When Phyllis Erick moved to Sedona about four years ago from Southern California, she started attending Sedona Fire District Governing Board meetings and became concerned with what she heard.
Erick, 59, said she decided to run for an SFD Governing Board seat rather than complain about some of the issues.
Overtime pay and salaries for district employees seem out of line, she said. Erick also did not like the conflicts of interest of the people serving on the board.
She is running on a slate with two other candidates because she thinks the three have similar views on the fire district.
Erick, who has worked in an ophthalmology office for about 20 years, working in various positions there as an office manager, in accounts receivable and payroll. Prior to that, she worked in the pharmacy for a grocery store before being promoted to department manager.
If elected, she would like to work on reducing the budget and overtime and convince the district to hire women firefighters and emergency medical technicians. Currently, there are no women in the district who work in either profession.
One reason Erick is running for a seat on the board is she wants the district to be more financially accountable to taxpayers while maintaining the same level of service the community now receives.
The quality of work performed by firefighters and emergency medical technicians is not a concern to Erick, but the budget amount is an issue.
The district and the current board had discussed privatization of ambulance service for several months, and Erick said since the public made its opinions known, this proposal is off the table.
She said the only way this would be considered again is if the public felt there was a need.
Erick opposes having a new fire station in the Chapel area but she did not always feel this
way.
The initial introduction of a station in this area by a former fire chief called for it to be a small two-bay facility, and it was going to be a green station, she said.
However, when the idea was discussed in more detail, the project had doubled in size, and Erick said this is why she now opposes the station.
The annual amount to operate the station also increased substantially from about $700,000 to $1.3 million.
She said if the district wanted to reconsider building a smaller station, as originally proposed, it would need to be readdressed.
Erick said she and her running mates have never considered replacing all district employees with a volunteer fire department.
“We have always said we wanted to introduce volunteers into the existing fire district,” she said. “Community involvement is always good.”
She also discussed the district’s annual audit, and said what is being done now is not a complete forensic audit.
As an example, she said the $30,000 reimbursement plan for personal cellular phones used for work might be excessive. While $30,000 in a $13 million budget is a small figure, Erick said if there are several other items like this they could add up. She said a complete audit would show line item amounts.
“We would like an independent audit, a forensic audit on where all the money goes to rather than what is being done now,” she said. “We want to know how the funds are being spent individually.”
Erick is asking residents to know who they are voting for before casting their ballots in the Tuesday, Nov. 2, election.
Sedona Fire District Governing Board candidates’ profiles:
Bert Berkshire, published Oct. 1
David Blauert, published Oct. 1
Phyllis Erick, published Oct. 8
Dick Fishel, published Friday, Oct. 15
Douglas Fitzpatrick, published Friday, Oct. 15
