The ballots are going out in the mail on Friday.
That means voters will begin receiving them early next week, and have until November 4 to return them to the Yuma County Clerk & Recorder.
This is the first time the City of Yuma is conducting a November municipal election. For a long time, the city’s elections were in April of even-numbered years.
And the city is making the most of it. There is the sales/use tax question for a new swimming pool, changing the city charter so the police chief answers to the city manager, and a full field for council seats.
Incumbent Tim McClung and Ryan Saffer are running for mayor, while there are five candidates for three council seats: Michael Aagesen, Michael Fitzsimmons, Nathan O’Neal, Jeff Denney and Jerry Thompson.
Interviews with the mayoral candidates are in this edition, and the five council candidates will be featured in next week’s edition, which will be coming out about the same time the ballots arrive in the mail.
Tim McClung
Tim McClung has been mayor since April 2024, when he ran unopposed.
He was on the council for four years prior to that, and now is seeking a full four-year term as mayor. He has been on the High Plains Recreation District Board of Directors, as well as the Yuma Chamber of Commerce, since moving back to Yuma in 2008. He owns and operates the McClung Insurance Agency on S. Main St.
McClung and his wife Kathy have three grown children and eight grandchildren.
He graduated from Yuma High School in 1969, earned an associate of arts in technical drafting from Northwest Kansas Technical College in Goodland, then went to work for an engineering firm in the Denver area.
McClung and a partner started their own business for land surveying and real estate development in 1981 and has had other ventures. He served the school board in Westminster, including a stint as board president, served on transportation study groups, and was on the state’s Space & Aeronautics Commission.
“We’ve got a lot of good things started, and I would like to get some of them finished (during another term),” McClung said.
He noted the city and the council have been working hard trying to build a better relationship with the community.
“I feel we have been working real hard to get things done, but also to build community trust with the city and the council as a whole,” McClung said.
Some major projects are on the horizon, or potentially could be.
The water line and repaving projects on Third and Fourth avenues off of S. Main St. finally are to the point that bid packages are being finalized. The estimated $3.2 million project will take place in 2026. The city successfully applied for a grant from the Department of Local Affairs, receiving $850,000. However, the city had to wait for the contract to finally arrive before moving forward.
McClung said Rep. Lauren Boebert also included $1 million in discretionary spending allocation for the project in the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” McClung said it is not clear yet if the city will receive the federal funds.
He noted that a new swimming pool project would be a big one during another term, if voters approve the spending for the project during the upcoming election.
“I think those probably are the two biggest projects in the works,” McClung said.
The city also is in the process of creating a new comprehensive plan. McClung said it will take about one year, particularly since the city wants to have a lot of community involvement. He said the city needs a 10-15 year plan to tackle the estimated $42 million in street repairs, and there needs to be new master plans for the electrical system and the airport.
“There are a lot of things from the infrastructure and economic development standpoint that we have rolling,” McClung said.
He said the city’s budget has been cut back about as much as it can be, and now it is time to start looking at different approaches to accomplish what the community wants.
“Either you like me or you don’t,” McClung said, “but at least you know where I stand.”
Ryan Saffer
Ryan Saffer is wanting to get involved again on the Yuma City Council.
The mayoral candidate was elected to the council in April 2018. However, he resigned about two years later. Saffer, who was working at the W-Y Combined Communications Center, said the dispatch center was short-staffed when COVID hit, resulting in long hours. He said he just did not have the time anymore to serve on the council.
However, he left W-Y last November after 18 years there, including several as the director. He now is the office manager for a new general contractor business Disaster Master Mile-Hi.
“I have a lot more flexible schedule now,” Saffer said. “There are things I have missed serving my community.”
He has lived in Yuma for more than 25 years, and graduated from Yuma High School. He and his wife have four children, ages 21, 18, 13 and nine.
Saffer’s big issues are maintaining staff, and the economy, jobs and housing. He said he would like to be a part in helping equip the police, fire and ambulance personnel to more effectively do their jobs.
He said that after he resigned from the dispatch center, several members of the local public safety community approached him about running for mayor.
“With my experience as a department head within our local government, and my previous time serving on city council, it made sense,” he said, adding that he prefers voters have a choice on the ballot.
Saffer said it is important to maintain open communication among staff. Transparency with the community is another big issue to him. He said he thinks documents should be more readily available to the public, particularly online. If elected, he said he would push for staggered employee hours at City Hall, so it could be open from 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. so community members would have more access. He said he also would like more community engagement in some decisions, such as the recent renaming of Yuma City Park to Cool Acres.
“The big thing to me is to actually work with the community, get them educated and engaged,” Saffer said.