Councilman Reiman looks back

As his 14 years of service on Miami's Town Council wind down after July's primary election loss, Don Reiman recently took some time to reflect on the town's struggles and successes through those years.

Reiman, who came to Miami in 2006, was a town councilman from 2010 to 2018 and returned to office in 2020.

Reiman counted a $6.5 million federal flood mitigation grant, and securing state funding to cover Miami's $2 million match, among the positives.

“That's probably the most successful situation we've had since I've been in town,” he said. “Because of the way our manager got the engineering done before we had the money, we were able to put it to work immediately.”

Other achievements he noted were the under-budget completion of Miami's sewer plant, paying off town debts to Gila County and the Internal Revenue Service, and catching up on the town's risk pool contributions.

Reiman said money has been Miami's biggest struggle. 

“That's what everybody kind of forgets; it would be nice to do all these wonderful things, but it takes money. It takes more every year to do the same things you could have done the previous year," he said.

“There are a host of regulations concerning what you can do with money that might be available to you. If you get a grant to do a particular project, you can't just go hire whoever you want. There's a process you have to go through to select appropriate contractors,” he added.

“A lot of people think ‘nothing's done about this, nothing's done about that.’ There are some things you can't do anything about. You have to follow a certain procedure, and if you have no money you can't do it," he said. "There's also a priority. Is it more important to keep the town from flooding or to worry about whether the police department's got air conditioning? That's always been the problem.”

Reiman has worked with several town managers through the years — Jerry Barnes, Joe Heatherly, Micah Gaudet and current manager Alexis Rivera.

Reiman said that Barnes played a key role in the sewer plant construction before moving on to the City of Globe.

Heatherly, he said, brought “a more proceduralized way of doing business,” organized the town's books, and initiated a lawsuit against a contractor that brought Miami $1 million. “Heatherly did a pretty good job, but he wasn't really a people person.”

Reiman said Gaudet, who was hired with no town management experience, was “really good at making councilmen feel like they were attended to” but fell short in other areas. “Books didn't get done properly. ... Papers didn't get filed for grants to clean up the 2021 flood situation properly,” Reiman said. “Some did get filed, but then the work was never authorized by the guy. So when it came down to getting the money three years later, we found out we'd never done that work.”

“Now we have a manager [Rivera] who knows the finances, not just the accounting side of it, but how you provide for continuing income in the future. How do you invest your money to ensure you have an income stream that perpetuates?" he said. "He's very good at it, and he's done that.”

Reiman also reflected on this year's election, where two incumbent councilmen were ousted and a third faces a November runoff.

“I understand they're electing new people and backing them because they want change,” he said. “But I don't think there's anybody on the current council who doesn't want change. The problem is, what's the economic engine that can drive that change? What will compel businesses to come into town, invest money to make it attractive for other people to come here, spend money, generate revenue that then can be used for civic projects?”

In his early days as a councilman, Reiman did a utility rate study and, using Heatherly's model, drafted a town budget.

“People were saying, ‘Oh, there's my rate study. I called 10 utilities and this is what they charge.’ They clearly didn't understand what a rate study is,” he said. “I did because I used to run cable TV companies. You don't set rates based on what somebody else charges. You set rates based on what it costs you to produce the service.”

Reiman said his town budget “wasn't particularly accurate because garbage in, garbage out — but it was done. I've been able from time to time to contribute that kind of help to the town.

“I have not introduced very much in the way of agenda items,” he added. 

“What I have provided over time is an analytical approach that takes into account how what's proposed will be impacted by or will impact all of the other things going on. That's my contribution over time, to insert critical thinking and analysis into the process of making policy in the Town of Miami," he said. 

“It's been rewarding to me to propose and be involved in progressing ideas and see them come to fruition," he said. "This is a much better town today than when I walked into it, and I've been a part of that. Although there have been trying times over the course of the years, I'm glad I've had the opportunity to participate in trying to redevelop this community and to be of some value to the community.”