Months after the Sedona Fire District Governing Board members received their first threat of recall, a petition has been started to recall board Chairwoman Caryn Maxwell.
Maxwell was one of the first women elected to the board in 1998, and has served on it continuously ever since.
The SFD Taxpayers for Accountability launched the recall for several reasons, according to the group’s chair, Carolyn Fisher.
By Alison Ecklund
Months after the Sedona Fire District Governing Board members received their first threat of recall, a petition has been started to recall board Chairwoman Caryn Maxwell.
Maxwell was one of the first women elected to the board in 1998, and has served on it continuously ever since.
The SFD Taxpayers for Accountability launched the recall for several reasons, according to the group’s chair, Carolyn Fisher.
If 1,100 signatures of registered voters are collected by the end of October, the recall can be scheduled for the May 2009 election, Fisher said.
According to Yavapai County Elections Director Lynn Constabile, a recall requires a percentage of signatures from the number of votes from the last election.
“A recall isn’t an impeachment,” Constabile said. “They’re up for election, so someone has to run against them.”
The person being recalled can choose to resign or can run in the election, she said, and if no one runs against them, they automatically keep their seat.
The SFD Taxpayers for Accountability’s list of complaints is specific to the board’s actions and inaction, Fisher said, and since Maxwell is the chair, and has been for years, the group chose her for recall.
“The board is staggered,” through elections every two years, Fisher said, “but she’s the consistent thread.”
Fisher’s focus is to get the board in line with running a $16 million operation.
“This isn’t personal,” she said. “I like Caryn [Maxwell] and appreciate the hours of volunteering.”
But Fisher thinks the volunteer position requires someone with a corporate background, she said.
The group’s complaints include financial mismanagement, unresponsiveness to public input and ethics.
“The fire board is not accountable for its decisions to any entity except the taxpayers,” Fisher said.
Maxwell was proud to participate in SFD becoming one of the top five fire districts in the nation, and no other district in the state has the “heart and mindset for ‘community’ that SFD has,” she said.
“So if this is why I am being selected by a few to be recalled, then there is nothing for me to defend,” she said.
Financial Mismanagement
One of the biggest complaints, not against Maxwell herself, but with the district, is that SFD is the single largest line item of the property tax bill.
According to Fisher’s numbers, SFD residents pay $713 per capita, compared to $303 in the Central Yavapai Fire District, $223 in the Chino Valley Fire District and $389 in the Verde Valley Fire District.
In SFD’s annual fiscal report for 2007-08, the annual fire district tax for a $300,000 home is $525 in Sedona, compared to $567 in Central Yavapai, $801 in Chino Valley and $645 in Verde Valley.
SFD’s stats are not per capita, Fisher said, for the reason her stats differ from the district’s.
The annual report also shows that SFD lowered its tax rate by 6 percent for fiscal year 2008-09 to 1.65 from 1.75 mils and that large commercial occupancies like hotels and resorts offset residents’ tax burden by 14 percent.
“Yeah, our tax levy is one of the lower ones around, but when you have assessed values like we have — it has really risen in the past five years,” she said. “You can make numbers prove any case you want.”
Unresponsive to Public Input
On at least three occasions, the public has asked the board to slow down their plans to build a new Chapel area fire station, Fisher said, so there could be more public input.
In 2007, the SFD Citizen Task Force — which Fisher is a member of — did agree to a station in the Chapel area, but she thought it was a small, satellite station, not a three-bay station like the one presented this spring, she said.
On June 25, attorney Linda Wallace asked the board to halt progress on the Chapel station by the next board meeting or her clients would begin the recall process.
At the next meeting, on July 23, the board announced it would continue with plans to construct the new station, despite threats of recall.
“We reviewed, listened and negotiated what we believe to be best for the community,” Maxwell said at the meeting.
The station will serve as back-up to Station No. 3 in the Village of Oak Creek and allow for quicker response times in the Chapel area.
And although Maxwell said the board would wait on plans for a new regional dispatch center, Fisher still included it on her list of complaints.
Fisher acknowledged that voters get lethargic and don’t pay attention and admitted that the public hasn’t attended board meetings in the past.
“OK, now you have our attention,” she said. “Listen to us.”
The district has listened at the town hall meetings it held to discuss the Chapel station on January 2007 and July 23, 2008, Maxwell said.
And it listened to the Citizen Task Force, which concluded a Chapel station was necessary.
Ethics
The group’s final complaint has to do with ethics, citing that Maxwell’s husband and son work for the fire district.
“When budgets reach the level ours has, we believe it is unwise to have someone in charge with built-in conflict of interest,” Fisher said.
It is difficult for Maxwell to make decisions on the board, without, at best, “an appearance of conflict of interest.”
Maxwell has stated her conflict in writing, Maxwell said, and she states it when an appearance of fairness seems likely.
“I have asked and have had this question answered by our attorney more than once to be sure I do not cross the line,” Maxwell said. “I am confident with this approach.”
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 125, or e-mail
aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com.
