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Eddie Maddock: To Buy or Not To Buy

SedonaEye.com columnist Eddie Maddock reports on the Sedona closed to the public March 24, 2020 City Council Meeting.

Sedona AZ – Due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic mandate requiring individuals to remain socially distanced by at least ten feet, the Sedona City Council meeting on March 24, 2020 was, perhaps as an understatement, peculiar if not downright eerie. In center seat at the dais as usual was Mayor Sandy Moriarty flanked by City Councilwoman Jessica Williams in her typical end seat far to the Mayor’s left and Councilman John Currivan seated at the opposite end. Vice Mayor John Martinez and remaining Council members, Bill Chisholm and Scott Jablow, were strategically located in seats generally occupied by Sedona residents. At the onset of the meeting Mayor Moriarty acknowledged that in conforming to the proclamation of March 18, 2020, this City Council Meeting would not be open to the public in compliance with Coronavirus restrictions.

In order to address some public concerns, Councilman Currivan made the request for more discussion relating to consent agenda AB 2570 – Approval of a Resolution authorizing a Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement for the City of Sedona to purchase the property located at 430 Forest Road (APN 401-160-71) located in Coconino County, City of Sedona, Arizona, for the sum of $480,000 for use as a parking structure. Specifically he cited concerns relating to a possible scope of unknown results, particularly with regard to the potential for economic decline and even a recession.

With current lodging occupancy dropping 70% to 75%, essentially shuttered restaurants except for takeout or delivery and other businesses slipping toward the brink of closing and, with Sedona’s primary source of revenue, its sales tax obviously in jeopardy, wasn’t Councilman Currivan’s question exceptionally timely and appropriate?

City Manager Justin Clifford, however, offered assurance that necessary funds could safely be transferred from Uptown parking meter proceeds and purchasing the property at this time would preserve the ability to maintain progress on a long term project: Providing Sedona with a much needed parking structure.

Sedona AZ Forest Road viewpoint – Exclusive SedonaEye.com photo credit Eddie S. Maddock 2019

A stipulation in the 430 Forest Road Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement between the City of Sedona, Buyer, and Daniel E. Saunders, Trustee of the Daniel Saunders Revocable Trust, Seller, included agreement that no commissions shall be paid and Buyer (City) agrees to leaseback the Property to Seller at no cost for a period of up to nine (9) months from the date of the Agreement. Both parties agreed to employ Empire West Title Company as the Escrow, and enhanced the affirmation that neither party has contracted with, retained or otherwise employed a real estate broker relative to this Agreement.

Motion to approve was unanimous by Sedona City Council.

Therefore, the second of two transactions to create an Uptown parking facility is now in progress. The first, of course, is the land presently owned by the Sedona Chamber of Commerce, allegedly to be deeded to the City of Sedona at some future date.

Is that not a catchy phrase? “At some future date” who will be seated on the Sedona City Council? Who will be the City Manager? Sedona has been advertising for another City Attorney, and likewise there will be a turnover of other staff members.

Will this well-meaning transaction ultimately be justified, or down the road stifled with redirection for purposes unrelated to the stated cause for which it was purchased?

Or eventually will that questionable acquisition slip through the cracks and become a permanent, but unwarranted asset of a Chamber of Commerce, obligated to serve only their members, many outside Sedona City Limits and not contributing to the city tax base.

But most of all, when and if Sedona merchants including the lodging industry fail to produce adequate revenue to maintain even the barest essentials at City Hall, what will be the source of funding?

Sedona residents sit back and consume a breath of fresh air and sigh with relief. We do NOT have a Sedona property tax. You see in the darkest of times there is always something for which to be grateful, and in Sedona one really needn’t look too far.

635 Comments

  1. Sedona Texan says:

    Texans are laughing at the networks coverage of a four day storm. If you had only covered the debacle of Katrina clean up it might have happened. One reason for the issues is because of the GREEN ECO movement that made us rely on unreliable wind and solar. Lesson from Texas? Go fossil fuels and natural gas if you want to be warm when it snows and cool when it’s hot.

    Maybe Kerry will trade some of his carbon overuse to help Texas?

  2. Steve Segner says:

    GREEN ECO movement that made us rely on unreliable wind and solar. not true Texas will not and did not usr federal standards for building pipelines or power plants and natural and water pipe lines froze.No, Wind Farms Aren’t the Main Cause of the Texas Blackouts
    The state’s widespread electricity failure was largely caused by freezing natural gas pipelines. That didn’t stop advocates for fossil fuels from trying to shift blame.

  3. Sedona Texan says:

    Catch up Steve. Been watching knew you’d have something pro Democrat lunacy to say. You tear a page out of the DCCC playbook every morning. This planned attack by the media on Texas energy and Cruz trip (did you go to the Safeway during the Sedona earthquake or rush to the canyon to help keep everyone safe?) is a deliberate manufactured Democratic party target. It’s well known to be the game plan to get Beto O’Rourke and other misfits into office.

    BTW I still go to play golf when Phoenix has monsoons or Payson has fentanyl drug busts. When Flagstaff has snow and they close 89A, I don’t care if you have heat in the canyon. Not my concern. You chose to live there, deal with it. If not, get a blanket and chill out.

    Dozens and dozens of these articles are available for you to Google Steve.

    Jun 04, 2020 · Texas leads the nation in wind-powered generation and produced about 28% of all the U.S. wind-powered electricity in 2019. Texas wind turbines have produced more electricity than both of the state’s nuclear power plants since 2014. Texas produces more electricity than any other state, generating almost..

  4. Wind & Solar Turbines Freeze says:

    Even Renewables Are Bigger In Texas
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuarhodes/2020/09/

    Solar power in Texas, along with wind power, has the potential to allow Texas to remain an energy-exporting state over the long term. The western portion of the state especially has abundant open land areas, with some of the greatest solar and wind potential in the country. Development activities there are also encouraged by relatively simple permitting and significant available transmission capacity.
    Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license

  5. Betty says:

    Tex you hit it on the nose. . . . sedona earthquakes or monsoons do or don’t show up just like wild fires burning down our homes, unusual weather patterns happen every place on earth before dinosaurs roamed . . . . the news isn’t news . . . . it’s a political agenda these days to ruin people and Republicans . . . . pointing it out gave me a better perspective of why all the screaming and shouting . . . . next time we have a controlled burn, don’t leave town and open your windows share the pain . . . .

  6. Lynette says:

    Fine comment @ Betty.

  7. Nick says:

    send the damn kids back to school

  8. Sheryl Bakersfield says:

    This voter says get rid of Democrats on Sedona council. We lost Chisholm and are stuck with whack a moles.

  9. Norm, Sedona says:

    It’s the majority of voters who elected the Sedona council and all are Democrats @Sheryl Bakersfield. Therefore don’t expect any change now or in the new future.

    The current direction is for “affordable housing” (long ago should have remained mandatory when approving lodging developments) and more freebies for freeloaders. Especially with open borders and word of mouth look for Sedona quality of life as we have known it to continue to decline.

  10. Nancy says:

    It was as if Ted Cruz suddenly became the Governor of Texas because his position as Senator doesn’t allow him to do anything to interfere with the Governor’s emergency decisions. The Texas senator had gotten his family out of dodge and deposited his kids at a resort in Cancun visited by many that employs many. This drew the vapors from people who want Cruz and his family to always suffer. Forever. To the end of time. Tomorrow is another day.

  11. Tex Mex says:

    “The infrastructure failures in Texas are quite literally what happens when you *don’t* pursue a Green New Deal,” AOC tweeted on Wednesday. Alex Epstein, founder of the progressive Center for Industrial Progress, fact checked the congresswoman.

    “Is any platform fact checking AOC’s claim that the GND is the solution to TX? Let me help,” he tweeted. “The GND calls for mandating wind/solar and eliminating natural gas, coal, and nuclear. Look how wind/solar have performed in the last week,” he wrote, sharing a graph of Texas’ renewable energy drop during the storm. Under the [Green New Deal] millions would have died,” Epstein explained.

    Sometimes what an idiot (AOC) says proves why they are disrespected, except by other idiots.

  12. Anonymous says:

    My aunt is a California herbalist and she hates California because they demand and demand but never pay back.!

  13. Louise & Adam T. says:

    It’s curious how so many California “transplants” continue to take over Sedona. They all come here for whatever reasons, including the one mentioned by “Anonymous.”

    However once they get settled it seems they want to change Sedona to the “way they did it in California.” Strange. Or possibly to perpetuate the old rumor of space ships and aliens? Hope so.

    Maybe they will resurrect the idea that Bell Rock is really a space ship and go there to find the way back to launch the return to their real home: OUTER SPACE. Bon Voyage, Spoilers.

  14. Mo Sullivan, Flagstaff says:

    On Tuesday night, Joe Biden not only said that white supremacy is the greatest domestic terror threat in the US, but he blamed military vets and former police officers for its growth and all whites. WTF!!!!!!!!! You’ve lost it and about 90% of decent Americans of any color. You are a disappointment, Joe.

  15. Bob says:

    Explain to me how Sedona has improved in the past 10 years?

  16. Franklin says:

    Arizona can start a GoFundMe page and return them?

  17. Steve Segner says:

    Yes, Mo Sullivan, An Associated Press review of public records, social media posts and videos shows at least 21 current or former members of the U.S. military or law enforcement have been identified as being at or near the Capitol riot, with more than a dozen others under investigation but not yet named. In many cases, those who stormed the Capitol appeared to employ tactics, body armor and technology such as two-way radio headsets that were similar to those of the very police they were confronting.WTF is correct we have more to worry about military and ex police then we do tourists from other country’s …. sad but true This president tell the truth

    Experts in homegrown extremism have warned for years about efforts by far-right militants and white-supremacist groups to radicalize and recruit people with military and law enforcement training, and they say the Jan. 6 insurrection that left five people dead saw some of their worst fears realized.

  18. Jim, Sedona Vietnam vet says:

    hiah steve your words offend me as a veteran

  19. Jess Looking says:

    @ segner.

    5 dead, yep.

    1) One female veteran killed in cold blood by White House security.
    2) one cop died of a unrelated stroke the next day.
    3) one Trump supporter trampled
    4-5) 2 Trump supporters died of unrelated health issues.

    I’m sure somebody died in Sedona that day too. Do you want to blame that on white supremacists also ?

  20. steve Segner says:

    hiah Steve your words offend me as a veteran
    good , but not my words ,FBI statement and ex military make up the majority of far-right militants….. Did you “save America” from invasion from Vietnam? or Afghanistan Thanks for you help. BY the way What is the difference between a mercenary and a patriot?

  21. Joe Gonzales says:

    First off buddy it’s a major leap of disbelief that anyone would extrapolate your comment from the president’s and that those numbers even justify more than a footnote to the event mentioned. The mere thousands that came and went home peacefully are dispute enough. Your comment suggests that the FBI and Justice Dept and ATF and Homeland Security and every police department and special investigations unit in America are hotbeds of overthrow. Give it a break. You and your party leaders sent ships of Jews back to Germany and denied the Holocaust, organized lynch mobs to string up blacks and elected a Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton role model Senator Byrd, a KKK grand wizard of death that fought against the Civil Rights Act 1960s and passed welfare to keep the poor regardless of color in their place rather than have jobs to move up a ladder of success. You stir up and fund antifa and white supremacist groups to keep those same people in fear because they stand up to you on behalf of others who can’t stand up for themselves. You are still using the Democratic Party playbook from 1933-1945. Your party is a smokescreen for anarchism and socialism and nationalism under the guise of Democratic Party which like Smart Meters are misnomers meant to hide your reality. Learn your history. Personally I’d be ashamed of being a Democrat now and was when I changed parties to unaffiliated. There was no insurrection there was a riot like BLM and Antifa have been doing every day burning and breaching buildings for over a year unchallenged and don’t get arrested by your white supremacist law enforcement agencies. Damn there’s that fact vs reality breakdown again like your preferred TV news manipulated coverage. Join or create a new party under your true beliefs like Anti Democrats or Socialists United. There you go buddy and you’re welcome to come and study history in my school any day if it will broaden your Anderson Cooper Sedona intellects. RLG JR Phoenix TY

  22. Steve segner says:

    No my comment was just a reprint of a statement by the FBI which you didn’t respond to I made no statement I just asked a question what is the difference between A mercenary and a patriot but you want on some kind of ramble about something I just re-printed but the FBI put out please answer my question we’d all like to hear why are you think it’s moral to kill people under the guise of government and be paid for it?

  23. Sedona Doug says:

    Attn Sedona active military _ retired _ veterans _ Sedona & county police officers _ Segner is anti cop anti military anti veteran repeats it over & over a& those he gives money to support his views. Semper Fi

  24. steve Segner says:

    I am not anti police I just want them to stop killing people a little re training would help according to the FBI
    Capitol rioters included highly trained ex-military and cops! do I make my point .
    992 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year

    48 officers died as a result of felonious acts,

    FBI, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2019. Of these, 48 officers died as a result of felonious acts, and 41 officers died in accidents.

    Numbers seem out of balance! all 992 police killings were innocent not proven guilty by a court of law. according to the FBI

    Capitol rioters included highly trained ex-military and cops do I make my point

  25. KT, Sedona says:

    https://azplea.com/memorial-type/fallen-heroes/page/1/

    To all ignorant people, this is Arizona’s contribution to those numbers. LOOK AT THEIR FACES. READ HOW THEY DIED. AMBUSHED. KILLED DURING TRAFFIC STOPS. TRYING TO HELP SOMEONE. Disgusting words Segner and cronies.

    Mouth off about stats you know nothing about because you don’t care to find out that the crap being fed to you is BIASED AND SLANTED AND NONSENSE. Search state by state and look at the memorials. What’s the pay of a Sedona city officer? Coconino County officer? Yavapai County officer? What’s their training, how many years on the job? They shouldn’t need military style training in a decent society that respects law and order but with people like you disrespecting their every minute of vulnerability, they would be in danger without it because people like you trickle that message down to your kids and their friends and up to your family and friends and their family and friends. Who needs enemies with people like you and your family and friends?

  26. Steve segner says:

    KT: said FBI statistics listed below but think about the thousand people shot in the back suffocated hit on the head shot running or shot in the garage because they open the door Shot by policeman entering wrong apartment it’s extremely dangerous to be around police if you’re black all by police officers 1000 dead people killed by policeman all innocent , Black Lives Matter that’s why blacks are getting fed up with being treated as second-class citizens
    FBI Releases 2019 Statistics on Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty

    According to statistics reported to the FBI, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2019. Of these, 48 officers died as a result of felonious acts, and 41 officers died in accidents. Comprehensive data tables about these incidents and brief narratives describing the fatal attacks are included in Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2019, released today.

    Felonious Deaths

    The 48 felonious deaths occurred in 19 states and in Puerto Rico. The number of officers killed as a result of criminal acts in 2019 was 8 less than the 56 officers who were feloniously killed in 2018. The 5- and 10-year comparisons show an increase of 7 felonious deaths compared with the 2015 figure (41 officers) and a decrease of 7 deaths compared with 2010 data (55 officers).

    Officer Profiles. The average age of the officers who were feloniously killed was 40 years old. The victim officers had served in law enforcement for an average of 13 years at the times of the fatal incidents. Of the 48 officers:

    45 were male
    3 were female
    40 were white
    7 were black/African American
    1 was Asian.

  27. Ollie says:

    Those statistics support no bias against black officers.

  28. Steve segners says:

    Ollie says:Those statistics support no bias against black officers. correct police kill more blacks then whites policing is not as dangerous as they like to make it out to be, 48 officers killed 1000+ innocent people killed by the police…. How many highway workers are killed each year?
    From 1982 through 2017, 27,037 individuals (about 773 per year) lost their lives in work zone crashes. Since the peak year of 2002 – when 1,186 died in construction and maintenance zones – the number of deaths declined steadily to an average of 591 from 2008-2014, then increased to an average of 772 from 2015-2017.
    police 48 hwy workers 773…. I can goon and on

  29. Tim says:

    Better close down Sedona section of 89a highway then because we own it.

  30. Jeff, Cottonwood says:

    Ya can’t keep having it both ways @Steve when pushing false facts and lies and narratives and ya gotta expect accountability man

  31. @eugrnia says:

    more than half the us populations been vaccinated already

  32. steve Segner says:

    @eugrnia says more than half the us populations been vaccinated already

    Sorry it is only 10% as of 3/5 please it you post look it up first

  33. Ben Solomon says:

    Who the heck is “Eugenia”? @@eugenia ; @steve Segner

  34. Linda & Denny says:

    Biden has destroyed the system set up to protect unaccompanied kids. You happy yet? What a joke you so called compassionate people turned out to be.

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