Sedona’s Future Government
by Paul Chevalier
Sedona’s City Council is on a relentless tilt away from democracy. We are at the point where the majority of our present City Council no longer pays any attention to citizens who disagree with them.
The council’s disregard for the public has been increasing over the past few years. Now, the four of the seven members who control the council, no longer pay attention to what the citizens think when making council decisions.
Paul Chevalier
This majority of four: Vice Mayor John Bradshaw and councilors Pud Colquitt, Nancy Scagnelli and Dan Surber, have control of the council – and it has made them bold. In recent months, they openly showed their joint power over the mayor, by firing the citizens on his personal advisory committees.
To increase their power even more, and to try to guarantee a super majority council, these four have “chosen” the successor for recently resigned Marc Sterling’s council seat – who had three years remaining in his term – thereby prohibiting the people of Sedona from electing their own representative.
Representative Government, as former State Senator Tom O’Halleran recently has been quoted as saying, is the core foundation of any successful political unit. Clearly, by this action, these four councilors, Bradshaw, Colquitt, Scagnelli, and Surber, have shown their contempt for representative government.
At the end of this year, it seems likely that Bradshaw will resign from the council to run for mayor, in 2010. If and when Bradshaw vacates his council seat, the majority of the council will likely, once again, show its contempt for representative government and deny the electorate the chance to choose the person who will complete Bradshaw’s remaining two-and-a-half-year council term.
The majority will likely appoint someone who thinks like them. What this means is that two-of-our-seven council members will have been selected without voter consent. Consequently, in 2010, the current majority, needs only get two like-minded people elected to the council to remain in control. If that happens, our government will be controlled by a majority that includes only two (of the seven) council members that were elected by the people. This shows ultimate contempt for representative government.
Some people may think this is clever. Some may think that the end justifies the means, and the council majority does what it does for our greater good. Has the council majority, in fact, acted for our greater good? Perhaps it is useful to look at a few of the major decisions members of the council majority have made.
A). Three members of our current council, Bradshaw, Colquitt and Scagnelli, indebted our city in the tens of millions of dollars to build an unneeded, unwanted sewer in the Chapel area. They did not allow the citizens the opportunity to vote on the debt bond for the project. Yet, the citizens will have to pay for it.
There is not enough money left in a combination of city reserves and anticipated city income to pay the interest and principal on this debt, beginning mid-2012. The council knew this, or should have known it, at the time they borrowed the money. If our citizens had been given a chance to examine this issue and vote on it, common sense would have prevailed and the bond money for the Chapel sewer would have been defeated.
In the coming years, the people of Sedona will have to pay for Bradshaw, Colquitt, and Scagnelli’s mistake. We will see new and higher taxes and fees. For some of our fellow citizens, particularly the elderly retirees, this issue will break them, financially. Some will lose their homes.
Why was this necessary? So that the Chapel area will have a sewer system – even though some of the Chapel residents may no longer be able to afford their home due to the sewer connection fees and ongoing costs.
B). These majority councilors ignored local environment-minded citizens’ efforts to protect our dark skies. Some of these citizens were treated with discourtesy and distain.
Didn’t we move to Sedona for its clear clean air, its beautiful skies, and the natural beauty of its red rocks? Is it unusual that we want to maintain it that way? Why does the majority of the council have a different agenda? Why do they prefer to light up the business area of West Sedona at night?
Their proclaimed rationale for pursuing street lighting, along West Sedona’s 89A business district, is bizarre. This strange logic of the majority of the council goes like this: we need street lights to protect from injury people who jaywalk there at night. They point out that three people were killed there at night by automobiles on the highway, in front of a bar, some years ago. In one of these unfortunate deaths, the victim was passed out, lying on the highway, before he was hit.
The council majority neglects to consider that once that bar went out of business, and this was many years ago, there have been no more roadway deaths or jaywalking problems at night in that area. Common sense tells us that the heightened danger disappeared with the closing of that bar, and was never due to a lack of lighting on the highway. Let‘s face it, if you pass out on the highway during broad daylight, some car will probably run over you, too.
Perhaps, the council majority has another reason for supporting the streetlights. Government studies have shown that the answer to improved highway safety, day and night, in areas such as this, is to add center medians.
One councilor has told me he would not support center medians because some of the business people in this area oppose it. So, that means, rather than support a really good solution that a few businesses might object to, the council chose a mediocre one that wouldn’t upset a few businesses. It’s fine to be pro business, but not at the expense of ruining our dark skies – for all of us.
The people of Sedona are concerned about the council majority’s impingements on the beauty of our environment, and do not agree that ruining our dark skies for this purpose is justified.
By the hundreds, local citizens signed petitions opposing these streetlights. When these petitions were delivered to the council, the majority downplayed them ‚ “anyone can get a bunch of people to sign petitions.”
Really? If that’s so, then shouldn’t there be petitions signed by locals favoring the streetlights? There were no petitions presented to council, signed by locals, that supported the streetlights – not even one petition.
Citizens also tried to persuade the council majority against these streetlights by coming, en masse, to a council meeting and speaking against them. When these locals spoke against the streetlights, they were told by council members that the citizen speakers did not represent the majority of the people of Sedona. They were told they only represented themselves.
One of the majority councilors stated at a council meeting that “the people who come to council meetings who disagree with the council’s decisions represent only one-tenth of one percent of the people of Sedona.” Using this math, about 12 people, all told, disagree with the council’s decisions. This is absurd, as hundreds of people have shown up at council meetings and signed petitions to show that they disagreed.
Majority council members have suggested that there is a silent majority of people in Sedona who agree with them that we should put in the streetlights. A silent majority? How can they possibly know that?
Citizens concerned about maintaining our dark skies then tried yet another tact. They encouraged the city government to select Sedona residents to form a committee to study the safety issues on Hwy. 89A, and report findings and recommendations to the council. The council agreed and directed the city manager to pick such a committee. Eric Leavitt, who was Sedona city manager at the time, complied. After studying the issue, the Citizens Committee made recommendations to the council that the need for streetlights was unfounded and unnecessary.
The council majority was not pleased, and they rejected the committee’s recommendations, then told ADOT that Sedona’s government wanted the streetlights.
C). Every city council should treat its citizens with dignity and respect. That should be the first commandment of government. Our council majority is not respecting the residents of Sedona.
Here is an example: A few months ago, the council majority disbanded Mayor Rob Adam’s committees. These committees consisted of respected citizens who, after being asked by the mayor, volunteered their time and skills to work as advisors to him.
Their mission was to make our city a better place to live, and to contribute a more professional perspective on our financial issues. These citizens put in hundreds of hours of time, without pay. Then, they asked a few hard questions of the government, particularly about the city’s finance practices, especially about budgeting.
After they asked about city finances, the council majority disbanded the committees. With the dissolution of these committees, their probing questions about our finances virtually disappeared.
Transparency in government is a critical protection for any community. Democracies are built on transparency. Kingdoms are not. The council majority’s resistance against citizen’s requests for financial information, which is a public right, leads people to wonder what our local government is trying to hide.
What mistakes have been made and covered up? We have a right to know, because it is us who will have to pay for these mistakes.
In 2010, let’s change the philosophy, the actions, and the attitude of Sedona’s government.
There are many people who live in Sedona who would like a change in government philosophy, actions, and attitude. There are many more people, who do not know what is going on, but would want to protect our environment and their own wallets and pocketbooks.
We must let people know what is happening. Then, we must support candidates for the next Sedona City Council who will protect all of us. We need a council majority that has the attitude of serving the public, and the confidence to accept the inclusion of professionals who can help design our city’s destiny.
Sedona’s future can change for the better in our next election (mid-2010), if we elect council members who will respect citizens, protect our environment, be fiscally responsible, and seek out and follow the will of the people on all important community issues.
We must elect THREE new people in the next election, in order to succeed. If we fail to elect three new councilors, we will continue to be at the tyrannical whim of the current council, once again.
The harm the next council can do is even greater than the harm that has been done so far, and that is why we need to change the majority of this council through the voting process. Our next council is poised to redo our Community Plan. Growth is at the center of much of council’s decision making, and that will continue. We need to elect the right people to make sure that growth decisions are not made to the detriment of the environment, including sustainability and citizens‚Äò zoning rights.
It is likely that certain developers will strongly support candidates who think like the current majority of the council. If we elect people into office who want to further develop Sedona in ways that erode our present zoning protections, it is most likely that our protections in the Community Plan will be emasculated.
Developers are pushing hard, even now, for zoning changes that disregard those protections. We need to protect our current zoning laws. If we elect the wrong people, we will see Community Plan changes that will result in 20 housing units per acre, building heights that will increase to four-story structures, and more residential neighborhoods opened up to commercial construction, under the neutral sounding heading of “mixed” zoning areas.
This cannot become Sedona’s future, and it must be stopped in 2010.
We need to find, encourage, and financially support solid city council candidates to step forward – and the sooner the better.
This campaign will be hard, since there are some powerful business people who have too much to lose if the council begins to listen to the citizen majority. We must win it.
Imagine the difference to our city if we elect a council that respects the people.
When our government treats us respectfully, we will return that respect. When the majority of our council believes that their job is to be public servants, they will be treated with dignity and respect by the vast majority of our citizens. When that happens, sitting on the Sedona City Council will be a positive experience.
Sedona needs candidates who are willing to be public servants. Perhaps it is you who should consider being on our next City Council. If you are willing, there are a growing number of people ready and able to help you prepare and help finance your campaign. However, you must subscribe and believe in the philosophy, actions and attitude of a responsible candidate.
The “Responsive Sedona Leadership 2010‚” PAC has been formed to help such candidates get elected in 2010. For more information, you should send an email: (rsedona2010@gmail.com).
