By Steve Segner
Sedona, AZ — In reading the July 22, 2022 issue of Red Rock News, one comment by Christopher Fox Graham the papers editor caught my eye:
“The council is ready to dump money into wild, overpriced, useless, and pointless projects because it has a $105 million burning hole. They could be so preoccupied with whether they could spend that, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
I have served on two budget commissions over the years and agree with Mr. Fox’s comment about spending city taxpayers’ monies on “useless and pointless projects.” Useless and pointless projects can get lost in a budget as large as Sedona’s, but as Mr. Fox alludes, every taxpayer’s dollar counts.
In a close look at the city budgets over the past several years, one pointless project in particular stands out: the city placing and paying for public notices advertising.
Sedona is one of the few cities in Arizona still placing and paying for “public notices.” In fact, the city spent over $23,000 in just the last ten months for unnecessary public notices advertising. The State of Arizona no longer requires cities to establish ads in local papers — only that they designate their website for all public notices. Most other cities in Arizona have moved into the 21st century by utilizing the internet, not bi-weekly papers, to inform and update citizens and vendors. Why would Sedona spend unnecessary money on newspaper ads when it can get the same information to the public for free by simply adding a “public notices” tab on the city website?
It is not the job of the city or any government agency to subsidize the failing print newspaper publishing industry. I hope the city’s policy of placing public notices ads in the local weekly is not out of fear of Mr. Fox Graham’s editorial page.
Yes, the budget item for public notices is small and can get lost in a $100 Million budget, but that same money could be used to upgrade the city website and help pay for a web admin.
Times have changed. People want their information NOW, in one click — not twice a week, next to an ad for supermarket specials in a paper that is not delivered to most homes or businesses in Sedona. The city of Sedona already uses the city website and emails to supply information to its citizens. Why is it still paying for a service it can do better and at no cost?
Steve Segner
Legal Resident of the City of Sedona
5 Comments
If Jablow, the past Sedona City council and city management were doing their jobs they would have stopped wasting taxpayers money advertising in a newspaper with a minuscule circulation years ago.
It makes you wonder how much waste is the in the city budget. Jablow should have known about this for years.
Jablow needs to go, the waste has to stop.
As someone who published an advertiser based free publication for more than 25 years in Sedona, the inference that public notices should be limited to those with computers, forced to keep informed through myriad websites and not in the traditional print media is narrow-minded and elitist.
Many seniors rely on print, preferring to read their morning paper with a cup of coffee or tea. Many who are fortunate enough to own a computer may still not feel comfortable navigating their way through those brightly lit pages.
I also didn’t see where the exact amount paid for “public notices” is wasted on the “public.”
Perhaps when one opens the pages of print for information, they could also open their minds.
@Thom Stanley
My 88 year old mother uses her smartphone for news. I think virtually anyone younger than her uses their smartphone or tablet for their news.
Let’s be environmentally conscious for a second, electrons are far cheaper than newsprint. A bi-weekly rag with a circulation of around than 1500 does not deserve City of Sedona funds in the 21’st century.
Newspapers and buggy whip manufacturers are obsolete. Things change.
How fortunate you are to have your mother still round at 88. I would have hoped she would have taught you better than to contribute your comments with name calling and offering information you have no way to prove. In your quest to save the environment, you omit that smartphones and tablets aren’t made from recycled materials and are quite harmful to the environment once they are discarded. Just because you choose to get your “local” information online does not mean everyone has to succumb to your definition of “change.”
Just because “video killed the radio star” doesn’t mean we should cancel the “news” and “music” we get from radios. Not everyone like “my 91-year-old mother-in-law” has ever had a computer and just can’t quite navigate a smartphone or even focus on the tiny screen you recommend. Being kind to “all” and “inclusive” is Free and Worth It.
@Thomas Stanley
I agree, being kind to all should be free. I just don’t think you should tax others for your “freedom” to read a newspaper. Should we tax people to print it in braille for those few that are blind or have a neighbor freely read to them? A government that is big enough to provide everything is big enough to take everything from you .
Truth is a light, let the Sedona newspaper succeed on its own merit with out taxpayer ” City” support. They should print the news without the City of Sedona paying them to do so if their service has value. If the newspaper requires taxpayer support perhaps it is best they cease to exist.
The city should make every effort to spend as little taxpayer money as possible, not spend a much as possible as our current city management seems to do.