get back to trying to get local industry to actually manufacture and grow food and do things like that here, like what I've been saying for years to this council and to the public. And I hope that by now some of these things will be more visible, and people will start to see me as the truth who I am rather than as a quote unquote conspiracy theorist because these things are all true. And with that, I thank you very much, and I really hope that everybody rejoices in our freedom being restored. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next. My name is Jamie Starr. Uh I'm mad as hell. For one thing, the the discussions here need to be related to the city, not crackpot, whatever that was.
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