Patrice Horstman — Coconino County District 1 Newsletter: November 2021

District 1 Residents,

November is the month for Thanksgiving and provides an opportunity to gather with our family and friends. The past year was filled with tremendous challenges but also brought much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for the efforts of the Coconino County Flood Control District to protect our communities during our monsoon flood season this past summer. I am grateful for the neighbors who showed up to fill sandbags and the tenacity of all those in our community who were impacted. I am also thankful for the doctors, healthcare workers, and public health staff who have worked tirelessly to develop the COVID-19 vaccines and who get shots in the arms of our residents. I am thankful that the vaccine is now available to our children as young as five years old.

Most importantly, I am thankful to live in and represent a community as beautiful as ours. It takes all of us working together to build the community where we want to live and raise our children. I am grateful to be your County Supervisor and look forward to meeting the challenges ahead.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Patrice

In addition to a tour of the Museum Flood Area, a federal delegation including U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Congressman Tom O’Halleran, representatives from U.S. Senator Mark Kelly’s office, top administrators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, local elected officials, industry leaders, stakeholders, and foresters met in Flagstaff to discuss the future of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) after the Request for Proposal (RFP) for forest restoration services was withdrawn.

The 4FRI RFP was intended to build a landscape-level effort to restore 2.4 million acres of forests on the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab, and Tonto National Forests in Northern Arizona over the next 20 years. This cancellation stalled restoration efforts on these four national forests. Chief Randy Moore announced the commitment to funding and a redesigned strategy for 4FRI restoration projects during the event. Chief Moore committed $54 million from the recently passed Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act to accelerate a ten-year plan to treat 4FRI’s high- priority projects on 135,000 acres. These projects include the steep slopes on Bill Williams Mountain and the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project on the west slope of the San Francisco Peaks.

This investment will allow Coconino County an opportunity to engage in expedited landscape-scale forest restoration efforts that can significantly reduce the threat of wildfire and post-wildfire flooding for our communities. Without forest restoration, wildfire and post-wildfire flooding threats will remain Coconino County’s number one health and safety hazard.

Every ten years, Coconino County’s Supervisorial Districts must be redrawn so that each district is substantially equal in population. This process, called redistricting, is important in ensuring that each Supervisor represents about the same number of constituents. To balance the population across the 5 districts, the district boundaries need to be revised.

Coconino County values feedback from residents and strives to have a transparent and fair process. The guidelines for redistricting include:

• Draw districts of equal population.

• Do not dilute the voting strength of racial and/or language minority groups.

• Preserve communities of interest.

• Districts must be compact and contiguous.

• Maintain traditional geographic and political boundaries.

• Do not create a substantial, long-term negative effect on a specific political party.

• Base the new plan on existing districts, to the extent possible.

• When drawing district boundaries, take into account current incumbents.

In the coming weeks, Coconino County staff will present proposed district boundaries to the Board of Supervisors and will solicit public input on the proposed boundaries. For more information on the Supervisorial Redistricting Process, please click here.

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission’s (IRC) mission is to ensure one person, one vote by creating state legislative and congressional districts that are equal in population. And to ensure that communities of interest and municipalities are maintained so that neighbors’ unique nature and common concerns are heard.

Unfortunately, the IRC’s proposed state legislative map does not reflect the stated goals or the sentiments shared by Coconino County and Northern Arizona residents. The three Legislative Districts of most importance to Coconino County (described in the map as LD 5, 6, and 7) are each very uncompetitive, depriving voters in those areas of the ability to elect a candidate of their choice for the next ten years. Additionally, this proposed map splits the City of Flagstaff into two separate legislative districts, diluting Flagstaff’s residents’ voice.

Splitting the City of Flagstaff into one legislative district with the Navajo Nation and another with Yavapai County is unacceptable. This proposed split does not meet the state constitutional mandates for competitiveness, maintaining communities of interest, equal population, geographical compactness, and keeping cities whole.

My colleagues and I on the Coconino County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a proposed legislative map which has garnered significant public support. Coconino County’s proposed map includes the aforementioned constitutional mandates, most notably to keep the City of Flagstaff whole.

Coconino County’s communities are diverse in demographics, geography, and beliefs; however, we share the same concerns and experience challenges that must be preserved in one voice. We must urge the IRC to keep Flagstaff whole so we can maintain our community-wide voice.

Please contact the IRC here and let them know you support Coconino County’s legislative district map.

Supervisor Horstman recently met with Northern Arizona University’s 17th President, José Cruz Rivera to discuss the important partnership between NAU and Coconino County. Supervisor Horstman is a proud NAU Alum and looks forward to supporting NAU and President Cruz Rivera in her role as County Supervisor.

Supervisor Horstman joined Supervisors Ryan, Vasquez, and Coconino County Parks and Recreation staff to celebrate the completion of the first permanent, publicly accessible, year-round restroom at Fort Tuthill County Park.

The restroom is located adjacent to the Ft. Tuthill Bike Park and was financed in part from a Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant administered by the Arizona State Parks Board. As the park transitions to heavier and more year-round use with varied amenities, this restroom is another step towards modernizing Fort Tuthill County Park and providing the public spaces that Coconino County citizens have come to appreciate.

Join Coconino County, the City of Flagstaff, and Mountain Line for the Annual Stuff the Bus Event! Make a food or financial donation to benefit the Flagstaff Family Food Center and help our neighbors in need this holiday season.

On Thursday, October 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in approval of a single booster dose of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines in certain populations who completed a full vaccine series of either vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) received CDC booster authorization last month.

New CDC guidance allows individuals to choose which type of vaccine booster they receive, allowing for mixing and matching of vaccines, subject to that vaccine’s timing and eligibility recommendations for booster doses.

Pfizer and Moderna:

For individuals who received a Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the following groups are now eligible for a booster shot at six months or more after their initial series:

• 65 years and older;

• Age 18+ who live in long-term care settings;

• Age 18+ who have underlying medical conditions;

• Age 18+ who live or work in situations putting them at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.

Johnson & Johnson:

Booster doses are also recommended for individuals 18 years and older who receive the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine two or more months following their initial vaccination. The booster dose offers additional protection for those at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. The COVID-19 vaccines continue to be remarkably effective in reducing risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death, including against the Delta variant. The vaccine provides highly effective protection against hospitalizations and severe outcomes for people who are fully vaccinated.

Individuals who are moderate to severely immune compromised, continue to be eligible for a third dose of mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna). To learn more about eligibility for a third dose, visit https://www.coconino.az.gov/ CivicAlerts.aspx? AID=2582

Those seeking a booster dose are asked to bring their COVID-19 vaccination card with them. COVID-19 vaccines are provided at no cost. Visit coconino.az.gov/covid19 for information on COVID-19 vaccination locations.