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.
Turn off ABC airheads & barking dogs shows
Crickets chrickets
When will Sedona budget be DOGED?
Democrats approval rating has dropped to 14% !!! Republicans gained 20% approval by blacks and Hispanics and young black males lean Republican.
Phoenix electric car owners intend to drive their cars without fear because it’s rumored police and fbi put sights on capturing criminals threatening cars with 5 to 20 years in federal prison.
Why are Sedona’s salaries ridiculously bloated? TU Eddie Maddock for making this hypocrisy transparent. Time to streamline Sedonas bureaucracy now. If Elon can work for free to make Americans taxes save Social Security because politicians destroyed Social Security with ineptness and incompetence, and his D.O.G.E. team works for free to save billions of dollars to be sent to grow DEI tomatoes (honest to God that was a grant given and it involved sending packets of tomato seeds). Go on X and see it and go on D.O.G.E. dot gov site and get informed. President Trump is a genius and is making the right decisions to save our planet and our country.
From BBC news: google online this is one small example:
“….The administration is also cutting 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health, it said. The remaining employees will be cut from other agencies; officials said FDA inspectors and CDC infectious diseases employees would not be affected.
Kennedy’s new Administration for a Healthy America division will focus on maternal and child health, mental health, environmental health and substance abuse.
In a video announcing the changes, Kennedy argued that HHS had been “inefficient as a whole” in recent years.
“The rate of chronic disease and cancer increased dramatically as our department has grown,” he said. “What we’ve been doing hasn’t worked. That’s why we’re making this dramatic overhaul.” “ end “
(In my opinion HHS nearly $2 trillion budget could pay for 100% healthcare for every American citizen if it was targeted to wellness and health education! My Canadian aunt can’t go into assisted living there without being put on a waitlist and approval required of about 2 years! Ridiculously poor system there.)
West Virginia banned food additives & much more in school lunch programs & fluoride in water systems. Utah tooth decay study about counties with/without fluoride online.
Arizona be next.
Tomato seeds were labeled racist under Biden – Harris and it awarded a billion dollar funding grant to change their minds. Also they awarded millions of dollars to study transgender men’s menstrual cycles. You can’t make this theft stuff up. President Trump keep digging in woke’s shittee garden of evil.
Today theirs no Social Security tax. Thanks Pres. Trump
Disgusting Democrat running for judge in Wisconsin who’s shown her disgust for Republicans and Libertarians and exposes her Soros money pride !
Judge charges ICE agent with contempt of court for removing a criminal illegal from court case. This judge can only issue injunction to the person in from of them. Congress needs to fix this and get these terrible judges off the benches and elect the Constitution’s best lawyers. Illegals aren’t entitled to citizens rights and get out of the country or go to jail.
@tim fantastic news, Sedona Cottonwood schools do it
Is it me or did u notice anti Trump r pathetic old ladies holding signs and singing kumbaya songs
Is it me or did u see old men handed scripts to read by old women
Is it me or did u see they/them spawned pasty boys n fat girls n girlymen n butchies u know mental health users n couch retards
is it me or did the entire hatefest feel like a depends wearing rager
note to Democrats go home n bbq n watch tv
2nd biggest location in nation store Bloomingdale’s closing in SF, commercial centers continue closing, Cal politics and taxes and lack of safety shopping or traveling in public spaces digging into sales
Pleasant Valley feeling Mercury Retrograde, eh Sedona? My stocks doing great, don’t know about rest of you and don’t care. Oil prices dropped and gas going down. Thank you, Trump.
@ PC. Don’t forget wholesale and retail egg prices dropped and gas is going down down down, both items used by almost every American household. More then 200,000 jobs lost by Biden admin have been filled under Trump policies and billions of dollars stolen by politicians and NGOs found and unfunded. Prosecutions are being drawn up now and flurries of people will be charged by end this month. No politician or bureaucrat gets to take our hard earned American dollars from you and me to fund communism and Islamist terrorism or 1300 armed IRS agents! My mama taught me not to be a fool, BTW Chelsea Clinton earned how much other than nothing and lives in a $12 million dollar mansion?
Treason may be you don’t get to steal an election, give money and weapons to the Taliban, destroy your military, destroy the food supply, destroy energy and gas, disassemble your border and encourage an invasion of your own country and it NOT be a treasonous act against your own country and people?
If it is treason, they should be charged with it.
Senator John Kennedy on AOC is pure gold:
“I consider AOC to be the leader of the Democratic Party.”
“I think she’s the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle.”
“Our plan for dealing with her is Operation Let Her Speak.”
Marvelous!
So funny…. Haven’t read comments lately… But that “one” serial Trump poster is really hilarious…. My God you are either brainwashed totally or are a nazi racist… Not sure which…. You sure do make me smile at your propaganda posting.. Thnks for the laugh….. By the way, you sure have your head up your ass!!!! But I’m sure you’ll love it.. I hope you like the name I made up!!