Sedona City Council to talk with community & SOCSD

Sedona City Council to talk with community & SOCSD – Sedona Red Rock News

Sedona City Council decided during its Tuesday, Feb. 10, meeting that, begin­ning in April, it will replace every fourth Wednesday work session with commu­nity conversation meetings outside of city hall.

The first such meeting is scheduled for April 29 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Community Library Sedona, 3250 White Bear Road, to discuss the needs of fami­lies and seniors, including activities.

“It’s a big darn deal that the City Council is going to give up [work sessions] to meet with the commu­nity outside of the council chamber, sitting at tables together, not at a dais, and legitimately talk with and hear from the community on important topics,” said Vice Mayor Brian Fultz, who requested the change during council’s December priority retreat.

He said his goal for this format is to increase community input ahead of major council decisions.

“I’m really excited about this, because what I’ve seen out of the last couple of years on council is that many … in the community feel like it didn’t know enough about [council decisions] until it was the 11th hour,” Fultz said. “One of the main purposes of the community conversations is to be able to have information sharing about some of these poten­tially significant projects way before they get in front of council for making a decision. So that we get a better sense of the pulse of the community, so that we’re having civil conversa­tion and trying to arrive at a good solution before people have drawn up sides and are getting angry, from both sides of an issue.”

Potential future topics include educating resi­dents on wildfire resilience and emergency planning, Western Gateway land use decisions and commenting to the Arizona Corporation Commission about Arizona Public Service’s proposed rate hikes.

“Based on the cadence approved by council at the retreat, the next sessions would be either Aug. 26 or Sept. 9; and either Nov. 12 or Nov. 25,” the council packet reads.

Fultz described the format as both listening and brain­storming, depending on the topic. For the April meeting, he anticipates it to lean away from extensive back-and-forth debate.

“We want to hear from the community. ‘Hey, what can we do that’s going to make this a better place for families to live? What can we do that’s going to make this a better place for seniors?’” Fultz said. “We don’t have all the answers. Staff is not going to have all the answers. So it’s really a brainstorming session.”

The two- to three-hour time frame Fultz said should allow for both seniors and families to be able to adequately share their needs and desires despite being at two very different points of their lives.

However, one common­ality raised by Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella as a potential discussion topic between those two age groups might be a recreation center.

“For years, at least, to me, members of the community have expressed a desire for a rec center that would meet needs —aquatic needs — something that would be available in all weather, something that would be an enclosed facility,” she said. “Know how that might fit in with some of the plans and priorities that we’re looking at, so I thought that that would be a good community conversation topic.”

Interim Mayor Holli Ploog voiced her support for a topic addressing the needs of families and seniors and added that the meeting “could lead to [whether] we need a rec center or not.”

No further discussion about such a recreation facility has been made by the city.

SOCSD

The theme of supporting families carried into another council discussion involving Sedona-Oak Creek School District. Council scheduled a Wednesday, March 25, meeting at 3:30 p.m. will hear an update from the Community Development Department on its Balanced Housing Plan and — at Fultz’s request — a joint meeting with the SOCSD Governing Board.

“I think it’s just really important that we identify where are the opportuni­ties where the city can be supportive of the needs of families that are going to encourage more families to be here, so we can get more butts in seats in the schools,” Fultz said.

SOCSD “can tell us, ‘No, thank you,’” Fultz said when asked why the city should meet with the district if it’s outside of the city’s purview. “But a great working example are the couple of meetings that we had with the Sedona Fire District [Governing] Board when they were interested in acquiring land for a new fire station.”

The city leases the Sedona Community Pool at Posse Grounds Park and the Dr. Nancy Alexander Administration Building at 221 Brewer Road from SOCSD, which is an inde­pendent government. In the 2025 Small Grants program, council provided the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Educational Foundation with $33,225 and the Rotary Club of Sedona with $20,000 to support the afterschool program at West Sedona School.

Shared Facilities

During its work session Feb. 10 discussing the Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget, council decided it wanted to discuss leased and/or shared facilities with SOCSD in March. Council touched on pool mainte­nance while discussing Posse Grounds Park capital improvements.

Kinsella requested a breakdown of the mainte­nance and operating costs of the pool ahead of the joint meeting.

“We can discuss this when we are meeting with [SOCSD] but I think they would be happy to sell the pool to the city,” Councilman Derek Pfaff said. “When they get a bill from us for their 50% [of pool maintenance] it’s hard, right? That’s money they’re spending on the pool that they’re not spending to do maintenance on some­thing else … I want us to be mindful of the fact that they are in a much tighter budget than we are.”

Housing

While housing is “obvi­ously one of the most pressing needs,” Fultz said he’s been thinking about other ways the city could help — particularly improving childcare options for working parents. He noted that West Sedona School has some programs, but there are gaps during weekends, holiday breaks and summer.

“Parks and Rec runs a bunch of programs, but it’s not every week of the summer, and it’s not every program for the same age and stage,” he said.

Council unanimously approved Basil and Mimi Maher’s 60 Goodrow Lane workforce housing project during its Feb. 10 meeting, rezoning the property to allow 51 multifamily units with half deed-restricted for households earning up to 120% of area median income. The Mahers prohibited short-term rentals for 10 years and stated their intent to priori­tize housing for Sedona workers.

During comments to council, Basil Maher also stated that the Educational Foundation’s endowment is now “up to $15 million,” an increase of $5 million from when the group announced it had formed the fund in January 2025 from multiple donors. Maher is the foundation’s vice president and Mimi Maher is its secretary.

“That [money will] supply about $800,000 a year” in income to SOCSD, Basil Maher said.

Housing is poised to be a major point of council discussion and community contention this year with the Western Gateway.

“Although SOCSD has taken no official position on the Western Gateway proposals, I will say that, speaking as superintendent of [SOCSD], I am gener­ally supportive of efforts to increase housing that is accessible to working families and teachers,” SOCSD Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D., wrote. “In the two and a half years that I have been with the district, I have lost track of the number of times good, hard-working families, and the chil­dren we serve, have been forced to move due to the scarcity of accessible housing. Additionally, the recruitment and retention of high-quality educators is extremely challenging.”