Mayor served with claim before council meeting

Safford Mayor Ron Green was served with a small claims court complaint Monday at the only place the process server could find him — the Safford City Council meeting.

The complaint requests Green pay the remainder of the amount due for various signs and decals he ordered from Kim's Window Tinting. The signs and decals were for a new newspaper spearheaded by Green, the Southwest Express News, and were picked up on May 4. Some of the signs were a large banner Green used in the Cinco De Mayo Parade and magnetic signs he placed on his own truck. Kim Prentice, the owner of Kim's Window Tinting, told the Courier that Green said payment for the signs would be in the mail.

After waiting more than a month, Prentice called Green for payment. She said he told her he was having problems financially and asked if he could make payments on his bill, which was about $1,000. He then charged $200 toward the bill on his personal credit card June 23. The Southwest Express News' last issue went out the following day, and the publication was suspended due to restructuring, according to Green. A Courier reporter went to the publication's office in Green's building Downtown on Friday and found it locked and deserted.

Prentice's records show Green made another $200 payment June 30, but he has not made a payment since then. After failing to make a payment for three months, Prentice wrote a text message to Green asking for payment Sept. 8. Green allegedly called Prentice a couple of hours later, and the two argued before Green hung up on her. Prentice then filed a claim the next day for the $603.10 still owed — plus interest. She told the Courier since Green would not sign a certified letter in reference to the claim, she will be including the cost of having to hire a process server to notify him.

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