Pete Furman

City of Sedona talks parking & garage – Sedona Red Rock News

Sedona City Council heard an update Jan. 27 on the $26.4 million Uptown Parking Garage, which will add about 270 new public parking spaces. The project is about 70% complete, and anticipated to open in June.

Much of the discus­sion centered around the use of license plate reader technologies in the parking system and an effort by council to not have a replay of the summer’s controversy surrounding last year’s Flock Safety license plate readers, which were briefly installed, then removed.

“If we are going to use plate readers on any sort of street parking we need to be very clear on how the steps can be set up so it’s not just picking up anybody who happens to drive by,” Councilman Derek Pfaff said. “I don’t want this in any way, shape or form, to resemble the Flock situation.”

Transit Administrator Amber Wagner said her Transit Department staff is planning to use automatic license plate readers for parking enforcement at “the Uptown Parking Garage and other city managed parking facilities where appropriate,” the draft Parking Data Governance Policy and Standard Operating Procedures for the Sedona Parking Management Program wrote. Additionally “hand­held or vehicle-mounted LPRs may be used by parking enforcement staff … for on-street parking and city managed lots,” the document reads.

Parking enforcement will be done by the Sedona Police Department, most likely by non-sworn Community Service officers.

“This is a different situ­ation than having [ALPRs] out on streets where people are just driving through, [because] these are parking lots,” and drivers pay to enter them, Councilman Pete Furman said. “So, I’m OK right now with the direction that” staff has.

“This system is not a law-enforcement tool, does not connect to any police or national ALPR networks, and may not be used for investigative, surveillance or immigration-enforce­ment purposes,” the draft version of the parking data policy reads.

Residential Parking

Council also received updates on the Uptown Residential Parking Program, with Wagner outlining plans for a free, license-plate-based permit system for residents on Smith, Wilson, Van Deren and Price streets, where on-street enforcement is planned. Implementation of the residential program is tied to the opening of garage.

Cameras may be used at the Uptown Parking Garage to document vehicles entering and exiting; council had an early discussion on the data governance, with the data currently slated to be saved for 30 days.

“In regards to citations and appeals, it takes about 20 days to have access to the cita­tion data that is issued for appeals with that program,” Wagner said.

Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey said that staff is working to get “the data retention period down as much as we can,” but did not say a lower limit.

Councilwoman Melissa Dunn wanted assurances that facial recognition won’t be done with the garage cameras.

Wagner said she thinks a majority of the RFPs would only capture a vehicles back license plates “so facial recognition would not even be a consideration.”

While the draft states “the vendor is prohib­ited from releasing data directly to any third party,” Interim Mayor Holli Ploog noted that similar language did not “seem to work with [Flock].”

“At least one of the members on the resident side is somebody who is heavily involved in the [Flock issue] and he is now a member of this work group,” Ploog said — Parking Work Group member and civil rights lawyer Mikkel Jordahl — which Vice Mayor Brian Fultz later confirmed. “So I think we can be assured that concerns about the cameras are going to be addressed and brought up, and that this is not an attempt to repeat the Flock camera fiasco.”

Made up of city officials, staff, residents and business leaders, the Parking Work Group advises on Uptown parking and related programs.

Jordahl “did look at it, and did provide his support, and he did share it with other members of the group that he worked with previously, and we have not received any notification other than from the Parking Work Group member that he does support it,” Wagner said, adding that he shared concerns about third parties accessing license plate data.

The data collected from the cameras in parking lots would also be stored on a cloud server, which could be a point of vulnerability, Wagner said.

“The consistent finding is that the Uptown challenges relate to peak demand, circulation, employee parking and neighborhood spill­over, not simply a lack of spaces,” Wagner said, outlining five focus areas for Uptown parking: Parking management and guidance; residential permit parking readiness; balancing parking supply and demand; employee parking; and a parking fee structure.

Wagner plans to pilot some programs in Uptown as early as March, ahead of the garage’s opening, she said.

Since 2023, “several changes have reduced public parking supply,” the council packet reads. “Lot 1 — Jordan Road — was permanently removed from the public inven­tory following its sale to the Sedona Fire District [resulting in the loss of] 70 spaces; Lot 8 was removed from the leased public parking program due to a pending property sale [resulting in the loss of] 23 spaces; and on-street paid parking was reduced by four spaces. Collectively, these changes have reduced public parking supply by approxi­mately 97 spaces.”

The city calculates the effective available parking supply at approximately 749 spaces when accounting for turnover rates and other real-world factors, down from the total physical inventory of 881 spaces. Effectively, Uptown has a parking deficit of about 110 spaces during its peak demand.

“When operational, the 2026 parking system is projected to include approximately 1,150 public spaces, resulting in an effec­tive supply of approximately 980 spaces, compared to an estimated peak-period demand of approximately 860 spaces, thereby substantially offsetting the current deficit and stabilizing parking conditions during peak periods,” the packet reads.

A $95,800 contract amendment with Quality Testing, LLC, was unanimously approved by council as a consent item, for inspection and quality assurance for the garage. Council previously approved a $182,973.50 contract with Quality Testing on Feb. 25.

“We’ll continue to refine this, because none of this is baked yet. It’s not even in the oven,” Ploog said. “It’s in the pan … and that’s why I’m encouraging anybody who is concerned to contact the members of the group, to come to the meetings and observe the group, contact you and to provide their input, because we are accepting all input.”

Home Rule up for renewal in Sedona in 2026 – Sedona Red Rock News

The Sedona City Council unani­mously approved a resolution during its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 27, calling for the 2026 election of three council seats with four-year terms and for the selection of the city’s successor to interim Mayor Holli Ploog.

As part of the agenda item, the council also approved “a potential proposal to extend the Alternative Expenditure Limitation/Home Rule,” and a $650 advertising budget related to the election.

Election Dates

The municipal election will coin­cide with the state Primary Election, currently scheduled for either Tuesday, July 28, or Tuesday, Aug. 4. While the primary is set for August, the legisla­ture may move it to the last Tuesday in July to ensure compliance with the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022.

State election officials worry a recount could cause them to miss federal deadlines for submitting elec­tion results. Arizona also moved its primary in 2024 for the same reason.

If the Primary Election is held in August, the last day for City Council candidates to file their nomination petitions is Monday, April, 6 with the office of the Sedona City Clerk, and the voter registration deadline is the last day for voters to register is Monday, July 6.

In the event of a July Primary Election, the last day for City Council candidates to file their nomination petitions is Friday, March 20, and the voter registration deadline is Monday, June 29.

If a runoff election is required, it will take place during the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, which has a voter registration deadline on Monday, Oct. 5.

Candidates Thus Far

William Grosz, Henry Silbiger and Vice Mayor Brian Fultz have filed state­ments of interest to run for mayor. Ploog is not seeking the position and will return to her role as a regular council­woman once a new mayor is elected.

Three council seats are also up for grabs: Councilwoman Melissa Dunn’s seat, who is seeking reelection; Fultz’s seat; and Councilman Pete Furman’s seat, who is not running. Lita Loesch Boyd and Jean-Christophe Buillet have filed statements of interest for City Council so far. Sedona residents inter­ested in running for City Council can contact City Clerk JoAnne Cook at (928) 282-3113 or jcook@sedo­naaz.gov.

Council Pay

Currently, the monthly compensation is $800 for the mayor and $550 for council members. That could change following the council’s December Priority Retreat, when Furman requested the creation of a citizens’ committee to investigate and make a recommendation on potentially increasing council compensation to encourage more candidates from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Any raise, however, would not take effect until after the November election.

During the meeting also unanimously approved the City Council Compensation Review Work Group and a City Council Audit Subcommittee following a request to pull it from the consent agenda from one resident who spoke against the item.

The work group will meet at least three times and will be made up of six members who will be appointed by council along with one member of council, and has until the end of 2026 to make a recommendation. Furman said the work group does not currently have a recruitment timeline.

Audit Subcommittee

Council approved the creation of an Audit Subcommittee to advise on financial audits and the performance of the city government, a move requested by Furman at the December retreat. The subcommittee will meet quarterly or as needed and be made up of Dunn, Furman, Fultz, a chairperson will be selected from the trio.

Home Rule

Nearly $80 million in allowed city spending is on the line this year as Sedona voters decide whether to renew the city’s Home Rule, the measure that sets how much of its money the city can spend.

There are three options for a municipality in Arizona to set how much it can spend:

■ The state limit that is based on the 1980 budget and 1978 population, adjusted annually for inflation and population growth

■ A permanent base adjustment that, through voter approval, increases the 1980 base to a new base, and only requires an elec­tion when that limit is raised. Mesa used the second one and it is estimated to need its next election in 30 years.

■ The final is Home Rule that Sedona has used since 1996 that replaces the state limit with the city’s annual adopted budget and requires regular voter approval.

The Fiscal Year 2025-26 State Expenditure Limit for Sedona is $15,411,542, with $8,239,380 in city exemp­tions such as grant funding, creating $23,650,922 of allowable expenditures under the State Limit.

However, with Home Rule, Sedona’s FY 2025- 26 Adopted Budget is $103,497,496, allowing the city to spend nearly $80 million over the state expen­diture limit.

If Home Rule fails, taxes would still be collected at the same rate but the city could not spend beyond the state limit. The city has the option to float a one-time override vote to adjust the spending limit.

“The reality is, we still collect [the revenue], even if the expenditure limit were to drop down to the $15.4 [million]. We would still collect all of the … revenue, and it would just sit in the bank and we could invest it, but we could not spend it,” Deputy City Manager Barbara Whitehorn said during the retreat.

Dunn told the NEWS that among the reasons she supports continuing Home Rule is that, without it, she thinks the city can’t access or control funds effectively and representative and decision-making is limited.

“I believe that Home Rule is important,” Dunn said. “Because without Home Rule … you could run into the fact that we [wouldn’t] have a police department anymore. Maybe we’ll have to be like the Village of Oak Creek and use the [Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office]. … Maintenance might be minimal, and certainly no new facilities. So a lot of things that we as residents sort of rely on and count on, there just wouldn’t be any funding for.”

“Historically, Home Rule has proven popular with the residents of Sedona as the preferred budgeting approval model for how the city plans its annual activities,” Fultz said. “I do support Home Rule, because I do think it is both efficient and it creates stability and plan for year to year, project [and] plans that need to have that clear visibility to having budget support in order to be completed.”

Public hearings on Home Rule are scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, at 4:30 p.m. during the regu­larly scheduled Sedona City Council Meeting and Tuesday, March 24, at 3:30 p.m. as a special meeting.

The city of Sedona also anticipates that it will update its Frequently Asked Questions about Home Rule on sedonaaz.gov sometime next week.

City of Sedona commits $22M for wells – Sedona Red Rock News

The Sedona City Council, with Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella absent and Councilwoman Charlotte Hosseini attending virtually, directed staff on Dec. 10 to move forward with a $22 million plan over the next two to three years to add recharge wells and explore supplying water to the Dells.

The city will abandon 200 acres of irrigation and construct up to four additional recharge wells.

The plans include two new recharge wells now, with two additional wells planned for future capacity.

“I should note that that $22 million is just for the two wells,” Sedona Wastewater Director Roxanne Holland said. “If we need two more for capacity later, that would be an additional, probably over $22 million, because it will be far in the future. So that $22 million is not for four wells.”

Both irrigation and injection wells are methods cities use to dispose of treated wastewater from the reclama­tion plants.

“From an operational standpoint, my preference would be to abandon [irrigation],” Holland said. “It’s diffi­cult to manage effluent management with irrigation that is unpredictable. Injection wells, they’re tested … and they have been very predictable for us. Every day, our recharge well will take 360,000 gallons” whereas “there are some days that irrigation will take zero.”

Council considered five total options for wastewater, with the cheapest calling for the construction of two recharge wells and keeping irrigation disposal, to the most expensive option of $161 million for the construction of an Advanced Water Purification facility that could purify recycled water back into drinking water that meets federal and local drinking water standards.

“AWP does not seem cost-effective under any circumstances, we’ve got assured water supply,” Interim Vice Mayor Brian Fultz said.

Arizona Water Company representatives reiterated their October presentation to council that AWC’s groundwater modeling shows Sedona’s groundwater meets current Adequate Water Supply Requirements and is reasonably expected to be available for at least the next 100 years.

The “predictive scenarios show: 100-year depth to water ranges from 420 to 790 feet below land surface. A 100-year drawdown of up to 200 feet,” AWC stated.

AWC’s models ran four scenarios with annual ground­water pumping ranging from 2,049 acre-feet per year to 4,361 acre-feet per year that also accounted for a decrease in water availability because of climate change.

Councilman Pete Furman was a dissenting voice, stating that, while advanced water purification is costly, he could see a possibility of a municipality downstream being interested in Sedona’s treated water. His comments come as communi­ties across the Southwest grapple with increasing aridifica­tion — including Phoenix, which received $179 million in federal funding in August for its North Gateway Advanced Water Purification Facility.

“We got a good assured water supply for a while,” Furman said. “What I really believe is the value of our effluent is increasing every day. If we pay attention to the news … folks are trying to figure out how to get new water sources every day … but someone’s going to come knocking on our door to want to … take that effluent, get it into the Verde River, and they’ll pull it off downstream,” and compensate Sedona.

Council’s decision doesn’t preclude a future council from investigating an AWP for the city.

AWC’s existing infrastructure doesn’t go out to the Dells, and while the city currently has a well at the administration site for the wastewater treatment plant for city services, it is not sufficient for development at the Dells and additional water infrastructure is needed to support the buildout of the Dells.

The council’s decision came after environmental and geotechnical studies were conducted on the Dells land, as requested in July. These assessments included testing for 37 specific contaminants. Testubg found no contamination or environmental issues exceeding established standards. The soil was also determined to be suitable for construction, and no remediation was required, confirming the land can be developed without concern for contamination.

The city is looking at building a new maintenance and transit center at the Dells, and is looking at the potential of building residential at the site as well. The December deci­sion help clears a path for eventual development of the Dells property, though a master planning process for that land remains to be completed.