By Steve Segner

Sedona News: Mike Schroeder’s opinion on Sedona.biz labeled “Sedona Management” has prompted me to write a rebuttal of sorts. I find the opinions of Mr. Schroeder to be off base, and un-factual. I am using this opinion submitted to Sedona.biz as an opportunity to correct some of his thoughts and add a few of my own.
Mr. Schroeder said “Until you make the Sedona City Council positions attractive to talented and experienced people, you are going to get what you vote for.”
He also said a council member should make a minimum of $5,000 a month and the Mayor $7,000 a month.”
I think he is totally wrong and uniformed in his thinking.
Sedona city government is a city manager city/council form of municipal government. Some refer to it as a “weak mayor” form of government and it is the way most cities function. Learn more about this city management style here.
The city council’s job is to look ahead, set policy and give the city manager direction. It does not actively run the day-to-day operations of Sedona. In fact, the city council does not have authority to “run” anything in the city. The council hires the city manager, city magistrate, and city attorney. The city manager then hires and manages the rest of the staff.
The city manager, following this direction and policies from the elected city council, runs the city with a staff of more than 160 employees. The city council members are citizens who care enough about their community to take on this responsibility and dedicated as councilors, being paid $500 to $700 a month, that’s all.
Most of us would not be able or motivated to take on such a commitment. The idea of paying our councilors $50 to $70 thousand dollars a year as Mr. Schroeder suggested would be a waste of money and I think all of the current councilors would agree.
And two of the candidates running for election as city councilors in this year’s city election in August are very talented, with backgrounds in owning and managing their own companies and, in one case, was the chief of staff to the mayor of one of America’s largest cities. If elected, they will be very competent and valuable to the city’s future.
There are many people in Sedona who are dedicated to community service on committees and commissions. Sedona City’s annual expenditures have come in under budget every year since the City’s inception and has a huge cash surplus. Sedona is respected and acknowledged around the state for its stewardship of city funds which are almost totally created by tourism activity in sales and bed taxes. As a result, the city does not need a “property tax,” it has plenty of funds for all the functions and planned projects from sales tax, bed tax and fees.
Think about it, a typical tourist staying in an upscale hotel for 5 days ($500 a night) pays over $200 in bed and sales tax to the city. We, as residents would have to spend over $6,000 in taxable purchases (food at grocery stores are exempt from sales tax) inside the city of Sedona to equal the same contribution to the city’s coffers. That $200 from a visitor is used to buy police cars, pay city employee salaries (including police personnel), repave streets, and construct infrastructure to help mitigate tourism traffic. I acknowledge visitors do create traffic, crowd trailheads and restaurants and stores, and make life a challenged at times, but they also pay most of the town’s bills. I appreciate that.
Successful businessmen such as Mr. Schroeder are very talented as a corporate business persons, but their perspective is from a world of dog-eat-dog and shareholders first. We need to remind ourselves the city is not a business, but provides public service where the product of the city and city hall is not making money or paying executive salaries and increasing corporate profits, but paving roads, parks, city courts, police protection, and the health and safety of its citizens and visitors.
Talent does cost money. Hiring the right people for city manager, police chief, city engineer, etc. is not easy in rural Sedona where housing, affordable or not, has become quite scarce. But promoting from within someone one who has extensive expertise in this community and area of Arizona is smart. Our new City Manager hit the job running at full speed since she had already spent the previous 9 years in the assistant city manager role was very familiar with all aspects of Sedona government and operations. It was a good move, rather than having the position open for months or years as Mr. Schroeder has experienced.
Another fact of life many, including Mr. Schroeder seems to not understand and is how the city works with and “contracts with” outside agencies and organizations to provide services the community needs. One is the contract for services with the chamber which is a non-profit organization under the control of 15 unpaid board of directors. The chamber of “commerce” is a service organization with about 750 members who pay for the benefits of being part of the organization. Operating in tandem with the chamber is the Tourism Bureau, a certified and highly respected DMO or Destination Management Organization. This dual operation is more efficient and effective and is a common practice around the country rather than there being two totally separate organizations with expensive overheads.
Many cities in America look to their DMO for expertise and services to “manage” the tourism aspects of their economy. They contract and hire their DMO to do specific things in managing tourism and, in many cases, expect successful advertising and marketing to keep the flow of tourism dollars coming into their town.
And they usually pay for these services with funds generated by the lodging industry in “bed taxes” paid by their visitors. It rarely comes out of the general fund. As defined online by Wikipedia, “DMOs are generally tied to the local government infrastructure, often with supporting funds being generated by specific taxes, such as hotel taxes, membership fees, and sometimes government subsidies.”
In Sedona’s case, the city has “paused” the use of these funds for direct advertising placed outside the area to encourage visitor business, such as Phoenix or LA. But the city still hires this DMO to perform multiple functions the city is not able or set up to manage. This contract is reviewed and renewed each year. As an example, the city has paid the chamber to operate and manage the Visitor Center in Uptown for decades. Before the bed tax was increased in 2014 by 0.5% the city paid for this service out of the General Fund, but now it’s paid for with revenue from bed tax paid by visitors. In fact, the .5% increase in Bed Tax and the prior funding out of the General Fund for the Visitor Center represents about 2/3 of the city’s annual funding for all the DMO services the city hires the chamber for.
If you want to understand all the elements of the city/DMO relationship, this PAGE on the Sedona Chamber website is very educational and helpful. Click Here
And, if we really want to understand why the angst and negative attitude towards the city of Sedona’s current operation is really misguided, one has to take the trouble to understand how complex the operation is and how many projects, services, functions, and commitments it is pursuing. To learn about current activities, the city just published a video update and report on 2021. Watch it here
Another source of information, is the 2021 Annual Community Report. Read the Report Here
The city has also created what is called “The Municipal Sustainability Plan.” It is an important step forward and an example of how Sedona is superior in its planning and execution of it commitment to improving our environment and the overall quality of life for all Sedonans. Read the Plan Here
The historic “Sedona Sustainable Tourism Plan” which was created in 2018 in partnership with the city, Sedona Chamber and Tourism Bureau, and Arizona State University’s Center for Sustainable Tourism is the first ever such plan in Arizona. Other beautiful, but over-visited destinations around the globe are viewing Sedona’s plan as model to emulate. It’s sorta the “End of Tourism as We Know it” plan. Read about the plan here: The plan is currently under review for updating as we move into a post-Covid world.
I’m a local businessperson and resident of Sedona for 25 years who is excited and encouraged by the city and chamber’s focus on finding solutions and ways of mitigating the challenges the high level of tourism has created. This city is not broken at all! I admit it can be frustrating to be caught in traffic or being unable to get a table at our favorite restaurant, but to be angry and accusing people/civic organizations of mismanagement or destructive deeds is unnecessary and unproductive.
Sedona is a town with great weather and amazing landscape and it’s a town which uses the presence of visitors to sustain most of its infrastructure, businesses, and cultural assets. It will always be busy, hopefully not as busy as it has been during the pandemic surge in tourists, but busy it will be. Change will always be part of the reality of life in Sedona, just as it is everywhere else. Like it or not, it’s a “learn to love it or leave it” proposition. I love Sedona – change and all!
Editor’s note: Sedona resident Steve Segner, and his wife Connie, are owners of El Portal Hotel in Sedona. Steve is a former pet food, and supply executive who developed one of the first Premium specialty pet foods in America. In addition to owning several pet-related businesses for 30 years, Steve just ended his three-year tenure as the president of the World Pet Association, and has been one of the founding members of the Pet Care Trust, which developed the “Pets in the Classroom” program, and has served on many Sedona area “not for profits.”
* Sedona.biz encourages community members, regardless of political persuasion or stance, to share their thoughts with readers through letters to the editor, relevant opinions and articles. The above article reflects only the opinion of the author and not the publication’s.
9 Comments
The title alone made me laugh out loud. Looks like the Chamber and their mouthpieces are running scared that they will lose their massive amount of funding — funding that does not help the typical Sedona resident.
City releases annual Community Report and State of the City video
Post Date: 02/02/2022 1:33 p.m.
SEDONA, Ariz. – The city of Sedona encourages all residents to read the 2021 Community Report and watch the annual State of the City video, which provide a snapshot of last year’s key accomplishments.
More specifically, the report and video help tell the city of Sedona’s story in 2021. For example, residents can learn more about:
Progress of Sedona in Motion projects including transit.
The city’s financial position.
Sustainability initiatives.
Emergency preparedness.
Short-term rental stats and updates.
Updates on the city’s departments and programs.
To read the Community Report online, go to http://www.sedonaaz.gov/2021communityreport, and to watch the State of the City video, go to https://youtu.be/ZPTmJqeLiqU. Additionally, every residence will be mailed a paper copy of the report.
Defund the illegal Chamber completely. Save millions every year to benefit the residents. Stop the ridiculous lies of silly Steve, who is a mouth piece of the Sedona Council.
Bhahahahahha!!
Mr. Segner should get a part time job as PR spin consultant for the city…Oh wait…
I am quite familiar with our type of government. And have been seeing it “operate” for decades. When you have council members who have never owned, developed or managed a $70 million+ dollar business where THEIR decisions are on the line for the success or failure of the business, how do you expect them to (1) hire the right people; (2) monitor the success of the management they hired; (3) put together a comprehensive plan that achieves the objectives and desires for the shareholders (AKA CITIZENS)?
The monitoring and evaluating of the progress of the city management is not a part time job. I have known too many council members who have stated that to do the job right, 20 to 30 hours a week are required. Just “caring” about the citizens doesn’t cut it. “Caring” is not experience.
You want talent, you pay for it. That is “wasting” money as Mr. Segner stated? Spending $100s of thousands of dollars on a “Climate Action Plan” for a city of 9700 people that promotes close to 4 million visitors arriving by bus and car is the epitome of hypocrisy, talk about wasting money.
And shoveling millions off to the Chamber of Commerce? The Chamber FY22 Budget just for Salaries and Benefits is $599,680 up 134% from FT21 budget. Anyone out there get a raise like that? Show me other cities that has this type of relationship with a Chamber. It certainly raises questions on the Arizona Gift Clause restrictions on city governments.
Chamber budget – 2021 vs 2022
https://nextdoor.com/p/JjnGYcshnrqP?utm_source=share&extras=MzA2NjU5NzY%3D
The council spent how much on the Uptown road redo? Now we have backups at the Y from SR179 as three lanes to one on 89A northbound are backing up to the Y. Now the city is suggesting a fix. And the Peter Principal is working at full speed as the person who was intimately involved has been promoted to #2 in the city. Council? Where were you. Hiring “consultants”?
Mr. Segner talks about the 160 employees in the City of Sedona that care about our city of 9700 citizens. I have no doubt they do. In 2018, Palm Desert California had 123 employees to take care of 52,124 citizens. And other cities, in expensive California are similar. Also resort cities.
Personal ideologies abound on council, and $70 million to play with. And who was surprised when the politicians on the dais voted to make the “temporary” .5% sales tax that was to sunset, permanent. More money for the pet projects and irresponsible spending.
Now a transit center proposal in the most congested part of the city? Where’s the under-bridge pedestrian walk system that was designed last year to ease traffic backups at Tlaquepaque? Potentially a $19 million expenditure to buy the failed Cultural Park Land?
What’s next.
You are getting what you vote for. Either accept it or change it, but do not complain about it.
Steve Segner is a nice fellow. But we need to remember that he is President of the Lodging Council and makes his living off of tourists by running a boutique hotel. He is therefore biased towards tourists and doesn’t like residents complaining about too many tourists ruining Sedona. Yes we don’t have to pay a City property tax because of the tourist income. But this worn out idea about how great tourists are is now meaningless. I would gladly pay a city property tax if the city could find as way to limit the number of tourists, but of course that is not possible. I am biased in favor of residents.
Mike says”I am quite familiar with our type of government. And have been seeing it “operate” for decades. Let’s all remember Mike also founded the Sedona “T ” Party in 2018. He helped establish a political action committee, Arizona Liberty PAC. Schroeder and Kadar’s partnership began in 2014 when they tried unsuccessfully to defeat a $1 million budget override requested by the Sedona Oak Creek Unified School District. In 2015 and 2016, both fought successfully to keep 160,000 acres encompassing the city of Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek from being designated a National Monument by President Obama using the 1906 Antiquities Act. In 2017, they took on and successfully defeated an $18 million bond requested by the Sedona Fire District. Mike keeps reminding us in the “OLD Days” he ran a company for the benefit of management and shareholders. Well, Sedona is not about profits, but about service. Sedona has a huge budget surplus. Mike sees people as a cost, {head count}, not an asset, Sedona government needs people, good people, to fix our roads, wastewater and flood control, and infrastructure. Local Governments do not operate on the American business tradition of shareholder and profits first. Let’s remember Mike Schroeder from the Arizona Liberty group, who gave a presentation last election on why Sedona citizens should vote against “Home Rule” Mike’s “small government” model will not work in Sedona, Arizona, or America.
As usual, Mr. Segner can’t get his facts straight if someone gave him a playbook.
1. I had nothing to do with the the formation, or operation of the local T Party in Sedona. The Sedona organization also does not exist anymore. It was formed in 2009 in Sedona by some local people, not 2018.
2. We were not successful in defeating the School Budget override – but pretty much everything we stated as to why it was not needed is now true. So Sedona – look at your property tax bill.
3. We promoted the city adopt a Permanent Base Adjustment (PBA) funding plan, as use by many cities. And if it had been adopted instead of Home Rule then CITIZENS would have an ongoing say about the city budget. Mr. Segner and crowd want nothing to do with citizen control and challenge to budgets and wild spending. Think about it, when we challenged the funding process, the average 5 years prior the city spent about $38 million. They budgeted that year around $48 million. Today’s budget? $70 million. Runaway spending – we saw the future and it is here. And by the way, many cities in AZ that are on the PBA program now have way more money to spend vs staying on Home Rule. And that’s a fact.
4. And Steve keeps bringing up running the city about profits and shareholders. Apparently he thinks that is not important, because running any government agency requires an unlimited source of money for people to promote their ideologies. Efficiencies need not apply.
The city is an economic engine. Our shareholders are our citizens Steve. You seem to think that the budget is for pet projects and to promote your business in addition to providing solid city services.
You would never let management of a company be run for their personal whims and ideologies. But with almost unlimited funds just look what has happened here. Lost population, and an astronomical budget. And that is what you are supporting?
People are costs, and they are assets. It is amazing that you would make such a statement as you have employees and costs for those people, equipment and systems to run your business. If you ran your business like you want the city to run there’s you would be out of business.
YOUR customers pay for your services, THEY decide based on the service you provide. In Sedona, WE, the taxpayers pay for the services. The difference is that the City is a taxing authority, and recently demonstrated that they prefer to raise more money for an out of control budget by making the .5% “temporary” sales tax permanent than scraping some of their personal projects and sending huge amounts of money to the Chamber of Commerce. Big surprise.
Your continuous personal attacks are frankly tiring and pathetic. I could research and pull up most or your posts and they all go the same direction when you run out of anything meaningful to say, especially when defending the political actions of our politicians and bureaucrats running the city.
To Tyler Barrett , its to be better a fool that open your mouth and remove all doubt!
“I would gladly pay a city property tax if the city could find as way to limit the number of tourists, but of course that is not possible. I am biased in favor of residents.”
First you want big government to control who can come here?…You haven’t thought this through, have you?…LOL
Your fellow brethren will strongly disagree with you……You know less taxes, government is evil, and let the free market run things!….Maybe go back 40 years to understand the point your missing….Let me guess under 40 years old and you have it all figured out?
Maybe around from the crash of 2008?….Or the great tax breaks for the rich over 4 times that left you with nothing unless your the upper 1%? Endless wars costing trillions? Going bankrupt due to medical bills? Let the 99% be damned.
Its a very sad day when people cut their nose off despite their face….or even better, voting against their own best self interests!……
You people crack me up….But enjoy your ignorance…..Ive been watching since Nixon and it only gets worse…it s just that people get dumber, and forget how good it was….you poor soul.
Yes property tax may be even better now seeing that corporations, feeding from the air B&Bs now control the majority of homes!…..