What you’ve written is of concern to everyone in business here. Keep up the good work Rick. Out sourcing should be an anathema to every American for all the best reasons. We have poor that need work, we have poor that need job training opportunities. I’m a proud DORR member that questions whether some of its people are more than boors and demagogues. Not all of us think government makes the perfect mother, father, sister, brother. Balance! Outsourcing beyond ones own area deserves a microscopic view. We have brilliant locals. We have need for jobs. There’s plenty of accountants and accounting firms in town that collect taxes and file the information! Staff has plenty of time to be trained and collect and file taxes without increases in pay. There are plenty of people willing and able to be trained for that job in this town that aren’t city employees. That’s reality.

I have been a small-business owner/operator and home-owner in Sedona for the last 20 years. 90% of my business comes from out-of-state sales, wholesale sales or service-related income; none of this being liable for AZ or Sedona sales tax under current law, so my sales-tax liability is usually just a few dollars per quarter. I have seen our beloved city go from working with residents & business owners to harassing us; lying to us (promises not to take a one-time “business registration fee” into an annual business license or tax) and putting us in the hands of RDS, a predatory collection agency with license by the city to harass and fine even responsible business owners over pennies!

As many others commenting here say, it is time to END THIS OUT-SOURCING CONTRACT. Sedona has NOT benefited from having this RDS contract; the recession is hurting our businesses – mine is currently in the RED overall; thank goodness I saved up during the “fat years” and own my home outright!! Our council should work for its residents’ needs first. We could all do with less grandiose schemes and more day-to-day True Grit to get back to basics. Nuff said.

It is time to end the failed experiment.

Based on what I’ve read here in your article and the wealth of valuable comments which followed, it is appears as though our City Hall is pretty much in bed with people playing quite a bit outside the lines. Our City’s elected officials and Staff need to be advised of all of this both individually and as a Group, all in a very public way which shall serve the purpose of leaving all plausible denial behind.

Those City Officials that wish to continue to support RDS, will do so knowing that they shall rightfully always wear the accolades or disrepute of that association for all future time.

Those whom are aghast and act immediately and meaningfully on what is brought to their attention, will be conversely known by those actions.

I’ll be interested to know what our City’s elected and Staff Officials decide to do once, they are publicly confronted by the facts of whom they have hired and unleashed like dogs upon Citizens whose interest they receive a paycheck to protect.

Regarding “Allen” Thank you for revealing your existence, however obliquely. It’s been surmised that a very crooked game of pay for play has increasingly been part and parcel with our City Hall….. against all laws to the contrary.

Thank You for validating the seedy existence of the bribery end of that game, Allen.

Jim

You know, the more I think about it, having spoken at length with the top 6 DORR socialist/marxist activists in town, I know I’ve heard this “We can pay more!” mantra from everyone of them. You speak the same monologue. What they all espouse, including you, is that they take sadistic pleasure in making life tough for the successful entrepreneurs they envy so much, even if it means sacrificing the ability of the poor to survive here who have to pay at the same regressive tax rates as the rich. Yes, it’s clear, you perceive a need to punish the self-made successful in Sedona which excuses your deliberate oversight of the punishment people of your belief system inflict on the poor. That’s sad, truly sad but its the way of the left.

Apparently you didn’t read the article very well. Litigation at the rate of two lawsuits a day and a massive amount of BBB complaints should tell you what other cities think of these debt collectors. Otherwise, I don’t think I need to respond to your comments since other readers at this site made it quite clear what they think of your attitude. I can tell you this…you’re not going to be very popular around town espousing this kind of selfish baloney.