Solid Reasons for the Recall
Sedona, AZ (August 6, 2011)
by Joan Shannon
Paul:
Here are a few solid reasons for the recall of Christensen, Blauert and Erick:
Paul, here are your moral reasons for Christiansen being recalled . Last year he was found guilty of fourteen charges of harassment against eleven firefighters and three private citizens…..lied all through the deposition then finally confessed…all public information. his behavior inside the fire station in west Sedona has boarded on mental.
At a meeting….and I was there….the chief was asked what would happen if the budget was slashed according to their plan and the board was told that personnel would be laid off, a station would have to close and the response time to 911 calls would be longer and the chief said he was worried that would put someone’s life at risk or even they could lose their life…..Christensen replied “well that’s life welcome to it”….
So Mr. Christiansen was very cavalier and lacked all compassion about a resident dying because of his desire to slash the budget which would save most homeowners $15 to$25 a year. do you want to lose your loved one for a few dollars? of course you do not.
They lied when they campaigned saying they would save us money…..they want to dismantle our dispatch center and move it to another town. i was present at the meeting when they were rude and hostile and ordered the business manager to start talks with flagstaff about getting rid of our dispatch center and join with theirs….they were told this could cost well over $1million dollars to the taxpayers……no problem……we want the report of what has to be done in 30 days…..there was no hesitation on their part about sending us taxpayers a million dollar plus bill……thank god himself flagstaff turned us down…did this stop them…oh no…they ordered the fire dept. to hold talks with Prescott….let’s send our dispatch over to Prescott…….again we were turned down…..so now under the promise of saving us money they have given $6400 for a study with cottonwood to see if we can ship our dispatch center to them.
Our telecommunications center makes money dispatching for several other areas and these board members are so inconsiderate they asked if we could cut them off from the service with a month’s notice and thereby leave them in the lurch finding another city to dispatch for them….unkind at the least….they were told they could not legally do this…..which was not received too well.
Why are they determined to move our first class dispatch center which the state of Arizona paid for to another city and therefore be under the authority of that city instead of us being independent? i tried to get that answer but just got googledy goop…utter nonsense…fantasy land…..so there must be a hidden agenda….
I told Phyllis Erick that when Sedona incorporated voters said they wanted the fire dept. to be independent from the city….the reply exactly “I don’t care”……so they don’t care what the residents want…… their desire is to put us under a foreign city council……then send us a million dollar tax bill to do it… Christian, Blauert and Erick have hidden agendas they have not revealed to us…they are extremely rude at meetings, don’t appear to know what they are doing and must be replaced before we receive that million dollar plus tax bill and have our services reduced and lives at risk and some of us die.
Joan Shannon
4 Comments
Joan As I read your thoughtful and detailed commentary it is clear that this situation has gone beyond partisan politics to poisonous politics. If we are to change that situation then we must have a Fire Board with balanced opinions. I do not see five moderates being elected or even running for the Fire Board under the current conditions. Perhaps a Fire Board composed of two members from each side of the ‘keep the service and compensation v. lower property taxes’ positions and one member not wedded to either position (hopefully as Chair) is what we should aim to have in office. I do not see how a recall of the three members on one side of the issue will do this. No moderates are likely to run to take their place in a recall election full of poisonous politics. Electing people running from the opposite camp will be the only alternative we have. If we elect them, based on past history, they will not compromise either. Fire Board membership will keep seesawing back and forth in each election between one side and the other. Citizen frustration will continue.This is harmful to us all. Recalls are an extreme. Recalls are not a good option because they will not bring balance.
The individuals, who will hopefully be recalled, were elected because the silent majority was apathetic and decided to stay home on election day. Now we are all paying the price for their lack of participation. It is high time for them to now become the vocal majority and stand up for what is right.
My message to the silent majority is: do your due diligence, start attending the SFD board meetings. If you can’t go, view the SFD Governing Board meetings on video at https://www.sedonafire.org/ or read the minutes. Check out the facts on and then you will realize WHY you need to sign the petitions to recall Dave Blauert, Charles Christensen and Phyllis Erick. Your lack of action at the last election got us in this mess and now it’s up to YOU to rectify it. We are all counting on you to do what is right for our entire community and for YOURSELF!
Precious time is running out and you need to act before it’s too late!
Looks like a huge conflict of intrest to me, they should be booted/fired, why can’t anyone we vote for do thier jobs local and fed, spend all this time and money over bs? As if any of them are doing anything for those who did vote for them out of good faith. May as well sell the place to China.
I’ve been wondering the same thing: they say one thing and do another.