This is Mr. Hamilton’s second campaign for the council.  Mr. Hamilton holds an undergraduate degree in natural resources management and a master’s degree in education. 

He ran his own small business and the business operations of an international non-profit organization for some years.  He has been married for 39 years to his wife Katie with whom he enjoys a wide range of travel and outdoor activities with.  His primary hobby is building and flying remote controlled airplanes. 

The following are Mr. Hamilton’s answers to our questions.

Name three major challenges Sedona now faces and how to meet them.

The first challenge has to be the City's budget and financial situation.

Finally, we need to have a serious community discussion about the City's financial situation and what residents want, don't want and how we might go about achieving the want list.  So many other City issues stem from the growing financial problem including when and how to sewer portions of the City, storm water drainage problems, under-grounding utilities and landscaping along Hwy. 179, safety improvements on Hwy. 89A in West Sedona plus maintenance of City facilities like parks, streets and existing sewer system components.  Many of these issues can be addressed using the strategies described above.

A second challenge is protection of our scenic natural environment. The beauty and wonder of our natural environment is what makes Sedona special. Ensuring that the ban on land trades and resulting subdivision sprawl remains a part of the new Coconino Forest management plan and continuing to pursue a National Scenic Area designation are important to that end.

We also need to work with the Forest Service (our neighbor on all four sides) on things like developing a garbage transfer station to relieve illegal dumping on nearby forest land and continue to cooperate on City and forest public access to prevent overuse.

And, we need to pay attention to provisions in our Community Plan about protecting the beauty of our night skies by pursuing more effective and imaginative solutions to safety than 76 streetlights on Hwy 89A.

We also face challenges about our water supply; the amount available, how it is distributed and how we deal with effluent at the other end of the pipeline.  We need to step up our water conservation efforts before supply and distribution become a significant problem. We still have time to do that but the clock is running.

We must continue to work with surrounding communities, especially Flagstaff, about respecting our water source.  Sedona must also seize the opportunity to begin using our million gallons per day of treated effluent as a resource to benefit our community rather than as a liability to be disposed of.  A constructed wetlands system offers the most cost effective way to do that.

What is your stand on lighting for 89A?

The issue should be about improving overall safety on west 89A, not lighting.

The 76 streetlights proposed from Dry Creek Rd. to Airport Rd. will improve overall safety by less than one percent at a cost of millions for the lights; millions of lost revenue to businesses during construction; $150 thousand per year for the City to operate them; and light pollution of our nighttime skies.

There are many less expensive and more effective ways to improve safety such as lighted on-demand crosswalks, medians, signage, lowered speed limits and additional traffic signals.  If it is safety we really care about - and it should be - 76 streetlights are a poor choice.

What is your position on part-time rentals?

Keep the ban on short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods.  Most homeowner's associations ban them for the same good reasons: vacation rentals in residential areas destroy the nature of the neighborhood and community.  They often compete unfairly with other commercial vacation rentals by failing to report or pay the bed tax.

What’s your take on the Fitch proposal for the Cultural Park?

It would have been better to see and deal with the full plan and design for the whole area in one piece rather than the bit by bit approach, but many decisions have already been made by the current City Council and we have to go forward from here.

There's not much point in second-guessing nor is opportunity to change what already approved.  It's critical that Yavapai College have a workable agreement about land and space on the site.  The performance amphitheater at the planned hotel is appropriately scaled for a community of our size and I'm encouraged about its potential as a community asset.

I would not approve any further proposals or development plans of any kind until the property is closed in escrow.

Having one firm applying for the plan amendments while someone else actually owns the property sheds doubt on the approved changes actually being accomplished

How about local-real estate taxes?

The City is already deficit spending on our operations general fund and has been for several years. This is not sustainable. Our debt has tripled in the past four years and more is planned.  We have growing unfunded demands for sewering, storm water drainage, facilities maintenance, street upkeep and highway improvements.

Still we keep hiring more City employees, increasing the City budget and funding questionable business ventures while knowing that Hwy. 179 construction will reduce our sales-tax revenues and long-term trends may put them into permanent decline. Something is going to have to give. 
When we have taken the measures I've described in my answer to the first question on challenges we are facing, to get maximum efficiency from our current financial resources, I will take a leadership role in facilitating a broad-based community discussion about what our residents want and the various ways those wants might be achieved.

Did you learn any lessons from your first run for City Council?

Lots!  Running for public office is like taking a semester of college classes. You learn a great amount about the City, how things work, problems and issues that you would never have reason to learn otherwise, especially at that depth.

You meet huge numbers of people and make many new friends in a much shorter time than you would any other way.

You learn that many people in our City - and probably most other cities - genuinely appreciate anyone who will put themselves "out there" in an election setting to give back to the community. And, you learn what it takes and what it costs to win an election in Sedona.

What are you doing differently this time around?

I'm starting earlier, building on the organization I had last time, and using the many things I learned last time to be more effective in reaching all the voters.

Where do you feel has the present council dropped the ball?

There very definitely are areas where the present council has not performed as well as it should, but I'm running for one of the four-year seats on the City Council, not against the present council. I won't get into negative campaigning by being critical on specific issues.

Are you endorsing anyone for council?

I make a point of getting along and being able to work with people who have very different viewpoints.  I'm not a member of any business organizations or special interest groups so I can focus on representing and being accountable to all segments of our community - and working with whomever is elected to achieve what is best for our City.

To learn more about Cliff Hamilton, visit his website at www.SedonaForCliff.com.