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Did the Opposition to the National Monument Issue Fall Asleep?

SedonaEye.com J. Rick Normand, Investigative and Financial Columnist

SedonaEye.com J. Rick Normand, Investigative and Financial Columnist

Sedona AZ (May 20, 2016) – Angela LeFevre and Nancy McLean Brown, and their new hired gun, Neil Bethell Sinclair, who has expertise in “the political landscape,” made the mistake of thinking so! Arizona Liberty (“AZL”), comprised of Mike Schroeder, Dwight Kadar, this writer, and Susan Amon, was the leader of the Sedona Verde Valley Red Rocks National Monument (“SVVRRNM”) designation opposition that crushed the left-wing effort to induce Ann Kirkpatrick to make a formal request to President Obama to use his Constitutionally-challenged power of governance by Executive Order to create the SVVRRNM.

But, after Angela LeFevre left the Sedona City Council in a huff over her 6-to-1 defeat in her attempt to get the City’s endorsement of the National Monument issue, not to mention a defeat in 100% of the City Councils and unincorporated townships in the Verde Valley, she’s trying to backdoor the issue again by forming another of her coalition’s (her favorite word) known as “Save Our Ancient Red Rocks (SOAR)” – a 501c3 nonprofit organization which doesn’t seem to have obtained from the IRS a Letter of Determination. Her newest call to arms is “Who could not live in this amazingly beautiful place and not want to ensure its permanent protection?” which is a tactic to make her personal national monument quest one of taking the moral high ground notwithstanding the wishes of 86% of the residents of the Verde Valley to the contrary who understood the terrible deliberately hidden consequences. If you, dear reader, don’t know the consequential legal, economic, environmental and moral arguments AGAINST the Red Rocks National Monument issue, which caused its defeat last year, just go to the far upper right hand corner of this website and type into the search box “J. Rick Normand,” then click on “Go,” and all seven articles that I wrote on this subject will appear. They will recount the magnitude of the legal, economic and environmental nightmares western states have been forced to endure as a result of latter day national monument designations.

Monument land grabNevertheless, here we go again!

Apparently LeFevre, Brown and Sinclair, as well as The Sierra Club, and the same old cast of characters from the last failed effort have decided that all of you should revisit the issue again before it’s too late to get the President to stick it to the State of Arizona before he leaves office. So, these three have formalized an effort to get all of you to change your minds and, therefore, overwhelm Arizona’s Congressional delegation with your demands that they pile into the White House demanding that the President save our Red Rocks from…well, no one is quite clear as to whom or what we’re supposed to save our Red Rocks from other than the always implied ogre of ever-so-evil American capitalism. So, why would Angela LeFevre choose to try to revive this unpopular issue? You have to understand who she is, her Marxist political background and her current political belief-system. If you want to better understand her motivation, go to the comment blog roll at this link :

https://sedonaeye.com/another-sedona-monumental-mistake/

Proposed Sedona Verde Valley Red Rocks boundaries

Proposed Sedona Verde Valley Red Rock National Monument boundaries

Meanwhile, we at AZL had no doubt that Ms. LeFevre and Ms. Brown thought, after their last resounding defeat, that AZL would disband or just fall asleep at the wheel. No, ladies, we knew you all too well! We knew you’d be back irrespective of the outcome imposed upon you by our Constitutional Republic, our sovereign state and the vast majority of opposed local opinion. We knew your revival tactic would be to try to get a petition drive going to enlist a huge number of non-Verde Valley Arizona residents to sign your petition in order to present a false impression that local opinion on the issue has somehow reversed itself in less than eight months. Knowing what you would do and the tactics you would enlist to try to accomplish your socialist goal, we at AZL took a different manner of opposition strategy by choosing to engage with our own coalition…comprised of the State of Arizona Legislature in the persons of Rep. Bob Thorpe and Senate President Pro Tempore Sylvia Allen, Governor Ducey, and Arizona Congressional Representative, Paul Gosar.

Following below is what AZL has supported and who we are working with instead of conducting bogus petition drives, raising donations based on false premises and disseminating false moralistic publicity pieces:

monumental mistakeCongressman Gosar has resurrected the 1884 Anti-Deficiency Act {U.S. Code Title 31 Section 1341-Anti-Deficiency} which has never been rescinded by Congress or overturned by any federal court which prohibits federal agencies from obligations or expending federal funds in advance or in excess of a Congressional appropriation and from accepting voluntary services. In other words, any Executive Order by President Obama for the enabling of SVVRRNM will NOT be able to get any enabling funding requested by The National Park Service, the BLM, the USFS or any other federal agency without a formal U.S. House of Representatives approved appropriations bill which will NEGATE the President’s Executive Order. Doubtless, this is the real reason that Ann Kirkpatrick doesn’t want to support Angela’s continuing effort. I have talked with Rep. Gosar face-to-face to discuss this and I will promise you the Republicans of Arizona’s Congressional delegation are thoroughly prepared to PREEMPT Angela LeFevre’s, Nancy Brown’s and Neil Sinclair’s effort to revive the National Monument issue.

Sedona Arizona Bell Rock would become part of the National Monument

Sedona Arizona Bell Rock would become part of the National Monument

Concurrently, Governor Ducey has signed Rep. Bob Thorpe’s bill, namely House Bill 2585, which is now law in our State, which requires the Arizona State Land Department to “determine whether the limits of a parcel comprising a national monument” in our state “are confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected by the national monument.” Keep in mind that national monuments in the western U.S. average 175,000 acres in size whereas national monuments in the eastern U.S. average 50-100 acres that is not a misprint! Notwithstanding Angela LeFevre’s demonstrated inability to understand U.S. Constitutional Law (see weblink recited above), the State of Arizona does have the right and Constitutional sovereign authority to hold the federal government to the restrictive language contained within the very law that President Obama uses to create national monuments. Even the Arizona Game and Fish Commission has come out against the creation of more national monuments in Arizona.

We here in Arizona have already lost more than 100,000 acres of State Trust land to the creation of federal land management and oversight entities which have severely limited state land trust revenues that were earmarked to support our schools. The worst hypocrisy I’ve heard in years is the claim by Angela LeFevre that “she is for education in our state.” How does cutting the State’s ability to fund school programs help education? Ms. LeFevre, our schools don’t need your misguided help! And, your recurrent Save Our Ancient Red Rocks National Monument drive is anti-AZ schools.

So, Ms. LeFevre, we recognize that your newest and greatest National Monument movement is a flat out ruse to camouflage your Marxist bias towards total federalism! You’re in Arizona, not Leeds, England Ms. LeFevre. Out here, we like to run our own affairs rather than have the Feds do it and enforce their will upon us with their federal police force. You’ve had 12 years here to figure that out!

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62 Comments

  1. @ correction says:

    Thank you for correcting that.

    Allow me to ask you this; do you think that people who stay at the Hilton which is outside the city and the few other lodging places ever leave their room? Do they rent bikes? Do they eat? Do they rent a (dreaded) chopper? You don’t think that some or most of their money is spent IN the city??? I would think so and from experience, know so as well.

  2. Point to Ponder says:

    And when does a non-profit lose that status? If over $2 million a year ($35,000/ weekly) equals non-profit chamber of commerce then something’s terribly wrong with this picture. Major corruption in Sedona. Nice publicity.

  3. West sedona resident says:

    @i see through you

    You must have no sense of self and must have fallen prey to JRN. Pathetic attempts To pick up a women at the gym

  4. J. Rick Normand says:

    @Larry A

    Thank you, Larry. And, you too, I See Through You…

    J. Rick Normand – עס איז קיין אַרטיקל

    JRN

  5. @ @corrrection says:

    Wake up Sedona has changed. Everything a tourist needs is located outside the city limits where they don’t pay city sales tax or bed tax.

    Check out the Jeep companies they go out to the Hilton and pick up the tourists.The city financed visitors center sends the tourist outside the city to their members. The majority of their members are outside the city. Guess what they don’t collect city sales tax.

    But you refuse to accept that the city should be focused on in-city. It is backass backwards, no city promotes their competition. Instead of driving business into the city you drive it out. In doing so you degrade the worth of being in-city limits. The population along with paid occupancies are down for the city of sedona. That is a fact.

    Corrupt.

  6. Get Real says:

    Anyone that buys into that crap about tourists staying outside city limits that come into Sedona and shop, dine, etc. are fools. What proof is there of that? It’s simply lip service since for all we know they are nothing more than day trippers that may or may not buy a token souvenir as they inch their way at a snail’s pace to Oak Creek and/or the Grand Canyon. Not contributing anything significantly, and especially no bed tax revenue! Period, end of report. And further, wasn’t that exchange for a percentage of the increased bed tax to go back to those that agreed to pay for it – specifically SEDONA CITY hotels, motels, B & B’s? Those not contributing should NOT be benefiting from city revenue via a rogue chamber of commerce.

    Interesting, too, the subject of this column is about the National Monument and yet as far as I can determine it was Steve Segner that took it in a different direction by bringing in the garbage issue. The same people that gripe when topics wander under other articles can’t seem to resist to spread the disease. And especially him because how many times has he said he would not comment on Sedona Eye anymore? However this time he did us all a HUGE favor by tooting his horn and spilling the beans about the gala event at his fabulous home with meticulously manicured lawn, blah, blah, blah. Now that’s something to crow about right? A factual event instead of the fairy tale lies from the chamber of corruption and puppet council dancing on their string. And now Justin Clifford? The stink isn’t only at the sewer plant.

  7. @ I see through you says:

    and you know that I didn’t go up to JRN and introduce myself to him, HOW????!!!!????

    As a matter of fact I did do just that. It was a bit difficult to really have a conversation with him because the state legislators from PHX kept him busy. I found it very interesting that except for a few local politicians, “those types” were all from down south.

  8. @Get Real says:

    With all due respect I humbly beg to differ with you. Reading through all the comments and the vastness of the implication of a National Monument Designation, it seem all topics involving not just incorporated Sedona but the entire area under consideration are appropriate and should be welcome.

    And that isn’t intended to deflect from the morally wrong and unethical manner in which the city council, staff, chamber and lodging council are abusing state laws.

    What I do find most interesting is a focus of Mr. Normand’s article is on Angela LeFevre, and she is listed as one of the guests at the Segner gala is yet another indication of the ongoing behind the scene manipulation that continues to control this once classy, dignified area to live and visit.

    Thank you, J. Rick Normand, for standing up to these rude, conniving, obnoxious fiends that continue to choke the charm out of Sedona and those that live and work here. As someone indicated in another place on this site, you and a Mr. Schroeder, with your success on this issue, would do us a favor if you would seriously consider tacking the matter of the corrupt situation with the Chamber, City, Staff, etc. as well as the intent to force us into being slaves to their control of our garbage and other matters.

    Thank you.

  9. I See Through You says:

    Dear @ I see though you,

    This is getting really confusing. Now, obviously, whoever you are you keep using different handles. You must be really afraid of something…or someone. Anyway, your question is a good one. HOW????!!!!???? Because I was there too and wanted to introduce myself but I couldn’t get close to J. Rick because a ton of state politicians had glommed onto him. So, you’re right about that. But what I realized is that the guy really is connected. Segner thinks he’s connected. He may be, but only in this tiny town. I would say the guy you hate is the one who is really connected and get things done.

  10. @J. Rick Normand says:

    Dear J. Rick Normand I agree with @Get Real we need a few heroes to take take our town back. Praying that you and the liberty group would consider this. Thank you!

  11. I heard says:

    Hey Little Ricky Don’t understand why you don’t answer SS question about were you stand about trash hauling……….I think I know why…… I heard that YOU don’t even live in Sedona City Limits and are basically a blow hard who doesn’t even have a job…. Is it true you live off your Daddy’s trust fund? Are you another overindulged big kid desperately trying to be somehow relevant???? SAD

  12. J. Rick Normand says:

    @All Readers at The Eye:

    It now appears that Angela LeFevre, Nancy McLean Brown and several KSB operatives are, once again, trying to build another of their coalitions by joining with the Audubon Society to solicit support for another NM petition to be presented to President Obama. But are they collecting signatures from stakeholders in Red Rock Country? Of course not, they’ve got some Audubon Society people working another petition at the Art & Farmer’s market in Flagstaff. They are actually telling naive people that their petition signature will cause the President to sign an enabling Sedona Verde Valley NM Executive Order without mentioning that the House Appropriations Committee has cut of funds for any such NM implementation. No funds, no National Monument… and the President cannot overturn the no-funding decision of the House Appropriations Committee.

    @I heard

    I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. What was that? Oh well, it couldn’t have been very important, any way. Bye!

    JRN

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