Dear Editor,

This coming Wednesday at 1:00 PM the newly elected Sedona Fire District Governing Board composed of Ty Montgomery, Phyllis Erick and Dave Blauert will be having their first meeting as board members. This is where the rubber meets the road.

This election was very close, it clearly pointed out that the majority of the electorate liked both platforms of the opposing slates and wanted them to work together to come to a common understanding. It definitely was not a victory that suggested that one set of candidates had a mandate. 

In fact, as mentioned by Abe Koniarsky in a previous editorial , Yavapai County, with 10 out of 10 precincts reporting and 16,516 voters, the winners with the most votes  in descending order were Ty Montgomery with 2,775 votes (16.80%), Douglas Fitzpatrick with 2,600 votes (15.74%), Phyllis Erick with 2,522 votes (15.27%),  with David Blauert coming in  4^th with 2,473 (14.97%).

The figures speak for themselves,  the largest amount of voters in the county with the most number of precincts, decided that Montgomery, Fitzpatrick, Erick be elected to fill the 3 open seats and picked Blauert to fill the board seat vacated by Don Harr….In Coconino County, with  only 2 out of 2 precincts reporting and  only 3,980 voters, the winners with the most votes  in descending order were Dave Blauert with 694 votes ( 17.44%), Phyllis Erick with 652 votes (16.38%),  Ty Montgomery with 613 votes (15.40 %), with Douglas Fitzpatrick coming in 4^th with 561 votes ( 14.10%).”  This was by no means a landslide victory for either slate and by far the closest in SFD history.  

Compromise is what the majority of the taxpayers suggested. The voters also expected that whoever came in 4^th was to be the individual to replace the position vacated by Don Harr. At one point, it looked like it was going to be Dave Blauert. The final results showed that it was going to be Doug Fitzpatrick with only six votes behind Dave Blauert. This was indeed a close election and the actions of the newly elected board in its first meeting need to reflect the will of the people. This is where the people who picked them in a very close election, will be able to see if the rhetoric they used during the campaign was sincere and did not merely attempt to get elected.  

Yet by looking at the latest Agenda for the December 15^th meeting, in particular New BusinessX, C. 3., Establish a Committee to Design an RFP for a Forensic Audit., you get a feeling that two newly elected board members feel that the majority of the voters have accepted their premise that a forensic audit was necessary, because the SFD did not have an audit. Yet the audits performed annually by independent auditors hired by the District are identical to the ones that every city, county and fire district in the state of Arizona have on an annual basis.  These audits are reviewed and must be approved by the State of Arizona. 

Are these new board members saying that the other entities never had an audit either?  If that was the case, wouldn’t these entities have taken action to remedy the situation? Why would the taxpayers of the SFD be asked to spend an additional amount of money on a forensic audit, on top of the regular audit, when there is no indication that the SFD and its staff have not performed according to accepted accounting principles? Didn’t these very same board members state, as candidates, say that they were going to save money for the District? As taxpayers, we expect these individuals to give us clear-cut reasons to indicate the need for the additional expense beforethey undertake any action to “Establish a Committee to Design an RFP for a Forensic Audit.”

Item X., C., 4 and 6 Consider Requiring Co-signature of Board Member on All Checks and Purchase Orders to be Presented at Work Sessions for Review; Board to Authorize or Deny Purchase Orders.  

Both of these items show a very clear indication that two of the board members intend to micromanage the Chief on daily operations. Why would we, as taxpayers, want two newly elected and inexperienced board members make decisions expected to be made by an experienced Chief?  During their campaign they made it a point to state that we had the best Fire Chief in Arizona. In that case, let him do his job! The outcome of this past election clearly indicates that voters expect this board to work togetheramong themselves, the Chief and his staff to deal with the issues facing the District while still maintaining the level of services they are accustomed to and expect.

Whatever actions this newly elected board takes on their first meeting will be an indication on how committed they are to the promises they made during their campaign. Their credibility and standing within the community they live in is at stake and their actions will be viewed under a microscope. They will be expected to live up to their platform , work together or suffer a massive recall election soon after being elected. 

Tom Longo, Sedona AZ 

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