Comments on: Eye on Sedona Citizen Engagement Program

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:04:07 +0000

@ west sedona resisdent you’re the one full of it. I signed up and never got to participate. You pick and choose who is allowed. call it City favs – hand selected by city employees. no one else is allowed. labeling those you don’t want included.

By: John

John — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 13:41:04 +0000

I’m going to agree with “West sedona resident” on this one.

Jean J and her ilk, of which there are MANY in Sedona, are just bored haters, never wanting to actually help.

By: West sedona resident

West sedona resident — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 02:41:15 +0000

Jean J

Your so full of it….

Why don’t you get on one of those citizen engagement groups and see for yourself instead of lying and relying on hearsay

Oops, I guess that means you would have to get out from your computor and actually do something besides Hate Sedona government, which seems to be your hobby if not your full time job

By: anonymous

anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 23:42:07 +0000

I found it the same @ JeanJ. The city employees don’t really want us to contribute, they only want us to go along with the agenda. Sedona is distorted. I sat there and barely said a word. They are using us. I really wish they go back to commissions.

By: JeanJ

JeanJ — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 16:34:17 +0000

Citizen Engagement does not achieve better government. It is basically a way to legitimately get around the AZ Open Meeting Law requiring open and transparent government and ensuring public access to information they have a right to see.

Unfortunately, Citizen Engagement allows government functions to be discussed and secretly worked on in a back room without allowing public input or review. Additionally, citizens have no idea who is pulling the lever. The need for public input at public meetings only arises when the deal is done and the City Council is ready to vote.

In his or her Sedona Eye comments of December 30, 2014, Anonomous Contributor wrote: “I wish to share that to me both the committee and the site ‘feel’ very controlled. I felt the committee I participated on was more for the purpose of saying ‘citizens were involved’ than it was for the citizens to actually be involved. The city ran the meeting……The write ups and recos that followed appeared to me to be ‘pre-scripted’ as in an outcome already privately defined. I could say the process felt hollow…..Look at the citizen engagement site carefully. There are NO conversations. Discussions are absent and the framework is not to allow that. The agenda is 100% that of the city or the coordinator Lauren Browne…..I am just saying I feel a vehicle for our voices, for our discussions, for our education are seriously lacking and the City appears not interested in empowering us citizens more than they have to in order to maintain perhaps an image…..Where and how can we get to discussing ways to alter this/these situations?”

I, personally, understand why the commenter wished to remain anonymous. When I submitted a comment to Lauren Browne that was in agreement with another citizen’s, I received an unfair, inaccurate and uncalled for email from the City Manager himself.

Citizens deserve to have an open and transparent City government.

By: Shevy Heaney

Shevy Heaney — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:42:46 +0000

Shared this article on my social networks.