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Williams City Council candidate Q and A
Kevin Young Q and A: Part of a series of candidate interviews

<br>Council candidate Kevin Young<br>

<br>Council candidate Kevin Young<br>

News: Tell us a little about your background?

Young: I was born and raised in a military family. I was lucky enough to travel the world. My dad was last stationed in Oceanside. We moved up to the Orange County area. I went to high school and college there and started working as a guidance and supervision counselor at a continuation high school.

On weekends I started a job as a bouncer and got into the hospitality industry at a nightclub where the owner was a professor at USC. He asked me to quit the school district and come and run his place and that's what I ended up doing. My wife and I ended up buying our own restaurant and we did that for many years.

The last thing before we came up to Williams, I was working in the Palm Springs area for Marriot at a five star world-class resort and had a heart attack back in 2000. The doctor said it was all stress related and you have to slow down and change your lifestyle. So we sold our house, sold everything, sold my plane and moved up here. We bought the Canyon Motel at the east end of town and I've been working on that for the last eight years. Built the RV park in '05 and opened it in '06. I've been married for 30 years.

What made you decide to run for this office?

I think there are a lot of things still undone. Coming in to city council was a real eye opener for me to see what was really going on behind the scenes to really get a good idea of how things work and why they work the way they do. So, I think we've taken our first steps in communicating and letting the public know what's going on. Becoming more transparent. I think we've taken the first steps but still think we have a ways to go.

How long have you been on the Williams City Council, and what is your greatest accomplishment?

I've been on the council the past four years. I think I've become a better listener. Because as being a councilman, you don't do one thing alone. It's seven people so you can't take anything for yourself like you accomplished it. It takes seven people to be involved and to work toward a goal.

I've been a part of a lot of things. I was a part of the interview process and the changes we made a year or so ago at the golf course. And that has come to fruition and improved a lot with Brent being out there and I can see in the next four years it will probably be 10 times better. Was in the process with hiring Susan Kerley and getting a good city clerk in there, an HR person. Being a part of all those things.

It's more being a part of listening. I think everyone brings a little of something else to the table. I just really think city council is like owning my own business. You're running a business on behalf of the community; it's just on a bigger scale. There's a lot of things you can make bad, tough decisions on. We just had to this past week and a few weeks back we had to. But, you have to do those tough things in tough times.

What do you plan to accomplish if re-elected?

One thing I'd like to see is the city to have an excess of a million dollars in reserve so that when things come up and things go haywire we have that money in the kitty. Not being always chasing the dollar. I'd love to see improvements in the streets. I'd love to see all these businesses that are empty filled. I'd love to see the success of Bearizona. I would love to see it extend the stay of visitors that come see us.

How would you rate the current city council?

On a scale of 1-10, I think the city council has come a long way especially in the last couple of years, so I would rate it a good eight-plus. Always room for improvement.

What would you do differently?

Learn to keep my mouth closed and really listen a lot better. Like right now, since we did this pool thing last week. When people write an e-mail and they're complaining about the pool, you really don't have a chance to express to them what led to that decision. But, by being quiet and listening to their frustrations and once they seem to get it all out then when you explain what's going on they're more apt to be okay with the decision. And hopefully it's a short-term decision.

How do you feel about growth?

Needless to say, the city is bound by the size we have to grow into. Number one, I would love to see another market in town to compete with Safeway. And we're really trying to do that in the next year or two. I'd love to see a Discount Tire. I'd love to see a locksmith in town. Stuff that doesn't eat up a lot of the utilities and the infrastructure.

Should the mayor or an individual council member offer breaks and/or incentives to developers?

I think each instance should be individually looked at. We just brought this up on Tuesday. We have the cost of doing business here and we want to see about lowering that and see what we could do. Like we worked with Bearizona on their streets and stuff. But, we really don't see that as a hold up. Because Flagstaff, who was doing 400 homes a year, has a lot lower rate than we do and only did 16 homes last year. So what does that tell you? That's not holding people back from doing business here.

What do you think would help the local economy?

Well, I think Bearizona is going to be the first step for this year to help the economy. What I think is advantageous for Williams, and I was working with the chamber on this for the past six years and the last year as I was on tourism, is getting the word out more to locals from Las Vegas to Bullhead to Laughlin to Parker, Havasu, Phoenix. That this being a short drive so it's not going to be cost prohibitive with fuel prices. Having more options once you get up here. Having Williams more as a base camp where you can go down to Sedona. You can go to Bearizona. You can go to the Grand Canyon. Where in a short area you can do a lot of things with the family. Working on the tourism and getting the word out is essential to make Williams better.

Do you anticipate further cutbacks at city hall in staffing and/or city services?

I pray no. But the next 60 days will really tell you. I think Wednesday or Thursday we should get our sales tax numbers for last month, which will be a really good indicator. I think out of a lot of the cities, the city of Williams was one of the last ones to get affected. The one thing in my opinion that I think you should never cut is essential services. The health and safety of citizens. You know, the water, the police, and the fire. I will cut anything and everything extracurricular before I would cut another employee. Or take money away from them. That was brought up in the last discussion about doing a five percent pay cut.

But, with the economy the way it is and the prices the way they are, it's too hard to take out of a person's pocket. You've got to do the things you don't want to do like the pool. You're affecting people and I've been inundated the last week with e-mails and phone calls and people complaining about the pool. But the next would be the rec center. Whatever is recreational that we can do without for the short term until we get back into the season and start getting some revenue.

Citizens have expressed concerns about the condition of the Williams Cemetery, snow removal and lack of special events. How would you address these concerns?

I think Carol Glassburn has had inmates up at the cemetery working so I think we've taken initial steps to make it look better.

Snow removal? I think this was 10 times better these last few days than a year ago when we were kind of behind the eight ball on that one. The mayor declared an emergency and shortly after that Flagstaff did and the state did so that FEMA money was available. I know we had 2.2 or 2.3 million in the coffer. That's really going to help and we were able to get on it faster. This is a tough community to do this in, too.

I know we had deals where we asked everyone to keep their cars off the main street and there were still three or four that still wouldn't do it parked in front of the bar blocking them from getting around. But for the most part I think they did a really good job

I sat on a board this past year, and still do, as the chair of the oversight committee for special events. A lot of the special events that people seem to get upset about not happening were very poorly attended and very costly. There are some things like the Fourth of July that no matter what you would have to keep having. We went out and proactively went after the hog rally, which we're bringing back to town. But, we have to look at it realistically.

To have an event it takes a lot of money and a lot of volunteerism. The problem with the volunteerism is you keep getting the same people over and over to volunteer and there is not a lot of new blood to draw from. So those people get burned out, and then, the job isn't done as well and at every turn people are asking for money for this and money for that and it's just not there. So, you have to look at the whole picture and say which ones will really do well, help the community, not be costly where we lose money and find one that at least breaks even.

What is the single biggest challenge facing Williams today?

Six letters, budget. It's the same old thing. You've got to get the people in. They've got to spend money at the motels, the Safeways, at the restaurants, BB and B taxes and you've got to get that money up. That's our biggest thing. Going back to the pool and rec room, it all goes around money. You can't do a thing without it.

Where do you see Williams at the end of your term?

I would like to see a drastic improvement in a lot of the streets. I would like to see new business. Business that is not impacting our infrastructure a lot. I would like to see more people involved with the community and those that have challenges or issues or complaints or thoughts to be more open to sharing them with us. Whether it be through the city or getting with the chamber and saying we want more events, what can we do to help? We had that big catastrophe with the Christmas tree and you find out about all these people that say they would have helped. But, where were they when it started? The one thing with the city, I think we've taken the first initial steps to open the door to communication and being more transparent so people don't think we're trying to hide stuff and being better communicators among ourselves.


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