Genna Adams, a 10-year Sedona resident, is running for one of two open seats on the Sedona Fire District Governing Board because she believes in service for safety, she said.
Since Sedona firefighters are the first crews to respond to a local emergency, Adams believes it to be the most important service organization, which prompted her to want to get involved.
Adams moved to the Verde Valley 26 years ago from California.
By Alison Ecklund
Larson Newspapers
Genna Adams, a 10-year Sedona resident, is running for one of two open seats on the Sedona Fire District Governing Board because she believes in service for safety, she said.
Since Sedona firefighters are the first crews to respond to a local emergency, Adams believes it to be the most important service organization, which prompted her to want to get involved.
Adams moved to the Verde Valley 26 years ago from California.
She taught elementary, middle, high school and college level for 24 years. Although she has retired from teaching, she remains active as a member of the Sedona Red Rock High School site council and volunteers in the fourth-grade classroom at Clarkdale-Jerome Elementary School.
During her years in education, Adams was active on budget committees, curriculum committees and held numerous teacher workshops and in-service programs.
She has also gained business experience as the vice president of Kirkwood Builders for the past 20 years.
“The community is concerned that the [SFD] district’s budget or funding level has caused the property taxes in the neighborhoods served to be too high,” Adams said about SFD’s controversial budget.
“The public believes the district needs to get their expenditures under control, keep expenses down and end wasteful spending.”
Can SFD lower taxes and keep the same level of rapid and reliable emergency response services, Adams is asking.
As a board member, Adams would assess that question and listen to how the community thinks the district could achieve that goal.
“If the possibilities are there, I have the problem-solving skills to make the assessments,” she said.
To help improve public
input on the board, Adams suggests using all media available — open communication.
“Typically when problems occur, it’s lack of communication,” she said, so she would encourage people to attend board meetings and open houses and meet and greet the future chief. She also would encourage SFD to send out a newsletter.
To Adams, effective communication means speaking and listening.
“People deserve to know where their tax money is going,” she said.
Communication would be part of Adams’ No. 1 priority as a board member. This involves hearing community input, since the public wants SFD to be more accountable with tax dollars, she said.
“I have read the surveys. The public wants SFD to hear its concerns. They are spending their tax dollars, so the board is responsible for keeping them informed on how tax moneys are spent,” she said.
Adams realizes that part of her job as board member would be building a relationship of honesty and trust with the community she is representing.
As far as complaints about ethics violations at SFD, Adams said it is a choice one makes, to have ethics or not.
“Decision making should never come from a place of power or greed; it should come from a higher consciousness of evaluating. It’s not about me; it’s about the community and making the choices for all of us concerned,” she said.
“Ethics could mean looking at the macro picture, not micro benefits for certain individuals,” she said.
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 125, or e-mail aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com.
