Among the biggest perceived problems in the upcoming presidential election is the ever-widening chasm between the haves and the have-nots. A very real issue is people with vast holdings being able to contribute great sums of money — either directly or through super PACs — to those candidates who most closely align with their agendas.

Please don’t be fooled; local elections are funded in exactly the same way. So often the “old guard” means “old money” — and plenty of it! Did you know there is NO LIMIT to the amount of money individual candidates for the Sedona Fire District Governing Board can contribute to their own campaign?

Being opposition candidates facing those obstacles can feel overwhelming — perhaps even insurmountable. Like so many of the questionable decisions the current Board majority has made, it can appear as if the “fix is in.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. Together WE can turn the tide against those who believe the size of their bank accounts equals a guaranteed recall victory.

What has always beaten the elite is strength in numbers. What WE, the majority of voters, lack in “vast holdings” we are able to make up for in sheer volume. Don’t wait on the sidelines to see what happens. And don’t think a small donation won’t make a difference. EVERY DOLLAR MAKES A DIFFERENCE! Don’t hesitate. Make your checks payable to:

Committee to Elect Diane Schoen
Committee to Elect Nazih Hazime
Committee to Elect Corrie Cooperman

Then mail to:
Wendy Tanzer, Treasurer
35 High Sky Drive
Sedona, AZ 86351

Your donation will help support every avenue we pursue toward ultimate election success. Join your friends and neighbors and be part of our winning team. Thank you!

It’s a fact that our firefighters are NOT the highest paid in our area.

Their salaries and benefits are based on salary surveys being done on a regular basis.

In addition, the SFD operation is NOT more expensive than the one for the Flagstaff Fire Department as insinuated by some recent information being circulated on the internet.

One needs to add its Capital Improvement Program (CIP) costs (fire stations, fire trucks, ambulances etc.,) that are part of the regular city CIP budget and excluded from the Fire Department budget. In addition, in Flagstaff, the administrative functions (Personnel, Finance, etc.,) are centralized in the regular city budget, while they are part of the SFD budget.

Once you do that, you get the TRUE cost for running the department. It should also be noted here that the SFD covers an area of 168 square miles, while the Flagstaff Fire Department is responsible for only 63.6 square miles. DON’T BE MISLED BY MISINFORMATION. You owe it to yourself to check the facts BEFORE you accept them as the truth.

In the upcoming May recall election, it’s critical that we make sure that their seats are filled by individuals who truly believe in open government and not back room politics. It is also crucial that these individuals are completely honest and fiscally responsible, while still maintaining the quality of services that the SFD’s residential/business community is accustomed to and expects.

It’s up to us to elect individuals with the caliber and professionalism sorely needed on the board. Take the time out and visit https://sedonaeye.com/sfd-recall-election-candidate-biographies .

People who are elected to office need to own up and take responsibility for their actions. They also need to realize that when SFD taxpayers mention their names, they are not personally attacking these individuals…they are just making them accountable for their actions.

As those board members who are being recalled have discovered, the truth hurts and that’s why they are trying to hide the facts by pulling some of the critical SFD meeting videos of the SFD meetings from its website, preventing taxpayers from speaking up by eliminating the Public Forum section of the Agenda and having many of their meetings in executive session.

In this upcoming recall election, it is critical that the voters be well informed on all of the facts being presented to them by those who are being recalled. Voters need to do their due-diligence.

Beware of false information being circulated!

A case in point: During the last SFD election Joe Demme and his slate insisted that there was a need for a “forensic audit” to uncover financial irregularities within the SFD. After a lengthy and very expensive fishing expedition by McGladrey, those allegations were proven totally unfounded. Obviously, that misinformation was circulated to shed a negative light on SFD staff and get Demme and his slate elected under false pretenses.

This time around, we, as responsible and informed voters, need to make sure that we do not succumb to false allegations and misinformation. Let’s analyze everything carefully before we accept them as “facts.”

It’s high time to bring sanity and integrity back to the SFD board by replacing the recalled members of the SFD board. Our lives depend on it!

Tom Longo
Sedona, AZ

The regular business meeting of the Sedona Fire District Governing Board was held on February 22, 2012. On February 24, 2012, I watched the video of that meeting at http://www.sedonafire.org. On February 25, 2012, I asked my husband to view the meeting because Business Manager Karen Daines and Interim Fire Chief Terry Keller had provided a wonderful audio – video presentation of SFD Staff’s response to the RSM McGladrey audit results.

But the video had disappeared. It simply was no longer on the SFD website. Where did it go? Any why? No explanation of its sudden removal provided.

Staff’s response to the McGladrey audit illustrated in great depth (far greater than the McGladrey team bothered to delve) how superficially compiled this $190,000 audit actually was. Subsequent comments by Board member Ty Montgomery further substantiated that fact.

It is NOT in the best interest of the current Board majority – each of the three now subject to the recall election – to have those facts available to the public. But they do want the taxpayer to foot the bill for a full page ad in the Red Rock News to publish the few sentences contained in the audit report supporting their faulty at best, positions. Again attempting to wantonly squander public funds to further their own agendas.

Shameful! People have the right to see the entire audit report AND to see all perspectives pertinent to its interpretation – not just those put forth by Board members desperate to justify an overwhelmingly expensive and completely unnecessary audit!

The recall election cannot arrive fast enough.

These contemptible acts must be stopped and sanity must be restored to the Sedona Fire District Governing Board sooner rather than later. Demand disclosure of all meeting videos. Facts are facts! Let the people decide who has been trying to play them!