As a Member of the Prescott City Council, Jay Ruby Will Focus on Water Security and Economic Development

Water Security and an Economic Development Agenda that focuses on recruiting younger residents is the key to fostering a sustainable and thriving Prescott for the Twenty First Century according to Jay Ruby, a candidate this year for City Council.

In his introductory remarks about his candidacy on his campaign website, Mr. Ruby stated:

“As a Prescott City Council Member, I will vote for water, practice transparent governance, encourage civic engagement and community participation while helping to articulate a vision of innovation and creativity to help Prescott become a thriving 21st Century city with a balance between growth and sustainability. I look forward to serving you.”

A public figure involved in shaping cultural events for Prescott, Mr. Ruby graciously took the time to discuss his candidacy for the City Council. 

The questions and his responses are below. 

Please tell the reader’s two reasons you would like to run for the Prescott City Council.

“I chose to run for Prescott City Council because I saw that there were four strong voices for water who are very ideologically different who’ve done some good things and have moved Prescott on a better path towards conservation and awareness of water. Two of them are running for Mayor and two are stepping down. So, you’re seeing four voices basically turn into one. What I recognize is that we have to continue to be vigilant about our aquifer and to make sure that we do not overextend our capacity, and I feel that my voice would be strong on city council for that.”

“Second, I am very interested in Prescott developing a coherent policy for how events are supported by the city. Events that bring in sales tax revenue like the rodeo, the whiskey off-road bike race, and Pure Imagination Festival. But there’s not a coherent policy from the city in terms of how to support that. As someone who is from the cultural sector, I created a festival here. I run a theater group. I do productions at the Hazeltine Theater. I think it is in the city’s best interests to be in the driver’s seat and say, these are the terms of engagement, so it doesn’t end up as a type of backslapping thing. Oh, you do this. We’ll do this for you. But there is a clear policy that the public understands. That the event producers understand and that the city council understands. So those are kind of my two motivations, which tie into being vigilant about water.” 

“It’s basically, water and economic development. Like housing solutions, I think that right now, there’s a lot of young people in Prescott, and this is not unique to Prescott, but it is kind of exacerbated here because it’s very hard to buy a home and start a family and Prescott needs to think about that and how it’s future is going to develop.”

Do you want to elaborate on at least two issues you will be working on as a member of the council?

“So, I mean, with city council, there’s going to be a lot of things coming up from the different subcommittees. All of that is not going to be just determined by me and the agenda. The mayor will set the agenda, But the two things that I would like to focus on, is  how can we recharge our aquifer? We can do conservation, but we also need to look at how can we increase our wastewater recharge and make sure that it’s safe. And I think that a really potentially good area for us is storm water catchment. A lot of our water, just like in the valley, evaporates like the rain falls in and evaporates. If we can get some catchment systems where that water is channeled deeper into the ground through an injection, we’re going to be able to revitalize our aquifers quicker. Another side of that regarding water is that I would want cities drawing off of the same aquifer in the Prescott Active Management Area: Chino Valley, Prescott Valley, and Prescott. We need some regional water cooperation, And whether that’s an official group or informal. Not everyone is up to the same conservation standards. I would say Prescott is ahead of the other two cities, so if you have one entity conserving and the others not. That’s actually not fair and with everything coming up, we need to actually make this area known for being smart water wise. Call it what you will If we get ahead of the curve and develop some things around storm water catchment wastewater recharge and have a good conservation policy. We can make that part of our own profile here like, we are the cities in Arizona who are advancing on this respect. So, that is part of what my focus would be on city council.”

“The other focus would be in economic development. We have an issue that building homes has been one of the legs of our economy. There will be a point it’s probably not right around the corner, but there will be a point at which we’re going to need to strengthen other aspects of our economy is that leg doesn’t have as much to grow on because we have some limitations. The National Forest land around Prescott borders us. Prescott Valley borders us to the North. Chino Valley borders us. We’re going to have to be smart about developing different aspects of our economy, And I think that means attracting young families here, either through economic opportunities or through the type of people who are entrepreneurial and do remote work. And so, I think the city needs to focus on how we develop our city to be attractive to those types of entrepreneurs. Because if we continue to cater to wealthy retirees, we’re going to be missing an important sector of the local economy.”

Why are you one of the best candidates to go on the Prescott City Council?

“I think one of the primary roles of a city council member is not to manage the city. That’s what we have a city manager for. We are there to be able to listen to the public if you think of like a seven council members is kind of like the tentacles taking in information like listening and being engaged. I have almost 30 years of being active in the city. I have a lot of different relationships, and through my work in theater through Cultural Productions, through touring, I’ve had to develop some really good listening skills, and I’ve had to find ways to come to consensus to find agreement to focus people with the right questions. I think those are very good skills for somebody on the city council to have, and in fact, I actually think the city council is the most interesting level of government for me to be engaged in because of the type of community work I’ve done most of my life with culture. I believe that I’m probably one of the better candidates in this race in terms of being able to work with people who might be ideologically different than me who don’t initially know me and to look because I can  look for what is their need, what is their interests, and find a way to weave that in with other interests? So, even that type of synthesis coach makes me a strong candidate.”

Can you share with us how you will reach out to voters and convince them that you are one of the right candidates for the Prescott City Council?

“I reach out to people all the time through the cultural work but as a candidate, it is different. I’m knocking doors. I have a great field manager. I am showing up at every forum. I’m going and seeking out other groups to present myself and get known. I’m making sure there’s radio ads. I am making sure that we have mailers. I feel like I’m doing all of the traditional forms of voter outreach, and I’m also working on what is going to be called Words About Water, which is a series of different educational videos like introducing concepts like what is an acre, foot round, and surface water? I think for us to solve our water problem here or to have a coherent approach, we need to be understanding in an objective way. What are the dynamics of our aquifer? And so, within a week, I’ll be putting out various campaign videos around how do we understand water words about water? And so, I think that’s probably the most unique part of my voter outreach. I’m still knocking doors and putting mailers together. There’s a lot of showing up at different community events, So It’s interesting. In a city council election, your voter pool is pretty small compared to most elections. It’s one of the smallest pools there are and my appeal is a candidate Is much broader if I was in a partisan race and that means showing up and being involved in a lot of different conversations with people and speaking about issues in a way that they will be able to see the type of leadership I can provide at the City Council.”

You will be doing all the social media engines like Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok.

“Just Instagram and Facebook. I have not entered the realm of Tik Tok. I had a very good following on Twitter, but none of it was really local, so it’s not necessarily a beneficial medium for me to be active in and Twitter is dead. It’s X, and I don’t really like X.”

Is there anything not covered in the first four questions that you would like readers to know about you and your candidacy for the Prescott City Council.

“The election is on August 5 and it’s crunch time. I’m less than like seven weeks away, and ballots drop on July 9th. And if anybody would like to help me, go to vote for water.com and there is a donate button. We are maybe 85 percent of the way towards my fundraising goal, and that seems optimistic to get to. Every donation helps because they fund outreach efforts like radio ads.”

Please click here to find out more about Jay Ruby and his candidacy for the Prescott City Council.