New county supervisors appear together for first time

Two newly elected members of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors joined returning member David Snider Friday for their first public appearance in a non-meeting setting.

The new members of the board are Pete Rios and Bryan Martyn.

Rios is the newly elected supervisor for District One, an area that encompasses the southeastern portion of the county. The Pinal County native, who grew up in the Copper corridor area of Pinal County is one of 14 children. He attended Hayden High School where he participated in three major sports and student government.

Rios was first elected to public office in 1982 as a state senator and was Democratic Whip and Democratic Assistant Leader. In 1991 Rios was elected President of the Arizona State Senate for the 40th Legislature, making him the first Latino senate president in the state’s history.

Martyn, the other new member of the board, is the representative for District Two, which encompasses the southwestern portion of the county.

Martyn is a Gold Canyon resident and grew up in Arizona. He has served in both the Army and the Air Force, flying combat aircraft, such as the AH-64A Apache Helicopters and the Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low. His combat experience includes tours in Desert Storm and missions in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Although he is retired, he still serves as a Special Operations Consultant.

These two members joined District Three representative David Snider to answer some questions and give their views on a variety of topics:

In the upcoming four-year term what is the thing you look forward to the most and the least?

Rios: “The budget is both the thing I look most and least to facing. How will the cuts trickle down to Arizona’s counties and cities? It is going to be a challenge, but we are going to have to make sure that we are prepared to handle the cuts that are coming. One specific thing we may have to look at is the cost of housing prisoners. At the state level legislators are working on a bill that would require counties to house all criminals sentenced to a term of one year or less.”

Martyn: “The thing I look forward to the most is planning ahead. We know things are going to continue to get worse, but we need to make sure we prepare ourselves so that when things bounce back we are in position to be ahead of the curve. The things I least look forward to are the short-term problems such as budget cuts and a lack of jobs for our citizens. The way the economy is right now if one person in a household loses their job, that family is most likely going to lose their home. We have to figure out how to keep our county moving forward while taking care of our citizens.”

Snider: “Unfortunately the New Year isn’t going to look much better than the year that just ended. We are going to have to deal with challenges from the budget at the state level, and we are going to have to deal with the families of some 250,000 people who live in the county. Things that I look forward to are the completion of the Pinal Comprehensive Plan and working with this new element we have on the board. I have known Pete for 24 years now, and he is the type of person who has the drive to get things done. I don’t know Bryan that well yet, but, what little I do know of him, I can see that he has the passion and integrity this county needs. As far as what I least look forward to I would have to say the tough decisions that we will have to make. These decisions are going to impact our residents.”

Which politician do you admire the most?

Rios: “I thought long and hard about this question and came up with many names. On a worldwide level I thought of guys like Mohandas Gandhi who got so much accomplished through peace. I thought of guys like Martin Luther King, Jr. on the national level and of people like Sandie Smith on a county level. Sandie seems to be everywhere you go, and I am amazed at the energy she has and wish I could know where she gets it. However, at the end of the day I think as a politician you need to look in the mirror at yourself. In politics your word is your bond, and you must be a person the people can admire.”

Martyn: “I thought back to many people, and I came up with Pete Rios. No, just joking; while I do admire Pete, the politician I admire the most is George Bush, Sr. If you look into his life, he did so many amazing things. He served his country in the armed forces when he did not need to, and he raised his kids with a strong commitment.”

Snider: “I, too, could not choose one person. I think it is important for this question to define what a politician is. My definition of a politician is someone who manipulates the environment around them to get it to do what they want it to do. By that definition I think that we are all politicians, and it brings so many more people into the fold. I admire people like Rosa Parks, Janet Napolitano and others. However, if I had to select one person, I guess I would go with Thomas Jefferson.”

What is you favorite place to go in Pinal County and your favorite restaurant and dish?

Rios: Place-Apache Creek Golf Course
Restaurant- Cassandra’s in Mammoth
Food- Two cheese enchiladas with two fried, over easy eggs on top

Martyn: Place- Hiking Flat Iron Mountain
Restaurant- The Chen’s in Anthem
Food- Sweet and sour pork

Snider: Place- Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Restaurant- His own kitchen

What is your dream for Pinal County, or what would you do if king for a day?

Rios: “My dream is a nightmare. I wake up every day, and I see more and more Republicans moving into a county that used to be a Democratic stronghold. However, I say this in jest. I admire my Republican counterparts; they are just so demanding, always wanting more services and fewer taxes. Seriously though, I would like to see thriving communities. I want jobs in this county that provide head of household-type wages. We have a lot of poverty in this county.”

Martyn: “If I had a dream, it would be to be the person who decides when and where and to whom we sell state trust land. That way I could determine what was going where and when.”

Snider: “My dream for the county is for it to be sustainable with open space, good air quality and a sense of past and future. If I had the platinum credit card for the day, I would pave all the roads in the county because it would solve a lot of the development issues.”

Other than the budget, what is your next recommendation to state leaders to work on?

Snider: “I am torn between state trust land and transportation. Transportation infrastructure is going to be a major issue this coming legislative session because there is no money for new projects.”

Martyn: “I think the air quality attainment issue we have in Pinal County is the next big issue. This issue is going to hurt the county when we get smacked by the EPA.”

Rios: “Ditto, I think air quality is the biggest issue. We need to figure out how to deal with it. Is it a thing that the entire county is going to be considered in non-containment because a few areas are not up to guidelines?”

Photo by Michael K. Rich