It’s My Opinion by Robert S. Wood
Sedona AZ (May 3, 2012) – It’s My Opinion by Robert S. Wood is an unsolicited letter to the SedonaEye.com editor by Robert S. Wood, Sedona Fire District ratepayer:
Dear Sedona Eye editor,
Two years ago my front page expose of the bloated SFD in the Sedona Times newspaper helped elect the present board by a landslide and quickly cut the SFD budget by a million bucks. Now I hope to clarify the confusing situation, once again.
Some likely titles:
- DON’T BE FOOLED BY SFD SMOKESCREEN
- DON’T BE FOOLED! SFD BOARD DID NOTHING WRONG
- SFD RECALL A FAKE SMOKESCREEN
- SFD RECALL SHAM AN UNFAIR SCAM
- SFD RECALL AN UNFAIR SMEAR
- SFD RECALL BASED ON FALSE ACCUSATIONS
- SFD BOARD DESERVES PRAISE & RE-ELECTION
- SFD BOARD DESERVES RE-ELECTION, NOT RECALL
Despite unfair accusations, the present SFD Governing Board of Blauert, Christensen and Erick has done nothing wrong. Just the opposite. It’s done a wonderful job of cutting a bloated SFD budget by 3.500,000 taxpayer dollars. The recall effort, led behind the scenes by the aggressive, loose-with-the-truth firefighter’s union is a desperate, self-serving effort to defend that bloated SFD budget by trying to discredit the board, willingly stooping to personal smears and misinformation.
Don’t be fooled. The recall scam is a giant noxious smokescreen intended to confuse and scare the public, destroy trust and undermine the valiant board by accusing it of nonexistent wrongdoing, while hiding what’s really happenning. The union is defensively blowing smoke, and the recall is costing the taxpayers nearly forty grand. The avalanche of misinformation has confused the public. Let me try to clarify the situation.
The recall is also backed by Chapel area residents eager to get themselves their own shiny new 6-bedroom fire station, though all reputable studies show there’s no economic justification whatever for building a facility that would add $2 million in overhead to the already heavy tax burden in these difficult times, and would not improve response time to calls appreciably.
Here’s what’s happened, in a nutshell. When the present reformer board of Christensen, Blauert & Erick mercifully was overwhelmingly elected in 2009, the soaring SFD budget of nearly $16 million was wildly out of control.
Why? Because it’s budget is tightly tied to real estate values, so the budget rose automatically with the realty boom—doubling in just 7 years—until it was the biggest item on your tax bill, higher even than education.
And the greedy SFD quietly spent every penny on stratospheric salaries—higher than the governor’s!—padding its staff, charging over a million bucks in overtime, and spree-buying fleets of unneeded expensive vehicles, using city charge accounts and credit cards.
We taxpayers forked over that sixteen million bucks to a fire dept that on average fights only ten (10) fires a year! Happily, in the past two years, the current governing board has wisely cut $3.5 million off that bloated budget, and plans to cut plenty more, without reducing SFD services or safety in the slightest. The SFD is still the most expensive fire dept in the state. A new independent audit recommends trimming another $1.75 million from the SFD budget.
It’s not surprising that the firefighters union screamed bloody murder when tons of fat were chopped from its glutted budget. Frantically fighting back, it launched a smear campaign to allege Governing board wrongdoing and circulated a recall petition—with the help of eager Chapel residents—hoping that a new board might somehow ease the long overdue budget cuts.
The recallers claim that SFD performance has been hurt but can provide zero evidence, because that claim is patently untrue. This isn’t the first time that the union has been caught over-reaching and misinforming. It’s happened in both the last two elections, abuses which I saw first hand. Crude Union tactics, like creating meeting disruptions and circulating unfounded personal attacks, unfortunately, are nothing new. So don’t be fooled by their baseless smokescreen of complaint.
Union backed former fire chief Nazih Hazime quit of his own free will, when he saw he was losing the fight to keep his outlandish budget. Then he got himself the job as Verde Valley fire chief. Now he wants a place on the Governing board that rightly cut his excessive budget. He also wants to launch a gigantic Regional Fire Dept empire that would lessen Sedona’s local control and hurt it financially. Don’t let the wolf back in the henhouse.
Though they receive no salary or benefits, experienced veteran Fire Board Governors Christensen, Blauert are off to a great start at cutting the SFD down to size while maintaining efficient service. Don’t be fooled by the self-serving union smokescreen. Give the abused incumbents a well-deserved vote of approval, so they can finish the job and save you a bundle on your next tax bill.
Robert Wood Sedona AZEditor’s Note: Robert S. Wood is a former TIME/LIFE magazine staff correspondent in San Francisco, the author of a dozen books, and former guest columnist for the Sedona Times newspaper and SedonaEye.com online news. His unsolicited letter is written as a Sedona Fire District voter and taxpayer, and the opinions expressed herein are his own as such.
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This letter, written by Robert Wood, is a textbook example of yellow journalism. If you wonder what yellow journalism is it is “is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines …”. With a resume such as yours, Robert, you know exactly what you are doing. The true facts dispute all of your claims, distortions, and just plain lies. Your union scare tactics, creative misinterpretation of the finances, and lack of understanding of the history of the district may have worked 2 years ago, but the voters are much more educated now. You obviously haven’t been attending the Board meetings and seen the incompetence, and illegal, and obnoxious behavior of your favorite group. They are facing a recall for very good reasons. I have faith that the majority of the voters will give them exactly what they deserve. Removal by Recall.
now i’m sure to vote for HAZIME, COOPERMAN, SCHOEN & thanks for convincing me mr. woods – & i’m sure that mr. editor will get flack for publishing mr. woods letter but i must say that the sedona eye continues to trump local news with its guts to stand by everybody’s right to have a fair chance to say things in agreement and disagreement – & this reader thinks highly of your site – & appreciated the editors note at the end of mr. woods letter that clearly said it was an opinion.
Donna (no last name pls)
Sedona (west end)
Notice when they talk of budget shortfalls, there is never a word of cutting. Just give us more money, we’ll spend it. There as so many admin staff that no one knows what they do. Three $100,000 plus staff have quit, with no loss of service. There is much left to cut. Let the current board finish the job. If you want higher taxes, Vote for Hazime, Cooperman and Schoen.
Robert~In my opinion, YOUR entry (to use some of your words) is a giant noxious smokescreen intended to confuse the public (like you did during the last election, by the way), while hiding what’s really happenning behind the SFD recall. Time that you went to http://www.sfdrecall.com to see ALL of the various reasons for the recall.
I agree with Dick “that I have faith that the majority of the voters will give them exactly what they deserve. Removal by Recall.”
Tom Longo
Sedona, AZ
Words. Subtle or provocative. Enlightening or obfuscating. Their masterful use can weave magical prose uplifting a reader to previously unknown heights. Or their far less appealing use can spin a venomous and misleading yarn unworthy of a once admirable journalist.
Yes, Mr. Woods, like an aging lion who must prove he remains able to roar, you can still make a frightful noise. The difference between then and now? Neither you nor the lion is taken seriously.
Mr. Wood has a great talent for using words and is able to create a great story using very little real information. No union is involved in this recall.
80% of the 10 calls per day for assistance are for medical reasons.
The $190,000 McGladrey report stated there were no financial errors in the District and that the staffing is correct.
There are other fire districts in the state with higher budgets but not one with a lower mil levy. The proposed savings will most likely never be achieved per the previous business director. He obviously never read the Chapel Station report.
Kinda pathetic there Robert Wood!! A guy like you who supposely wrote for a living (i didnt see much when I searched your name on google) reduced to sprewing misinformation on a local blog!! Maybe if you bothered showing up at a Fire Board meeting over the past year you would of seen first hand the incompetence and lack of knowledge from the recalled three!!
Get your facts straight or are you now reduced to being a TOOL!!!
SFD spends $1 million a MONTH. They say there is no room for cuts among 107 full time employees. Jerome AZ FD has one full time employee.
Lots of personal attacks, no facts.
For higher taxes vote for Hazime, Cooperman and Schoen.
Tony~ as I mentioned in the other posting, you must be desperate if you are comparing Jerome to Sedona. You are comparing apples with oranges!
Get your facts straight…5 positions were eliminated in the budget and the SFD doesn’t spend $1 million a month.
Your VOTE for NAZIH HAZIME, DIANE SCHOEN and CORRIE COOPERMAN is a vote for: Intelligence over hype. Logic over fear. Respect over resentment.
Vote for HAZIME, SCHOEN and COOPERMAN. They will not waste your time. They will not waste your money. They will not waste your vote.
“Two years ago my front page expose of the bloated SFD in the Sedona Times newspaper helped elect the present board by a landslide”
On what planet was the 2010 election a “landslide”?
So many words, so few facts!
Were do I begin? The current board “won by a landslide?” The number ONE vote-getter in 2010 by far, was Ty Montgomery with 3,388 votes. Erick and Blauert had 200 FEWER votes than that. And Blauert barely squeaked by, winning his seat by only SIX votes! Where is the landslide? Too bad you didn’t look it up on the internet.
As I look over all the errors, there are just too many to enumerate. Suffice it to say that Erick, Blauert and Christensen HAVE violated the Open Meeting Law, and Blauert has admitted it in the Red Rock News, Mr. Wood! For those who aren’t familiar with the significance of this volation, it means they meet secretly behind the backs of the public. There is no transparency whatsoever in their administration. The Attorney General will be submitting is findings as soon as the Board’s attorneys quit stonewalling. I’m betting they’re waiting until after the election, how about you?
Mr. Woods, you do yourself great harm when you publish outright lies such as the one about the union-backing anyone in this election. No one has seeked either their financial or physical backing or received either one. I know it’s difficult to face, but this grassroots recall effort and the replacement of the recalled board members has done very well without any help at all from any “union.” If I had to venture a guess, though, I would think the employees of the SFD would be happy to see any qualified individuals with integrity take seats on their board. Is this too much to ask?
Another major point is that Mr. Woods and some others like to say chief Hazime left “of his own free will.” For your information, Mr. Woods, we lost a highly esteemed fire chief because these board members humiliated him at meetings calling him “insubordinate” when he tried to do his job. They never addressed him as Chief, but only as “mister.” They refused to give him the respect he deserved and the freedom to do his job. They were supreme micromanagers. BTW, have you noticed the NEW chief has a clause about micromanagement in his contract? Too bad you didn’t research that or wonder why that was necessary.
Their own McGladrey “audit” even confirms that 60% of the SFD employees are looking for another job. All one needs to do is attend ONE fireboard meeting to see the toxic environment our hard working fire district employees have been working under.
Mr. Wood, I have never seen you at a meeting, so I am curious as to where he is getting all his “facts ?” I wonder if you are also aware that the new chief was recently hired by this board in secret, with no one from the public allowed any input until after a contract had been signed? Are you aware there are some potential lawsuits because of the way they have conducted their process? Don’t you wonder why they used a very costly attorney instead of an experienced HR person for the process? If they’ve “done nothing wrong,” then why such a lack of transparency in all that they undertake? I’ve always heard that if you’ve done nothing wrong, you hide nothing.
Oddly enough, now that this board has gotten rid of Chief Hazmine, paid $40,000 to find a new chief, and started to work on next year’s budget, they find that the new chief is echoing the same words of the former chief and Business Manager. To paraphrase the new chief: “We have cut as much as we can without cutting SERVICES.”
Luckily though, we have Phyllis who upon hearing the new chief say that, quipped, “That’s the same thing the former business manager (and Chief Hazime) told us before they left! I didn’t buy it then, and I don’t buy it now!”
Is it any wonder Blauert fired the Board’s attorney of 27 years and hired his very own personal divorce attorney to protect them from themselves? Looks like he hasn’t done such a good job, though. They’ll still under investigation for civil rights violations, open meeting law violations, and have been soundly recalled!
May 15 cannot come soon enough for Sedona!
I’m convinced that we need to keep the present board and to let them continue their credible work. They will get my vote!
The current SFD Board has done exactly what it was hired to do, reduce the budget. The SFD portion of the tax bill was 1/3 rd, YES, even more than what was allocated to education. The SFD budget was overblown and misspent. The Board consisting of Christensen, Blauert and Erick should be nominated again.
Cheif Nazime should NOT run nor be elected to the Board. Whether it is legal or not it is definitely a conflict of interest and ethically he should not run. In my opinion, I can see the new slate will run up our tax bill, the mill rate and not be cost conscious in these bad economic times.
1) The current Board was not “hired,” My Dear.
2) There is no “nomination” – there is an election.
3) And, there is no ethical, moral or legal conflict of interest. There is only an ill-informed writer who should learn a few facts before committing fingers to a keyboard.
Andy, if you divide a $12 million annual budget by 12 months what do you get? Even a Hazime, Cooperman and Schoen supporter could figure that out.
Tony, your comment shows how much of a miopic approach you are taking in your statements. For you to take a $12 million budget and devide by 12 and say that’s what it costs to run the department on a monthly basis shows your lack of understanding. Some of the expenses within that budget are not monthly, such as Repairs and Maintenance, Materials and Supplies, Capital Projects—and they total way more than $1 million. In addition, it includes Operating Cash Reserves, Grant Offset, Capital Reserves and Debt Service Payments—and they total almost $1.1 million.
As stated by Reality Checker commenting to another insignificant comment: “There is only an ill-informed writer who should learn a few facts before committing fingers to a keyboard.”
It’s easy for Hazime, Cooperman and Schoen supporters to figure that out. That’s why we need a change on the SFD board.
Your VOTE for NAZIH HAZIME, DIANE SCHOEN and CORRIE COOPERMAN is a vote for: INTELLIGENCE over hype. LOGIC over fear. RESPECT over resentment.
Vote for HAZIME, SCHOEN and COOPERMAN. They will not waste your TIME. They will not waste your MONEY. They will NOT waste your vote.
Read this stuff thru once more & the acrimony still jumps off the pages. Guess it’s good to have an outlet for all that junk. You gave people a way to disagree & agree. All documented for next election of course