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.
Our quality of life as residents would return to manageable and sustainable and affordable if our taxes went to improve our environment and our infrastructure and our air and water quality instead of building for them to come and destroy it.
Proof we don’t need a chamber yet businesses won’t give up the money we hand over to them.
Sedona goes from Sedona dream to Sedona nightmare? Not only are leaves falling but so is our standard of living today.
There’s a calamity at the border not a crisis, a total calamity, a breakdown caused by this President and his incompetent choices for administration cabinet and Justice positions. Get it straight before we screw up Sedona following ignorant falsely labeled politically-biased policies – sanctuary breaks our laws and encourages others to do the same. That’s fact not fiction – ask Texas, Arizona, Chicago, NY, and California among others – ask the white Hillary elitists who cooked up sanctuary cities for their cleaning and landscaping folk.
nitpicking
Lack of vision?
Assistant city manager Dickey is next in line and he makes $155k. Move him into Karen job when Karen leaves. Cut her salary completely off the budget and his position eliminated. He can do both positions without any problem for her old salary. Savings $155K.
Won’t open borders just lead to millions of votes for democrats?
Moral of story? Goodbye democracy. Socialism is the end result with a country led by democrats? Trash the Declaration of Independence?
There’s too much money being redistributed by city and chamber like Hunter Biden getting paid and passing it to the Big Guy?
No, no, no! IMO We can’t go from D****(name edited) to Dickey for any amount of money. IMO Dickey is a disaster, a perfect example of the Peter Principle.
@@bobsedona IMO PRICELESS
.Accurate to a T.
Internet serves use in case you didn’t like me understand Peter Principle here it is , @@Bob reply is clearer and that name edit not understand, but swearing never needed.
A Peter principle states that a person who is competent at their job will earn a promotion to a position that requires different skills. If the promoted person lacks the skills required for the new role, they will be incompetent at the new level, and will not be promoted again.[1] If the person is competent in the new role, they will be promoted again and will continue to be promoted until reaching a level at which they are incompetent. Being incompetent, the individual will not qualify for promotion again, and so will remain stuck at this final placement.
Sedona trails overrun ok no rushback ok no loading on Saydona trail probs ok tryn Nov ok bell snoopdog bye
The lack of vision coupled with inability to understand past, present and future council decisions intertwine with every decision impacting wilderness preservation and vortex healings. Sedona isn’t urban or touristy, Sedona is the opposite of urban and touristy and transit systems.
The name that was edited out was not a swear word. It is the nickname Karen Osborne earned years ago when her last name was Daines and she worked for the fire board. Something that started with the letter “D” fell out of her purse in a public situation. Hence the nickname. Ask around if you don’t catch my drift.
BTW, your internet search for Peter Principle yielded a sanitized summary, typical of today’s nauseatingly PC culture. Back in the day (the book came out in 1969), the Peter Principle was succinctly summarized thusly: In any bureaucracy, people rise to the height of their incompetence.
Speaking of “lack of vision” @Julie, is there a better example than the idiotic pedestrian crossing at Tlaquepaque?
Approval to establish “Tlaquepaque North” was dumb, dumb, dumb. There was never a traffic tie-up there prior to the ill conceived notion to extend the once lovely Sedona attraction originally established by the late Abe Miller.
And why did it happen? Greed and love of money?
Hello Sedona Progressives and climate change Gretas here’s the truth for every one
https://www.facebook.com/CrenshawforCongress/videos/545717324177919/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
Ohhhh all the people posting negatively here are oh so clever.. add nausea. People really need to get a life. You guys ever hear of a negative circle jerk???!!!!
Nope, not clever enough to get heard and might be adding vomit didn’t help Peter?
If it’s so distasteful then why are you here? Jerking much?
Ha, Ha, Ha @Clever. If we had never heard of a negative circle jerk we have now. What better example is there than reading your “complaint” about people who may not agree with your way of thinking? Yep – takes one to know one?
Tlaq North screwed up traffic and it can and should be reversed, said a road engineer.
Watch YouTube murder of a German tourist attending the concert stripped of clothing and paraded and tortured around on a truck and then they murdered her for YouTube. If one single Sedonan approves of this attack on Israel, shun them and never let them forget how they supported American and Israeli murders during a massacre equivalent to Pearl Harbor.
Sedona Jewish Community Center and Churches must stand protected against Muslim and other extremists in our midst and they’re there. Jewish and Christian peoples in America are under attack by our own especially the Democrat party because six Democrats in our government are supporting this Palestinian attack as justified against Israel. WTF! Over 800 unarmed babies, children, women, men and elderly innocents killed, body counts unknown and hostages unknown. Democrats supporting Iran backed terrorism and government overthrow by Muslim theology terrorists must be held accountable in courts for this and other slaughters and atrocities and massacres. The pictures of 2 and 3 year olds put into cages and taken to Gaza are reported and women with blood soaked legs from rapes and torture on parade and murdered Holocaust survivors.
Save us from our enemies foreign and domestic.
(Jan, Sedona submission)
Who else getting blocked from websites – mine keeps getting blocked saying dangerous when it’s not?
1300 bodies and counting not done
9-11 and London Blitz and Pearl Harbor status
Praying Gazans not approving this unprovoked evil attack by their Hamas terrorist rulers take out their oppressors. Gazans don’t fear Israelis because Israel withdrew from Gaza long ago and gave Gaza self rule, bet you didn’t know that. Israel doesn’t want Gaza back because it’s not worth the trouble these people cause themselves and the world.
Majority Gazans don’t approve Hamas, keep that in mind, they’re not free to choose their rulers or say words against them, they must obey politicians and religious leaders like Iran and Saudis and other Muslim countries and American Muslims and European Muslims and Russian Muslims and Chinese Muslims and other Muslim nations. Hamas will murder everyone they captured alive. Death tolls continue to rise.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ABRAHAM LINCOLN
lives here are about pleasure not serious – lighten up
@babesmith you inferring we apply that work ethic to removing pedestrian crossovers in Sedona? LMAO nobody in Sedona works
A given that first army tank advancing thru Sedona will remove roundabout obstructions. Or Sedona hire a left wing tank operator to clear Y and 179 roundabouts.
that’s the new America the baby boomers raised, don’t bother me
I’ll play your game. @alex means Sedona hired a lefty to design/build roundabouts in city limits because poorly educated lefty’s on Council/Staff believed Theory without ability to take abstract theory and ask for real evidence of theory application? SR 179 roundabout coupled with Y KNOT is a total abject economic, ecological and environmental failure in reality with no competent leadership to manage undoing its wrongs? It’s easy to fix, but, like poor city decisions residents complain and never get it done.
Love my Sedona, disgust with Sedona traffic which makes residents best interests subject to a few businesses majority nonresident profits.
Sedonas biggest issue isnt traffic people its to many damn tourists period
14 Americans dead by Hamas terrorists and more than 20 still unaccounted for missing Americans. Hamas said they’ll start killing the rest.
Hamas exists because of Iran and Hamas is not a militant group, it is solely a terrorist organization mandated to kill every Jew on earth, its stated purpose.
Hamas beheaded babies. Say it over and over again to yourself, HAMAS BEHEADED BABIES and made gruesome YouTube style videos for their supporters to cheer and share on the internet.
Imagine the worst things possible that can be done to a human being and HAMAS did it and is doing it still. They Burned people alive and butchered their children in front of their families before killing the adults.
One slaughter site had 40 babies with heads cut off and families gunned down. The horror is unspeakable.
Do you understand what Hamas supporters will do to you when they come?
People in the American Congress support and fund Hamas ideology! Where are the Celebrities, politicians, journalists, sports athletes, universities, local citizens speaking out against this? Where are you?
Hamas publicly thanked Iran for their help in this attack. For this White House administration to admit Iran is involved in this crisis would only prove the current administration was duped by Iran by its government supporters and its American government supporters in our political and intelligence services. Yes, damn that traffic issue.
1.life is good
2.Famous tattoo artist Kat Von D was baptized Christian
3.Jesus is the light
4.visit a church or temple
5.love yourself
Kari Lake, former gubernatorial candidate of Arizona, announces her U.S. Senate bid on Oct. 10. Thank God we can oust that fake New Jersey hanger on Kelly. Two strong women will lead Arizona in the Senate and neither Sinema nor Lake back down or take BS from anti Arizona and anti America Senators. Sinema and Lake, winning team, one Democrat and one Republican in DC will keep it honest for Arizona. If Sedona voters can walk away and vote for Lake and Sinema real 2024 change happens.
winner winner chicken dinner
like Mr.Rodgers said —- get out of here & be someone elses neighbor —- leave us alone
It feels like Sedona city councils, and Biden administration are rogue governments not in touch with citizens or residence (residents) or their central Coors (cores) and values for government
@Nothing here to see – love the comment. That’s how many of us feel about “short term rentals.” Former Gov. Ducey certainly seems to have faded out of Arizona’s picture since he did the dirty deed of making them legal.
That, of course, is just my opinion.
@marge agree w/you except Hobbs admin is worse than Ducey admin
Within 30 days of taking office, Joe Biden released Iran and Chinese and Russian sanctions which Iran and China and Russia interpreted as American weakness and appeasement. Look it up.
No matter what our government now says, everyone knows that 6 billion given to Iran is Jewish blood on Biden administration hands.
The Biden Harris administration will be forever judged by its actions not its denials.
If any person in Sedona joins this Day of Jihad tomorrow, take their picture with your cell phones and post it on Facebook and social media. We all including the police and businesses accepting money or doing business with these people should know who in our midst supports terrorists who murder Jews.
be not humble
@Marge awningdotcom Arizona short term rentals
[In 2022 Arizona state authorities signed Senate Bill 1168, which now allows cities and towns to require vacation rental owners to get and maintain a local regulatory license or permit. This amendment helps local authorities maintain public health and safety, which has always been of utmost importance to the Arizona state authorities. License and permit applications can only ask for the following information:
Owner or owner’s agent name, address, phone number, and email
Short term rental property address
Proof of compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances
Contact information
Fee not exceeding the actual cost of issuing the license/permit or $250, whichever is less
Despite this recent change in Arizona short-term rental laws, the state remains one of the most conducive locations for running a vacation rental business.]
And your point is what?
Does that reduce traffic?
Does that stop people renting rooms on other sites that arnt Air B&B?
Does it help our nighborhoods that have lost our next door neighbore?
Dose it give the city and regulation to stop them?
Reuters videographer reporter Hassan Abdullah killed in Lebanon on border. Israelis warned Gazans to get out through its borders with other Arab nations that have said they won’t let Gazans into their country.
Hezbollah in Lebanon has sophisticated rockets that can hit any city, any where in Israel and Lebanon has said it won’t accept Gazans.
This desired war by Iran and the Middle East is beginning. Rich white kids at Hunter College shouting anti Israel slogans and when interviewed say they’ve seen no proof that Hamas murdered Jews even after it was live streamed by Hamas. Truth matters. Get your kids back parents from these horrible schools.
Never hire these graduates or students. NEVER. Find these terrorist sympathizers names and attach it to their hate speech because they are promoting Hamas murderers. Expel them for terrifying fellow students with their support of others murdering them.
Editors add to comment thanks (A Jewish diplomat was attacked in Beijing. It’s beginning.)
Hard to tell fact from fiction these days but this isn’t one of those cases. Who hires these stupid people matters first. These kids in Arizona schools like NY schools are ignorant followers and supporters of murderers later, like Charles Manson followers. Good job you piece of shit teachers and parents.
arrived clueless
left worried
checked off bucket list
bye