By Tommy Acosta
Sedona News: A Sedona.biz reader recently posted a comment on my last article “In Sedona The Only Way Out Is In.”
She raised a question on how candidates in the coming City elections would handle the pandemic crisis, if elected and had the right to make mandates.
I found that question intriguing. What if the governor indeed gave the right to issue mandates to municipalities in Arizona?
That got me thinking as to what questions I would ask the council candidates. Questions whose answers might spell life or death to the Sedona we still have.
Whipping out my reporter’s notepad, my first question would be for the mayoral candidates.
“If you had the power, would you issue a mask mandate in Sedona, if things continue along the present Covid variant path” I would ask?
My next question would be: “If you had the right, would you issue a vaccination mandate requiring a vaccine passport to enter businesses, restaurants, etc., in Sedona?
My last question along this line would be: “If things got worse, would you mandate a lock-down?”
The answers to these questions would reveal where the mayoral candidates stand on this extremely important issue, where not just the lives of citizen are at stake but the future of Sedona as well.
For the other council candidates, I would ask that if they had to power to rule over Airbnbs, would they (a) leave Airbnbs as they are; (b) make them illegal; or (c) regulate the daylights out of them?
I would ask if they oppose or support destination marketing and if they support funding the chamber.
The way they answer the Airbnb, destination marketing and funding the chamber question would reveal how far ahead the candidates can think and their ability to separate wheat from the chaff.
I know. Some might question what’s the use asking what a candidate’s position might be on Covid mandates since the city has no rights, presently, to issue any. But things can change in the future. One never knows.
Also, the answers to the mandate questions, whether a candidate would do so if they had the right, reveal a lot about the character of that candidate and the belief systems they operate under; whether they would be willing to shut down the city if they felt it necessary. Or resist any effort or temptation to do so.
It’s a long way to the August 2022 elections and anything can happen between then and now. Who knows what new variants are lurking out there ready to spawn more misery upon the world.
Maybe Amicron is the virus’s last gasp. Perhaps that is why it’s not as deadly as its predecessors. Maybe it has realized, if it has a survival instinct as some postulate, that killing its host is less favorable than keeping it alive as a forever food and shelter source.
I want to know where the council candidates stand on the above raised questions, to better prepare my support or opposition to their election. I hope to maintain Sedona.biz as a platform for citizens and candidates to express their views as we head into the elections, without fear of retribution.
Of course we will cover where the candidates stand on traffic, transit, affordable housing, homelessness, etc. But all these are secondary to the main question on how they will handle the pandemic.
I won’t say where I stand on any of the questions I aforementioned. The only certainty is that I will maintain a fair stance and report the news as honestly as I can.
1 Comment
As a candidate, my answer would be that, since history has shown that mandates don’t work, I would not use that fear-based control technique on a free people. Research has shown that this virus has a 99.5+% recovery rate for people under 70, and I believe that free-thinking adults are fully capable of caring for themselves and I honor their choice. This same research has shown a 95-96% recovery rate for those over 70, and I honor how they choose to care for themselves as well. We do need to care for the at-risk groups, but this does not demand an artificial mandate for all. In regards to the Airbnb’s, I believe that Homeowner Associations should get the pulse of their residents and honor that environment. If the majority of residents do not want Airbnbs in their neighborhood, then that should be honored. For areas that do not have an active Homeowners Association (lucky them!), then a meeting of the minds would benefit that community and should be honored. It will also need to be honored by real estate agents, who are the front-line of defense in educating their buyers and managing their expectations.