Prescott eNews

It seemed like such an innocuous agenda item :

E. Adoption of Resolution No. 3888-0856 – A resolution of the Mayor and Council of the City of Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona, authorizing the official development of a Sister City relationship with the City of Suchitoto, El Salvador.

But, this little item ended up developing into nearly an hour of heated discussion at Tuesday's (May 6, 2008) Prescott City Council meeting. By the end of the meeting, Mayor Wilson had expressed his definite preference for tabling the measure; several councilmembers had vehemently disagreed, expressing their strong support of the resolution; and Councilman Luzius finished up with a lengthy statement about studies and plans and votes.

Now the issue threatens to spawn international repercussions, as the Honorary Consul from El Salvador, Enrique Melendez states, "First of all, I was extremely disappointed by the action taken by the mayor. The lack of understanding of the diplomacy involved, between two nations, El Salvador, who is the friendliest country in the Western Hemisphere to the United States... El Salvador has very close ties with the State Department. I feel that it was disingenuous for the mayor to take a stand that is like a bully in a school yard. And the reason I am making this statement is because I have to protect and serve and defend El Salvador when anyone in any way, shape or form tries to demean it. I do it with respect and I do it with dignity."

Good grief. How did Prescott get to this point?

Prescott City Council Meeting: May 6, 2008

City Manager Steve Norwood introduced the resolution and stated, "Mayor and Council, this item is being brought to you... Councilman Roecker and Bell asked that this be placed on your agenda. About a year and a half ago, Council approved a resolution expressing intent to create a second sister city relationship with a city in El Salvador. Council approved that, we began moving forward with a plan, and with a delegation from the City of Prescott, to visit the country. That was done about this time last year. However, there is still interest in the City of Prescott as well as Suchitoto to formalize this. The City of Suchitoto has done so, so now the City of Prescott needs to formally adopt a resolution expressing that interest, and naming the city specifically, which is Suchitoto. So that is what's before you."

At that point, Councilman Roecker, who went to El Salvador with then-Mayor Rowle Simmons and Norwood, spoke warmly of their trip to El Salvador, and commented, "...This is really a reaffirmation of what we've been doing for a period of time, and I'm pleased that we're to the point now where we're naming Suchitoto as our Sister City."

But Councilman Luzius then asked a couple of curious questions, "I'd like to direct this question to Mr. Norwood. In the first paragraph of our memo, down towards the end, the last sentence, or part of it, 'an informal decision was made to move forward with the relationship' - who makes these informal decisions? I hear also about a study, is this also included? I wrote down study, when I heard the word study, and plan, what are our plans and what studies have been made?"

Norwood's response is that several councilmembers had indicated a desire to pursue and formalize this relationship. Norwood also replied, looking slightly baffled, "To my knowledge, no studies have been done. The only plans have been to create a second city, through our Sister City organization."

When it was his turn to speak, Councilman Bob Bell said he thought it was time to move this forward, and Mayor Pro-Tem Suttles expressed her surprise that it wasn't finished already. She stated, "I'm anxious to get this on and continue with what we're doing. We have a very good relationship with Caborca, and I hope to have the same with Suchitoto."

(Caborca, of course, being Prescott's Sister City from Mexico; a relationship that was established about 36 years ago.)

Councilman Lamerson also expressed his support for the measure, stating, "I think that indeed, if I remember correctly when we discussed this originally, we were very excited about getting involved with another Sister City in El Salvador, Suchitoto is the one that was identified... Everybody seemed really thrilled with this. Now, if indeed there is some proper procedure that hasn't been followed, let's follow the procedure and move along and get the job done and agree to this."

Mayor Wilson Makes a Stand

Mayor Jack Wilson, who had waited quietly for all the other councilmenbers to express their points of view, then expressed his opinion, as he turned on a PowerPoint presentation, "I have a few comments. I'd like to review the Prescott City's Sister resolutions. Number One, we started off in 1972, our mayor then, Taylor Hicks, with an invite to Caborca, Mexico. It took four years until that relationship was actually finalized under Mayor Geraldine Wagner... In 2006, Rowle Simmons was mayor, and they passed a resolution to study a potential sister city relationship with a city in El Salvadore, not named in the original resolution."

Wilson continued with his presentation, "As we can see from this slide, we started our relationship with Caborca 36 years ago, and formalized it 32 years ago." He advanced to the next slide, "Suchitoto, on 6/13/2006, Enrique Melendez, a resident of Fountain Hills at that time, made a pitch to Mayor Simmons and the Councilmembers for a sister city in El Salvador. I mentioned the resolution that was passed in July to study the potential relationship, and the chronology continues. There was no council resolution to formalize the Prescott-Suchitoto sister city relationship, only a resolution to study the relationship. April trip, as mentioned by Councilman Roecker, they paid for their plane trip, the foreign ministry from El Salvador paid for their meals and hotel."

Then Wilson discussed whether or not there is a viable Prescott-Suchitoto organization. "On April 25, 2007, an organizational meeting for the Prescott-Suchitoto committee was held. It was basically put together by the Prescott Sister City's organization, that organization then followed up with the attendees for that meeting. They also held a second membership organizational meeting at Prescott Library in September, 2007. The primary supporters so far for the Prescott-Suchitoto endeavor has come from the Prescott Caborca Sister City organization. Seventy percent of the attendees at the initial meeting were from that organization, forty percent were at the second meeting. This organizational meeting occurred over a year ago."

At that point, Wilson brought up the signs put up in behalf of the Sister City Suchitoto, "We've got six Prescott-Suchitoto Sister Signs installed at the cost of $942, we don't have a resolution from the Council authorizing this relationship, and an informal relationship doesn't give us the authority to expend funds like this. These were requested by Enrique Melendez and our City Manager Steve Norwood."

"I have some questions," Wilson stated. "Since Enrique was and is the primary proponent of the Sister City relationship, what has he accomplished since the initial Council resolution of July 11, 2006 to study a Sister City relationship? What organizational skills has he put forth, what has he done to pull the group together to support this? Where is the actual support for Suchitoto? How will the City of Prescott benefit if we enter into this relationship? What is the cost to the City of Prescott? Remember the signs I showed you previously? Where are the results of the study that Councilman Luzius referenced? When you do a study, you expect to get a report back from the study, saying, 'Here's what we found, here's what we recommend.'"

And, finally, Wilson said bluntly, "I think this is premature. We don't have the study results, there is NO Suchitoto local support group. Tomorrow they're having a Prescott-Suchitoto Sister City organizational committee meeting. This is the third one that's been held. What progress has been made since the 4-25-2007 organizational meeting? Resolution as currently drafted, lacks provisions that you find in any other resolution that was written for other sister cities. No provision for the mayor and council to approve expenditures. No designation of who will represent the City of Prescott. My recommendation is to table this resolution pending development of a viable Prescott-Suchitoto support organization."

A Closer Analysis of Wilson's Position

So, to summarize, Wilson appears to oppose the Suchitoto Sister Resolution based on these grounds:

Mayor Wilson goes through his Power Point presentation during the City Council Meeting.

1. That the resolution only called for the study of a relationship. "...they passed a resolution to study a potential sister city relationship with a city in El Salvadore..."

But there's a problem with that statement. The resolution he is referring to, from July 11, 2006, said nothing about "studying" the sister city relationship. Here is how Resolution Number 3767 reads:

A resolution of the Mayor and Council of the City of Prescott, Arizona authorizing the potential development of a Sister City relationship with a city in El Salvador.

That resolution passed unanimiously, by the way.

Now, when Wilson states, "There was no council resolution to formalize the Prescott-Suchitoto sister city relationship," he is correct, because Suchitoto was never named specifically in the resolutions. That, as Norwood explained, is what needed to be formalized.

2. According to Wilson, there is no viable support organization, "Where is the actual support for Suchitoto? What progress has been made since the 4-25-2007 organizational meeting?"

However, in none of the city council meetings which discussed the El Salvador Sister City proposal, were there ever any requests or requirements for a support organization to be in place before the final formalization of the agreement.

Furthermore, as Wilson mentioned, but, of course had no way of knowing the outcome in advance, there was a meeting on Wednesday, the night after the City Council meeting, and forty people showed up, many of which paid their dues on the spot. They also elected a chairman, recorder and treasurer.

3. Wilson felt that putting up the signs at a cost of $942 was not properly authorized. "We've got six Prescott-Suchitoto Sister Signs installed at the cost of $942, we don't have a resolution from the Council authorizing this relationship, and an informal relationship doesn't give us the authority to expend funds like this. These were requested by Enrique Melendez and our City Manager Steve Norwood."

According to the Prescott City Charter, however, the city manager does have the authorization to make this expenditure. Article III, Section 3 reads in part, "(4) Prepare the annual budget estimates and submit them to the council and be responsible for the administration of the budget after adoption; and (6) Supervise the purchasing for all departments of the city."

Furthermore, it seems appropriate to note, that City Manager Norwood is also the one that approved the purchase of Mayor Wilson's new table and chairs , at a cost of approximately $5000. This was also an expenditure done without full council approval.

So, What Happened Next?

The other council members immediately responded, and then the public had a chance to comment as well. But, one person was conspicuously absent from the City Council meeting: Honorary Consul Enrique Melendez. Where was he, why wasn't he here?

Look for  upcoming stories which will cover the following topics:

• Suchitoto - Should It Be The Next Sister City?
• Where's Enrique?
• What about that support group, anyway? 

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