Sedona, AZ –Hello Sedona! I’m Brian Fultz, and I was elected to the Sedona City Council four years ago. I currently serve as your vice mayor and am running for mayor. My wife, Amy, and I are 21-year homeowners in Sedona, and we’ve lived here full time for the last five years.
We have three children, plus a daughter-in-law, in their 20’s that live in Texas, California, and Morocco. Like most of us, I first came to Sedona as a visitor and fell in love with the red rocks and the friendly locals that I met and that led to my desire to live here and to serve here.
I enjoy hiking our trails, and I’m an avid mountain biker and have the scars to prove it! For you bikers, I ride a Santa Cruz Tallboy. Indoors, I’m a Peloton rider, and you can find me on the leaderboard at RedRockBrian.
I’m active at my church where I serve as an adult small group leader. I enjoy volunteering at city parks and rec events such as Celebration of Spring, and I volunteer with other area organizations.
I’m originally trained as an Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineer (Yes, a Rocket Scientist!), and coincidentally, my first work in that space came as a software engineer for the F-14D flight simulator, a later variant of the aircraft that council candidate Tony Hauserman used to fly! The most meaningful engineering experience I had came in 1990-1991 with General Electric when I helped manufacture emergency prototype parts to filter sand out of helicopter engines for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. I also got to reverse engineer a Russian MiG after-burner, which was a lot of fun!
I returned to school to earn an MBA from The University of Chicago and became a consultant with the firm now known as Accenture where I focused on innovation in financial services. That led to joining an upstart internet consultancy in 1999 called iXL, where I wrote the business plan and became country manager for iXL Japan. It was an adventure of learning language, customs and culture, and trying to grow a business as an outsider in the burgeoning world of the internet in 2000!
Fast forward and I am still engaged in my career as a small business owner with both a consulting company, Peak Innovation, and a franchise company, Restoration Holdings, which owns multiple Sir Grout franchises around the US. In 2024, I was named Franchisee of the Year among all owners of all brands of our franchisor, Threshold Brands. I’d like to think I won that award not so much because of the success of my teams, but because I’m so passionate about sharing what I’ve learned in order to help other owners avoid the mistakes I made early on and really accelerate their success.
On the City Council, I am the city’s board member to the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG) which is the non-profit organization that manages regional road planning & transit, community services for low-income individuals as well as seniors, and runs Head Start. Additionally, I volunteered to be a member of NACOG’s Area Agency on Aging as well as the Economic Development Committee. I’m a council representative on the Uptown Parking Working Group and a member of the City Council Audit Subcommittee. Prior to running for City Council, I completed the Citizens Academy program and served on the Community Plan Update Working Group.
One of the aspects I particularly enjoy about serving on council is how we frequently work through differences of opinion to find common ground and arrive at consensus for moving forward. Make no mistake, we do not always vote 7-0 as many claim, and I’ve been in the minority on more than one occasion! That said, council sets priorities for staff and provides direction to the City Manager, and if all goes as it should, then what staff brings to council to vote on should align with the direction given and thus, 7-0 votes should not be uncommon. When I meet periodically with the city manager, and I see work product ahead of a council meeting for which I think things are off-target, I’m not bashful about raising those concerns, and neither are my colleagues. This is especially true when it’s a cost that appears to be out of line.
If elected as Sedona’s next mayor, I have six tangible goals I’d like to see accomplished during the next two years:
- Recreation Center – I would like to see a community-supported Go/No-Go decision on whether to build a recreation center and where to locate it.
- Housing – For the new Balanced Housing Strategy, I would like to see 150 units added to the pipeline toward the10-year, 775 unit goal.
- On-Demand Transit – I would like to see our on-demand transit expanded to the entire city limits and the days of the week and hours per day expanded as requested by our residents.
- Transparency – I would like to see a live, interactive community-facing performance dashboard and a performance auditing process that has completed its first assessment of a significant capital project.
- Wild Fire Safety – I would like to see the development of a “Version 2.0” for wild fire safety and evacuation in Sedona.
- Community Engagement – I would like to see the creation of a Community Engagement Working Group that would include focus on information sharing but also events and ways to connect with one another in our community.
I ran four years ago because I saw myself having a unique skillset and experience base; one that involved leading teams with different interests and priorities. I’ve lived in and owned a business in a tourist town—Orlando, Florida. My small business ownership experience has led to developing expertise in digital marketing, which is highly relevant to our tourism management responsibility at the city. I think those qualities are still valuable but now I would add the benefit of serving for four years on council; of really learning how municipal government works including the budgeting process; of building relationships throughout the state. I’ve made mistakes; owned them; learned from them; and it’s made me a better leader and public servant. I believe this makes me well qualified to serve as your next mayor. I joked four years ago about being a rocket scientist and that our problems didn’t necessarily require one but that it couldn’t hurt to have one around. Today, I believe Sedona needs a rocket scientist as its next mayor.
You can learn more about my platform at BrianForSedona.com and please see my separate interview here at Sedona.biz.
1 Comment
Brian, it’s really difficult to vote for any of the incumbents this cycle. It feels like our city government has drifted far from many of the people who live here. It’s difficult to trust Council, the City Manager, and Staff these days. Here are some honest questions for you seeking simple, honest answers.
According to reporting in the Red Rock News, you referred to people opposed to the car park as suffering from “sheer ignorance” who needed to be educated. Of course, the referendum passed and the car park was denied. Do you still believe all the residents who voted against it—the majority of voters—suffer from sheer ignorance? Why do you think you were so out of step with the majority of voters in that case? How does a leader build community when speaking about residents this way?
I watched a Council Meeting where members instructed the staff to ‘push the envelope’ on building heights in Sedona and the conversation included seemingly favorable talk of dramatically expanding building heights. Do you support changes to city code, or further variances, to allow taller structures in Sedona? Exactly where would you draw the line, if anywhere? In a similar vein, I’ve heard council members says things like “no one owns the views.” What does that statement mean to you?
The Uptown parking garage has really cleaved the community. Many in the town really hate that decision, perhaps most. I’ve met very few people who believe a $26,000,000 spend for a few hundred spaces was worth the money or worth the hit to community cohesion, especially when a surface lot was an easy compromise at a fraction of the cost. A surface lot would have also allowed us to test concerns about evacuation and safety before going all in. Are you proud of the decision to build the Uptown Garage?
Lastly, a question about the advertising in this election cycle. I’m not asking what you think about the referendum on the cultural park, but I am curious what you think about the ads opposing this citizen initiative. To me, the main ads attacking it are about the slimiest thing I’ve witnessed in Sedona—the banner on 89a and the AI image on mailer. They seem incredibly dishonest and hopefully everyone knows it. Is deceit like this an appropriate tactic in your view?