SedonaEye.com columnist Eddie S. Maddock on Sedona city employees salary and additional compensation packages budgeted for 2024.
Sedona AZ – WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2024?
Boldly and sincerely stated in a video at the opening of City Council meetings is Sedona’s Vision:
“To be a city that is constantly vigilant over the preservation of its natural beauty, scenic vistas, pristine environment and cultural heritage. To be a city that retains its small-town character and creates its manmade improvements in strict harmony with nature. To be a city that is animated by the arts, and lives with a spirit of volunteerism to help achieve our common goals. To be a city that offers equal opportunities for all and fosters a sense of community. To be a city that welcomes and accommodates all of its visitors and future residents with a spirit of fellowship. To be a city that retains and enhances a strong and vital economy which preserves existing lifestyles without exploiting the natural beauty. To be a city that lives up to the challenge of proper stewardship of one of the earth’s great treasures.”
Before proceeding with what may or may not be a surprise to Sedona residents via a Freedom of Information Act, “Douglas Ducey in 2021 was employed in Arizona Governor’s Office and had annual salary of $95,000 according to public records. This salary is 20% higher than average and 36% higher than median salary in Arizona Governor’s Office.” (Phoenix has a population of 1.6 million and pays its City Manager $314,999 annually.)
With the city of Sedona gearing up to prepare its fiscal year 2024 budget, a review of the 2023 budget shows that average budgeted compensation for a city employee is presently $106,174. (Population of Sedona is 9,684 – a decrease from previous years.)
Here is what we pay Sedona city employees:
City Manager Karen Osburn: $183,000. (No change from 2022.)
Deputy City Manager Joanne Keene: $161,850. (A 7.9% increase from 2022.)
City Attorney Kurt Christianson: $155,235. (A 7% increase from 2022.)
Assistant City Manager/Director of Public Works J. Andy Dickey: $155,147. (A 7% increase from 2022.)
Director of Financial Services Cherie White: $153,422. (An 8.4% increase from 2022.)
Chief of Police Stephanie Foley: $135,200. (Foley replaced Charles Husted, who retired last fall; the chief position’s salary is an overall 2% decrease from 2022.)
Magistrate Judge Paul Schlegel: $125,008. (No change from 2022.)
Director of Community Development Steve Mertes: $125,000. (No change from 2022.)
Criminal Prosecutor William Kunisch: $120,443. (An 8% increase from 2022.)
Director of Wastewater Roxanne Holland: $119,061. (A 9.6% increase from 2022.)
Information Technology Manager Chuck Hardy: $117,830. (A 6.8% increase from 2022.)
Assistant Director of Public Works Sandra Phillips: $114,660. (A 4% increase from 2022.)
Human Resources Manager Brenda Tammarine: $114,354. (A 7.6% increase from 2022.)
Transit Administrator Robert Weber: $110,850. (A 10.9% increase from 2022.)
Engineering Supervisor Kurtis Harris: $103,000. (Position vacant in 2022.)
Police Lts. Karl Waak and Scott Martin: $103,000. (A 13.2% increase from 2022. Martin is a new hire, replacing the retiring Sgt. Michael Dominguez.)
Network Engineer, unspecified staff: $102,615. (A 5.6% increase from 2022.)
System Administrator, unspecified staff: $102,614. (A 5.6% increase from 2022.)
GIS Analyst, unspecified staff: $102,014. (A 5% increase from 2022.)
Additional benefits over and above wages include, but are not limited to health, dental, and vision insurance coverage plus countless hours of paid time-off; as offered in ads seeking even more City of Sedona employees.
And this, dear readers, is active even during the uncertainty of a predicted economic recession next year.
Impressive?
Suggestion: Reread the “Vision Statement” and then decide.
NOTE: There are more employees working for the City of Sedona than are included in the above list. Represented above are those receiving the highest pay.
I haven’t heard or read the Vision statement before and thanks for including it and quite the surprise because city council decisions seems hellbent on urbanization and undermining our ability to protect and preserve the red rocks. What do we have a transportation system in a planning stage for and pay more than Tucson or Phoenix to run a hypothetical and unneeded and unused transit idea. Not even Colorado mountain towns have taxpayer transit systems. It’s too damn hot here 8 months of year and too damn freezing cold and wet in the other 4 months. Our air quality and scenic vistas and quiet mountains are paydirt, not a convenient landing strip or city busses taking up space and moving lesser people than fuel efficient cars. Trolleys are and have been proven complete failures. People Don’t Walk in our weather unless their hikers and it’s not safe to ride bikes on highways. Let each resort or business figure it out for themselves or not and provide what they want for customers from parking spaces to park and rides. We don’t need side hustles called transit systems if we can’t be sure our banks will not close or stock market crash as interest rates go sky high. Now isn’t the time to borrow money.
Thanks for posting ESM..
Good to know all the above are being adequately compensated for the most excellent employment production..
Keep up the good work people listed above and God bless..
Nice article, Eddie Maddock.
Shared with local contact list , they couldn’t believe those salaries after a few had been in municipalities government in Illinois and Oregon and knew firsthand salaries and benefits – HR pros want to be hired to get better bennies and pay for SS
side hustle ? Z ? Z
Maybe this helps explain why roads/streets in some of our subdivisions look like slum areas?
Sedona burns while leaders at City Hall continue to fiddle? Or maybe play Russian Roulette with city infrastructure?
Any plans for major evacuation in the event the lush greenery presently being produced as a result of all the precipitation catches fire this summer? More tourists will be arriving throwing trash out their windows, hiking, and careless with campfires?
Well, maybe they’ll allow a few crumbs to be tossed if any are left over by the gluttons calling the shots?
Sedona, Deutsch Bank in Germany is in trouble. If you have more than $250k in any bank, spread it around. That goes for the city of Sedona! We have several banks in town and it’s time to spread it around. Stop sniffing the wind and get in the shelter, it’s a tornado building.
politicians live very well here
Sedona rains makes her spectacularly beautiful and loving how it cleans the air and makes people smile to be outside.
tourists destroyed slide rock & creek
@margysedona. Salaries are outrageously rarefied, why is Roadrunner superior to the rest of the state?
Visions need commitment to a long term goal and not an election to election goal.
Why is Roadrunner superior to the rest of the state? @SS2
Probably the same reason “Salaries are outrageously rarefied.”
Delusions (illusions?) of grandeur appear to be the foundation for the leaders of Sedona (staff and city council members – NOT Counselors!!!)
One day the bubble will burst but unfortunately the innocent will also be victims and suffer. Translated: Residents AND Tourists.
Read a study from major university that says the first mistake towns and cities make is building new before exploring options to improve and build up existing buildings and infrastructure.
Sedona has historic homes by really special architects and designers a bd you never hear about old homes restoration and saving them EJ, big big mistake.
Just wait until “they” get finished with redevelopment of the Cultural Park property.
Key word being “finished.” The Golden Goose is slowly being cooked.
And this is the reason for the outrageous payroll in order to “protect” our small town character?
YOUR life, YOUR choice, happy, healthy, wise and never drama.
It seems pretty evident. Sedona needs to change.
The inmates (residents) clearly need to take over the asylum (city hall).
What’s wrong with you people living here? You write and complain but DO NOTHING TO CHANGE THINGS.
Kick out the source deciding on these over-the-top city salaries and return to planet earth. Be it the city council and or city manager, the system is out of control.
Infrastructure is a mess. Traffic is outrageous. And just based on the number of employees and the constant advertising for more, authority is running amok. More than my opinion, right?
Mission Possible
Save Sedona Serenity
Sedona isn’t perfect and she isn’t hell on earth, except May-October she is a furnace and winter she’s bitter cold and subject to lousy weather, but she’s about 99.9% perfect for twelve months to offset that weather. God bless her.
why can’t salaries be held at these rates with no increase b/c they exceed typical and normal? where can they spend their money here and they live in a vacation destination now? we’re asking
And why @Chris A. Long time resident do salaries “exceed typical and normal”?
If Sedona hadn’t made side deals with developers not long after incorporation, there wouldn’t be a workforce housing shortage at this time. Nepenthe is just one example.
The greedy left scars and if you are a long time resident as you claim you are probably aware there were many questions about what kind of “pay-offs” were going on back in the late ’90’s for such shenanigans to be going on.
Promises for “off-site” housing to compensate never happened. In a way it serves this city right that short term rentals were approved by former Gov. Ducey. More proof that Karma lives?
Let me tell you a true story. Over 40 years ago, you got out of collage and to get experience so you went to work for a city, or a county, a government job. It was a place to get experience so then you could get ” real job”
Well Union jobs, government jobs are the only ones that have kept up with inflation via COLA. Now those same union and government jobs give healthcare, pensions, maybe a 401K.
You have been told over and over wages for the average worker have been stagnant for over 40 years….Do you see where I am going? Now dont worry about those major corporations and CEOs they are doing better than keeping up with inflation!
Their wages are up between 300 to 500%….That should help explain why you feel their wages are to high.
Do you know the minimum wage had it gone up with inflation should be somewhere between $25 to $35 dollars and hour, not $7.25 federally.
So I understand your complaint, but you must understand how we got here.
How in the hell do you answer me 10 minutes before I post?
I have shown here before Cottonwood and Clarkdale and Camp Verde all are on the same level of pay…..Go look Im tired of feeding facts to lazy hateful people.. Camp Verde is still looking for a city manager and Cottonwood just hired on….Get off your lazy ass ans look!
Just because you dont understand COLA and why so many have screamed for years the middle class hasnt got a fair shake…..All the info is at your lazy fingertips………..Now do something other than complain!
Thnk you Chris for a logical explanation instead of the usual hate filled jealous complaints!!! Kudos to you
I don’t care if you are liberal or conservative we have crossed the line by allowing a liberal DA with a campaign agenda to undermine our rule of law. NOBODY cares if Trump paid a hooker for services that she may or may not have performed, and if John Kerry or Bill Clinton were never arrested for their hooker campaign contribution shenanigans, this DA wants unrest and the ability to control us.
Mea culpable editors, sent first without realizing part was missing Here’s what was missed and add or fix? Editors please
(This behavior by Biden admin to push off li real media any need to cover Biden family misconduct and failures is INSANE foreign policy interference. Sedona can say goodbye to any tourist season now.)
Everyone reading this donate to Republicans this second. Go to GOP or RNC and pledge $1 on up to defeat these communist and socialist anti American radicals. Unelect every 2024 Democrat candidate because media didn’t cover the transgender shooting at a Nashville church school because the students are black and white and it didn’t fit the anti white anti Christian agenda, Sedona what about our brown, black and white schools. America needs to stop the teachers school union NEA and return sanity to our local schools and I’m a former CA public school teacher appalled at its misnamed NEA biased leadership that never represented the majority of workers in our schools but whipped us into submission with threats.
Ok Matt great suggestion!!! NOT LOL. You are truly delusional.
You can indict a ham sandwich as we all know from law school. FBI DOJ indict Pres. Biden and Hunter Biden and the fake doctor Biden and Biden bro and that daughter in law who slept with all(?) the Biden men and women. She got paid by several for her services from campaign funds so line them up with the ham sandwiches. Disgusting turn of events. Globally they’re laughing at Biden and shocked at his government.
Ok Matt I read your post… God man you got me so riled up I donated 1cent to cause… I don’t know where you come up with this nonsense(fake info).. But thanks bro for the enlightenment, your a God-send
@adam. Ditto. Let’s freedom of information act sedona councilors campaign finances money and Gov Hobbs and Sen Kelley and send them indictments.
Trump didn’t even take the President salary while serving, now tell me why $150K to anybody is worth the millions this woke NY (deleted by editor) even Feds said Trump didn’t do anything wrong. Keep low class tourists out of Sedona before they ruin us. Keep low class Democrats out of Sedona.
rw got it right except send low class to new york where low class is the only class
If Sedona can afford to pay those kind of wages to city employees then why can’t they live up to their commitment to sunset that .05% temporary sales tax increase as promised? How can anyone believe them?
And what about the underpass at Tlaquepaque? It continues to remain the main cause for SR179 traffic backups. Talk appears to be the only cheap thing here in Sedona government.
And, Folks, please let us keep national political parties out of it! NO Democrats or Republicans on our local (Sedona) ballots.
That last woman running for Mayor quite possibly lost because she openly associated herself as a Republican. Don’t we find out soon enough which side they are on when we check out just what policies they support once elected?
Dear Sedona, As a nation we are overrun with spies and criminals in all aspects of government and society. With years to infiltrate every aspect of an open government that never asked or demanded a political, cultural, or emotional adherence to mandated beliefs, they were shared equal rights. We have lost our religious way.
The idea that any American has not been afforded the right to rise is untrue, and reparations are an unnecessary idea. One has to be motivated and take time in free libraries, seek mentors, listened and discerned every bit of good advice, experience consequence, value free public education and, like a Charles Barkley, have a coming to terms with one’s self worth, self grievances, self love, and self respect to grow beyond limitations.
Booker T. Washington had far more limitations, Ben Carson had far more limitations, Rosa Parks had far more limitations than anyone born since the implementation of the internet and personal computing.
An example of no limitations is Angela Davis, but her lack of self worth brought misery and misinformation to many including herself. How great she would have been without evil intent or purpose, and she could have inspired a generation of doctors and lawyers and engineers and scientists like Washington, Carson and millions of Americans.
Why do people in law enforcement and positions of corporate and military and bureaucratic government hate so passionately and publicly one man unable to bend his knee to them? Yet, the haters say nothing about despots like Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci and Merrick Garland while protecting unintelligent ineffective politicians like Myorkas and Buttigig and Wray.
The haters say nothing about court prosecutors without moral and civic compasses known for being ego driven stooges and tools with campaigns openly and publicly paid for by Stalinist George Soros and Chinese and Russian communists and Iranian and Middle Eastern fundamentalists, despots?
The haters remain silent and do approve while using violence against silence.
The haters vilify a man they disagree with politically and use a tool to destroy him without true cause? The haters repeat the Holocaust enablers’ behaviors, and the haters have been coming for those enablers quietly and successfully.
When was it okay for Soros types to donate to American campaigns then dictate what the American government and its courts do?
When was it okay for China to fly unchallenged across our continent without consequences, and for illegal mass migration into America?
When did it become okay for Russia and China and Iran and Korea and others to threaten America with war?
Why are Americans glued to social media and welcome influence by propagandists?
From WWI and WWII government information;
Keep your guns oiled and cleaned and your ammunition dry and safely stored. Plant gardens no matter how tiny your planting areas may be. Share extras with your immediate needy. Keep animals well tended and properly housed. Teach yourselves to know truth from propaganda. Stock cupboards with dried foods. Store medicinals and medicines properly. Dig a proper community well. Share a resource. Erect a windmill. Dig a well and dispose of sewage far from water sources. Own good sturdy boots. Catch rain.
Make friends with your neighbors. Plan to be of help. Plan an evacuation route. Build a community shelter. Learn First Aid. Pray.
Excuse misspellings. Great admiration for Sedona and E.Maddock’s SedonaEye.com posts and commentary is very worthwhile reading.
This world needs good humans and American values and civil liberties. The haters would have us be as morally bankrupt and corrupt as the world’s other nations.
In light of the hooker stuff seems irrelevant I would’ve just busted him for inciting a insurrection (treason)which probably includes jail time as well also trying to change the election results in Georgia. That would of got Jail time as well!!!
Seriously!! what an an idiot if you believe that made up Hollywood selected Jan 6 clips spoon fed to national news channels because you’re the kind of person that political power hungry people live to rule!!! Sheeples keep paying those fake shortage prices and believing that food and medicine shortages are real too . LMAO
Nah I and the other usual posters here find it easier to just B….th and moan about everything and call FACTS fake news… Nice thought though..
https://youtu.be/bJUqHlpTmvY
Ya first off your crazy…. Secondly your belief in nonsense is part of the reason this world is screwed up… you just keep drinking kool-Aid sheepie.. your a s sucker and a chump.. While your at it why do t you write another check to your Messiah…….
DT… your being played as a fool and a sucker as well as the woke crowd at the other end..Keep the checks flowing … DT and Lindsey Graham have played you like a finely tuned violin.
Elon Musk and others called for a pause on Artificial Intelligence research. Why? Because humans are grossly stupid to handle superior technology and AI will take over as we become its victims. It will wipe a billion Chinese off the map and a billion Indians off the map because it will determine they can’t be fed. It will wipe clean the brains of dissenters to neutralize their negative impact and put them to work cleaning roads happily. Come to Sedona virtually, no need to use polluting fossil fuels to see it or eat non pill dispensed foods in a no longer needed gas fired stove restaurant. Racing toward extinction is my Sedona.
he didn’t incite an insurrection LMAO you watch to much television Antifa supporter
@Phil love, love, love your suggestion: “Come to Sedona virtually, no need to use polluting fossil fuels to see it . . . .”
Best suggestion ever and it is soooo in-sync with the movement to save the earth. Why not start in Sedona??
City council and overpaid staff – are you paying attention?
THANK YOU!!!
Soros backs DA Bragg: May 2021, Soros gave $1 million to the Color of Change PAC which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing Bragg’s candidacy.
Federal Election Commission records show that Soros’ donation was the largest the Color of Change PAC received throughout the 2022 election cycle and made up roughly 25 percent of the $3.9 million the group hauled in.
The financier’s “district attorney operation” usually involves his longtime treasurer, Whitney Tymas, establishing political action committees in states where he targets the races. Once set up, Soros injects money into the PACs, which tend to spend at least hundreds of thousands of dollars backing his preferred candidates.
Soros’ family members directly backed Bragg’s campaign. Soros’ son, Jonathan Soros, and Jonathan’s wife, Jennifer Allan Soros, donated directly to Bragg’s committee.
Jonathan Soros sent a $10,000 check to the now-district attorney’s coffers on April 26, 2021, state filings show. Three days later, on April 29, Jennifer Allan Soros added a $10,000 contribution to the campaign. The couple were among his biggest donors.
Question: Who’s getting charged here?
Love living tourism virtual, maybe we’ll get better fruit and vegetables at the markets
Don’t worry about Soros ever getting charged – like stormy Daniels it’s not illegal to be the prostitute like soros calling for the blackmail due payment
“. . . . maybe we’ll get better fruit and vegetables at the markets” @Karen.
Wishful thinking as long as short term rentals are allowed. By making them legitimate former Gov. Doug Ducey did more damage to Sedona than even the controversial chamber/city contract IMO.
Oh well, the city will soon surpass the “Ducey Dilemma” when they rezone the Cultural Park property for don’t hold your breath “workforce housing.” That trip down ego lane might just surpass the gawd-awful pedestrian crossing at Tlaquepaque.
How much worse can it get? Don’t even ask.
Time for a reset Sedona.
@allisonm it’s a job to keep informed city hall lacks transparency and doesn’t value public input