Why This Conversation Matters

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Hey everybody, Ryan Garland here, founder and chairman of Paradigm. I want to thank you guys for joining us today. As you know, I like to bring on very special guests. And to me, this is a very special guest. This is going to be a little bit of a shift in our strategy because most of my uh audience and my platform really knows I focus on really kind of the real estate development and educational piece, talk a little bit about my personal life and what have you, but we're gonna do something a little bit different. And the reason is is because since we are so invested here in Lake Havasoo, I think one of the most important things is to share with the audience, along with the community, where the city is going. And so today we are honored to have Cal Sheehe, our current mayor. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

And really what we're gonna do, and I want to just kind of start this out because I know a lot of people are gonna want to make sure that I'm not one sided or another, right? I think the really the main objective is for you to share a little bit about your story, what your vision is with the city, where you want to go. You know, you've been a part of uh the political environment for a long time. You kind of know where the bodies are buried, if you will. But I want really want the community to get to know you even further. And our audience is pretty big, and we spend the money to get this type of audio and podcast platform to be known. And because we have 200 million dollars in projects right here in Lake Havasu, I think it's really important that people understand why it is we continue to go that heavy in investments. So let's let's kind of dive right in.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Perfect. Share a little bit about your background, just kind of you know, where you came from, you know, how long you've been here, just an overall global overview of you.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Yeah, sure. So I'm uh a longtime Lake Havaso City resident. Uh, graduated from Lake Havasu High School. I started uh What year was that? It was 1998. Yeah. So my mom, I'm originally born in northern Michigan. Uh my mom decided after

Cal Sheehy’s Local Roots

SPEAKER_00 1:46

one winter that she just couldn't take that anymore. Sure. And she decided that she was gonna take us uh somewhere warmer. Uh, my grandparents moved to Lake Havasu in 1979, so it was perfect to move out here. So it's just the spot. It is, and it would be the place that she could be close to her mom. Sure. And so we moved out here in 1995, uh, my sophomore year of high school, uh finished high school. I uh decided I was gonna work at London Bridge Resort. And so I got a job there when I turned 16. Uh back in those days, you had to be 16 to get a job. Uh, just this year I've celebrated my 30th year working for Oh, congratulations. Yes, thank you. Started there as a housekeeper. Uh, then I worked bell service and then front desk and uh reservations and kind of all over the property.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

So you know you know every nook and cranny of that space.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Every nook and cranny. Yes. And then at the time I was graduating high school, the owner bought uh resorts all over the country. And so he sent me on the road to help set up the front office operations at the new resorts uh so they could come on board with the guidelines of his new resort company. And eventually he put me in charge of the Daytona Beach Regency in Daytona Beach, Florida. So I did that for about three or four years before he moved me back out here in 2004 to assume my current role as the vice president and general manager at Leonard Bridge Resort. Uh, but I'm motivated by community, I'm motivated by like Havasu. You know, this is my home. My family lives here. Um, I enjoy all the things like Havasu has to offer, uh the off-roading and uh going out on the lake and hiking. I also love the location. It's so close to Vegas and Scottsdale and Phoenix.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

And it's far enough away to get away. It is.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah, and you can really just see so many different things. And um, you know, I love the outdoors and love to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

So this this this community has just been wonderful to me, you know. For example, and just for my audience to know, you know, I've been I've really lived here, I think going on three years full-time. Um I've had houses here and there, but really kind of full-time the last three years. We kind of shifted our our um our strategy when the pandemic hit. I mean, things in California just really got different for us. And so as a firm and kind of what we're doing as far as how we're operating our business. And so we decided to kind of shift between here and and Nashville. And so, as you know, I go back and forth now 50% of my time or so is in Nashville. But, you know, I I've been coming out here my whole life. My father retired LA County Sheriff, he lives here as well. You know, my father and I are very close. My mom, my father actually raised me, so he's um him and I are close. And uh my son actually is working out behind us as we speak, so he's here, he met you. Yes, um, but uh it's been it's it's it's it's just got a special place, you know. And I raised all three of my kids coming out here, and and uh I fell in love with the community in the town, and there's just something very special about this place, hence the reason to have you on here. You know, I think it's important that everyone gets to see where you're taking this place, you know, and and so just a little background on me, but uh and why I'm so in love with it. You know, we just kind of my heart again is here and and uh you know, I just want to do everything I can to help the community as well. So I I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Okay, so let's I want to kind of go into some sort of um, I'm gonna go over to like some sort of what we call fact check, right? And I know some people want to hear some of those hard questions, right? Just get right to this. And I think it's important that people know kind of how we strategically put this together. So we utilize a lot of AI, we scrub every platform as you can imagine. That's the same data uh tracking

AI Fact Check On City Record

SPEAKER_03 4:52

system that we use for migration, investor uh spending habits, um, baby boomers, healthcare, um, you know, where the stock market's kind of going. We kind of foresee certain things before it happens, you know, some political environment uh adjustments and shifts where money's being moved to, private equity. We're very strategic in our business. So what we did is we implemented those practices to kind of get to know you a little bit more. And we're gonna do that with the other candidate as well. So we're gonna kind of just put it all on the table, just lay it on thick, right? So here we go. So, and I actually was kind of impressed. I'll be honest with you. I uh I was looking for um some more negativity because everything is negative for me on social media. If you go to like some of the other platforms, everyone says bad things about me, but it doesn't sound like you kind of have that reputation. So here we go. So I thought this was kind of neat. It said eight straight uh eight straight balanced budgets that was actually verified. So again, this is AI that we're pulling together to verify certain things that you've stated or uh um that you would highlight as a uh something that you've successfully been able to do, um, as as you know, mayor or being a part of the political system here in in Havasu. And so that was that was uh that was verified. It said first ever triple A credit rating, confirmed, 22 million in savings for uh from a bond refinance, confirmed 5.7 million return to taxpayers via IDD, particularly confirmed. So it says ultimately it's confirmed. No property tax rate increase, confirmed. No debt, confirmed. Chairman of Mojave County Water, confirmed 3.5 million state funding for second bridge, confirmed. Says construction to uh start in uh January of 27. Right now it's showing that you know that's what everything was mentioning and it kind of seems to be on track. Says design is 60% complete. There's nothing to verify that. We couldn't track that. Uh America's best communities, $2 million prize, confirmed. Uh Vision 2020 Citizens led Economic Plan, confirmed. Arizona Tourism Hall of Fame 2025, confirmed. And this is one thing I wanted to kind of you know bring it to your attention. This is the one thing that says unverified. It says hotel manager seeking a $355,000 taxpayer fund for some sort of state trust fund.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, so the uh channel bathrooms or the channel in Lake Havasu City is a really popular place for people to go. On the Western Bank, there are city-owned

The Channel Bathroom Funding Plan

SPEAKER_00 7:19

bathrooms. And in our CIP or our capital improvement plan with Lake Havasu City, we have money in the budget to do bathrooms on the eastern bank. So the mainland side.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

Yeah, by the bridge, the bridge side.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

And so the uh London Bridge Resort, which I manage, has a state lease or state uh trust land lease with the state of Arizona uh for the golf course portion. And so the resort is working in conjunction with uh Arizona State Trust Lands and the city to be able to dedicate a portion of that lease to put bathrooms in the channel using the money that we have allocated in our CIP budget.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Yeah, that would be definitely nice because I'm always when I when I come in I boat, I always go on the island side because the bathrooms are over there.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, you see the first things you get in the morning is you see all the boats lined up on the island side and right next to the restrooms. And so it'd be great to have it on the mainland side, but not only for the boaters, there's hundreds and hundreds of walkers that and runners and users of that trail system that want a bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

And I feel like that side's a little busier than the island side, it's just easier to get to for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

It is, you know, it connects from the London Bridge all the way through Rotary Park, and it's just a great, you know, couple mile loop for people to run or walk or connect with their family. So there's lots of users that use that area and really would like to have some nice bathrooms.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Yeah, let's move on to some bathrooms.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yes.

unknown 8:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

All right, Cal. So one of the things, too, that you know, a lot of people have presented to me, and there's so much negativity online, you know, about uh some of the things in your past. You know, a drag show, you know, this is the elephant in the room, but the the drag show that apparently took place, um, some of the things that have been said about you

Clearing The Drag Show Claims

SPEAKER_03 8:55

has been you've uh funded it, um, you supported it, you funded it, um, and that you were, you know, kind of uh allowing children to be a part of it or something of that nature. I don't know quite a bit. This is someone that asked me to ask, wanted me to ask you about it. Um, do you want to talk a little bit? Because I think that's one of the things that I've witnessed is that's the only real negative thing I've heard about you. And I, since we have you on the podcast, I want to give you the opportunity to speak on that, whether it's true or not true, but I think it is important for our community to know who our mayor is. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yeah, thank you for for that opportunity. So I'm gonna answer that question uh in in two ways, since I have two roles here. Uh so I'll start as the vice president and general manager of London Bridge Resort, and this is where it stems from. In 2021, uh, my sales team at the resort booked uh a drag show uh that uh did book a venue where we didn't produce it, we didn't host it. Basically, they booked a venue in our facility. Uh the show went off, uh, no issues, no feedback from the community. Uh the next year they rebooked. And at that time, uh the rhetoric uh from a national standpoint had shifted, and the community started to have some pushback uh because they marketed it the same way they marketed it the year before, which were all ages were welcome. Uh as soon as I learned that that was what uh the case was, uh, there was nothing in the contract that could prevent us from doing that. Uh, but we obviously understood the concern. Uh we took that concern and we were able to adjust the contract for subsequent years that you had to be 21 or older to be there. Uh, that was uh really the resort's uh perspective. The resort rents uh venue space for weddings and events and social gatherings. And it was just one of those areas. As soon as we got feedback from the community, we addressed it as best we could. Uh, from the city's perspective, uh, it was in a private venue. Um, it was not funded by like Havasu City. There was no local funding that occurred.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

Yeah, one of the questions, you know, someone wanted me to ask was uh there was controversy about you using city money to have that paid for or what have you, but it sounds like this was completely separate. I mean, this is not even, you had nothing to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah, no, I had nothing to do with actually on either side uh of it. I mean, it's not an event that Lake Havasu City would need to do an event permit for. Uh, we didn't use any uh Lake Havaso City funds to promote it or bring it here or try to recruit them here or attract them. Uh, none of those things uh that uh was completely separate. But from uh the perspective of the mayor's office, I support everybody's constitutional rights. And, you know, folks to have the opportunity for freedom of expression, freedom of speech. I'm going to uh support your constitutional rights, whether I agree with them or not. I'm always going to create those opportunities for all residents to enjoy their constitutional rights, which in this case, um, it's not unlawful to have a drag show. Uh, it is uh protected uh form of expression in the constitution, uh freedom of speech. Uh the city did not invest any money in that. Um, you know, I did have to, uh after that occurred, there was a really kind of a an uproar within our community where there was a point where uh a nationally syndicated podcast uh picked up the story um and you know called me a pedophile and uh and really was creating uh an unhealthy um situation for my family. It was not uh uh very safe. Uh we were getting death threats. And so, you know, I had to uh make moves to to get that content removed. I mean, that the those accusations uh completely false.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

In a small town like this, that's very right-leaning. Yeah, it's a whole other level. So harmful.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

And you know, the most of the threats weren't coming from local folks, they were coming from from people outside of the community. But, you know, that is such a heinous crime that you know, if that's on somebody's heart that you need to rid uh rid the world of of uh uh people that do crimes against children, and I'm being accused of that, it really puts my my family in a in a really hard safe um safety challenge. So, you know, we did um have to uh get that content removed, and so we had to get lawyers involved, but all that was paid for out of my pocket. None of that, no city dollars were used to to do that, but we successfully got the content down. Uh the allegations were completely false. Uh, but you know, we were we're we're just a venue at Underbridge Resort that rented a space and we got caught up in a culture war that we never intended to be a part of. Uh we never uh we were just trying to uh allow things to occur that that that people wanted to be a part of. Sure. Um, so you know, there and for my personal involvement, I have teams of folks that that do these things. You know, I I don't uh sell event space and I I don't I'm just not involved.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

So nice that you had no idea about it.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Not until it became an issue. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just I it's it just is I don't know I can see that yeah, what um if you know uh Mr. and Mrs. Smith are getting married this weekend, you know, I'm not involved until I hear from my sales team that Mr. and Mrs. Smith are getting married this weekend.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

So great.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Yeah, that was one thing that, you know, so controversial. Um, and just you know, a lot of that negativity that even I was seeing online. And I think that's just so important that you clear the air if that's the case, you know, um, and hear from you directly. And I don't know how much you've been able to uh you know share your side of the story. Um, but I will tell you that I've I've heard that same story that you just told me uh for a couple other sources too that are very close to the London Bridge Resort. Um, and uh and I thought that it was just something important that we we'd bring up because I again this is just asking the hard questions and getting everybody the ability to speak, just like you said the constitutional right.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah. So I appreciate it. Yeah, you know, the other uh challenge sometimes folks get is uh, you know, I don't own London Bridge Resort. I'm I'm an employee. So so I work for for the owner, but you know, I um serve at the pleasure uh of the owner. I'm an employee that uh goes to work just like anyone else goes to work every day. And and you know, so uh, you know, sometimes there's that false narrative that that I own the resort and I'm personally benefiting from from these types of activities that occur. I don't own it, I don't have a personal benefit from that perspective.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Well, perfect. Thank you very much for sharing that. All right, so let's move on to the next piece. Moved uh to uh Lake Cavasu from Michigan at 15. It says unverified. I think just ultimately it's hard to get the data from, you know, not saying you're old, but a hundred years ago. Sure, yes. Um, and then uh even it's uh it's very uh it's it's hard to verify your age. So believe it or not, I'm kind of surprised we can't grab that age. The other thing it did say and it was unverified is that you have an MBA for University of Phoenix.

Short-Term Rentals And Local Control

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yeah, I have a bachelor's in uh business marketing and also a master's in business administration, both from the University of Phoenix. Uh that was been 2007 was my bachelor's, and then 2009 was my master's. Uh, but back in those days, that was before all of the mainstream campuses were doing online programming. Uh, so there were very few options to have here in like Havasu. And it was before we had a lot of higher education opportunities, both online or in person. Uh, so I do have both a bachelor's and a master's from the university.

SPEAKER_03 15:51

Yeah, it's actually easier to verify. You actually have to pay to verify that though. You know, we we do that for when we employ people, we actually have to pay to verify their uh actual education. So that's one of the reasons why it's unable to scrub it. So it just doesn't have any real sources that verify, you know, what your educational level is or what college you run to. Okay, VPGM of London Bridge Resort, verified. Lake Havasu population, approximately 60,000. You just stated that in one of uh in probably one of your speeches, that's confirmed. STR reform failed for the fourth fourth consecutive year in 2026.

unknown 16:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

And it says it confirmed, but what's what's that mean ultimately?

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yes, those are short-term rentals. So uh in I in 2016, the state law changed where it uh preempted cities and towns from doing anything to manage short-term rentals within their communities. Subsequently, in different legislative sessions, we would get bills passed to help give cities and towns the tools to help manage short-term rentals. And we've been working for the last four years on one last component, and that's really to address the bad actors, you know, people that are just not managing their properties well and are impacting neighborhoods. We've been trying to get some additional tools and we were unsuccessful again this legislative session, but we're we're moving the needle and we're getting closer to the out opportunity to have uh local control. You know, I truly believe in local government and government closest to the people is the most effective. And this is just one more step on the short-term rentals for us to have that local control.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Yeah, good for you. Yeah, just to kind of give you an idea, we on the Barn Caves project that we're building, the majority of our buyers that are already kind of in line to pick those up, they were really worried about the STR stuff. That has been an unconversation piece for a long time on our side, you know. And I don't I won't go too far into it, but I can see where that's there's a lot of controversy on that. It's very hard to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah, you know, and short-term rentals has been something that like Havasu's had since the 1970s. We're we're not looking to get rid of it or change it. We're just looking to be able to allow the neighborhoods to be managed correctly so that everybody can have peaceful enjoyment of their property.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

So when people come out, they don't party and get crazy. And you know, I tell everybody all the time when you come out and you go drinking on the water, something's in the it's too hot to be drinking that much. You go home and people just party and beat up that stuff and piss off the neighbors. And I think that's really where all stems from.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Exactly. All we're trying to do is prevent a little bit of that so all the neighbors can get along.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

I would agree. You know, we we had a house out here and we did the short-term rentals, and it was it got to a point where it was too much for us to manage. You know, other other markets, it's really good, you know, in some cases, it depends on the environment, but out here it's really difficult. It's a it's a unique environment. Everything about Havas is unique, you know. It's just not it's just not normal like everything else. So um I can be the very first one to verify that on the development side, too. But uh, all right, thank you for for that answer. All right, we'll move on. So I actually thought this was really these next two. I I really appreciated this uh just personally. 20 million community health center, uh, 100 plus jobs, four operating rooms confirmed. I think that's a great thing for the city. 40% of the firefighters work uh workforce eligible to retire in 2025 and 2030. That was stated by the fire chief as well. Yes, and that's obviously a first responder, you know, my family. So I I they kind of close to my heart. So, okay, great. So those are some of the just the facts that we wanted to pull up, and I thought that was really um impressive, just to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

And I do want to just kind of state this again. This is more of a uh an interview, but I'm also not gonna pull punches. I'm gonna tell you how I what it what was close to me, because obviously I have a vested interest here. So if I see that you're doing great, I'm gonna say that's I love it. If I think it's crap, I'm gonna say it too, right? Just to be honest. Yeah. So okay, so let's talk about what everyone else wants to talk about, which is infrastructure. And I was uh in the city meeting last week, right? And uh was because we were getting looking for one of our projects to to um get approved. And uh lo and behold, we got pulled into the conversation about the budget, right? And really the infrastructure and the budget. And I I was uh I didn't know all of the things that were kind of going on, you know, in uh in the in the city, and it was

Infrastructure Planning Without New Debt

SPEAKER_03 19:35

kind of uh a big uh eye-opener for me. Um we're gonna talk about water, we're gonna talk about the airport, we talk about that. Let's just talk about kind of the infrastructure just of Lake Havaso, you can give a little background, kind of what you see as being a problem and what we're doing to try to fix it. And then we'll just drill down into the weeds on that. But I just want you to kind of give a little global overview and then we'll just kind of drill down as we go.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Sure. Yeah. So Lake Havasu City is actually a fairly young community. Uh we incorporated in 1978. Uh, we're a master planned community, but we've built out our infrastructure. So our sewer capacity is is outbuilt. So we have plenty of capacity when it comes to sewer. We have plenty of capacity when it comes to water. Uh, we obviously have road networks and we maintain them. And so we have a variety of uh infrastructure projects and we have some new development that's coming to our community. And when that new development comes, you know, through negotiations and development agreements, uh we have growth pays for growth. So the developer would pay for the cost that it would take or the impact that they may have to that particular neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Uh, and so whether that be a traffic light or sizing up your piping or whatever that might be on a particular project, we'll have those discussions and negotiate that with uh a development agreement that would be approved by the city council. Uh, but we've also invested over the last uh couple of years $20 million in road improvements. But not only are we doing the road improvements that you see, we're also going underground and doing water main replacements. Uh, we're also having all of the other utilities uh that might have uh utilities under the roadway come in and say, hey, this is the opportunity. The road's gonna be up. If you have to do any capital work, now's the time. Sure. Uh we just passed an ordinance last year that says if you need to cut into one of our brand new roads, there's going to be a penalty to disincentivize you from doing that. Uh, from a brand new road all the way up to its fifth year in service, uh, there is a penalty to cut into that. That incentivizes the other utilities to come in and make sure that they do their capital improvements when we have the roadway up. And if they can't do that, then they have to do compaction testing, they have to pay that uh fee. And it really is to try to uh disincentivize them from cutting into the road and then impacting the road network.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

So standard practices for the most part. Yeah, we're doing all the do you want to save money? You should save it now, not later. Exactly. Try to, because it's going to cost more later. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Yeah, we're so we're doing all the right things, making the right investments. Uh the other thing we're doing is we're we're paying cash for it. And uh as we go, so we have a plan in place and we're executing. That plan. And as you mentioned earlier, we have had no tax rate increases. Uh, we have no debt financing. Uh, so we're doing all of this through uh methodical planning and using taxpayer resources wisely so that we can invest not only in infrastructure, but all of the other services that we are providing to our citizens and the services that our residents are asking for from parks and recreation, uh, water, wastewater services, uh, legal services, our police and fire. I mean, we have so many different services that we're offering. And so we have to balance all of the needs of our community with the resources that we have and find that equilibrium. And I think we've done a really good job doing that.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Yeah, you know, and I was, I was, you know, I was trying to catch up, you know, in some of that uh that hearing. So you let you know, I'll kind of drill down into it because I know this is some of the controversial side of things. You know, a couple of council members, I'm not gonna name names, but they had concerns about, you know, the water lines and some of the waterways in essence, but mostly the water lines, underground water pipes. What do you what what you know they were they were saying that there's not enough money in the budget to start repairing some of that. Do you want to address that here? What's your what's your objective? And how how are meaning like how are you going to address that? And is it even an issue?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah. So uh obviously we always want to make sure that uh fresh potable water is delivered to our homes and businesses, and we need to have it reliable. So the work that we've done uh during my time as mayor is we've built water redundancy. We only had one well when I first became mayor. We now have multiple well fields, so we have multiple sources that we're able to pull our Colorado River entitlement up for. Uh, we also have uh invested in water main replacements. So uh through the rates study that we did on our current rate structure for water and wastewater, we built in these capital improvement plans. So uh three years ago we did three million. Uh two years ago we did two million, three million as well. Uh this budget year we have four and a half million. And so that we have already pre-programmed in what the needs are going to be.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

So you've already, in essence, have forecasted based on third-party studies what that infrastructure replacement plan really looks like. Yes. Got it. Yes. Okay, that's important to know.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

It's very important. And then you'll you'll hear others say that you know it's not enough or that there's water mains breaking every day. We do have a maintenance budget and we have a maintenance plan as well. I mean, things, things happen. And, you know, when your home is 20 years old, you don't go re-plumb the entire home just because it's 20 years old. Right. But you bring out a professional, you assess what it's going to be, and then you make a plan to make sure that the infrastructure in your home is properly maintained. We do the same thing with the city, and the city has so many talented and dedicated team members that are experts in their field, and they have gone through and they have made these assessments, and this is what they do every single day. Um, and they've assessed where where the needs are. Um, when it comes to water, we're a gravity-fed system. And so there's lots of pressures in in our system because it's a gravity-fed system. Uh, and so we are going to have uh a number of breaks, but we understand what that is, we monitor it, and then we also uh plan for the replacement based on that, the age and whatever the material is.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

So I can I can kind of talk firsthand because you know, during our hearing, we were looking for approval on one of our projects. You know, you guys, and this is earlier on when we had a pre-app meeting, one of the a couple of uh pieces of that conversation was uh putting in a streetlight, right? And uh, and of course, I'm always gonna say, I don't want to spend the money, right? But uh the traffic study warranted it and I was okay with it. I did budget it prior to go even buying the property. I had expected that, and we had kind of got word that the old traffic study did warrant a streetlight there. Um and so, or a stoplight. So we we uh we budgeted that, but during the conversation, you know, we you know, during that hearing we were listening to some of the other concerns about the water lines uh, you know, around and adjacent to our property. And Public Sports Gentleman, you know, came up and said, look, you know, based on our studies, it didn't warrant, you know, any uh upgrades or updates or any of that stuff to the water lines around the property. So what I took my takeaway for that is, you know, if the studies are there, you know, there's there's no point to just start tearing up something that's good, you know, thinking it's bad. If the studies are there and it's good and it's still fine, then you know, allocate some some funds otherwise, you know, other places because there's always places you could, you know, fix and do things. It's never gonna end. You know, as a city grows, you're gonna have old infrastructure, you're gonna have to do that. I did appreciate that, uh, that the Publix Works, uh, I think it was uh I forget the gentleman's name, but he popped up there and said, hey, look, this is you know, we're we're good. We did our homework.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

And that that says a lot about just kind of the the calculation uh between I would say more the pedigree of the building department. I think that's really good that they're they're getting in on that. So uh did you want to share anything on that?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Yeah, no, it's you know, infrastructure is important. We're focused on it. We have a plan, we've been executing the plan and we'll continue to invest in infrastructure to ensure that the needs of our residents are met.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

Yeah, no, I love it. Okay, so you know, water, let's talk about just water overall. You know, one of the biggest concerns is just uh the Colorado River. You know, let's talk about that because there's so much, you know, stuff online that you don't know what you can, you know, you can you can trust. And obviously, you know, where you sit currently, you're gonna, I think, know more than anybody else. So where are we at with water levels? Is there concerns from a state level? You know, what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah, so you know, when it comes to water, we only have

Colorado River Risk And Water Security

SPEAKER_00 27:13

one source, which is Colorado River water. And so there's not a day that goes by that you can't uh see a news story on the state of the river. There's a couple of different components. There's the hydrology of the river, but the it's just not producing as much as has been allocated, uh, both in the upper basin and the lower basin. Uh, and then there's also the needs of of growth along both of those basins. The way that uh the law of the river was crafted and created is each state kind of works um in conjunction. So the regionality is based on the state. So the state of Arizona, state of California, state of Nevada, they make up the lower basin. Uh, and then the upper basin states work um from their state perspective, and then they work on the upper basin. And you're supposed to have uh seven and a half million acre feet of water um allocated to the upper basin as well as the lower basin, but the river's not producing 15 million. Um, and so that's really one of the biggest challenges. And what is occurring right now is the post-2026 guidelines. So the interim operating guidelines expire at the end of this water year. And that's the negotiation that's occurring. Uh, we have the lower basin is is in unison, uh, and then the upper basin is in unison, but the upper and lower basin are are far apart from each other.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

Yeah, because it's you're talking about California, Arizona in essence.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah, so California, Arizona, and Nevada, we're we're in lockstep. It's uh, and then uh Wyoming, uh New Mexico, uh, Utah, and Colorado, they're in lockstep, but the upper basin is far away from the lower basin. And so that's really where the discussion is right now. Uh and those are the discussions that we're having. The federal government does have the ability to make the call um as uh the uh Secretary of the Interior as the water master can tell us how we're going to operate. All of the scenarios that they've presented are not good for Arizona, and so we do need to have uh a negotiated deal among the states. Uh, the federal government prefers it's among the states. The states prefer it's among the states, and it would be great if we could stay out of court and uh you know and just get it get it done. And so for Lake Havasu City, though, specifically, we have enough water allocations uh for uh uh well, we have 29,500 acre feet of water allocated. So we purchase those allocations, though that's what our water uh rights uh entail, and we're using about 16 16,500 acre feet. So just a little more than half of our water entitlements we're currently using. But what we're doing is we're shifting the conversation to ensure that the on-water users, so the the the folks that only have access to the Colorado River water, because the water table is so close, no groundwater is available to us. We have no no augmentation.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Uh Lake Havasu City has been a leader in water conservation. Uh, we've accomplished that through a really engaged residence base, um, a rate uh strategy on uh to conserve water, and then also turf abatement programs and and the like. So we're actually using less water today with a much greater population than we were in the 1990s. Wow. So we we can't be penalized for that, though. And that's what's that is what the potential uh downfall is, is that we have done such a great job of water conservation that we don't have a lot of low-hanging fruit for us to be able to address or conserve our way out of it.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

We're not the big concern. There's other bigger concerns. Correct. Got it. Yes. Would do you feel that uh there'll be, you know, let's say uh the bleeding hasn't started too much. I know there's some big concerns. Obviously, there's studies that are done. I've kind of seen them as well. Do you feel that there will be this will be a fight or a battle, or do you feel that there will be a solution if if everyone pulls together? Do you feel like the energy is more positive than negative?

SPEAKER_00 30:53

I feel that the potential for the energy to be more positive is there. I think everyone understands what's at stake and what we have to do. I believe everyone wants to do what is in the best interest of of the system and the hydrology and f and for their respective states and their regions. So I believe that we have all of the right uh components to get there. We're just not there yet, uh, but I do believe that we will we will find success in a way that works for all the water users um along the system. Um it's gonna be difficult to get there, but I am confident that we'll get there.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

And that's ever easy, is it? No, it's not. No, no, no, no, you're probably sitting on some, you're probably sitting in on a lot of those conversations. And so I really wanted to bring that up because again, that's a big concern. It's one of my concerns too. Yes. You know, and I figured uh, you know, there's nobody better related to ASCII. So um, you know, based on some of the conversations and studies that I've seen and read, you know, I was, you know, that there's plenty of water for the next 10, 15 years, uh, given, you know, kind of this this momentum of how much is coming in compared to going and being spent in essence burned. Um, it seems like things are holding up, but we kind of need to get some grace and maybe some weather grace or, you know, or maybe obviously the federal government's gonna have to step in here. Um, but that is something that I from what I was seeing, it seemed like it was okay, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah, there's there are solutions out there, and there's other alternative water augmentation for other communities, you know, just not beyond river communities. And that's why we're so concerned with making sure we protect our water security and our water future, because we don't have other options. Yeah. And so um, I do think that there's gonna be a solution. Um, I do think that the hydrology um is changed. We need to realize it's changed, um, allocate accordingly. So there's lots of different components that we can take into um account to ensure that not just like Havaso City has water security, but the entire basin um has water security.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

Yep. Okay, great. That's perfect. We'll move it on because we don't want to be too long, right? Okay, so let's talk about the uh the bridge, you know. So let's talk about that and kind of where you guys are on the design. I mean, obviously I I read those facts, but where you guys stand with it.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Yeah, so it's moving right along. We're uh, as you had mentioned earlier, we got $35.5 million in direct appropriation from the state of Arizona. Uh we had Representative Biasucci leading the way uh with Representative Cobb

Second Bridge Timeline And Route

SPEAKER_00 33:06

and Gillette helping and uh Senator Borelli assisting to get that allocation to Lake Avisous City. Uh, we have the money in the bank, earning interest. Uh, so that's also earning additional money that we'll be able to put towards the project. Uh, but we are uh nearing our um 100% design uh plans. Uh hopefully by the end of the summer, uh we'll then be able to get the uh process in for permitting, and then we'll start the bridge, you know, hopefully uh January of 2027, uh winter of 2027, uh be able to start building that bridge.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

So for those of you uh that are you know listening, you want to just share a little bit about the location of that bridge?

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Sure, yeah. So uh obviously Lake Havasu City is known for the iconic world-famous London Bridge. Uh our founder of our community, Mr. McCulloch, uh, brought that to Lake Havasu City in 1972, really put us on the map. And uh it truly is the London Bridge for that was sinking in the river uh Thames that you uh may have heard the nursery rhyme growing up. Yep. Uh so it uh all the way in the 1970s when Mr. McCulloch was building that bridge, there was always discussions that we were gonna need a second bridge. And so there's lots of iterations over the years, and uh finally we were able to uh come together as a group and and really work to be able to get that appropriation. Uh, we now have that money, and the bridge is gonna go just um adjacent. So the London Bridge um and its current area and the Bridgewater Channel. If you go just a little bit north, uh next to the Kingsview Condos um at uh the Lake Havasu State Park, um, it'll go right across the channel at that area. It then will run parallel to Crazy Horse Campground, and then it'll it'll um uh the road network will go right on to McCulloch and Beachcomer on the island.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Got it. Yes, perfect. Yeah, I've seen some uh some plans and renderings. I was I was uh kind of excited. I felt like it was I I don't live on the on the island, but I figured like that would be great for you know the residents and and the visitors to be able to have a second way in and out. Absolutely. So, and even for safety too. Yes, you know, so I thought that was great. Okay, cool. So that's that was one of the things that I've I've I've had uh several people ask me hey, make sure you ask Cal about the bridge. We want to know what's really going on, you know, that type of thing. Okay, one of the other uh you know requests was uh kind of just supporting downtown the growth, kind of the uh try to beautify that whole area, you know. Tell us a little bit about if Zura plan, what you got going on, kind of what's your hopes and dreams for that place?

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Sure. So so much work has already been done. And so that sometimes we forget to celebrate the successes that we've had. Uh we're just getting ready and finishing

Downtown Revitalization And Main Street Commons

SPEAKER_00 35:32

uh the Main Street Commons, which is a downtown gathering space um at Quario McCulloch. Uh, it's an area that we can do events. Uh First Fridays occur down there uh during Desert Storm, that's the kind of the hub of Desert Storm. So lots of great areas for a multi-use um public gathering place, which is a huge investment that was made. Uh there's reports that it's over budget and it uh um is uh uh not not a great investment downtown. But for every dollar, every public dollar you invest in a downtown area, the private um investment that will follow it um is is over um overwhelming in support of a downtown area. So I'm proud that we were able to create this downtown gathering space. Um it's been used by by hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people of uh events uh over this last uh winter and it wasn't even complete yet. Uh so now that it's uh complete, uh we'll be um seeing more people and gathering there, which then also allows them to go use the shops and the eateries and the pubs. And if we look back uh 15 years ago, uh downtown was a place that you would drive down, you'd park your car in front of the business you were gonna go to, go in, do your business, come back out, get in the car, and then move to another spot and park in front of that business. Uh, now our downtown is a much more walkable space where it's an entertainment hub where you can go to different uh bars and restaurants and pubs, um eateries, uh, attend events, go to um specialty shopping boutiques. There's a lot of more, a lot more things that you can actually park your car once, walk the downtown and and spend money, have a great time and gather. So my vision is to continue that, uh, continue with uh the beautification of the downtown area when it comes to facades and uh development in uh some of the um open parcels so that it continues to be a place that people want to gather and a place that people want to have connectivity as a community. Uh, and we're seeing the results of the work we've already done. Um, and uh it really is quite an amazing transformation of when you take uh uh a step back and look where we've come where we've gone or where we've come from to where we're going, um, just to see that continued progress work is gonna be uh an amazing area for our downtown area.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Yeah, and I've you know, I'm obviously tracking all the growth there. And without going into what I'm building over there, you know, it just looks like uh it looks like to me it's growing. Obviously, I've been coming out here for a year. So every time I drive by this place, and even before I moved out here, I, oh, there's a new place, there's a new place. And there was more the life, the nightlife was starting to become bigger and bigger. Now it's like the spot to go to during the weekend, you know. And there's some really nice restaurants, some really nice, it's that's the one thing we've always talked about out here is that we wish there was more restaurants, you know. And I'm you're starting to see some pop up here and there, and some existing restaurants are expanding, and you're starting to see that, which is amazing because that's like the one thing I think most people always talk about is we just want more restaurants.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

And there's a lot more going on downtown. So I just encourage everybody, give it a couple more years. I think it'll be to a point where you don't know which where where to go.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Yeah, there's and you know, believe it or not, we generally might go just the same five restaurants that might be on our list, but we have so many restaurant options in Lake Havasu that uh so many great local families have invested their their time and energy to build these great restaurants. And um, I would encourage residents to you know go grab the the dining guide from Go Lake Havasu's visitor center and pick a new place when you're gonna go next time. Take a look.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

Yeah, because there's so many great places, or even Google it. People are getting more sophisticated on the uh on social media and then even you know through like Google and so forth. So a lot of stuff's popping up. It's actually pretty impressive. I mean, you know, us, we're we're heavy on marketing, and I'm seeing a lot more. You know what I would say I like the most about just some of the things that are coming in. It's just there's a lot of people that are moving here that are, you know, it's funny, they'll they'll come out thinking they're gonna retire, but then they don't want to retire, but they see a need and they're like, I've been doing this for 30 years. I can just pop something up here and have a little restaurant or what have you. And you're seeing, you know, um business growth here, and that's impressive. Yes, it is. You know, you're seeing small regional banks pop up, which is important, right? You don't want to see them closing down, you want to see them coming into town.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

So that just kind of tells you that more wealth is coming into town as people are migrating and moving here for retirement, they're gonna be focused on where they're parking their wealth. And if they're moving here to retire, that means they believe in it, and that means they're gonna move their money here. So I'm watching a lot of those depositors as well. So long, I won't go too far into my my what I'm what I'm doing or what have you, but I'm just love seeing the growth, and I think that'd be great for the downtown area, of course. So, and you know what I'm building over there. So it's gonna be uh it's gonna be great. Okay, so tourism. Let's talk a little bit about tourism, revenues, uh, how many people are coming in. I uh I always tell everybody that we're I think the majority of our uh cities making a lot of the money is is through uh snowbirds. Some people look at Havasu or think of Havasu as the boating, party scene. It's not really that anymore. You know, you yes, you have that, but that's not really where the money's made.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

No, you know, when we've uh uh been fortunate

Tourism Revenue And A Year-Round Economy

SPEAKER_00 40:19

that we now are a year-round tourism destination. So people come for all sorts of different activities and events throughout uh the cooler months and into the winter. And then in the summer, we have you know boaters and families and recreational users. But if you go to the Main Street area that we talked about just a few minutes ago, you will hear how um slow the summer is uh from business after business after business. So it's very difficult for them to be able to uh continue to operate through the summer. But then winter comes and we have our winter visitors and and all of the folks that want to get away from the cold country uh come and enjoy the great weather we have here. Um and it just changes. And so um, you know, it's uh tourism is very important. It's been the uh backbone of our economy since Mr. McCulloch first came here. Uh, that's actually what brought him here. Uh site six on the island was a respite center for uh World War II as well. Wow, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Yeah, that's I heard that I heard they were bringing in some sort of uh artifact though. Did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Yeah, the USS Arizona. There we go. Yeah, so we have a uh a relic, a piece of the USS Arizona that was bombed in Pearl Harbor. Yeah, um, is is here in Lake Havasu. Oh, cool. It was uh given by the Department of Navy to the Marine Corps League Detachment 757, and we're building uh a monument for it right now. I heard about that. Letterbridge beach. If uh you're out in the channel area, take a look. It's it's amazing. It's going to be uh uh the style of Washington, DC, where it's it's gonna be very impressive. It's gonna name all 1,177 uh uh service members that passed away during the bombing.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

It's gonna be a great deal.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Huge.

SPEAKER_03 41:53

And this is our this is you know a big military you know area. Yeah, so that's really cool to see that.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

I didn't know that. Yeah, you know, and our our roots date back to it with again site six being that uh respite center for World War II. And yeah, uh so tourism uh has always been the uh gateway for economic development. Sure. You know, people come, they visit, you shared your story about just what a special place like Havasu City is, and and visitors get that experience time and time again, go home and say, Hey, I am I'm moving there. There's something special about that place, and they're gonna invest and move their business here, relocate their family here. Uh, so tourism is that gateway, uh, but it also allows us from um a municipal standpoint is we're importing new dollars. So we're able to do things in our community using sales tax collections from the visitors that come here. And so we're able to keep our tax base low for our residents that live here because we're able to augment it through tourism. Sometimes I I hear people say, you know, we just focus on tourism, and and I I think they hear those words, but we don't invest any money in tourism. We're we're in importing that money that our visitors are bringing us, and then we're able to pay for our police and fire and parks and roads and all of the things that we want without having to use local tax dollars or raise taxes of the residents that live here.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

So the marketing's word of mouth.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Yes, it absolutely is, and then they uh get to be engaged with the great experience that they receive before they visit here.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

I've had I I couldn't tell you how many people that I've I've got out here or hosted that have never been here that are like, I can understand why this is a very special place, and several of them that have moved here in the last couple of years and it because of it or had a second home or what have you. But it's been it's yeah, it's uh if you if anybody that's listening hasn't been here, you're uh you're missing out. You need to come and visit. You'll understand why.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Yeah, our visitor study when we did it the first time we were working with a consultant, and the number one reason why people chose like Havasu was the people, and they they were so blown away by that.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

You you know it's funny, it's that is so true. You know, I talk about even when I go to Nashville, one of the things I love is just the people. And it's a small town in some parts of Nashville, and and uh and that's how I feel when I'm here. And I am really, I I really have met some of the amazing people here in Lake Avasu. And I just feel that uh there's a lot more authenticity here, um, especially in some of the business side of things, at least the people I'm doing business with, is there's been there's been uh it's been uh fruitful for us. And that's why I think we just want to stick around. It's like it's a concept, you just want to be around good people. Yes. You know, you get tired of putting on the mask, you know, which is a uh a segment of ours. And you know, you get to a point where you know it's life's tough enough. If you can be around good people and everybody's kind of in the same lane with the same mindset, that's what you're gonna get when you come out here. Yeah, I love it. Okay, so uh tourism, revenue. This do you do you know numbers on revenue? How many people are coming out here? What are your what uh what do those numbers look like?

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Sure. Yes, we have about a million visitors a year that come to Lake Avisu uh over on an annual basis. Uh the London Bridge is the number two tourist attraction uh in the state of Arizona outside of the city.

SPEAKER_03 44:48

I don't see any Asians with uh cameras around their neck anymore.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Oh, you know, it uh they they might make their way back out.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

I see them every once in a while, three years back.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yeah, those uh bus routes, uh the tour buses are uh they change their routes all the time. But uh yeah, so we um have over 6,000 people are uh directly and indirectly employed by tourism. Uh we generate on uh sales tax perspective uh just on our 1% uh food and beverage tax and our 3% bed tax about $4.2 million a year. Uh that's on top of the 2% city sales tax that visitors may be paying. So it's a significant impact to like Havasu City and allows us that ability to um have uh really great experiences. So the quality of life for our residents, uh, we get to enjoy all of the services we have today with a low tax rate, but we also have a ton of restaurants. Again, many people only choose the same five to go to, but there's so many options that they can.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

There's a lot more, more than I thought there was just recently, too. Yeah, there's trying to figure that out. A whole bunch of them.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Uh then we also have these really amazing events that you can choose to go to or not choose to go to. I mean, every weekend there's something going on in Lake Avasu. That's true. And it's supported by not only our our residents, but also visitors. But without the visitor component, the opportunities would not be there for our residents to enjoy um the events that we have. So uh, you know, tourism does play a vital role in our economy. It also plays a vital role in the quality of life that our residents are able to uh get. And then it also um has a fiscal impact to our residents as well.

SPEAKER_03 46:17

What do you think the what do what do uh what's our migration look like as well? How many people do you are you seeing move here per year?

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Yeah, so our growth rate right now in our uh citizen-led general plan that was just approved uh this year, it'll go to the voters in November for ratification, uh, anticipates our growth rate between seven-tenths and one percent. So

Housing Supply And Pro-Business Growth

SPEAKER_00 46:37

it seems like we have a a lot a lot of growth, a lot of influx, but the actual growth rate has been uh very moderate. Yeah, um, it's been very sustained and something that we've been able to react to. So the plans that we talked about earlier were able to actually execute plans and put plans in place to ensure that the growth um it minimally impacts our current residents, but uh certainly does not impact them negatively from a financial standpoint, uh, where again growth is paying for growth and that is not on the backs of our taxpayers.

SPEAKER_03 47:07

Got it. Well, as far as the uh from a development revenue too, I mean, uh we don't need to talk about percentages as far as what's generated in revenue between tourism and uh and uh development, but uh, you know, what what are you foreseeing as far as I mean, maybe there's a lot of permits being pulled for building. I mean, there is a lot, and and you know, I was obviously, you know, one of my you know really good friends is a big broker here, and he's just moving moving units like you're crazy. I mean, people have moved out here to build their real estate business because there's just so many trades. You know, what's uh what do you what do you foresee on uh you know continued development? I don't see it slowing down my personally anytime soon. Um, yeah, what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 47:44

Yeah, so you know, like Havasu City is uniquely positioned, uh surrounded by federal lands, uh, state trust lands, and then we also have uh wildlife refuge as well. So we um have uh a limited amount of uh land within the city limits. Now, in the outskirts, there's some additional land that's still available uh beyond what we have available in like Havasu. But we're uh very pro-business, uh, we're very um open to doing business, uh, we're easy to do business with. Uh, so we'll continue to have that type of relationship where people want to do business with like Havasu City. Uh, the way that I look at it is that uh the more housing opportunities that we have available for our residents creates opportunities for our residents to make choices. It stabilizes the pricing and then gives our uh citizens the opportunity to make a choice that works best for their families. So, you know, not everyone's gonna want to live in a condo or an apartment. Um, and not everyone wants to live in um a single-family residential home or residential estates. I mean so there's there's options for everybody. Um, and as we have uh more units come online, it then creates additional opportunities where you know, whoever's moving from where they're at now into one of the new spaces now that frees up uh a dwelling there for a potential family or resident. So um, you know, I think we have a good environment for development, but um again, we're uh been fortunate to have developers that are either born and raised in like Avisoo City or came to like Havasu City and understand the importance of of paying their own way for sure and and and balancing what they're bringing to the community with what the community already is. Yep. Um and so we've been fortunate for that, and I I foresee that to continue to occur.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:23

Um, you know, I I say all of those things, but you don't just happen by Lake Havasu. I mean, you have to make a plan to come here. And uh and so people that are choosing to do business in Lake Havasu City want to be here. Yeah, just like the residents that chose to live here uh want to be here as well.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

Yeah, I agree. I I don't I don't foresee it slowing down anytime. So now I have, you know, uh, you know, people that are, you know, coming out here just to kind of do the lake life or snowbird life, they're you know, thinking about opening up a plumbing business here or trying to expand their business from California here. You know, you're just seeing a lot of growth and and those relationships are monetizing quite a bit. So it just seems that uh a lot of other trades are seeing the growth and the ability to still grow. And these are some sophisticated guys, you know, these guys have you know $100 million companies and they're sitting out there going, hey, I can probably expand out there in Lake Havasu. That's how much you guys really have going on. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

And it really is, and we could use help in all of those areas, you know, um veterinarians, uh doctors, um, the trades, so plumbing, HVAC, electrical, I mean, all of those things we have a market for for folks to come into. We have great local contractors already, but uh we we do have demand that uh definitely could be uh utilized if we had more services to offer to our residents.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

You know, the only thing is hard is getting uh logistics, cost of logistics, getting your your uh your materials out here. It's a little more expensive than most uh most places, but it is it is what it is. You got a budget for it, right? You gotta be uh be smart about it. Okay, so let's move on to the next because I I want to try to keep you in there that in that hour, but we may go a little longer because this conversation seems to be going on the right track. Um, okay, so let's talk about uh healthcare. You know, obviously that's uh every boomer's uh focus here coming up. Uh cost of living, taxes, healthcare. Let's start let's talk about uh health healthcare, what's kind of going on here. By the way, um I didn't get a chance to talk to the owner of the mall and that uh surgery center. Do you have any information on what happened with that fire?

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Yeah, so

Healthcare Expansion And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 51:17

the fire uh that occurred this weekend uh did impact operations. Uh so they're working through uh through that now. Um the our fire department was able to handle it uh very quickly. Um no one was hurt um uh from the for the first responders or on the property. Uh and so they're working through it. And our um certainly our thoughts go out to them because they have a huge investment out there that um has been impacted for it.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

But yeah, that was a that's a heck of a surgery center. I went through it, but right when he completed it, and I was really impressed what kind of technology was in there. That made me open my eyes even further about what's going on here and the growth of Havisu. But that type of technology in healthcare was a huge factor as to why I'm continuing to move forward on what I'm doing here.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

Yes, no, they they've done a great job expanding uh that surgery center out there. Uh, we're hopeful they're gonna get it back online fairly quickly and can get back up and running. But, you know, healthcare is a concern uh around the nation to ensure that uh residents in any community has it have access to good quality care uh that's timely. And uh that is a struggle for not only our community, but others. Uh, some of the successes that we've had is we worked with the VA and they were able to expand from a 5,500 square foot uh facility to a 23,000 square foot facility here in like Havasu City in the last couple of years that now uh brings additional specialties. So our veterans now have access to more care through the VA. That's important. So important. Very important. Yeah. And uh the slots that they may have been taking at other medical providers in our community now have opened up for other residents to be able to use those spots, uh, slots as the veterans are using the VA uh more because they have more opportunity. Sure. Uh the hospital um has really done a good job over the years of pivoting uh based on the needs of what our residents have. Uh so we have you know a great cath lab. Uh, we're able to do um, you know, good work when it comes to uh knee replacements and and uh um orthopedics and and the like. Uh the surgery center that we just talked about at Convergence Health out at the mall. Um, those are all been investments, private investments, um, uh with the exception of the VA, that that's public. But uh uh the others are private investments of people investing in our community uh on the the healthcare front. But there's still more to do. So uh we need to attract uh you know more providers, we need to attract uh more options for our residents. Um and as we're seeing the some of the growth and some of the shift that that we talked about earlier, uh we'll be able to start attracting it. But when when we look at healthcare professionals, they have to choose to want to live in a community. And they're gonna choose a community that is dynamic and vibrant and has opportunities for their family. Um so it's a great partnership with the educational opportunities within a community, the quality of life opportunities, um, the temperament of a community. Uh so that's a full package for them to say, yes, I'm gonna move here and I'm gonna invest here because you know, any of those providers uh would make a really great living in like Havaso City because the need is so great. Right. But all of those other factors have to align as well.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

Yeah, and there's and you know, so and I appreciate you sharing that with us. I I and I'm just gonna get right into it. You know, we hear kind of on the other side of the coin is this healthcare is not as good here, but there's they're focusing on it, which is always important because you know, to be candid, we can always talk about, you know, anything really that's not great. And there's always room for improvement, you know. Um, I haven't we I haven't experienced anything on a negative side. My family's been taken care of since they've been here. Um, I haven't seen or met somebody that's had a really bad experience. You just kind of hear the the drama. So sometimes you don't ever really, you know, just trust what you hear, right? Kind of thing. Uh we we a lot of people say bad things about good people, and you're like, hey, that's not true, you know. But um, you know, I haven't, I I think healthcare is always kind of a growing feature that we always uh always want to see uh becoming a part of uh the growth of any uh you know city. It's just the way the world is going. It is an absolute need. You know, fastest growing industry um in the uh in the world, just given the baby boomers and the retirement and kind of how large that generation is. Um when I was in, and I'll share a little story on this, just kind of break it up a little bit, but when I I was in, when I moved uh to Nashville um in 2020, I really learned about the startup capital being deployed into Nashville for more startup capital, uh, sorry, for startups for uh healthcare. So a lot of stuff for um pharmaceuticals down to uh uh medical devices, uh technology software, systems compliance, right? The whole nine yards, but there's more capital getting dumped into medical technology than ever before. And how and uh Nashville was a hub of that. So I've had just random meetings, you know, kind of sitting at the bar, having a nice dinner, and ended up sitting down to a CEO of a uh a healthcare uh provider and or some sort of CEO of a of a medical device company that's there for an event or a convention. And we dive into what they're what they're doing, all the way down to stuff that's like, you know, if you have an like you have an injury, it kind of looks like skin that goes over the skin and kind of, you know, you know, kind of recovers your skin quite a bit, all the way down to burn victims. I mean, just some crazy technology that you would, it's like stuff that you'd see in like G.I. Joe back in the day kind of thing, you know? But those are what's what's wild is that throughout through some of my conversations with some of the physicians here and some of the new um, I would say some of the guys that are just coming out of college or they're looking at more of the holistic side, uh holistic side of health. They're coming out here and they're moving out here or opening having second homes here because they love being here, but they're they're like they're looking at bringing that technology and some of that spin into the city, which I think is great. And what his folk what some of these uh they're focused on was the what it cost to get um um care. I loved that. You know, one of the big things that I think some of these startups have focused on is the cost of care. And as we all know, when you retire, you're on a budget. Yes. And you know, cost of living has gone up across the board. So for these types of, I'd say the pedigree of uh those providers or that someone providing that type of service coming into the city to try to focus on cost for care, I thought was a really cool thing to make it like a focal point. You know, and so we're seeing a lot of you know, guys came out to us, hey, you know, we're looking for a building out here. This is what we're gonna do. We don't want anybody to know about it, but there is there a building available or connect us to your broker. You know, so there's some stuff going on, you know. I uh I haven't really shared a lot about it, but I'm seeing some uh some uh groups that are just very very focused on that side of things that are really looking at moving uh or opening up a practice here.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

That's amazing. Yeah, the more opportunity we can get and the technological advances that we're gonna see just in the next two years, five years, and ten years in the medical field uh will drive down costs and increase accessibility. And that's needed all across the nation.

SPEAKER_03 57:51

Yeah, but uh to be able to see little old Lake Havasu starting to get that type of energy though, I that's what I love about it is because everyone looks at Havasu as kind of like you know, they don't have a lot or you know, they're they're missing this or missing that. But you're when you look in deeper, if it's not here yet, it's about to. You know, that kind of thing. And especially with healthcare, I thought it was just really cool. And I'm hovering around that space because a lot of the projects I was involved in outside of Havasu was really the data points were around healthcare and growth and you know, so on and so forth. So I've just been it's been something that I've just had in my uh in my arsenal that I've always wanted to keep an eye on. So okay, great. Is there anything else you want to talk about on the healthcare side? Okay, so let's talk about uh which is kind of a close to my heart and I can go on tangents forever on this, but uh the airport. Yes. Let's talk about the airport. That has been um, I think kind of a little bit of a um a bleeding ulcer for many years. Uh, you know, there's uh I've been approached by a couple of groups. I've met with uh a couple of the old um airport

Airport Hangars And Commercial Air Service

SPEAKER_03 58:47

managers that wanted us to come up with a plan to help them build uh hangers. Uh there was uh, you know, an RFP, I believe, that was 250,000 square feet of hangers that are on the south side there. Um with uh when they right before they sold the uh the FBOs, we were approached to look at it from just kind of a budgeting side, private capital coming in and developing this thing. And we actually came up with a detailed budget that showed kind of an additional revenue stream for the city. We just haven't had a chance to to uh to um in essence pitch it. But I also know that's a it's kind of a I just I kind of sit back and let everyone kind of figure it out. And if they want my advice or you know, you have an idea, then maybe I can throw it out there. But um, let's talk about just kind of the the the pros and cons of of the airport, what's happening? You know, there's I think a lot of people are just trying to see that thing grow and expand. Um, we all know that there's been, you know, just a lot of unique situations why it has not, and I'll just leave it at that. But uh what's what's new with the airport? Is there anything coming? Are we gonna build any more hangars? You know, is there more FBOs? What's going on?

SPEAKER_00 59:47

Yeah, so there's a lot of changes that are happening out at the airport. And you know, the Lake Havasu Municipal Airport is uh a hub of economic activity. Everybody in Lake Havasu City is impacted by that airport, whether they know it or not. If they got a package from Amazon today or prescription, or if they are on the donor list, uh they used that uh airport today. Uh so there's lots of opportunity that it already is providing to our city, uh, but there's a lot more that it can do. And there's some uh deficiencies when it comes to hangar space uh for um general aviation users. Uh there's also uh deficiencies um in uh the capacity of the airport, commercial air service or or an option for for residents to be able to get to some major hub. Uh we've been working on those fronts for for uh many years. Back in uh prior to 2010, we had commercial air service uh through America West at the time or their affiliate. Uh, we had uh uh five or six flights round trip daily to Phoenix. Um but after we hit the 2010 census, we lost the essential air service grant opportunity because we were over 50,000 residents. And so that those were basically subsidies or grants that offset uh the expenses for the airlines to provide uh air service to rural communities. Then uh several years ago, the Laughlin uh Bullhead International Airport, which is just about an hour uh to the north of us, uh ran a test with American Airlines. But when they did that, it was not successful. And because of that, uh it's kind of uh regionally put um uh a black eye on us, but we're still working through that. Yep. Excuse me. Uh but uh the airport uh has opportunity. We have a new airport manager, uh so we're working on opportunities for expansion when it comes to hangar and hangar development, whether that be private investment, uh as you mentioned, um public investment, which we do have money in our CIP budget for that, um, or um working together uh in a public-private partnership. So we've set ourselves up from a policy standpoint to have all of the options available because we know it's a priority for our community. Uh, and we've also been having uh discussions uh for quite some time with some of the airlines to be able to offer some sort of commercial air service to our communities. Uh a lot of uh discussions about bringing airlines in or uh bringing in like uh uh JX, uh JSX, uh JXS, excuse me, yep, uh into the airline. We've had multiple conversations with uh with them. So there's lots of different discussions that are going on, but aviation is changing as a whole. Um back in in prior to 2010, the jets that flew through were 19 passenger. Now the minimum is 49 passenger. And so that's just that's a lot of people to move out of like Havasu City on a flight uh that's full on a daily basis or even twice or three times a week, especially when you're only a couple hours away from a major metropolitan airport. And so uh are residents willing to pay uh $500 more to fly out of here, or would they say, I'm just gonna drive to Las Vegas or to Phoenix and fly out of there and save $500? Um and so that's kind of the the value proposition that we're having to work through, but we are working through it. Um, I think that again, from a policy standpoint, we have ourselves positioned in a way that we can have all of the conversations to actually achieve what we need to achieve out there, which is uh additional hangar space for general aviation, um, also some uh economic development opportunity from the aviation uh perspective that needs to be out at the airport, and then uh also some sort of commercial uh type air service. And and that might just be a six-pack or an eight-pack where they you know take you to um an FBO or a fixed space operator in in Southern California or in Phoenix, and then you drive over to the to the terminal and you go through TSA at that point. So there's lots of different uh uh opportunities and and um ways that we can look at this. Uh and we're we're anyone that wants to talk aviation or airport. Um, I take every phone call. I sit in every meeting because it's so important. Uh when I first got on council, I was the council liaison as the airport advisory board uh member for uh the four years I was a council member before I became mayor. So I have a passion for aviation um and aviation uses from an economic development standpoint and from uh a residence perspective of having the option to be able to get air service and be able to go explore uh the world. So um definitely a focus of ours and and definitely we'll we'll see some movement, uh whether again it's private investment, public investment, or some sort of a partnership in between.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Got it. Yeah, and you know, the you know, my opinion may not matter too much, but just my the way I'm I'm looking at it is that airport, as you just mentioned in the beginning, it has such an impact on the community here. And uh I'd love to see it. Of course, I'm a little biased because I have projects over there. So anytime there's growth in any area that I'm I'm developing, um, it helps us. But without without without that, you know, even being a factor, you know, it looking at the the people that are coming here, healthcare side, even, you know, and a lot of the residents would love to see, you know, an expansion there, just more more uh hangers, you know. If we can get more hangers over there, I think most more people would buy planes and kind of get in and out of there, generate more revenue um for both the city and and just you know, oh the city really more than anything, even from businesses, I think will will uh will benefit from it as well. Yeah, I I I would love to see, you know, that be kind of a little bit more on the forefront too, you know, of uh being able to kind of get that thing uh built out. I just I'm in that space. So of course I'm gonna be a little biased, so forgive me. But yeah, I think that that that there's so much growth opportunity there. You have the space, you know. But it but again, you know, when I was looking at it, for example, some of that uh you'd have to bring in about five or six million dollars of infrastructure just to build your very first hanger on the south side there. You know, you can grow you can build some stuff on the north side. I've engaged with our architect to design some stuff, but you know, that south side, it's it's gonna be really hard. Like you had velocity, a private equity firm that bought the FBOs over there, right? Um, and so you're starting to see PE firms starting to come in. Obviously, that's a big play overall as a financial strategy and given the marketplace. But when you start To see that type of capital get dumped in, that's where you're going to need it. You know, the institutional groups are just bottlenecking big time because people are pulling money out of uh institutions and locking them up into uh smaller fund managers, but very strategic on their on their investment strategies. The airport world is really going to get a lot of private capital. So if you guys, let's say you and and uh and the city were able to pull together and come up with a plan, you wise will not have a shortage of capital. It just and we we know of some people that came out here with you know G650s and going, hey, I'm gonna write a check for the whole thing. Let's rock. You know, that's how many people love this area, believe in this area, but those are the type of people that are also coming here. And so, you know, if you guys are able to uh all figure it out, you know, I think you guys would be more than fine. I don't think there's any risk in expanding that, in my opinion. And it generates a lot of revenue too for the city, which, you know, looking at the budget, and um, there's always more there's always room for improvement. But uh, you know, I I think that would be a big uh a big revenue source for you guys in five years or so.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:54

Yeah, no, I I couldn't agree more, and that's why we have ourselves set up with the money in the budget uh for us to be able to make moves uh when I saw that when private equity money uh becomes available, uh and with partnerships. But as you had mentioned, we have had a lot of shifts there that have delayed uh what our investments could be uh with uh the sale of velocity. There was a hold up in during that process. Uh we've had some leadership changes uh from uh the city's team at the airport. Uh so there's just been some shifts there that have delayed things in a way uh that um that the movement is not what we would all like it to be, but we're now in a position with all the right players at the right time with the right resources available to be able to make moves. Yeah, the stars all need to align. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:38

That's true. You know, and in uh and if anybody understands delays, it's me.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

Yes, you know, yes, and it's true.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:43

You really kind of have to have everything aligned, otherwise it just really won't work. And, you know, capital meets uh good management, and that's kind of the how how uh you got to hover around it. So, okay, you know what, Cal, well, you know, I really appreciate the time. I think we're right at what we need to be. Let's go uh into anything else you want this community to know more about you or kind of your overall goal, you know. Mind you, this uh this this will be pushed out to the as as as much as we can to the community. And uh, and you know, I'll I'll kind of sum it up on my side, though this was just more of a question

Leadership Style And Closing Ask

SPEAKER_03 1:08:11

and answer thing. Um I'm non-biased. I just want to make sure that I am making good decisions for my clients and myself and my family. I love the town, it's uh obviously I have a vested interest in it. I appreciate your time and all the support you've given me. You've you've really showed up for me. And uh, and I forever thank you for that uh as well. So, but with that said, yeah, what else can you, what else do you want this community to know about you? Or um, you know, you want to just kind of uh end with.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:34

Yeah, well, thank you for the opportunity to, you know, kind of share my vision and go over some of what I've done and what uh will continue to do. Uh, you know, I've been uh and had the honor to serve as mayor for eight years now. Uh, this is my home. Uh my grandparents moved here in 1979. Uh, my family all lives here. Uh, this is a special place to me. Um, I've uh laid down my roots and and uh built my family here. So I am a person that shows up the same every single day. So I have a proven leadership that I am here to work for the residents. Uh, we take um uh issues that are of need to our residents and we just address them. We just get things done. Uh sometimes we forget to celebrate because I'm just focused on the work. And so we, you know, we get it done and we move on to the next. And and uh, but this this community is worth it. The residents are worth it. Uh, it's been an honor to be able to serve. And I would like to ask for our residents' vote on July uh 21st to vote for me uh for mayor for a third term. Uh to continue to do really just the great work that we've been doing, uh, be uh the voice of of the residents. I got involved in in politics, local politics, really uh at an uh a time where we were having discussions about quality of life and things I thought were just like common sense and just well, of course that would happen. And uh the conversation quickly turned to how are we going to get our local elected officials to come on board. And I thought, you know, that that seems uh so crazy that we're talking about that when there's so many great things that can occur. I said, I'll run and I'll be that voice of reason, that voice of common sense, and I've delivered on that. I have been accessible and that voice of reason and common sense, and I like to continue to do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:13

You know, and I I appreciate that. And to be candid, I, you know, I've I always go off of my own experiences. You know, the you and I talked when we met, right, a few days ago about the negativity online and you know, how orchards or whatever the, I don't even remember, I don't even know how pronounce it, orchards or orchards. I don't even know, it's so retarded sometimes. Some of these guys post on there. But uh, you know, there's there's so much negativity out there, you know, and you mentioned it, it's across kind of every uh every uh platform in the in the county. And um, I just try to encourage people don't listen to what anybody else says. There's there's usually an agenda there, you know, go off of your own experience. Um, and I I think that's what done well for me, you know, in many, many ways in my life. And I feel like we've made better, more good decisions, we have bad decisions. And um, and that's one big component for me. And uh, you know, for for since I've been here, you know, and you've been obviously in office, um, we've seen this this the city grow. I think it's undeniable. Um, you kind of had to hold the hold the hold the uh the the ball up when uh when the pandemic hit. Um, you know, quick fact about us too, and and I'll try to make this, I'll kind of sum it up here. Um, you know, I had a president in my company a while ago. He was the mayor of a Southern California city, and he was the he was mayor during 2008, the market crashed. And it was hard. He said there was just a lot of people hurting. I mean, it was just a really unique time. And uh, and the thing I liked about him the most was his heart. You know, I got to know him more on a personal space, obviously. He's worked for me for many years, and so and I still stay in touch with him to this day. But he's uh he just had a big heart. And I think anybody who goes into service has to have a heart for it because you know, shots are fired all the time. You are not like it's like being uh unfortunate, it's like being a police officer in some cities, you're just hated, you know, and I just think that's really unfortunate. And I think when you kind of look back as to why are people getting more involved into politics, I think most people don't go in there with with ill intent. I think 99% of the time they go in there with positive and you know intent and trying to figure it's like the same concept as nobody gets like during marriage, when you go get married, nobody gets up in front of God and family and says, you know, uh I I I forever dedicate myself to you, you know, and then all of a sudden you get a divorce. No one goes up there and gets married with the intent of getting the divorce kind of thing, you know. So it I think just everybody goes into that space really trying to help. And so that's how I look at the people. I respect that. Same like thing with teachers and firefighters and police officers, just to have that heart, you know, going into it. So, anyways, uh with that said, I really appreciate your time. Um, you've done well for me, and I really do appreciate it. I think you've done well for the community. And uh, you know, I'm gonna interview uh, you know, Dave Johnson. I'm gonna give him a uh a chance to speak his uh his uh you know, kind of what his goals are and know more about him as well. And I'm actually I I don't know much about the gentleman. Um I just know he's been out here for a hundred years and he's he's got a lot of friends and a lot of connections, but I don't know what he can do uh for us or for the city, and I'm just looking forward to seeing what his uh you know his uh his goals are. So we'll uh we'll record him tomorrow and get this out uh concurrently so everybody knows this wasn't one shot or the other and uh go from there. So well, thank you very much, and uh I want you to have a great evening and good luck.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:16

Great.