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Eye on Sedona Council Priorities with Mayor Moriarty

Article submitted by City of Sedona AZ

Article submitted by City of Sedona AZ

Sedona AZ (January 27, 2016) – Another year has passed, and we hope that the New Year will be a happy and healthy one for all of you. The new year always brings a review of the City Council’s priorities. The priority list did not change much this year, because so many items from last year are still in process.

Some of you have heard me say that the government moves at the pace of a narcoleptic snail. This often causes frustration for all of us, but we take our responsibilities seriously, and that includes transparency and accountability. We also have a history of making sure we have input from the public when we are considering action on issues affecting our citizens, and we have to follow various local ordinances, county and state regulations, such as the Open Meeting Law. So almost anything we do takes more time than we might like.

Last year’s priority list was quite lengthy for many reasons. First, there were items that carried over from the prior year. We added priorities that were largely a result of the adoption of a new Community Plan, many of which are not going to happen quickly because they are extensive undertakings. For instance, the Land Development Code, including the sign code, needs to be updated so that the vision and goals of the Plan can be implemented. Probably the largest task is the development of more specific plans for thirteen Community Focus Areas (CFAs) identified in the Plan. We are currently working on four, with nine more to follow. In addition, we are also working on a master plan for the Brewer Road property behind Los Abrigados.

Sedona AZ

Sedona AZ

The city’s Community Engagement Program has several work groups formed to address many of these priorities. Some groups have completed their work, some have work in process, and some are upcoming. To see more about these groups, go to the city’s website, SedonaAZ.gov, click on the Citizen Engagement button, then on Work Groups on the blue menu bar on the left side of the screen. For even more detail on the CFA work groups, click on the Your Government tab on the home page, then on the Community Plan in the left column, and look for the link to the CFA page in blue print toward the top of the page. If you do this, you will better understand the “narcoleptic snail” reference above. Following procedures to actually get something done is a long process.

Traffic remains as a top priority, so a comprehensive multi-modal transportation and parking study is also underway, a long-term project that will take 12 to 18 months. Uptown crosswalk and safety improvements are being completed, as are drainage and storm water management projects, which are part of a long-term plan.

Another priority identified last year is looking at managing trash hauling city-wide through a competitively bid contract, so that study is underway as well, with final decisions a long way off.

With all of this work in progress, it will be some time before any other major projects can be undertaken. We want to avoid starting something if we don’t know we can finish it. As we emerge from the recession, an increase in building projects and other increased economic activity have also added to the day to day operations of the City, so the staff is very busy.

If you have read this far, I appreciate your patience. And remember, even narcoleptic snails do make progress and eventually reach their goals.

The above represents my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sedona City Council or staff.

This SedonaEye.com article was submitted by the City of Sedona staff and written by Sedona Mayor, Sandy Moriarty.

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Read www.SedonaEye.com for daily news and interactive views!

13 Comments

  1. Honesty please says:

    Washington Post posting article Fact Checking debate::: WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton cast the financial industry as an adversary in her presidential campaign — despite the money that industry has poured into her White House effort. Bernie Sanders once again mischaracterized the share of the wealth taken by the very richest Americans.

    A look at some of the claims in their latest Democratic presidential debate:

    CLINTON on Wall Street: “They are trying to beat me in this primary.”

    THE FACTS: Wall Street is not the anti-Clinton monolith she implied. People in the securities and investment industry gave more than $17 million last year to super political action committees supporting her presidential run and nearly $3 million directly to her campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org, a campaign-finance watchdog. Wall Street is the top industry donating to her effort, ahead of the legal profession, non-profit institutions and others.

    Clinton is taking heat from Sanders over her Wall Street ties, which go back decades.

    The Washington Post reported Thursday that Clinton has brought in more money from the financial sector during her four federal campaigns — for Senate and president — than her husband, Bill Clinton, did in his quarter-century political career. In all, more than $44 million was raised for her campaigns. This includes more than $1 out of every $10 of the money contributed for her 2016 campaign.

    Clinton has often talked about how much she has raised from teachers, as opposed to big corporate interests. But the $2.93 million given directly to her campaign last year by people in the securities and investment industry surpassed the $2.88 million given by people in education, OpenSecrets found….

  2. Alex says:

    SO Hillary is a democrat – knew it

  3. And more honesty says:

    Open secrets says…CLINTON: “I am against American combat troops being in Syria and Iraq. I support special forces. I support trainers. I support the air campaign.”

    THE FACTS: Clinton makes a dubious distinction. Although it can be debated whether certain types of military personnel fit the definition of “combat” troops, there is little doubt that special operations forces like those now operating both in Syria and Iraq do.

    In the fall, a special operations soldier was killed in a firefight in Iraq during a joint U.S.-Kurdish commando raid on an Islamic State prison.

    The Pentagon recently sent up to 200 special operations troops to Iraq to carry out a range of risky missions, including raids against Islamic State targets.

    Pilots of fighter aircraft, bombers and other warplanes that have flown over Iraq and Syria, dropping bombs and missiles on Islamic State targets on a daily basis, certainly are engaged in combat.

    Clinton said she supports Obama’s reluctance to take the lead in ground combat in Iraq and Syria. But many military members are now engaged in combat.

  4. Can you hear more truth says:

    Open secrets says …SANDERS: “You have three out of the four largest banks in America today, bigger than they were, significantly bigger than when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail.”

    THE FACTS: Sanders is right that JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are larger than they were in mid-2008, before they received bailout money. But those gains largely reflect mergers and acquisitions that occurred, frequently at the government’s behest, during the financial crisis. JPMorgan bulked up by purchasing Bear Stearns, in a deal facilitated by the Federal Reserve. Bank of America ballooned when it acquired Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo roughly doubled in size when it bought a floundering Wachovia Bank.

    But the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul bill, passed in 2010, has forced banks to hold more capital as a cushion against risk and to make future bailouts less likely. That requirement and others has caused several banks, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citi, to shed assets to avoid growing larger and triggering further oversight.

  5. Open secrets Facts checked says:

    AP FACT CHECK: Dems in New Hampshire By CALVIN WOODWARD and CHRISTOPER S. RUGABER

    Now you know.

  6. Honest TPP &Clinton and Sanders says:

    Open secrets says –CLINTON on Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: “I said that I was holding out that hope that it would be the kind of trade agreement that I was looking for. I waited until it had actually been negotiated because I did want to give the benefit of the doubt to the administration. Once I saw what the outcome was, I opposed it.”

    THE FACTS: As Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton was far more enthusiastic about the Pacific trade deal taking shape than she became once she was running for president and trying to appeal to the liberal wing of her party. As secretary she had given speeches around the world in support of the deal under negotiation, saying in Australia in 2012 that it “sets the gold standard in trade agreements,” a cheerleading sentiment she echoed elsewhere.

    She’s stated since that the final agreement didn’t address her concerns. But the final version actually had been modified to drop certain provisions that liberal activist groups had opposed.

  7. More Honesty 4U People says:

    Open secrets.org fact check says more … SANDERS: “Almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent.”

    THE FACTS: This has been a common mantra by Sanders but it relies on outdated numbers. In the first five years of the economic recovery, 2009-2014, the richest 1 percent captured 58 percent of income growth, according to Emmanuel Saez, a University of California economist whose research Sanders uses.

    That’s a hefty share, but far short of “almost all.” In the first three years of the recovery, 2009-2012, the richest 1 percent did capture 91 percent of the growth in income. But part of that gain reflected an accounting maneuver as the wealthiest pulled income forward to 2012 in advance of tax increases that took effect in 2013 on the biggest earners.

    Many companies paid out greater bonuses to their highest-paid employees in 2012 before the higher tax rates took effect. Those bonuses then fell back in 2013. And in 2014, the bottom 99 percent finally saw incomes rise 3.3 percent, the biggest gain in 15 years. Average wages also showed signs of picking up last year as the unemployment rate fell, suggesting the bottom 99 percent may have also seen gains in 2015….

  8. J. Rick Normand says:

    @blog comments

    Whoa! Is this the Democrats of the Red Rocks blog site or is it still The Eye? It appeared to me Mayor Moriarty was writing about City priorities, not about the Bernie vs. Hillary conflict.

    Uh, oh! Now I’ve done it! My comments are bound to attract our favorite troll LE, aka West Sedona Resident.

    JRN

  9. What am I missing? says:

    Excuse me but what the heck do any of the above 7 comments have to do with the content of the article? Isn’t it about Sedona? Where did all this Clinton/Sanders chitchat come from? A convenient diversion from the real subject at hand?

  10. Carol N. says:

    Thx J Rick Normand & “What am I missing?” for your observations. I agree. This looks like another desperate attempt to divert Eye readers from more pertinent comments relating to Sedona government rip-offs. That list grows on a daily basis. Don’t be fooled by this amateurish but obvious attempt to distract from the endless dirty deeds. The plate is overflowing and we know it!

  11. J Ross says:

    “narcoleptic snails” great for snails very bad for a community that that has huge traffic problems!

  12. JeanJ says:

    The statement that “traffic remains a top priority” is totally laughable. I suppose next we are going to be told that the 13 CFAs, with several hundred more lodging units authorized to date, won’t greatly exacerbate our huge traffic problems? The Mayor states “We are currently working on four, with nine more to follow.” Weren’t all 13 CFAs rejected by the 2002 City Council when they were labelled transitional zoning areas?

    By the way, meetings of “The several [Citizen Engagement Program] work groups formed to address many priorities” are held in secret and do not come under the Arizona Open Meeting law. No locations, agendas or minutes. So much for transparency.

  13. Steve segner says:

    Jean , in your bashing of the mayor and and her commitment to working on traffic you forgot to mention the new traffic study contract?
    $200,000+ is a start.
    Jean, there are over 1000 undeveloped lots in Sedona and the surrounding area. Each will bring two to three cars and two to five people, Jean do the numbers.
    Seems like a good idea to look at all sources of traffic: hotels, residents and future growth and yes179 and 89A day trippers! Even day trippers have a right to get out of Phoenix and enjoy Sedona.
    So Jean now you can start bashing the mayor and city for spending ” Your” tax dollars on another traffic study, Jean once Again you are just wrong, Sandy is doing something.

    Ss

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