Council OKs arts & culture grant funding – Sedona Red Rock News

The Sedona City Council unanimously approved the recommendations of the Arts and Culture Grant Review Committee on Tuesday, Dec. 9 — award the Sedona International Film Festival and the Sedona Arts Center each $100,000 in the city’s first disbursement of the recently created Arts and Culture Grant Program.

“We have two very fine organizations,” Councilman Pete Furman said. “I don’t like the process. We developed a competitive grant process. [But] it’s not really competi­tive. I would prefer that we do contracts for services for these two fine organizations.”

Council approved the creation of the grant program 5-2 during its Sept. 9 meeting, with Furman and Councilman Brian Fultz opposed. Subsequently, the Arts and Culture Grant Committee reviewed applications on Nov. 17, forwarding recommendations to council.

ACOG eligibility is limited to Sedona-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits focused on arts and culture with annual budgets of $1 million or more. Qualifying organizations must offer year-round programming for residents, expend awarded funds within the fiscal year, submit outcome reports and forgo other city grants during the same period.

SIFF and SAC were the only applicants that satisfied these requirements.

“We are really honored that the city has recognized us and the Sedona Arts Center for the value and the arts and the culture that we bring daily to this community,” SIFF Executive Director Patrick Schweiss said. “This is a huge step in support for arts and culture on behalf of the city, for two very well established longtime organizations.”

Among SIFF programs that ACOG will support are: The Sedona Professional Theatre Company that brings profes­sional actors and directors to the Mary D. Fisher Theatre, the “Movies on the Move” outdoor screening program, a new live music series with four dates and the continuation of the annual festival’s closing night free concert.

A portion of the funds from this grant are earmarked to help support four programs at the upcoming festival taking place from Sunday, Feb. 22 to Monday, March 2: “Marilyn Monroe at 100: A Celebration” with film screenings and a live tribute; “Right In the Eye: Movie Concert on Georges Méliés’ Films” featuring a small live orchestra from France; “From Broadway with Love: Part II” with Megan Hilty.

Finally “‘Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground:’ Live one-man stage production starring Tony Award-winner John Rubenstein as Dwight D. Eisenhower,” SIFF”s grant application reads. This production would be staged as the preevening kick-off event of the festival, in celebration of launching of the Sedona Professional Theatre Company.

ACOG is “something that Patrick Schweiss and I have both been working toward for the past year and a half, just laying all the groundwork to make it happen,” SAC CEO Julie Richard said. “We really need this funding, and it is going to go a long way in helping to support our programming.”

The $100,000 will go towards supporting SAC’s Creative Aging program, the The Sedona Entrepreneurial Artist Development Program a two-day program in March that teaches business skills to artists, Gallery 928 a summer art apprenticeship program for teens, and the “Faces” exhibit series.

SAC and SIFF originally applied for and were awarded $30,000 and $27,300, respec­tively, under the city’s Small Grants Program, on June 24.

With the creation of ACOG, those funds will be redistributed to other area nonprofits under the Small Grants Program: The Sedona Symphony, $19,500; Low-Income Student Aid, $6,065; Chamber Music Sedona, an additional $4,500; the Sedona Chamber Ballet, $4,500; Gardens for Humanity, $4,500; the Sedona-Oak Creek District Educational Foundation, $3,225; Piano on the Rocks, $2,500; the Rotary Club of Sedona, $2,000; the Sedona Arts Festival, $2,000; St. Vincent de Paul, $2,000; the Sedona Sister Cities Association, $1,000; the International Hummingbird Society, $1,000; and Wisdom Age Metaverse, $5,000.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to accurately state Sedona City Council’s prior vote in September.

Yavapai County hopes water talks flow – Sedona Red Rock News

Yavapai County Supervisors Nikki Check [D-District 3] and Chris Kuknyo [R-District 4] were tapped by their fellow supervisors to join the newly formed Water Resources and Open Space Committee during the board’s Dec. 3 meeting in Prescott.

In “January, myself and our county manager at the time, and several Yavapai County directors attended a Growing Water Smart conference, where we brainstormed amongst ourselves: What could the county do to make progress on water?” Check later said. “We coalesced around the idea that we’d like to see a more regional conversation, and that Yavapai County would be the most appropriate and best facilitator for [that] conversation.”

“Topics and reasons for convening this conversation would be to find areas of agreement where we could have some mutual coopera­tion to get some projects together, both in understanding our regional hydrology but also doing proj­ects like stormwater capture, and additionally looking at what tools are already in our toolbox that we can implement for being water conscious, but also identifying areas — specifics that we would like to see added to our toolbox as far as decision-making on regional groundwater.”

The Yavapai County Water Advisory Committee was first approved by the board on Jan. 25, 1999. Check served as appointed member through the Jerome Town Council when she was Jerome’s mayor, before the committee was disbanded in 2014. Check expressed support for reforming a committee at several points on the 2024 campaign trail.

“Here’s what’s different about the way things used to be,” Check later said. “We had a Water Advisory Committee. So yes, Yavapai County has kind of been in this position of facilitating a regional conversation before, but that was at a time when the state was not very active. Since then, the governor [Katie Hobbs] has really activated the [Arizona] Department of Water Resources.

“They’re analyzing basins. They are making progress and forming ideas about how our groundwater is going to be managed. So what I would like to see is our regional stakeholders be able to have a cohesive voice in that conversation with the state.”

Check said the new effort must focus on areas of agreement rather than disagreement if it hopes to be productive. She described the prior committee as prone to get “mired around misunder­standings and disagree­ments around the inter­pretation of the data that’s available.”

“I think that there is a regional desire,” Check later said. “Prescott … the Verde Valley communi­ties, they’ve all said they are committed to ensuring that the Upper Verde River continues to flow. But how to get there is an important topic. So that’s the area that I’d like to focus on — finding those areas of agreement. I don’t know why there wouldn’t be an area of agreement around doing some smart stormwater capture to help bolster that watershed. There’s so much around it, or preserving some open space to protect the hydrology there.”

The main focus of the committee’s conversation will be how to keep the upper Verde River flowing, Check said.

Calls for stronger regional coordination on water issues have been growing across the county. In May, Citizens Water Advocacy Group Executive Committee member Gary Beverly warned that cities within the Prescott Active Management Area continue to pursue new development while relying on a shared groundwater supply that is already in decline.

“The numbers are sobering,” Arizona Water Sentinels Program Manager for the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club Jennifer Martin wrote in a March blog. “Groundwater pumping and climate change have reduced the Verde River’s base flow by more than half compared to pre-development levels, “Del Rio Springs, once the historical headwaters, has been reduced to a trickle — just 5% of its original flow. Six miles of the upper Verde have already dried up, and projections suggest that the base flow at critical points could reach zero within a few decades. These declines threaten not only the river itself but the intricate web of life it supports.”

Sedona’s water supply is stable but declining, according to Arizona Water Company represen­tatives during their Oct. 29 update to City Council.

Assistant Yavapai County Manager Tyler Goodman told the super­visors that Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, Dewey-Humboldt, Clarkdale, Cottonwood and Jerome have confirmed participa­tion, with Sedona expected to finalize its representa­tive by Friday, Dec. 19.

Sedona City Councilman Pete Furman told the NEWS he has an interest in being on the county’s new committee in addi­tion to his current roles on the Northern Arizona Municipal Water Users Association and the Coconino Plateau Water Partnership.

“The watershed in our particular area is in rela­tively good shape relative to the rest of the Verde Valley and the rest of the county,” Furman said. “So, it’s going to be very interesting to see what this county group wants to take on, but it’s really important for Sedona to participate as well.”

The Water Resources and Open Space Committee is expected to begin meeting in January. The committee will be supported by a two-year, $25,000 grant from the Growing Water Smart for professional facilitation services, with the goals of creating web-based mapping tools for water data by February and a county-wide open space plan by June.

Sedona City Council picks 4 for vacancy – Sedona Red Rock News

A Sedona City Council vacancy created by the resignation of former Mayor Scott Jablow and the eleva­tion of council members Holli Ploog and Brian Fultz to interim mayor and vice mayor, respectively, is slated to be filled by one of four finalists: Jean-Christophe Buillet, Charlotte Hosseini, Ernie Strauch or Allan Affeldt.

Interviews of the applicants is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 13, at 1 p.m.

The four were advanced to a round of public interviews during the City Council’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 28, with all of the selected appli­cants except Affeldt receiving unani­mous votes. Affeldt advanced on a 4-2 vote, with Ploog and Councilwoman Melissa Dunn not advancing him.

“My criteria [was] thinking about this is a year position [so] coming up to speed quickly is important,” Councilman Pete Furman said, explaining his vote. “So I was really interested in folks who have demon­strated recent engagement with the city and the city council through commis­sions or work groups or [are] active. … I felt strongly about engaging in commissions or work groups … because I like to see how they think and how they act and how they treat staff or members of whatever body is that they [are] on, so it was an active demonstration.”

Andrea Christelle, Chase Norlin, Henry Silbiger, Gary Whitehil and Scott Ross were the remaining applicants that council chose to not consider further.

Finalists

▪ Affeldt is a former two-term mayor of Winslow and has served on the New Mexico Economic Recovery Council that represents the hospitality industry and the Arizona Humanities Council.

“I restored and own La Posada Hotel and the Turquoise Room restau­rant in Winslow, so I know the hotel and restaurant industry. … I have restored many historic properties in Arizona and New Mexico,” he wrote in his application. “I have served on many non-profit boards, from Lowell Observatory to [the] Museum of Northern Arizona. I created my own nonprofit — the Winslow Arts Trust — to promote art and artists along Route 66. I built a museum — the Affeldt Mion Museum — in Winslow, so I know how to design, fund, build and operate cultural institutions.”

▪ Buillet was a member of the Citizen Budget Work Group, a 28-year resident and father of four and his family have built and oper­ated A Sunset Chaetau over the last 20 years, his appli­cation reads. Along with his businesses, Buillet Tax & Consulting and Devstar Realty & Buillet Real Estate, he studied computer and electrical engineering at Northern Arizona University “before completing two years at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, which shaped his heart for service and integrity.”

▪ Hosseini is the current vice chairwoman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, where she has served since 2018 after relocating to Sedona in 2015. She also served on the Citizens Healthcare Work Group in 2022, the Fiscal Sustainability Work Group in 2017, the Citizens Budget Work Group from fiscal years 2017 to 2020. Her professional career centered on 24 years of service starting in 1989 to the state of Arizona where she held various roles from the special projects admin­istrator for the Attorney General’s Office and deputy director of finance for the Arizona Department of Administration.

▪ Strauch was Sedona vice mayor in 2006 and served on council from 2002 to 2006. He is a 27-year resident who has also served on the Sedona Sustainability Commission from 2010 to 2013, the Sedona Community Plan Advisory Group in 2014 and the Sedona Community Plan Working Group in 2022.

“Unfortunately, I believe the most important imme­diate issue is the … re-establishment of trust in city government,” Strauch wrote in his application. “I do not have specific ideas to propose here, other than desiring to participate in a significant collabora­tive effort to effectuate an obvious public distin­guishing event/activity that promotes the concept that the city is truly listening and cares.”

2026 Election

The applicants that were not chosen for interviews can also make their case to voters along with any other qualified elector for the 2026 Sedona City Council election on Tuesday, Aug. 4, in which the mayoral seat will be determined along with three seats on council. A runoff, if necessary, takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.

Candidate packets will be available at the Sedona city clerk’s office at 102 Roadrunner Drive on Monday, Nov. 3.

“It is highly recom­mended that those inter­ested in running schedule an appointment to pick up and review a candidate packet,” a city press release reads. Candidates must be a quali­fied elector, at least 18 on or before the election and have lived within the city limits for at least one year.

Fultz announced his intention to run for mayor while Ploog is not seeking to run for mayor and will continue to serve on council until 2028. Furman will not be seeking reelection while Dunn will be asking voters for another term.

Contact City Clerk JoAnne Cook at (928) 282- 3113 or by email jcook@sedonaaz.gov for more information on how to run for City Council.

The ‘adequate’ reign of Mayor Jablow is over – Sedona Red Rock News

On Tuesday morning, Sept. 30, embattled Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow emailed the Sedona City Attorney to resign from office, ending his 34-month¹ tenure.

Keeping Sedona residents informed, we were the first to break the news of his resignation, which should have happened 20 days earlier in execu­tive session on Sept. 10 before Sedona City Council subsequently voted 5-2 to censure him and demand his resignation for “interference with city staff/departments,” “creating/fostering a hostile work environment,” “breaking the confidentiality of attorney-client privilege” “circumven­tion of city council process,” “acting beyond the authority of the office of mayor,” “acting unilaterally” and “violating principles of ethical conduct for elected officials.”²

It should have happened 13 days earlier on Sept. 17 after our editorial, “For the good of Sedona, Mayor Scott Jablow must resign,” reinforcing council’s seven damning reasons they publicly shamed a colleague.

Any rational, wise and honorable leader would have taken the hint and quit the office with some dignity intact.

Unfortunately for Sedona, Jablow possesses none of those leadership skills, refused to resign and vowed to hold on, though he did figure out a 2026 reelection was untenable and announced he would not run.

On Sept. 19, a new allegation was filed, leading to another closed-door meeting with the city attorney and direction to investigate the claims. While these allegations are not yet public, we can only wonder if they are what led to the sudden reversal.

Due to Jablow’s defiance, council members discussed revising City Code and Council Procedures to add additional penalties to a censure resolution: Striking a council member from any liaison roles, banning access to the Mayor-Council conference room, taking away a city-funded cell phone, declining to pay travel expenses or docking a council member’s limited pay, effectively neutering all the perks of a censured official. Council will still discuss adding these penalties on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Prior to that discussion, Jablow went rogue and tried to make a public statement bashing his colleagues for voting their conscience and admon­ishing him 13 days earlier. He began by blatantly misstating a headline from our newspaper³, then proceeded to read what would have been a lengthy rant before he was slapped down by both council members and the city attorney for speaking on issues not properly agendized.

Again, Jablow was breaking the rules by fostering a hostile work envi­ronment, circumventing the city council process and violating principles of ethical conduct for elected officials, reinforcing why he was censured earlier.

The next day, the rant was mistakenly posted to Facebook by a third party but quickly taken down, but not before local keyboard warriors snagged screenshots of the rant³. Two days later, he posted an edited version, but both were rife with factual errors, misstatements, falsehoods and what can only be described as lies, a term we journalists do not use lightly.

For instance, he falsely claimed that three Sedona Police Department staffers came forward with allegations of mistreatment and “Allegedly, out of fear of retaliation by the Chief, the employees decided not to pursue their complaints.”

This is so ridiculously false, it must be highlighted: Not only did the three staffers pursue their complaints, the city hired an outside firm — Revolutionary HR Consultants — to investigate them. We published a 2,100-word story on the investigation, posted the entire 29-page Report of Findings and Jablow even cited the misspelled “HR Revolutionary” by name three times in his Sept. 26 post⁴, so he knew that they pursued their complaints.

He also cites in his post that one of the complaints about the chief came in August 2024, “from the former Deputy Chief, who outlined safety-related issues.”

Jablow neglects to mention the name of the former deputy chief, Ryan Kwitkin, who Revolutionary HR suggested in May 2024 the city inves­tigate for allegations of misconduct discovered during interviews. Ten allegations of misconduct were “substantiated” and Kwitkin was fired by the city manager July 10. Kwitkin filed a $360,000 notice of claim against the city in August. A fired employee who is suing the city bashing his former supervisor? You don’t say.

If Jablow really had cause to displace the chief, he presented nothing to his colleagues and nothing to our newspaper to validate his “concerns.”

“It should be noted he NEVER asked to agendize an item his concerns. NEVER,” a council member wrote to us on Sept. 26.

But Jablow’s myopic push to oust Sedona’s first female police chief led her to file a 157-page harassment complaint against Jablow on July 27, detailing three years of “constant and continuous scrutiny, micromanage­ment and undermining of her position of authority” and “gender-based discrimination.” Jablow’s resignation comes just weeks before that inves­tigation becomes public.

Jablow claimed the council-manager form of government limited his ability to manage the city — but after 10 years and 11 months on council, he’s not new to the job — he should know it’s both Arizona state law and how Sedona’s municipal government works.

His greatest sin against Sedona residents, however, was the debacle over automated license plate reader cameras. Wowed by the new surveillance toy in early 2024, Jablow pushed ALPRs relentlessly by himself in order to track and surveil Sedona residents and visitors on city streets without their knowledge. He was told flat-out by the former city manager to cease acting unilaterally without his colleagues’ knowledge or approval, then proceeded anyway by contacting Verde Valley law enforcement leaders about their ALPR data and instructing them not to email city staff but him directly for “personal” research⁵. He pushed the new city manager in 2024 who seemed unaware of her predecessor’s rebuke of Jablow and signed off on the project appearing not to be aware of Jablow’s surreptitious behavior.

When she asked when she should schedule a public meeting, Jablow explicitly told her not to make it public⁶ — hiding from his own constitu­ents the proposed mass surveillance of their movements — 5th and 6th Amendments be damned — an utter betrayal of his duty as an elected official.

That revelation only came to light when furious readers notified us cameras were tracking them without warning ^{[689 comments on our story as of Sept. 30]}. Residents demanded answers from the city and council members heard from the public on Aug. 13, all learning for the first time how Jablow’s duplicitous actions wasted tens of thousands of tax dollars and engendered fear and distrust that will take years to rebuild.

When running for mayor in 2022, Jablow said his top three priorities were short-term rentals, OHVs regulations and affordable workforce housing, the reduction of which he largely attributed to short-term rentals.

On all three issues, Jablow failed utterly.

Despite all his talk to outside media outlets about the negative impacts of short-term rentals, there are more STRs in 2025 then when he was elected mayor, tripling since 2020 and now numbering more than 1,100. New STR legislation Jablow championed as the “fix” never became law and most bills were killed in committee; 11 died in 2024 alone without ever getting a floor vote. Jablow lacked the political charisma or swagger to convince lawmakers on his key issue.

Under the guise of “safety,” Jablow proposed an ordinance in April 2023 to ban OHVs on Sedona streets unless they had Department of Transportation-approved street-legal tires — a requirement that was tech­nically and legally impossible. Jablow penned a guest perspective in June focused on “safety.”⁷ Activist lawyers smacked down Jablow’s backdoor ban and all three of our state lawmakers said the proposal conflicted with numerous state laws.

Jablow tried to get the U.S. Forest Service to ban or limit OHVs on lands west of Sedona, serving not Sedona residents but landowners outside city limits and outside his jurisdiction, an utter dereliction of his purview and beyond the authority of a mayor.

When OHV rental owners bowed to the coercive power of the state to save their businesses, Jablow’s negotiated ordinance lacked any refer­ence to “airbags, stability control, crumple zones, rear bumpers and DOT-approved tires” proving the ordinance had nothing to do with safety but with getting OHV business to kowtow to his power. In the end, Jablow’s only “success” was getting a 15-mph OHV-only speed limit on ½-mile of Morgan Road.

When you pass an OHV driving on State Route 89A, remember him.

Jablow has completed no affordable workforce housing projects in his 34 months as mayor or 10 years on council. In fact, when counting several workforce housing areas that were sold to developers who proposed higher-end redevelopments, Sedona had a net workforce housing loss under Jablow’s leadership.

Jablow sent out campaign mailers in 2022, showing him with a shovel in hand⁸, which suggested he was a builder, but the photo was from the groundbreaking of SFD Station 6, not housing. Other than a toothless “housing shortage emergency” declaration, Jablow can point to no substantive achievements and ends as a footnote, sans legacy.

His high mark was installing a 9/11 memorial at Sedona Fire District Station 6 when he served on the SFD Governing Board. Unfortunately for us all in Sedona, he then sought higher office on Sedona City Council.

Back in 2022, we wrote that Jablow was “known to sway with the wind, changing his votes based on who last had his ear before a council meeting. Even allies and donors note this unsteady fickleness. Adaptability is a virtue, inconsistency a vice.” So Jablow’s Sept. 10 decision to remain and his Sept. 30 reversal to quit is no surprise — it was entirely expected.

Jablow did not send us any statements about his resignation, did not respond calls on his cell phones and home phone from the NEWS to comment about his resignation, attempting to deny you, his former constituents, an explanation. Luckily for you, our dear readers, his attempts failed. Fortunately, his former council colleagues were more than happy to speak to you on the record.

When endorsing his opponent in 2022, we warned voters that Jablow was cowardly in comparison to his predecessors, communicating only second-hand whispers and rumors rather than directly, adding that “the mayor’s office. It offers no armor” … “aversion to bravery is trivial; as mayor, such behavior is perilous for the city.” Contrary to claims, Jablow is not a New Yorker with alligator-thick skin. He refused to return our calls about his resignation, has refused to speak with me because we endorsed his opponent three years ago and refused to shake her hand after their first debate⁹, an act that “reeked of cowardice, misogyny and disrespect and spoke to the character of both people on stage,” we wrote.

We have been proven right.

Fear is what led to his downfall. Fear of public scrutiny of ALPRs by council and residents, fear his colleagues could not be persuaded by his arguments on issues, fear of staff doing what they were hired to do within the bounds of policy and the law, fear that the city-manager form of government — that places management in the hands of professional administrators he hired — can achieve his desired goals without him having to circumvent it and overstep policy and the law.

We warned voters that Jablow would be, at best, an “adequate” mayor. He turned out to be far less. Far from a high note, Jablow leaves office in disgrace — the first mayor to be censured and the first directly-elected mayor in the city’s history to resign¹⁰. He can blame council, or city staffers or this newspaper but none of us repeatedly and relentlessly broke policy, bent procedures, violated rules and lost the public trust.

Now-ex-mayor Scott Jablow did that all on his own.

Christopher Fox Graham, Managing Editor

Kyle Larson, General Manager

Footnotes:

• 1) Scott Jablow falsely claimed in a self-released press statement that by resigning on Sept. 30, 2025, he was “bringing to a close more than three and a half years of mayoral service,” however, Jablow was only mayor for 34 months and 3 days — or 2 years and 10 months, or 1,038 total days, from Nov. 28, 2022 and Sept. 30, 2025 — less than three years and a full eight months shorter than the “three-and-a-half years” he falsely claimed to have served as mayor.
• 2) Sept. 10, 2025 Sedona City Council Executive Session Minutes:

Page 1 / 2

Zoom 100%

• 3) An Facebook post purportedly from Jablow appeared on a Cornville-based Facebook page on Sept. 23. It was removed in about 30 minutes but captured by other Facebook users. Jablow later confirmed the writing the post was his but claimed he did not know how it had appeared online. The person we contacted who posted Jablow’s statement provided erroneous means about how it was obtained and unsubstantiated.
  In the Facebook post, Jablow misstates the headline, claiming: “A recent headline in the local paper reported that this Council must restore trust in our city,” when the actual headline was “Sedona City Council to Mayor Scott Jablow: Resign to restore trust.”

• 4) Jablow’s Sept. 26 post specifically cites the outside human resources firm that conducted the investigation into Sedona Police Chief Stephanie Foley, though he misspells Revolutionary HR Consultants as “HR Revolutionary.”

• 5) Sedona City Manager Karen Osburn wrote to Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow on “This isn’t a current project and until it is and until we were to know there is an interest in pursuing this and capacity to implement LPR technology, it wouldn’t be reasonable to do any grant seeking. You continue to pursue this unilaterally without ever having discussed it with council and after I have repeatedly told you that PD is in no position right now to conduct the research necessary to explore how this technology might integrate into their systems, let alone acquire and implement. lt may be even longer before anything, even current and more urgent projects like body worn cameras, can advance due to the current disruptions happening in PD.” Yet on April 6, 2024, Jablow continued to press the issue, contacting Camp Verde Marshal Corey Rowley to ask about Camp Verde’s use of ALPRs, stating his request was for “my own research” and to send the information to him and sidestep the Sedona Police Department and, by extension, Sedona Police Chief Stephanie Foley.

• 6) Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow told Sedona City Manager Anette Spickard on Nov. 23, 2024, that he does not want the discussion on automated license plate reader cameras to be made public.

• 7) Objecting to the headline of a May 5, 2023, NEWS story, “Mayor pushes OHV ‘safety’ ban for Sedona,” Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow penned a Guest Perspective, published June 7, that used the word “safety” or a derivative six times.

• 8) When campaigning for mayor in 2022, then-Sedona Vice Mayor Scott Jablow sent to voters this mailer, misleading voters into believing he had been involved in housing the projects. In the photo are not homebuilders but Sedona Fire Distict Governing Board member Scott Jablow, left, board member Corrie Cooperman and Board Chairman Ty Montgomery. The July 20, 2021, NEWS story referenced in the flyer “Sedona teams up with developer on housing,” is about the Sedona City Council approving “a resolu­tion authorizing the city to enter into a development agreement with Sunset Lofts LLC for the devel­opment of a multi-family workforce apartment complex at 220 Sunset Drive.” According a NEWS story “Sunset Lofts proposal given extension through 2026,” published Nov. 17, 2024, the MK Company of Scottsdale in the story failed to begin work on the project by the first deadline of July 13, 2023, and the second deadline of April 1, 2024, focusing instead on a 60-unit townhome development on Navajo Drive in West Sedona and the city acquired title to the 2.2-acre property and the plans for the proposed 46-unit apartment complex. As of Oct. 2, 2025, the land is still totally vacant.

• 9) After the Oct. 6, 2022, mayoral debate hosted by Larson Newspapers at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre, then-Sedona Vice Mayor Scott Jablow visibly dodged the offer of a handshake extended by his opponent, Samaire Armstrong. In our Oct. 27, 2022, endorsement of Armstrong for mayor, this visible act of disrespect in from of the gathered crowd opened our editorial, in which we wrote “The younger person, the woman, the single mother, offered her hand. The retired older man, the ex-cop, the elected official, the public servant, refused it. It reeked of cowardice, misogyny and disrespect and spoke to the character of both people on stage. The snub begs many questions: Where does Jablow’s partisanship end? As mayor, will Jablow refuse to shake the hand of Ken Bennett, a Republican running to be our state senator? What of Republicans Selina Bliss or Mark Finchem, should they win their races? Or congressional candidate Eli Crane? Senate hopeful Blake Masters? What about Kari Lake, should she be elected governor? More importantly, what about the Sedona residents who want to serve on city commissions or committees or who receive awards for their service? … that show of disrespect, in our house, as our guests, was unacceptable. We demand that our mayor rise above pettiness to serve all, but it appears Jablow is not yet mature enough for the office he seeks.”
  Bliss and Finchem were elected to the Arizona State Legislature and Crane was elected to Congress.

• 10) Scott Jablow was Sedona’s 13th elected mayor, the third to resign and the first-directly elected mayor to resign. Mayor Alan Everett resigned in 2002 to run for Congress and Mayor Ruth “Pud” Colquitt resigned in 2005 in order to run for Sedona mayor under new rules allowing voters to directly elect the mayor in the 2006 election.
  Sedona incorprated in 1988 with June Conelison appointed as provisional mayor on the Provisional Sedona City Council and served from January to April 1988. She was elected to the first Sedona City Council and served as Sedona’s first elected vice mayor and second elected mayor.
  From 1998 to 2006, Sedona City Council would vote from among themselves the mayor and vice mayor at the first meeting after the election canvass. Nine mayors of Sedona were elected by this process: Pat Pomphrey (1988-1990); June Conelison (1990-1992), Thron Riggs (1992-1996); Ivan Finley (1996-1998); Alan Everett (1998 until his resignation Jan 8, 2002, to run for Arizona Congressional District 1); Anita McFarlane (January to May 2002); Dick Ellis (2002-2004); Ruth “Pud” Colquitt (2004 to December 2005. She resigned in order to legally be able to run in Sedona’s first direct election for mayor). Susan Solomon (December 2005 to June 2006).
  After 2006, voters directly elected the mayor to a two-year term. Sedona City Council would vote from among themselves the vice mayor at the first meeting after the election canvass. There have been four mayors elected by this process: Ruth “Pud” Colquitt (2006-2008), Rob Adams (2008-2010, 2010-2012, 2012-2014), Sandy Moriarty (2014-2016, 2016-2018, 2018-2020, 2020-2022), Scott Jablow (2022-2024, 2024 to 5 p.m. Sept. 30, 2025), Holli Ploog (acting mayor from 5 p.m. Sept. 30, 2025, to present).

Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow resigns – Sedona Red Rock News

Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow announced his resignation “effective today at 5 p.m.,” on Tuesday, Sept. 30, in a 7:51 a.m. email to City Attorney Kurt Christianson.

Vice Mayor Holli Ploog will step in as the acting mayor until the council meets on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at which point the council will vote on the interim mayor who will serve until November 2026 when Jablow’s term was to end.

The resignation comes after Jablow lost the support of city staff, his colleagues on the City Council and several online petitions calling for his resignation.

Jablow did not respond to a request from the NEWS to comment about his resignation by the time of this publication.

“I’m pleased that with the resignation to start the healing process with the community, and the fact that he recognized that his continuous as mayor was a distraction from the work in front of us,” Ploog said.

“I’m disappointed in how things turned out, but Scott did the right thing by resigning,” Councilman Derek Pfaff wrote. “He put the best interests of Sedona and its residents ahead of his own. He should be thanked for that.”

“I’m glad [Jablow’s] changed his mind,” Furman said. “I think it’s good for the community, and it’s time for all of us to move forward.”

“I appreciate [Jablow] coming to the conclusion that his resignation is in the best interest of the community and that we can now move forward productively addressing the matters affecting Sedona,” Councilman Brian Fultz wrote.

“I hope that [Jablow’s] legacy won’t simply be the last few months of his term, and that people will look back at some of the positive things that have occurred and his dedication to the community as we get past this difficult time,” Ploog said.

“This episode has been an unfortunate distraction from the important issues facing out community,” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella wrote. “I hope we can now move on and work to restore public trust in local government.

Councilwoman Melissa Dunn has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Complaints

Sedona Police Department Chief of Police Stephanie Foley filed a 157-page human resources complaint on July 27 alleging Jablow created a hostile work environment, discriminated against her based on gender and micromanaged SPD police officers.

On Aug. 13, City Council held a public discussion about 11 Flock Safety automatic license plate readers that had been installed in June without council approval. Council members learned that the cameras had been installed without public or council discussion but pushed by Jablow since spring 2024.

Council, through a 6-1 majority consensus, decided to shut off its Automatic License Plate Reader program and have city staff provide a timeline of the installation of the surveillance network that was installed this spring without a vote by council on Wednesday, Aug. 13. Jablow opposed the shutdown.

City Manager Anette Spickard provided council with a 30-page memo on Aug. 17 in which she accused Jablow of “manipulating” her in the installation of the ALPRs to the point his behavior had “damaged my credibility and professional reputation,” with city staff and Sedona residents by not stepping forward taking “responsibility for the direction on this project.”

When Spickard wanted to have the project discussed before council, Jablow emailed Spickard on Wednesday, Nov. 13, that “I would rather not make it public because it’s police related.”

Council voted unanimously Sept. 9 to remove the 11 installed ALPRs and to terminate its contract with Flock Safety, citing issues with Flock’s data security.

“As of Friday, [Sept. 26] a couple of poles still need to be removed but all cameras have been removed,” Deputy City Manager Lauren Browne wrote on Sept. 27.

Censure

Council proceeded to take the “unprecedented action,” according to Councilman Pete Furman of publicly and formally censuring Jablow and calling for his resignation on Wednesday, Sept. 10, for engaging in conduct in violation of Sedona City Council’s Rules and Procedures for:

“1. Interference with city staff/departments, 2. Creating/fostering a hostile work environment, 3. Breaking the confidentiality of attorney/client privilege, 4. Circumvention of city council process, 5. Acting beyond the authority of the office of mayor, 6. Acting unilaterally, 7. Violating principles of ethical conduct for elected officials,” according to the meeting’s action item list.

The censure vote was 5-2, Jablow and Pfaff opposed.

Pfaff’s statement was that it should have been up to the voters in 2026 to decide if Jablow should have remained as mayor.
Prior to the censure, two private reprimands were already given to Jablow about his behavior of the same nature.

Penalties for Censure

Also on Sept. 23, council unanimously voted after an executive session “to investigate allegations made against the mayor on [Friday,] Sept. 19.”

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, during his final regular council meeting, Jablow attempted to read a prepared statement regarding his censure during the council’s Summary of Current Events.

He was cut off by Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella and Christianson for going off topic. Jablow later told the NEWS he would forward his full statement to the press but never followed through. The following day, Wednesday, Sept. 24, a Facebook group based in Cornville briefly posted the full statement before deleting it in about 30 minutes.

Jablow confirmed the writing was his but claimed he did not know how it had appeared online.

Later in the meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 23, council decided to have a work session to have a discussion on a comprehensive review of council’s rules and procedures. The topic was raised by Furman who wants to modify Sedona City Code and the council’s rules to punish council members who have been censured by removing the censured member’s use of city property or suspending their salary for their service. Furman said he sees the punishments being in place until voters decide if they wish to reelect the censured person.

The council work session on rules and procedures has been scheduled for Monday, Oct. 27, at 8 a.m.

“I urge the council to continue to press forward with the disciplinary changes that we will talk about,” Furman said Sept. 30. “It’s important. It applies equally to all of us, and I think we need to get those in place [to] prevent future aberrations.”

On Monday, Sept. 29, council had an executive session to discuss Danielle Dulaney and Richard Speer applications for appointment of Presiding Magistrate Judge — Jablow was not in attendance.

Opening on Council

The mayor’s resignation creates a vacancy on council that residents are encouraged to apply for. The appointee will serve until November 2026, and will have to run in next year’s election if they wish to serve beyond. Within the next few days City Clerk JoAnne Cook will release a press release announcing the vacancy with a three-week application window due back by Monday, Oct. 27. Council will then interview the applicants and appoint a council member.