Sedona,AZ — For Sedona City Council candidate Tony Hauserman it was love at first site when he visited Sedona and moved here in 2001.
Having grown up in Baltimore, and having lived in Pensacola, San Diego, Puerto Rico, and Memphis, when seeing Sedona for the first time he knew in his heart, he had finally found his home.
He could not resist the magic pull of Sedona’s Red Rock formations
“I was blown away by them,” he said. “The majestic beauty took my breath away. They hit me in a kind of spiritual way, and I knew I had to live here. I’ve always wanted to live in Arizona. From the time I was a kid and was drawn to biology, ecology and herpetology, I dreamed of living the state that had Gila monsters and such a wide variety of snakes and other wildlife. But when I first flew into the Sedona Airport in my Piper Aztec in about 1993 I was smitten.,
Tony’s career started as a Naval Aviator, flying in the back seat of F-14’s off the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. He stayed in the Navy on active duty for about 8 1/2 years and then another 3 1/2 years in the reserves. He got hired by FedEx as a pilot in 1996 and just retired last year.
“I chose to be a military aviator because I wanted to serve my country, have some adventure and build flight time,” he said. “The flight time part got complicated because I failed my eye test in boot camp and that is why I had to sit in the back seat of the F-14 Tomcat. That F-14 time did not count towards becoming a pilot, so I worked a new strategy, bought a Piper Aztec and flew anybody anywhere for the price of the gas. I then got hired by a commuter airline in Puerto Rico and flew in the Caribbean for a few years before FedEx hired me.”
As much as he enjoys flying, he loves community service, with many years of helping others tucked under his belt.
“My desire to help my community is something that has always been in me,” he said. “When I got to Sedona, I volunteered with the police department right away to remove unwanted rattlesnakes and other reptiles from peoples’ property. I also served as the West Sedona PTSA president, spent 16 years as a Rotarian, helped to found Red Rock Youth Football, and coached youth soccer and football. I established a tackle football program at the middle school at West Sedona (before it moved to the high school location) and coached at Sedona Red Rock High School in both JV and varsity. I have also volunteered for two city committees: the wastewater committee and the Uptown parking committee. For me, it started when I was even younger. When I was in college, I had an “adopted” child thru Save the Children that I sent like $25 a month to make sure he had clothing and food. I also always stopped my car to help turtles and snakes get across the road, so they didn’t get hit. I still do that!
For years he observed the way the Sedona city council was being run and felt he could help make it even better as an elected representative of the people.
“I decided to run because I like the direction the city has taken in the last few years and I want to see the programs continue to completion,” he said. “I consider traffic to be one of the most irritating things in Sedona. The ‘Sedona In Motion’ project with its capital improvements, shared use walkways and shuttle development have all helped to reduce the traffic load. The fact that we have 4 million tourists come here each year and only 3 roads leading into and out of Sedona, makes this problem tricky to solve. It is going to take multiple avenues of effort to alleviate this.
“The good part is that our city government has already started that. I want to see it continue. I also want to see the efforts to bring in more affordable housing continue. I find it unacceptable that our workers are forced to live in substandard conditions, or commute dozens of miles every day just to live and work here. We constantly have problems hiring teachers, police officers, managers, and even doctors because they simply can’t afford to live here. Our bartenders, wait staff, cooks, and retail workers should also be able to live here.
“I want to see improvements in these areas and that’s why I’m running.”
He sees maintaining Sedona’s sense of community as one of the major challenges facing the city today.
“I think the most important challenge we face now is how to maintain our sense of community and small-town feel,” he said. “It is difficult to do that with so many tourists that come here. Short term rentals have really affected that negatively as well. I want to be part of the solution to this. The tourists that come here provide the bulk of the money that the city collects in revenue and they provide jobs to workers and business successes to owners. I would not advocate to hurt our businesses or workers, but our residents also need to be considered as well. That balance is what I hope to see come to fruition.
He believes a fair and honest evaluation of what needs to be done on the amphitheater questio
“On the amphitheater, I support the council’s decision to give the SCP2 folks a letter of authorization to be able to flesh out a proper business plan,” he said. “The devil is in the details. Let’s see what they bring back and let’s do a fair evaluation based on what they find out.”
Again, as with the amphitheater question, a well-thought ought evaluation of what needs to be done is paramount when tackling the issue of employee housing, according to him.
“On employee housing, I want the city to continue the public/private partnerships they have developed and build more affordable housing,” he said. “I call this the ‘postage stamp approach’. We currently have approximately 200 units in the works now. We also have to consider housing both at the Western Gateway and the Dell’s. Again, the ‘devil is in the details’. Before I could state that I was either for or against those proposals, I need to see a detailed plan. We need to know the relative costs to build at those locations.”
He strongly supports Home Rule and believes the destiny of Sedona needs to be in the hands of local elected officials
“On Home Rule, I am absolutely in favor of it in this election,” he said. “You can’t be a part of the solutions for this community if you gut our funding. There is simply no way you can do all of the good things our city does while cutting 80% of our funding.
“Our economics are strong. We are always under budget annually, get the highest ratings on our audits, spend less than average on our city employees, and have a very strong rainy-day fund. I can’t think of any advantage to disrupting our ability to spend our own money where and when we see fit.
“I would be interested in pursuing a PBA in two years though. My vision of a proper PBA would be to take our current budget, advance it for 20 years adding in historic annual inflation. If we did that, we wouldn’t have to vote every 4 years on Home Rule.
“The law in Arizona basically gives us 3 options. Live with the base set in 1979 (for us that is about $15 million) plus our legal obligations outside of our base (about another $15 million), have Home Rule (which allows us to set our own budget based on our needs and projected income but we have to vote on it every 4 years), or have a Permanent Base Adjustment (PBA) where we set our own base and then don’t have to vote on it again until we decide we want to change our new base.”
He supports the Sedona PD choosing not to work with ICE unless it is a high risk Nor, does he support Flock surveillance cameras in the city.
“I support the SPD choosing not to work with ICE unless it is a high-risk situation,” he said “We don’t need another Minneapolis situation here in our town. I understand why the SPD may have wanted Flock camera here in town, and I am glad that got shot down.”
For him, governing a community is all about listening to the community.
“My leadership style is to listen to our constituents, get expert advice on technical things, build consensus with my fellow councilors and then make a decision,” he said. “I firmly believe that if my motivation is always for the good of the citizens, then I won’t stray far from the best course of action.”
For Sedona, he envisions a future where a unified community lives peacefully and united in protecting its beauty.
“My vision for the future of Sedona is where our neighborhoods go back to the way they were not too long ago with families living in them, with long time neighbors who look out for each other, where people of various economic backgrounds can live, where we have a vibrant school system, and where we have economic diversity so our sole source of income is not just driven by tourists,” he said. “I also envision Sedona maintaining and improving our natural environment preserving the original reason most people moved here.”
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