I have a few questions to ask of you:

When you say “The district continues being over budget”, that is by whose standards?

I don’t think that the SFD is over budget, I believe that they have increased spending to providing our community with enhanced service, which I believe is a better value for our tax dollar. Most people would agree that to receive more or better of something, you sometimes have to spend a bit more as well.

When you say “over staffed”, how could you think that? By watching all of the meetings for the past 4 or so years, I know that staffing IS DOWN. The only hiring that was done by Chief Kazian (thankfully so) was to bring our “boots on the ground” fire fighters up to safe staffing levels and have a much needed fire inspector. Under your “reign of terror” you would have had only 1 fire fighter come out to a fire in an old broken down truck with no one to put the fire out. Remember, YOUR McGladrey Report said that 60% of all staff was actively looking to resign. (Page 211) Now, we have a list of highly qualified candidates ready to accept a job with SFD when the need arises.

When you say “questionably over paid” are you saying that as compared to your salary as a medical appointment scheduler or is that for highly trained, highly educated, highly dedicated people who are willing to risk their life for our community while you sit back and criticize?

When you say; “authorize hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchase orders, without an intelligent question”. If you have this burning question on your mind, why haven’t you brought it before the Board at a Board meeting? I love how the new board openly responds to community questions at every board meeting unlike when you were on the board. That’s real transparency! But then again, you may not like the answer because the facts are strange to you and Mr. Dible.

I think Chief Kazian does an outstanding job of simplifying many of his answers about needed (not wanted) spending to the public, sometimes overdoing it to such an extreme so that EVEN YOU can understand it.

Mrs. Erick, when you write about the Board raising our taxes over 46%, (which knowing you is highly inflated) do you think that this number would have been lower if, during your “reign of terror”, you didn’t waste over $350,000 in needless audits and unauthorized legal spending? (3/27/13 Board Minutes Page 5) I remember back to the Fire Chief Search Committee when the committee would over spend their allotted budget and your board would approve every dollar spent without concern but, you let it continue over and over again.

You must think that our community is blind to your nonsense. Perhaps it’s time for you and Mr. Dible to pull up stakes and head out of town.

Recently, experts compared “writing styles” in determining J.K. Rowling’s actual authorship of a work penned under a nom de plume. Perhaps a side-by-side comparison of Dible’s prior misdirected efforts would prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, his fingerprints all over these letters, as well.

As to spellcheck… A little proofreading would go a long way in making your point, “Ms. Erick.” Though it is always very entertaining to read the misuse of language, punctuation and syntax in a letter purporting to correct someone else’s work, your attempt at superiority falls far short of any intended mark. Nice try, tho’.
Wendy Tanzer
VOC

Good one about the Beverly Hillbillies, I guess maybe there is a sense of humor under all that resentment you carry!! Also I appreciate the spell check lesson!!

Here’s one for you, next time your at a fire board meeting and a firemen is being recognized for his/her service they have a performed in the form of a promotion , life saving act, or or other extraordinary event. Hide your contempt and instead of frowning try clapping your hands and show a little respect for there accompliments!! That goes for your buddy Dible as well!!

The Board reconvened into Public Session at 4:39 PM. Mr. Blauert asked Attorney Whiteman to address
the public. Mr. Whiteman said: the Board has been in discussions with Chief Hazime and his attorney;
Chief Hazime has resigned as Fire Chief of Sedona Fire District; the Board and Chief Hazime have
reached a mutual agreement and prepared a Letter of Intent as to the terms of the agreement. Mr.
Whiteman did not read the Letter of Intent aloud, but stated the Letter was a public record. Mr. Blauert
then entertained a motion to approve the Letter of Agreement and terms as presented by Mr. Whiteman;
Mr. Christensen so moved, Mrs. Erick seconded, and the motion unanimously passed with a vote of five
to zero

I know you do not agree or care about the dollar amounts. So we will not waste time discussing that. You can continue to get your information from the district. While doing that, ask the Chief what the estimated annual budget for the Chapel Station is . Maybe he will tell you as he told me ” I do not know it depends on the size of the air conditioners and so forth. No one should build a station not knowing or caring what it will cost the taxpayer for their existence in Sedona. It is irresponsible!

Rich, sorry I rattled your cage! But, because you are such a nice person, I am going to give you a couple of suggestions.

First, I have noticed your rants on this site before. May I suggest you us “spell check”, how embarrassing! People may tend to take you more seriously if they felt you had higher then an eighth grade education. Questioning someone’s intelligence and the use of the word halfwit in your case is laughable.
Second, you find it so easy to attack people personally rather than prove the facts incorrect. You call people liars and deceitful, state where. I know more than two digits is difficult for you, but prove the numbers wrong RICH!
One thing I would like to thank you for is bringing back old memories of a TV show The Beverly Hillbillies, in which Jethro aspired to be either a Brain Surgeon or a Soda Jerk. In your case it may have been a Fireman or a Soda Jerk, one and a half out of two not bad RICH!

Karen S., you bring up Chief Hazime stating we would have to close stations and let twenty-five people go, you do not seem to remember these minutes after he made that statement:

Mr. Dible said this resulted from comments made at the last meeting about cutting personnel; he said he had a candid and productive conversation with Chief Hazime on Friday, and believes they have agreed to be careful with what we say, and try to avoid those kinds of charges because they distract from the mission at hand. As he said at the earlier budget meeting, we are all in this together and have homes and families in Sedona, and all must bring down costs without affecting service levels. Chief Hazime said the last thing he wants to do is disrupt the Board and community; he wants to keep harmony with everyone, but the reason he made the comments is that the “bottom line” budget figure given at that meeting, without the ability to raise the mil rate or use any of SFD’s $5 million in reserves, will be extremely challenging, and it would mean changes in services. He said saying 25 positions off the top of his head was out of line, but maintains it would affect services, whether it comes from Administration or Operations.

As for driving Chief Hazime to resign, he did that on his own. And here are minutes in where your Mr. Montgomery also voted to accept his resignation.

You mentioned a democracy, well that gives me the right to my opinion whether you like it or not!

Different twist: A new fire station will serve us well. Anyone disavowing that might review the headline news of the past couple of weeks and put things in proper perspective. What price is an additional fire station in the time of need? Very little monetarily; however the ultimate cost to families of brave firefighters who risk and lose life.

Those in disagreement might try selling Sedona voters the idea of owning a state highway again.

Tom Longo
Sedona, AZ