The call to the public portion of Sedona-Oak Creek School District regular public meetings is written into each meeting agenda in order to allow members of the community to address the Governing Board and superintendent, yet on Monday, June 22, the board moved into the remaining agenda items without a call to the public.

Before adjourning the brief meeting, Governing Board President Tommy Stovall explained this decision. According to Stovall, the board had not received any speaker forms prior to the beginning of the meeting, and in order to follow protocol the board had moved on to other agenda items.

Stovall asked SOCSD Attorney Ben Hufford, seated in the audience, to confirm this as the proper procedure. Hufford responded in the affirmative, advising the board to follow this protocol in the future and not accept late speakers.

On Tuesday, June 23, Stovall said that the call to the public had not been canceled, but that following the pledge of allegiance he had publicly confirmed that no one had signed up to speak. According to Stovall, Eric Mendelsohn alone had filled out a speaker form, but had been too late to make the cut.

On June 23, SOCSD board member Bobbie Surber said, “No …. It was not clear to me that Tommy had asked” for the list of speakers. “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it done. We usually err on the side of the public …. For me as a school board member, if people have taken the effort, I want to do everything to be able to allow those people to speak.”

Surber said that neither the procedure for signing up to speak nor the person tasked with the responsibility for getting the sign-in sheet to the board is clear to the public. Regardless, she said that in the past few people have been penalized for signing in just prior to — or during — the call to the public.

Urging more flexibility from the board to allow the public their important opportunity to be heard, Surber added that she has often signed in late at Sedona City Council meetings and still been allowed to speak. According to Surber, the burden of responsibility is upon the district to allow the public their voice.

In contrast to Surber’s account, on June 23 SOCSD board member Karen McClelland said, “There were no requests at the beginning of the meeting …. I heard him [Stovall] say none had been turned in.”

To read the full story, see the Friday, June 26, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.