Be informed. Mail in your ballot.
Sedona AZ (April 14, 2012) – The Sedona Eye received this Letter to the Editor about the Sedona Fire District recall election from a Sedona, Arizona resident:
Dear Sedona Eye readers,
The Sedona Fire District needs your help. Your votes for Nazih Hazime, Diane Schoen and Corrie Cooperman are essential to establish financial stability and to protect our vital professional emergency services. Each candidate has tremendous credentials (see www.sfdrecall.com) and brings a wealth of diversified skills to the table. These are critical times and we need critical thinkers governing our District.
Never has your Fire District been in such imminent danger.
At the first budget workshop held by the Board to determine the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget, new chief Kris Kazian presented the financial fact that your District will be effectively bankrupt in two years unless this Board takes action now. Board member Phyllis Erick’s response was, “I didn’t buy it then and I don’t but it now.” Then offered nothing to substantiate her erroneous but doggedly held opinion.
During an OLLI Lunch and Learn Session, Board Clerk Charles Christensen called your District, over which he supposedly governs, “…nothing more than an ambulance service.”
That colossal lack of appreciation for life-saving qualifications, technical rescue, swift water rescue and all the other essential services provided by this professional District might very well explain why an additional 60% of SFD personnel are looking for employment elsewhere – as evidenced in their own McGladrey audit report.
And Board Chairman David Blauert repeatedly and enthusiastically discusses the very real possibility of consolidating our dispatch services then publicly condemns the very same discussion about other services. He touts the moneysaving suggestions put forth by the RSM McGladrey audit but fails to state the obvious: $190,000 of your tax dollars were squandered for an audit, only to be informed that if we decrease salaries and benefits, eliminate positions and reduce services, we’ll save money. Are you willing to bet your life on it?
The three combine before our very eyes to destroy the fine District built so well by those who came before. It is time to assert ourselves to bring this district back to principle, correct abuses and save your Sedona Fire District from inevitable ruin. Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic in democracy: To right wrongs, to do justice and to equitably serve all the citizens in the Sedona Fire District.
Remember, bad representatives are elected by good people who fail to vote. Don’t let that happen! Your mail-in only ballot will arrive during the week of April 23.
Vote for Hazime, Schoen and Cooperman, return the ballot before May 15, 2012, and make your District strong once again.
Karen Schmitt Sedona AZ
For more information please read my posts under “SFD Board Arranges Titanic Deck Chairs”.
The McGladrey report was commissioned because the current board was being told by Hazime that the cuts they were looking for ” In my professional opinion, this reduction of $2.5 million from the annual budget could cause loss of life and property within the Sedona Fire district. ” 4/13/11 SFD Budget workshop meeting.
The McGladrey report found millions in additional cuts, without compromising safety.
Ms Schmitt states above “The three combine before our very eyes to destroy the fine District built so well by those who came before.” The expenses got so high because there were for a time two fire fighters wives on the board while property values were skyrocketing. They made sure every dime of the increased revenue was spent. Time to come back to reality.
If you want higher taxes vote for Hazime, Cooperman and Schoen.
If you want a efficient Fire department run in a cost effective manner, vote for the current board of Erick, Christensen and Blauert.
Vote wisely.
Corrie Cooperman is far and away more well-educated, more qualified, more in line with the concerns of the people and more capable of managing the responsibilities of a seat on the Sedona Fire District’s Governing Board than her opponent. Yet, a printed election diatribe provided by Phyllis Erick states, “We are facing… problems, the budget.” She goes on (and on) to her last paragraph. “We now have a highly educated and knowledgeable Chief with budgetary experience…”
As noted in my previous letter to the SedonaEye editor, during the first Budget Workshop the much lauded chief, Kris Kazian, warned of the SFD’s looming Armageddon if this Board fails to act immediately. Mrs. Erick’s response? “I didn’t buy it then and I don’t buy it now.” Her blatant self-promotion closes in large font: “Vote for Phyllis Erick someone in touch with the numbers…”
The Sedona Fire District budget is without question, the biggest responsibility our elected Governing Board faces. That, and hiring a fire chief (which this Board has already done) are in fact, the Board’s ONLY responsibilities — contrary to some recalled members’ well-documented deviations therefrom. Corrie Cooperman’s professional experience managing substantial budgets will serve the entire community with much greater skill and precision than her woefully inadequate opponent.
When our highly respected former business manager, our former fire chief, audit conclusions and now Kris Kazian all provide detailed accounting of the dire financial circumstances we are facing but – she doesn’t buy it – with what numbers is Phyllis Erick so reportedly in touch? Specifically.
If she is privileged to information the public should be provided, please enlighten us. I’m sure her insight on budgetary intricacies will benefit us all. I eagerly await something a little more fruitful than the bar graph she flashed at the OLLI Lunch and Learn Session. The one prepared by Craig Dible.
Until she is able to substantiate her foolishly (and perhaps even dangerously) contrarian perspective, asking for anyone’s vote is audacious and ludicrous.
I do agree with Ms. Erick on one point: “Vote wisely. Know the issues.” Make Corrie Cooperman, Diane Schoen and Nazih Hazime your elected representatives on the Sedona Fire District Governing Board. They will not waste your time. They will not waste your money. They will not waste your vote.
The McGladrey report was commissioned because the current Recalled Members didn’t believe what the Fire Professionals told them and they hoped to find illegal activity. Not only was any found , but McGladrey did not find “millions in additional cuts”, just made some questionable proposals that may or not be realistic. They did validate the present staffing and need for some additional positions.
These recalled members did put together a questionable Fire Chief process, found who they thought would agree with them, but now face the problem that their new Chief has presented them the same news as the last Chief–The District is headed for disaster if you don’t raise the mil levy, and has proposed a higher budget than they approved last year if you pull out the $1.5 million Fire Board contingency they put in that wasn’t asked for.
Blauert, Erick, and Christiansen have caused the Fire district serious problems through irresponsible management and financial decisions.
Vote Wisely, yes, but not for more of these 3.
From the Sedona FD budget meeting of 4/13/2011
“In 2002, the budget had reached $6.6 million and rose to $15.9 million in 2009.”
So “warned of the SFD’s looming Armageddon”, if cuts are made, really?
It seems to me like some spoiled child whose daddy is no longer a millionaire, saying I’ll just die without a new Porsche.
The district bought the fireman’s Porsche, it is a ladder truck during the high budget times. They also bought a wild lands truck and a fleet of other vehicles.
If you want your taxes to go up, vote for Hazime, Cooperman and Schoen.
I’ve heard them say, we are not going to increase your taxes, we are just going to increase the mil rate so you are paying the same as before. Before, when your house was worth twice a much and SFD was spending like a spoiled teenager.
Diane Schoen has consistently demonstrated her commitment to public service throughout her entire personal and professional life in Arizona. There is no question as to her education, experience, qualifications and capabilities. Your vote for Diane Schoen as one of your next Sedona Fire District Governing Board members is a vote for equitable representation for ALL the people throughout the district.
Her opponent repeatedly regales us all with his business accomplishments during the past 51 years in Sedona. Commercial construction from which he has personally profited quite handsomely, no doubt. Nevertheless, his contributions are admirable and members of the public respect what he’s done as a builder. Sadly, unlike so many elder statesmen who know when to make an honorable and gracious exit, Mr. Blauert insists on continuously providing a laundry list of monuments to his construction credit as if they qualify him to act as Chairman of the Sedona Fire District Governing Board. THEY DO NOT!
Mr. Blauert states he has never micromanaged this District. Yet when it was revealed his reported saving of two million dollars from the current fiscal year budget has only been accrued because a number of highly skilled employees have left the district during his watch, Mr. Blauert goes on to publicly name each of them, their date of departure and their supposed reasons for leaving. Those public disclosures of personnel issues are not only appalling examples of blatant micromanagement but also potentially constitute cause for yet another costly lawsuit against the District – AT HIS HAND!
Dave Blauert doesn’t lead; he mis-leads. He approved the wasteful expenditure of almost $200,000.00 of YOUR money on an unnecessary audit report. The report contains graphics done by the SFD staff. It contains NO independent study but recommends several items ALREADY BEING CONSIDERED BY THE SFD!!! He places his hand on that McGladrey audit report as if were a panacea for all that ails the Sedona Fire District. IT IS NOT!
What ails this District is an incapable and dysfunctional Board whose single-minded agenda will be their demise.
The time has come. Make Corrie Cooperman, Diane Schoen and Nazih Hazime your elected representatives on the Sedona Fire District Governing Board. They will not waste your time. They will not waste your money. They will not waste your vote.
Nazih Hazime is running against recalled Sedona Fire District Governing Board clerk, Charles Christensen in the upcoming Special Recall Election. Chief Hazime served, with unquestionable integrity, as Fire Chief of the Sedona Fire District for two years. His expertise, qualifications and vast knowledge are among the many attributes leading this District to hire him.
Not even his opponent, recalled Board Clerk, Charles Christensen can find fault with the proven leadership skills, undeniable qualifications, experience and above all, fire district expertise, Nazih Hazime will return to this community. He has consistently demonstrated his commitment to every citizen within our District and needs neither introduction nor defense.
Charles Christensen’s comments, on the other hand, are indefensible: At a DORR breakfast meeting he said, “We’re having a forensic audit right now… they are quite controversial… restricted by executive privilege and by legal matters. At the termination of this forensic audit, I feel it’s justified because over the years I’ve been there, there have been a number of serious irregularities, people have been asked to resign ….” That “forensic audit” is now complete – to the tune of almost two hundred thousand of YOUR tax dollars! His attempt to impugn the reputations of good people by innuendo proved useless. No irregularities found, Mr. Christensen.
During an OLLI Lunch and Learn Session, Christensen said this fire district was nothing more than an ambulance service. Could he BE any more dismissive toward or disrespectful of the fine and highly trained personnel upon whom we all depend in an emergency?
His disregard is not limited to the fire service. Apparently the citizens don’t matter much, either. His failure to meet a deadline set for ALL candidates to be interviewed by and submit an essay to the Red Rock News was completely ignored. And though I’m happy NOT hearing from him, I think his lack of commitment speaks volumes about how high (or low, in this case) the election, the Board and the Sedona Fire District rank on his list of priorities. Don’t you?
Your District is facing serious issues. Vote for serious candidates with the education, experience and PROVEN credentials to get the job done. Make Nazih Hazime, Diane Schoen and Corrie Cooperman your elected representatives on the Sedona Fire District Governing Board. They will not waste your time. They will not waste your money. They will not waste your vote.