When I moved here over 30 years ago Sedona had a good small government until they didn’t. We could always attend Sedona City Council meetings, write CC, and get responses. We never knew the political party of our city council members. We worked together for the same common causes making Sedona a great place to live and visit for all. We were never influenced by PACs, business interests, groups, or associations. Nor were we told by a political party who to vote for at the city level.
The first great experience with CC was way back when Sheri Graham was Vice Mayor. A developer was attempting to build a new shopping center and proposed that they use the parking garage of the shopping center where we had a business. We paid a lot of common area maintenance fees, and the merchants had exclusive parking garage in our lease. Dana Varney made seven copies of the lease and hand delivered them to city hall one for each council person with a letter explaining our position. During the CC meeting Vice Mayor Sheri Graham read the exclusive portion of the lease, and the CC voted NO on the developer’s request to use our parking garage for their new shopping center.
The shopping center developer then suggested a “pay to play parking lot” allowing him to not have mandated parking on his shopping center site. This parking lot would be owned by the city. The developer “paid to play for parking”, this is when the uptown city parking lot was built. The dollars the developer contributed was not even close to covering the cost of parking lot. The pay to play dollar amount number did not pay for the decades of no parking on their site. This agreement cost the public money, yet the city elected officials, and staff saw dollar signs.
As time went on, I witnessed private interest groups, developers, political action groups, business associations, business interests, non-residents control and manipulate our city in order to get their projects, funding and used their positions to intimidate employees and others, changing the narrative, direction and culture of our city.
Current Sedona City Work Groups
Currently our city work group members are selected, handpicked by city staff. Even when we think it’s a city group it may not be one, even if the group meets at city hall having city staff and elected officials attend meetings. Their agenda, discussions and agreements are private undocumented and not open to the public.
We are being manipulated. Words are misused and documents can prove this. If you hear something it may not be true. Here is one great example, Sedona housing needs.
Do we the city of Sedona need to destroy the open space Cultural Park for housing? NO the city has mismanaged the workforce – affordable housing for over two decades. The city has failed to track, record, inspect, manage or enforce the mandated lodging housing. In fact, they are allowing the lodging industry to convert them into “sellable rooms” and allowing hoteliers to convert workforce housing into STRs “overflow rooms”
City Council is allowing pay to play workforce housing
Now the CC is allowing lodging to “pay to play” again paying the city instead building and maintaining the workforce housing. The lodging industry are paying pennies. This agreement is continuous padding the lodging industry pockets with profits.
Just like when public monies via the City of Sedona did in the Chamber’s no-bid contract receiving 55% of city bed tax to market Sedona tourism without a proper oversite and government restrictions. The Chamber marketed their regional members, less than 3% of chamber members collected city bed tax, only 23% of chamber’s members were licensed city businesses, a majority of non-tourism businesses that don’t qualify under state guidelines for tourism promotion. The city failed secure the public assets allowing the chamber to keep all the public assets and collateral. The city didn’t have any confidentiality agreement, proprietary information agreement with the chamber. Even the AG disagreed with policy and ruled that the city had to remove the 55% auto pay.
National Community Survey™ (The NCS™) Sedona report
National Community Survey shows us Residents that can’t trust the city, or can we trust the process of governing here. Overall confidence in Sedona government and the overall direction that Sedona continues to decline in the National Community Survey™ (The NCS™) report. The city gets low ratings for “Being honest” and “Being open and transparent to the public”.
National Community Survey shows us Residents that can’t trust the city, or can we trust the process of governing here. Overall confidence in Sedona government and the overall direction that Sedona continues to decline in the National Community Survey™ (The NCS™) report. The city gets low ratings for “Being honest” and “Being open and transparent to the public”.
Can we trust the city and the push for the need of housing?
When it comes to housing lets look at the facts. The city’s raw data shows the city invited non-residents, business-interests, NGO organizations, Political Action Groups who benefit from more housing and including those receiving city funding via services, grants, or other benefits to influence the outcomes.
It is bad enough for the City Staff to be allowed to select the city’s work group members, the staff is directing the preferred outcome by directing and manipulating the narratives. There is no announcements for the public to attend. No records, agenda, votes, records or recording of these meetings. The City of Sedona policy isn’t transparent a total misuse of power, misuse of public money, manipulating the residents and controlling the outcome of elections. Gift cards have been given to some participants in these workgroups.
Here is the City Program description:
“The keystone to the Citizen Engagement Program
Work Groups are a crucial part of what makes this program successful. They are task-oriented groups that function as advisory boards and work directly with staff on topics and issues that need public input. Please see below our recent work groups. See more details of the work groups, their members and tasks.”
Non-city private group-Housing Advisory Work Group
Below is the answer from the city.
Even one of the groups that I thought was a city housing workgroup wasn’t, even though they had all their meetings at city hall.
Here is the updated list of the members:
• Randy Crewse
• Tyson Shelly
• Carol Kurimsky
• Devonna McLaughlin
• George Ault
• Joan Bouck
• Judy Poe
• Luke Sefton
• Mimi Maher
• Catey Maxey
• Marc Jacobson
• Mary Smoak
• Ronald Martinez
• Roxana Deniz
• Sandy Moriarty
• Sean Smith
• Steve Segner
• Tania Simms
• Thomas Swaninger
• Brian O’Connell
• Al Comello
• Brian Fultz – City Council
• Jessica Williamson – City Council
• Scott Jablow – City Council Mayor
• Linda Martinez – Chair
• Jeanne Frieder – Staff
• Shannon Boone – Staff “
“The Housing Assessment Advisory Work Group ended in 2021 and was organized by the city to help staff gather resident sentiment and feedback on housing solutions.
The Housing Advisory Work Group is grassroots, community-led, informal group with no official sanctions or authority with the City. Elected officials and staff come at their leisure because they want to hear ideas about housing, and thoughts to work through challenges.
The Housing Advisory Work Group is grassroots, community-led, informal group with no official sanctions or authority with the City. Elected officials and staff come at their leisure because they want to hear ideas about housing, and thoughts to work through challenges.
Remember the Shannon Boone and other emails from members of these groups? Shannon and other documented their disdain for residents.
Can we trust the members of this group? The majority of residents don’t trust the city according to the National Community Survey™ (The NCS™) report. Why would we agree with this private group to destroy the open space and cultural park land?
Why oh why is this group listed as a Citizen Engagement group on the City of Sedona website?
The city claims the group is grassroots.
At the time of the email from city, the group did not appear on city site. Then it was added as a city group as seen in the screen shot.
Last week I put in Public Records Request, and it was removed again.
After I found out about the adding, removal I then made a post on a group Sedona Politics in Motion Face Book Group as many city council members are in this group along with the person who takes screenshots a copy and paste many residents post where he shares them with the city, mayor, staff and sometimes the city attorney. I did as an experiment. Shortly after the city replaced the grassroot group labeled under the City of Sedona Citizen Engagement program.
Keep Sedona Cultural Park as open space. Sign the petition SedonaVotes.com
Connect the dots to those who are this list. How many will be enriched? Think about how we are being manipulated. They are using trigger words pulling on our heart strings.
Please don’t let the city do the same as they did with the uptown parking garage once they start, it can’t be reversed.
Sign the petition and HALT the destruction of the Forest Land Exchange land Sedona Cultural Park. SedonaVotes.com Where to Sign Petitions – Sedona Votes
Do I need to show you more? Stay tune.
Donna Joy
Chief Operating Disruptor
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Donna Joy ~
A retired Entrepeneur, Creator, Business owner, Culinary Artist, Chef & Chief Operating Disruptor.
♥ Donna Joy
donna@donnajoys.com
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Donna Joy ~ A retired Entrepeneur, Creator, Business owner, Culinary Artist, Chef & Chief Operating Disruptor.
♥ Donna Joy
