Bill Williams Withdraws from Prescott Valley Mayoral Election: Endorses Larry Neigel For PV Mayor – Bill Williams

I am withdrawing from the race for Mayor of Prescott Valley for a few different reasons. First, a shout out to my supporters who wanted me to beat the current Mayor. But as I said to many of my supporters, they needed to tell me if I should go forward with the election process. What I meant by that was that several people were upset with me for quitting council. By policy, you have to quit council if you want to run for mayor. But I urged my supporters to look into all the people who had declared with the clerk’s office indicating they wanted to run for mayor or town council positions. My supporters told me two things. Larry Neigel has more relevant experience, and my value is in investigating municipal waste, abuse and misconduct.

Signature Fatigue

Our unusual Arizona governor decided that the legislature should move our primary election up sooner from August 4^th to July 21^st and the signature window which qualifies you for a petition to get on the ballot was moved up weeks earlier to between February 21 through March 23rd. What we have here is what I have called Signature Fatigue. You have to hand it to a sophisticated candidate like Mayor Palguta when he announced he had an army of helpers, out in the field, and claimed to have gathered 2,000 signatures by January even though he only needed 444 to qualify. And the Clerk won’t accept more than 887 valid signatures. Palguta’s effort and other signature seekers dilute the pool. At the same time the referendum drive was going on where citizens sought about 1,500 signatures to get what would have been the third issue on a ballot because they were angry with decisions made by town council.

Candidates can start filing signatures on Feb. 21, by email and can have the Clerk count them in person by Feb. 23rd.

One referendum effort got enough signatures but lost in a lawsuit in Superior Court. One will ensure the Lakeshore 650 development will be on the ballot, barring a lawsuit. And the third referendum effort is to put the development of a gravel pit (a Fain Signature and Asphalt Paving and Supply initiative) to the voters, because of town council’s approval of the pit. So that makes about 4,500 signatures obtained in about a year – signature fatigue – just for referendums, on top of election race signatures in a town of 50,000. The council candidates and mayoral candidates were pursuing about 3,500 additional signatures for their races. Prescott Valley has signature fatigue.

In addition, people in the Chino Valley area are asking for signatures that would halt the construction of an airfield out in the middle of nowhere just north of Coyote Springs and so some of our brethren who live off of Coyote Springs Road were asked to sign petitions to stop the airfield construction. And of course, several are trying to get signatures to get on the ballot as a PV town council candidate. They are out in the field, collecting signatures. One is so far behind that I don’t know if that person is going to make it because it looks like that campaign just started. I checked with a professional signature gathering company in Phoenix and learned they will gather all your signature requirements – for $26.75/hour – with several of their workers in the field for you.

The Decision

The idea always was to get rid of two-term Mayor Kell Palguta by beating him fair and square in the election. But that meant me and Kell and the third candidate – Larry Neigel – would be out in the field trying to gather signatures. I lost part of my army because people were upset with me for leaving council. I had one staunch supporter move out of state and another buy a house in the northernmost suburb of Flagstaff, so it was inconvenient to ask them to take that long a drive to help me; and I did not have “the army” to get the work done. The petition signatures I got will remain confidential.

Quitting

Quitting the council after being elected is nothing new. I seem  to remember 4 council members quitting before the end of their terms, in the past four years or so. The same amount have left Planning and Zoning Commission in about the same amount of time, and some of the quitters, whether council or PnZ, have circled back to try for another run at politics or a new appointment to PnZ.  Most of us “quitters” have or will excel in our chosen paths, and numerous people who asked me not to run told me my strength is in writing investigative reports about waste, abuse and government priorities versus citizen priorities.

The third candidate for mayor has been telephoned by some of my supporters, at my request,  so they could determine if he is qualified. Larry Neigel, (lawrenceneigel1947@gmail.com which is on his publicly available paperwork) is a Californian who served on a school board and as a police officer before moving into his home not far from Mayor Palguta’s two $1-million homes along Old Black Canyon Highway, near the Dewey election boundary. Larry impressed me and my supporters in our phone calls to him. And I promised to follow my supporters’ advice.

The caution here is that Palguta, with his 10,000  friends on Facebook, and a war chest that could be $30,000 will be unstoppable. We don’t do debates here, we do forums, so we might say that public sentiment will be shaped in those forums. Another caution I heard was that anyone can buy their way into any office in America. And Palguta is heard on two local radio stations on a regular basis – for free. That will change under Federal Communications Commission guidelines soon.

I am appreciative of all my supporters and their efforts, and am asking my supporters to back Larry Neigel in the election for  Mayor of Prescott Valley because of his experience and his persona – which is a gentleman – in stark contrast to the current mayor, and former wayward PV cop. I have carefully documented disciplinary letters the mayor received from his commanding officers, during the time Palguta was busted down from Sergeant to Corporal, under my open records request. [Note: the author has the documents in his possession and the staff at Prescott eNews has reviewed them.]

Many Prescott Valley residents had been asking me how Mayor Palguta was affording up to three $1 million homes, the opening of his Doge Construction Company – registered with Arizona Corporation Commission, the purchasing of two restaurants including one of the BBQ restaurants raided by immigration officials and charged with IRS violations, his real estate company, and other business dealings.

The mayor receives a salary of $1,000. Is $4,500 per month, total, enough to amass the empire? Maybe so.

My hope is that our electors here will study up on the election, especially council candidates because we have some that need to be replaced, and the council positions are as important as the mayor’s seat, especially in a town run by the town manager and not town council.

Inform yourselves, do your own homework and decide who is most qualified!