Sedona’s newly seated City Council met Monday, June 23, with city staff to set its priorities for the next two years.
Council set its priorities so city staff could determine how much importance to give issues they work with daily.

Sedona’s newly seated City Council met Monday, June 23, with city staff to set its priorities for the next two years.
Council set its priorities so city staff could determine how much importance to give issues they work with daily.
Redevelopment planning
Redevelopment planning came out as council’s No. 1 priority after nearly four hours of considerations, explanations and deliberating.
Support for the redevelopment plan was originally submitted as a priority by Sedona Mayor Rob Adams and Councilmen Marc Sterling, Ramon Gomez and Cliff Hamilton, and Councilwoman Nancy Scagnelli and received the most votes by council
at the meeting.
When it comes to redevelopment, council advised staff to look at ongoing finances, phasing, environmental sustainability, time lines, clear completion dates and community involvement.
Economic Planner Jodie Filardo asked council to look at transit-oriented housing when it comes to redevelopment planning.
Mitigating construction impact
Mitigating Highway 179 construction impacts was voted a close second. Originally submitted for consideration by Vice Mayor John Bradshaw, Adams and Scagnelli, this proposal called for work with the Sedona Chamber of Commerce on events and marketing, and the Arizona Department of Transportation on traffic movement and construction-related issues.
Adams wants continued contact with the chamber, he said, and to put into action ideas the city and chamber came up with in the past.
The city needs to work with ADOT to find out how to lessen the impact on traffic, Bradshaw said, by deciding if it is better to close down certain areas and do a lot of work quickly, or work slower, but allow traffic to move through.
Traffic and parking
Council’s third priority was traffic safety, parking solutions and an alternate route, which was a condensed version of original suggestions by Scagnelli, Gomez and Adams.
Adams suggested staff consider possibly expanding parking at Hohzo and look into additional parking at Radisson Poco Diablo Resort and shuttle-ing people from there.
Signage for parking needs to be easy to understand — and consistent, according to Bradshaw.
“Signage for parking has always been atrocious and it still is,” Bradshaw said.
Scagnelli suggested looking at how an alternate route would affect traffic at the ‘Y’ intersection. She also sees major traffic problems developing in Oak Creek Canyon and thinks the city should start discussions on paving Schnebly Hill Road now “since it might take 20 years,” she said.
Parks and recreation
Council’s fourth priority, initiated by Scagnelli and Councilman Dan Surber, was to pay more attention and money to the maintenance of parks and less on trails, and look for the possibility of additional parks or sports fields.
“We need to increase maintenance and programming, which we’re starting to go in that direction,” Scagnelli said. “We have built a trail system that goes around the whole city; now it’s time to put some resources into our parks, and improve those facilities and programming for kids and adults.”
According to City Manager Eric Levitt, the city spent around $40,000 on trails.
Maintenance is No. 1 when it comes to parks, Adams told staff, then development within our existing parks and finally possible programming.
Director of Public Works Charles Mosley also recommended parks maintenance should be green maintenance.
Budget
Fifth on council’s list of priorities was the budget — to get constant updates on income and expenditures as compared to budget-making decisions during the year, including increased accountability and sustainability.
Budget priorities were originally submitted by Hamilton and Sterling.
Hamilton asked for accountability of those organizations receiving major subsidy money from the city.
“When they ask for money, don’t they give you [the city] anything on how it is going to be used?” Sterling asked.
Adams admitted the city has been lenient on that in the past.
Adams also wants the city to consider how it can increase revenues. A number of events aren’t contributing; they’re actually costing the city money, he said.
Youth
The only living thing to make council’s list was area youth, submitted for consideration by Sterling.
The proposal called for things to do, places to go, community service and participation on boards and civic events for area kids.
Sterling, a business teacher at Sedona Red Rock High School, polled 170 kids before holding a workshop with the students and former council members.
Knowing what kids want, Sterling suggested having a place just for teens, since the Sedona Teen Center is not a place teens go, he said.
According to Sterling, more than 260 students at SRRHS are in an internship program and are available if local businesses need some part-time help.
Other finalists
Other priorities to finish in the top 10 included affordable, workforce housing; wastewater plan and land; and continuous improvement in organization.
Council and staff were happy to discover staff’s top three priorities were the same as council’s, but in a different order: traffic safety and parking solutions; mitigating Highway 179 construction impacts; and the redevelopment plan tied for third place with improving communication.
Adams found fault in the council’s priorities because they don’t include environmental sustainability.
“We don’t have anything on the environment up here and we need to address that,” he said. “Sedona of all places should be focusing on that.”

Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 125, or e-mail aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com