Former Camp Verde Mayor Dee Jenkins was sworn in as Yavapai County District 2 supervisor on April 16, after having been appointed to fill the seat vacated by James Gregory, who resigned in February to become chief of police in Williams. The Board of Supervisors appointed her from a pool of Republican candidates that included primary candidate Wiley Cline, John Hughes, Tony Utz and former supervisor Thomas Thurman.

“I worked for W.L. Gore for over 30 years, and followed that up with a long-term career at a small company in Camp Verde, married, have sons and granddaughters,” Jenkins said. “I love the outdoors. In 2016, I decided to involve myself in the community and ran for the town council of the town of Camp Verde. Was elected for a four-year term, the last two as vice mayor, and after that, I successfully ran three times for mayor of the town of Camp Verde.”

District 2 includes both sides of Mingus Mountain, Camp Verde, parts of Cornville and Dewey-Humboldt. Jenkins’ appointment will run through the 2026 general election, when she would need to run for the remainder of the four-year term through 2028 to keep the seat.

“I haven’t really thought about that at this point,” Jenkins said. “I’m immersing myself into understanding my job and doing the best job I can right now … My mission right now is to schedule town halls with incorporated as well as unincorporated areas, just to understand the ideas and concerns that each of those communities might have.”

“Honestly, I came from a town council in Camp Verde where all seven were female, and somebody had to tell me, because it just didn’t even register,” Jenkins said of a county press release describing her appointment as a “historic moment in Yavapai County history, with a majority female board.” Camp Verde elected an all-female council in the August 2022 primary. “I’m more concerned about the quality of the individual and the amount of effort that they want to put forward. And so far, I’ve been thrilled with the Board of Supervisors.”

The Board of Supervisors approved a tentative county budget of nearly $426 million on Wednesday, June 4, with final adoption scheduled for Wednesday, June 25.

“I came in midstream in the budget process, but I was involved in the budget work sessions with all the directors and the county manager and … I thought the process went well,” Jenkins said. “It’s a little different than what I’m familiar with … it’s a monumental budget compared to Camp Verde’s budget.”

Jenkins added that she would have liked to see more information on how hiring decisions were made, and specifically on how the county determined which positions and employees to add, a concern also expressed by District 3 Supervisor Nikki Check [D], who said she wanted the county to do a better job of tracking the number of full-time equivalent employees. Check said that during a 2024 budget recap, it became apparent that neither the Human Resources Department or the Budget Office could reliably account for how many FTEs had been added in recent years, possibly because of outdated software.

“[FTEs] are not one-time expenses, so I [want] to make sure we had accurate information moving forward that [is] reflective of reality,” Check said.

Jenkins also expressed interest in refining the county’s capital improvement plan to better forecast infrastructure needs several years into the future, as well as in the zoning ordinance update.

“I’m still on the learning curve but very interested in the comprehensive zoning code update,” Jenkins said. “It’s something I’m familiar with, as Camp Verde is currently going through a similar process.”

The board also nominated Jenkins and board counsel Martin Brennan as the county’s representatives to negotiate the purchase of additional federal land for Windmill Park in Cornville.

“We are currently working through the cultural resource compliance process and next steps, which includes things like [National Environmental Policy Act] updating appraisals, and an environmental site assessment,” Forest Service Spokesman Brady Smith stated regarding the process. “We have regular meetings with Yavapai County and the new District Supervisor Jenkins, who is fully engaged. We do not have a timeline as to when this will be completed but are working diligently with all parties involved to get the requirements completed for this purchase.”