Sedona AZ (August 21, 2012) – In a letter to the SedonaEye.com, a Village of Oak Creek resident discusses the effort by David Blauert and Phyllis Erick to overturn their recent recall from the Sedona Fire District Governing Board:

Dear SedonaEye.com Editor,

On June 29 and July 10, 2012, respectively, recalled then-subsequently-defeated Sedona Fire District Governing Board members, Dave Blauert and Phyllis Erick, filed Statements of Organization with the Yavapai County Elections Department declaring their candidacies for the two open seats on the Board, a SFD Board election scheduled for November 6, 2012.

The August 8, 2012 deadline for submission of candidate nomination petitions – documents containing the number of registered voter signatures necessary for any candidate to appear on the November ballot – came and went.

Neither Dave Blauert nor Phyllis Erick submitted those petitions, effectively terminating their short-lived bids to regain seats on the Sedona Fire District Governing Board.

The recently released report by the Arizona Attorney General detailing the prior Board’s questionable behaviors and multiple violations of Open Meeting Laws clearly revealed their blatant and ongoing disregard for “public information.”

But indignation over the report’s release is even more telling.

David Blauert made groundless accusations to the current Governing Board members during public forum at the regular SFD Governing Board meeting in July, falsely accusing them of improperly releasing that report to the public:  Both Blauert and Erick filed complaints with the Attorney General to that effect.

The fact that the AG’s report was a matter of public record immediately upon its release apparently escaped their consciousness demonstrating once again a lack of comprehension – or lack of regard – for what constitutes public information. The AG’s office rejected Blauert’s and Erick’s complaints on that very basis – also a matter of public record.

Perhaps it was an inability to prevent SFD citizens from learning the truth about prior bad acts that brought those campaigns to such an anti-climactic close? Perhaps it was the recently discovered questionable business associations with contractors providing “cost estimates” for SFD Station #6? Perhaps it was a startling lack of community support? Whatever the reasons, it appears their ongoing crusade to systematically keep information from the public has finally been vanquished.

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