By Mike Schroeder
Sedona, AZ — Well here we are again, every 4 years we are forced to address this issue. We hear the begging, pleading, and scare tactics from the City, its employees and organizations receiving assistance from the city to support their programs. We also hear comments, many emotional, from some residents that are influenced by bad or misunderstood information. In most cases information that is structured to achieve an end to the means. Welcome to our political cycle.
IF HOME RULE does not pass: We hear that Council cannot spend the money it has collected, and that it is controlled by the state, or we lose those funds into some black hole…both are FALSE. The city collected the money, and Council should be able to do what they want, and a NO vote limits their spending actions. Well, yes it does. It also makes them more responsible to the public and less to their personal ideologies. If you read the City’s web site on Home Rule, you will think the world is coming to an end.
It was AGAIN brought to the city’s attention at a meeting June 19th at the RORR dinner that the City is in violation of two Arizona Statutes prohibiting ALL cities form presenting an unbalanced argument on these issues. One councilor at the meeting said the city attorney (who has given notice and is moving out of state) said it was not an issue. But at the same meeting, a city employee, explaining HOME RULE did a very balanced presentation. Games? If in fact that is what the City Attorney stated, the County Attorney and the Arizona Attorney General’s office does not. We have the law, and the city’s website on this site. You can be the judge.
Let’s look at the Council. Good people, good intentions, and what qualifications? I don’t disparage anyone on the council, they all have been successful in their careers. However, overseeing 202 city employees, 45 earning more than $100k with automatic 5 and 10% pay increases for a city of 9,700 people, a 6% decrease in population from 2000 to 2020, and a budget of $103.3 million creates questions. Average Sedona household income is $74,000, per person is $59,000. That’s a budget of $10,600 per resident and $511,000 per employee.
If we look at a comparable western city average, Snowflake, Winslow, Chino Valley, AZ, Delta and Fruita, CO, and Socorro, NM, populations ranging from 6736 to 14,307 (all with some tourist activity) average number employees is 138. Average budget per resident is $3,555. Average budget for all these cities is $35,435,551. Why is Sedona’s budget $68 MILLION higher?
But let’s take a step further. Review Palm Desert California. 14.4 MILLION tourists annually, 53,000 residents, and a budget of $112 million, 5.5 TIMES larger budget than Sedona. A total of $2113 per resident, $,487 LESS than Sedona. Wake up Sedona, we are being led by ideologs and incompetents.
If Sedona was operating without Home Rule, do you really think The Forest Road Extension would have had a $14.7 million cost overrun? The uptown garage, we were told would cost $11.5 million. Final cost, $26.4 million. The “Free” shuttle system for tourists, costs $1.4 million annually to operate, with no mechanism to recoup any dollars from tourists, even though it is APP based.
Uptown, $4.8 million to change two lanes out of town to 2 lanes INTO town from the canyon, jamming up the “Y” roundabout all the way back to Tlaquepaque. Then $4.5 million on the “Zipper Lane” which did not help traffic move.
The city, in a “Lame Duck” session, (we elected new councilors, and before they were seated), the existing council acquired the cultural park for $10 million cash, $10 million bind, and with interest and loan expenses will cost $23 Million, then tried to use part of it for a homeless park. One council person stated, “we had to buy it so we could figure out what to do with it”. And then the Council Sued the initiative supported by roughly 1500 CITIZENS to keep it as a Cultural Park. A council “for the people”?
In 2018, Home Rule passed in the primary, and we had the ONLY citizen ballot initiative to establish a Permanent Base Adjustment, PBA, ever in Arizona on the November ballot. That adjustment was set at $35, million ($39 million was the previous actual year expenditures). Today, based on inflation, PBA would be at $41 million. Council told the people to vote NO. Then the council, headed by Mayor Moriarty told the public the coucil would put PBA on the next election cycle. They did not, and had no intention to. They do NOT want citizen input messing with thier little fifedom.
IF you VOTE NO, Small Grants at $350K, Arts and Culture, $200K are not affected, and the city can run the SHALL have services directed by the state. The limit is $31,692,437 including exemptions. If we need to spend more, the Council can request a ONE TIME override each MAY which must be approved by Sedona voters. And in 2028, COUNCIL can put PBA on the ballot with a starting number of $58 million, and also cut our city sales tax by 1% helping local businesses and reducing our costs.
47 Arizona cities operate under PBA, 38 use temporary Home Rule. Make city government responsible, get more citizen involvement, vote NO on Home Rule. It is NOT the end of the world; it is a start to a new era of responsible government.
To learn more click HERE.
5 Comments
Way too complicated- bottom line:
If you favor Big Government ruling Sedona- vote No!
If you want your local officials and citizens ruling Sedona- vote Yes
Absolute rubbish! The state does not require “the City is in violation of two Arizona Statutes prohibiting ALL cities form presenting an unbalanced argument on these issues”, it requires all cities and towns to have a balanced budget not a balanced Home Rule. You bring up many impoverished cities and towns both in NM and AZ (Socorro NM is full of uranium waste and is incredibly impoverished albeit the military presence there) that are somehow better run than flourishing Sedona and then you bring up cities and towns far larger (some in your favorite whipping post state of CA)than Sedona as shining examples of what could be. Ridiculous unless you want Sedona to grow in size and destroy itself and its natural beauty which is its money maker.
Glad you don’t attack legitimate city management career professionals while bashing everything they do and have done. You are currently backing candidates with zero city management experience or training and think that so long as they do your bidding they’re going to be great managers? Some of us want a city government that is legal, lawful and makes zero personal profit off of their positions.
Mike, you seem to have been very upset with the way the city has been run for quite some time. Why haven’t you run for office? If you are unhappy with the council, don’t hamstring the city by voting no on home rule, you could run for office and help change the way the budget is spent. Don’t you trust the candidates that you are supporting to do the right thing regarding the budget while keeping home in place?
Gail, I’ve been asking myself that same question, although he and a couple of his friends ran for the Sedona Fire District several years ago on a platform of CUTTING funding to the District. You can imagine how well that went over in the wildfire capital of North America. He and his two friends came in dead last.
There’s also his incessant campaigning against the Sedona Oak Creek Unified School District’s budget override every time that comes up for renewal. He wants to cut things like after-school programs so he can save a few hundred dollars a year on his taxes. The man has millions and he wants deprive kids so he can save a few bucks. The cherry on top of that shit sundae was when he said we should let the school district collapse. As a parent who, at the time, had two children in our public school system, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I took him to task and was subsequently asked to run for Sedona City Council based on the way I ran circles around him. He was great for fundraising:
He does the same thing every four years with Home Rule. Some things never change.
Derek, please run for City Council again again! Love every fact you’ve stated! Sadly, the Supreme Court of political sycophants just ruled that big money donors are just exercising their rights under freedom of speech despite the fact that not everyone has that right or ability. You left out his funding campaign for his very criminal pal in politics Sheriff Joe the Felon.