Sedona residents will see shovels in the ground — as well as larger equipment — as the city’s Sedona in Motion plan moves into full swing beginning this upcoming fiscal year.

With as many as 12 projects proposed, SIM has taken on a life of its own in many ways. During a budget hearing on Thursday, April 18, the conversation changed at one point from dollars and cents to the chal­lenges that have come from this large undertaking by the Sedona City Council and its impact on staff.

Council asked if the city were to hire additional project managers would that expedite some of the SIM projects. City Manager Justin Clifton and City Engineer Andy Dickey said that’s not what’s causing delays. Those delays are coming within the planning stage as a result in the level of engagement from the community and council.

“I’ve been here almost 14 years and I have never seen this level of diffi­culty getting through the political process,” Dickey said. “Usually we’re able to conceive a project, then say, ‘The budget is avail­able July 1, let’s go.’ It’s different what we’re having to do today than what we’re used to.”

Councilman Scott Jablow said he knows staff spends countless hours talking with residents on a variety of topics, but that the SIM projects have stood out.

“Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours over the course of the year,” Clifton said in response. “In part, that’s just the nature of these projects. The impact is different. The stakes are different.”

Often, council will

 approve a project and tell staff to come back to them when it’s complete. With SIM, Clifton said steps have been added where aspects of projects come back to council for changes or approval before the project even begins. While more thorough, it is more time consuming.

“You’re the direct voice of the people, so that makes sense,” Clifton said.

In some cases, the city will host a stakeholders meeting but, if there are those who could not or did not attend, the public then request to call or sit down with staff to go over what was said at that meeting.

“That’s a customer service expec­tation,” Clifton said, adding that it’s understandable and welcomed by staff. “But the consequence of that is, not just a lot of time invested but there’s an emotional strain.

“You can’t spend every hour of your day with people not just being critical but sometimes mean and nasty. With these projects, there’s a lot at stake. These people aren’t being mean and nasty because they just are, they feel threatened for real reasons. If you’re a business owner and you feel your business is at stake, it’s going to produce that kind of tense conversation.”

Clifton worries that when every conversation is like that, it often proves to be too much.

Councilwoman Jessica Williamson agreed.

“I have a real concern over the affect this is having on staff,” she said.

She then said council has also had a hand in creating a more difficult situ­ation for staff. She suggested a future agenda item to discuss how council deals with staff in regard to answering questions from the public.

“I think why things are more controversial is that council has actu­ally done its job,” Williamson said. “Instead of kicking the can down the road, ignoring something and hoping it gets better, we’ve actually bitten the bullet and tried to move ahead with very difficult things that will challenge people’s acceptance of change.”

Mayor Sandy Moriarty pointed out that the recent comprehensive traffic study was the first of its kind in more than two decades and from that came the transportation master plan and SIM. It included several controver­sial projects that were bound to upset some. In the end, she said many don’t understand what it takes to get some­thing done.

“People complain about traffic more than anything else — even though affordable housing has moved up — but four years ago it wasn’t, it was traffic, traffic, traffic,” she said, “And yet, when you go to do something about it, no one wants to doing anything that will affect them personally. We’re in the situa­tion of, do we do it or do we not do it? The easy thing is to say, ‘OK, let’s not do anything.’ But that’s not what I believe our job is. Our job is to do what the city needs to have done to make improvements.”

• No SIMple Solution 

Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com