Pete Furman

Council approves service agreements with out-of-area firms – Sedona Red Rock News

On May 27, the Sedona City Council approved a set of master service agreements for on-call professional engineering services that will allow city staff to enter into certain consulting contracts with firms without having to seek council approval for each contract.

Contracts will be limited to $300,000 per contract and a maximum of $1 million over three years in each of six categories — wastewater, architecture, general engineering, mechanical and electric engineering, structural engineering and quality assurance services.

Wastewater Director Roxanne Holland explained that her department intended to use the MSAs for “smaller design” work on projects, including pipeline design and replacement and drain bed replacement.

Director of Public Works Kurt Harris said the agreements would be used for “smaller projects … things that we need to be on call and more nimble.”

Out-of-Region Firms

City procurement officer Ian Coubrough said that city staff had received 34 submissions in response to a request for proposals issued on Dec. 30, 2024, and selected 23 of those firms with which to enter into MSAs. The agreements will run through fiscal year 2028, which Coubrough said would “allow for a more efficient contracting process.”

“These are our business partners. We need to work with them and work towards each other’s best interests,” Coubrough said.

“How many of these would you consider local?” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella asked.

“We’re not necessarily recording that information,” Coubrough said, but added that a few of the firms were operating locally. “We didn’t go through a local buying metric or anything like that.”

“That anecdotal information is sufficient for me,” Kinsella said.

Of the 23 firms selected for MSA awards, none are headquartered in the Verde Valley. Awarded firms and their locations were:

• Advanced Structural Engineering, Scottsdale
• Ardurra Group, Miami, Fla.
• Canfield Engineering and Integration, Chandler
• Carollo Engineers, Phoenix
• Childers Architect, Phoenix
• Civiltech Engineering, Itasca, Ill.
• Coe & Van Loo Consultants, Phoenix
• Consor North America, Houston
• Entellus, Phoenix
• Gabor Lorant Architects, Phoenix
• GH2 Architects, Scottsdale
• GLHN Architects and Engineers, Tucson
• Huitt-Zollars, Dallas, Tex.
• J.E. Fuller Hydrology and Geomorphology, Flagstaff and Tempe
• Kimley-Horn and Associates, Phoenix
• LAST Architects, Phoenix
• Ninyo and Moore Geotechnical and Environmental Sciences, Prescott Valley
• Pacific Advanced Civil Engineering, Fountain Valley, Calif.
• Quality Testing LLC, Gilbert
• Quantum Integrated Solutions, Tempe
• Speedie and Associates, Flagstaff
• Van Boerum and Frank Associates, Murray, Utah
• Western Technologies Inc., Flagstaff

Spending Cap

“I’m a fan of efficiency, but I don’t think I’m a fan of loosening the limits that much,” Councilman Pete Furman commented, and asked why staff had suggested a $300,000 limit on the contract value when the city manager’s discretionary spending authority is capped at $100,000.

“Why is it that [Sedona City Manager] Anette [Spickard] can sign off for $150,000 or $300,000 as it relates to this, but every thing else is still a $100,000 max?” Councilman Brian Fultz similarly asked. “I’m not opposed to bumping up the $100,000 necessarily, but I just kind of want us to have a broader policy perspective about why would we treat this different than any other discretion that we give the city manager?”

“Ian is also working on a broader procurement policy update to bring to council in which that question of signature authority and delegation will be addressed,” Spickard said.

“We don’t write blank checks for a million dollars, and that’s what this is,” Fultz said.

“If you wish to amend the motion that’s before you tonight, you can request that any work orders under this contract return to city council for approval in excess of $100,000,” Coubrough said.

“I think it should come back to us,” Kinsella said, suggesting an alternative cap of $150,000.

“They can at least get through not having to go through the RFP and all the rest of the stuff that they did. We’d have some qualified vendors,” Furman said.

“$300,000 these days is pretty small,” Vice Mayor Holli Ploog said. Councilwoman Melissa Dunn agreed.

“I can go along with the $150,000, but I wouldn’t go any higher without there being council oversight,” Fultz said. “My proposal to my colleagues is, let’s have it come in front of us at $150,000. It can come via the consent agenda.”

Furman suggested adding language specifying that “items over the city manager’s signing authority must still come to council. And then, when that floats, whatever the number is going to be the future for the signing authority, this would then float with it as well,” a proposal supported by Mayor Scott Jablow and by Fultz.

After further discussion about how the process would work, council voted unanimously for approval of the agreements “subject to the approval of the city manager’s signing authority.”

City to add FEMA-funded sirens in Uptown – Sedona Red Rock News

The Sedona City Council unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement with Coconino County to install up to four emergency sirens around Uptown, which will be funded by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, during its May 13 meeting.

The agreement provides that the county will absorb the costs for the design and installation of the siren system, while Sedona will become responsible for the costs of the system’s administration and maintenance after the first year of operation. Staff estimated the annual cost to the city would be approximately $10,000. County funding under the terms of the IGA will not exceed $269,200, and ownership of the system will be transferred to the Sedona Police Department on Dec. 31, 2026.

The agenda bill accompanying the agreement stated that Uptown had been selected for siren installation “as it generally has a higher concentration of tourists” who have not signed up for the city of Sedona’s Nixle text messaging notification system.

SPD Chief Stephanie Foley’s executive assistant Jessica Bryson told the council that the sirens may be either pole mounted or roof-mounted and will have the ability to broadcast voice messages in multiple languages.

Coconino County Emergency Manager Tim Carter told the council that the city will have primary authority to activate the siren system but that it will also include “a backup to our county-wide notification system, “a backup to our countywide notification system. That way, for whatever reason, there’s a redundant system that we can set off remotely.”

“It’s not the old air raid sirens that go off every Saturday at noon,” Carter also assured the council. “The testing for that is completely silent. It’s just a systems check of the electronics. The only time they make noise is when we want them to.”

“I grew up near one of the nuclear attack sirens in Phoenix and I’m very happy to hear that they can be tested silently,” Councilman Derek Pfaff said.

Coconino County Emergency Management and Sedona Fire District operate sirens in Oak Creek Canyon and conduct annual tests, usually in July.

Councilman Brian Fultz asked whether, since the project will be funded by a FEMA grant, the National Environmental Policy Act process would be “applicable for a pole in a city right of way?”

“If you want to hang a federally-funded photo on that wall, and put a nail in that wall, it’s applicable,” Carter said. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“Some of the locations we tentatively, preliminarily looked at, would be more of the roof-mounted,which goes into what we’re requesting with some of the companies that have that capability more so than others, and also that meet some of our specific codes to color,” Foley said. “We could also say that, depending on the system, that we could pick three and then add discs for adding additional radius to that location.”

“Is there any risk of those funds being lost at this point?” Fultz asked.

“We have received written confirmation from both [U.S.] Senator [Mark]Kelly’s office, who sponsored this, and from the state Department of Emergency Management that the funding is still there and is still in place, so we should proceed,” Carter said.

“You said if this was successful, we would be looking at whether or not we would want to place additional ones throughout the city,” Councilwoman Melissa Dunn said. “How do you know if it’s successful if we have no emergencies?”

“As far as how the implementation went, that system itself, and then some of the testing,” Foley said. “Ideally we never have to use it. So we might not know.”

“Can you give a timeline?” Vice Mayor Holli Ploog asked.

“I wish I could,” Carter said, explaining the timing would depend on the NEPA review and that county staff intended to score the nine proposals they had received from contractors by the end of the month and award a contract within 30 days after selection, which would be followed by acoustic studies, the submission of those studies to FEMA and finally construction. “If there’s ground disturbance, that could potentially take longer. If we submit a project that’s going on top of an existing building … that usually will be much shorter.”

“The visitor center would be an ideal location,” Ploog said.

“I was looking forward to hearing the chief’s voice beamed down to me every Saturday morning at noon,but I’ll live with that disappointment,” Councilman Pete Furman said.

Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella expressed the hope that residents would sleep better at night knowing they could be woken up by the city.

“Hopefully the system could be transitioned into Yavapai,” Mayor Scott Jablow said. “We would have control of these speakers, whatever it is that they’re speaking.”

Council considers staff requests to hire more staff – Sedona Red Rock News

Following the Sedona City Council’s budget work sessions on April 30 and May 1, the city of Sedona may hire at least 12.76 new full-time equivalent employees in fiscal year 2025-26 to fill newly created positions, as well as hiring additional staff to fill vacant or unfilled positions and several consultants.

According to the FY26 proposed budget, this will increase the total number of city staff to 201.65 if fully staffed. positions except for the two court specialists. The estimated cost of the new positions is $2,937,712.

Staff had originally proposed adding 14.76 FTE new staff positions during the budget sessions, to include five patrol officers, three traffic officers, a community outreach officer, an emergency manager and a part-time records technician for the Sedona Police Department; two court specialists and a full-time security officer for the municipal court; a dedicated short-term rental code enforcement officer for the City Clerk’s Office; and the conversion of part-time traffic control assistant positions to full-time.

After review, council approved moving ahead with all of the new

Staffing History

Finance Director Barbara Whitehorn reviewed the history of staff levels with City Council at the beginning of the session, noting that in the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008, the city reduced staffing levels from 167 in FY09 to 117 in FY12.

“We’ve increased, in 16 years, only 13.2%,” Whitehorn said. “It’s a pretty normal increase over time.”

Sedona’s estimated population declined from 10,017 in 2012 to 9,819 in 2023.

Councilman Brian Fultz asked staff if there were actually negative consequences from eliminating those positions.

“Essential things continued to move forward,” Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey said, adding that the jobs cut were primarily project managers and other roles related to optional capital improvement projects.

“Most people want to have a job where they’re closer to their home,” Human Resources Manager Russ Martin said with regard to hiring and staff compensation. “It is imperative that we have, if you will, the premium to come here, because they are taking time out of their day to come here in that commute.”

The average city of Sedona salary as of March 2025 is $74,219.

Police & Code Enforcement

SPD Support Services Manager Erin Loeffler and Police Chief Stephanie Foley presented council with several different staffing models to explain hiring additional police staff, with one of those models estimating a need for 13 additional officers, another recommending between 69 and 78 officers total and a third estimating a need for 54 officer-hours per day.

“It’s more needed to have 13,” Foley said. “I’m not asking for 13, I’m asking for nine.”

According to the numbers Foley presented, including the newly approved positions, SPD’s FTE count would rise from 40.5 in FY15 to 60.5 in FY26, while the number of sworn officers would increase 30% from 30 to 39.

Council agreed to add nine officers but to fund the positions for only nine months to allow time to fill them.

“Are collisions and injuries and fatalities increasing?” Councilman Pete Furman asked.

“They’re not decreasing to that we already have,” Foley said. “In my opinion, we haven’t reached the level of being out there in enforcement that we need to see a decrease.”

Per the city’s previous budgets, financial reports and SPD data, crime in Sedona declined 32.8% from a peak of 662 arrests in FY07 to 445 in FY24; traffic collisions fell from a peak of 255 in FY13 to 233 in 2023 and 234 in 2024; and traffic citations fell 52.9% from a peak of 4,589 in FY08 to 2,161 in calendar 2024.

“Is it really realistic you’re going to hire all these people when you have vacant positions?” Vice Mayor Holli Ploog asked.

“I do think it’s realistic. We have a waiting list now,” Foley said. “We have not grown to the same level the rest of the city [staff] has.”

Foley also proposed hiring a commercial vehicle inspector who could “put vehicles out of order and not allow them on the road.”

City Clerk JoAnne Cook said that staff’s intention was to hire “a qualified code enforcement officer with experience” without having to train for the STR-specific position. Community Development Director Steve Mertes noted that while the new staffer would work with his department, that person would formally be under the supervision of the City Clerk’s Office.

“I think that this is a position that the public has been clamoring for,” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella said.

City STR complaint data earlier this year indicated that 8% of residents filed STR complaints.

In Process

As of May 9, the city’s website listed available full-time openings for a maintenance worker, community services officer, court specialist and police officers.

City Manager Anette Spickard said that she was “in the beginning stages of recruitment” to fill the vacant second deputy city manager post, authorized in last year’s budget.

Mertes said that the city will continue to try to fill the vacant senior planner’s position again.

“One of my objectives in fiscal year ’26 is to onboard that coordinator,” Communications Manager Lauren Browne said with regard to hiring an additional tourism coordinator authorized in the FY25 budget. “We’re doing interviews next week.”

“We’re currently working on updating [Kegn Moorcroft’s] job description … to make sure that her job description include being a main point of contact for emails and phone calls that are coming in to all of our inboxes and she can help guide them through the engagement process,” Browne added, a role that Spickard described as “an ombudsman position.”

Cook requested $15,000 to hire a consultant to do a “holistic review” of the city’s more than 1,200 contracts and determine their value to the city, while Housing Manager Jeanne Blum requested $105,000 for a housing strategy consultant “so that we can build out the housing plan that we feel that we need in order to make a comprehensive sort of plan for housing development.”

“We’re looking at getting a temp to help us convert all our as-built [plans] into electronic [format] as well,” Public Works Director Kurt Harris said. Spickard described the position as an internship not adding an FTE that was “too small for the council to debate.”

Harris also requested a $35,000 ongoing allocation for a licensed arborist to help diagnose dead trees to be removed. “We get a lot of pushback from people,” Harris said. “We just want to have that level of data and authority to make that decision.”

“We are in the process of selecting a contractor for [an] Uptown circulator study,” Transit Administrator Amber Wagner said, with the contract to be awarded in early summer.

Less formally, the city is also paying for tourism professionals at Sedona hotels.

“We’re on track to hit about 40 [familiarization trips] just for context,” Tourism Manager Andrew Grossman said. “To date we’ve hosted 130 people within those 40 FAMs.”