Incumbent Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow and former Vice Mayor John Martinez took the stage at the Sedona Performing Arts Center on Monday, June 17, to make their pitch to voters in a candidate forum hosted by the Sedona Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Mary Chicoine for a crowd of 64.

“During my first term, I have made great strides building relationships where they were strained or nonexistent,” Jablow said. “We built relationships to work together with our state representative to return local control and cap short term rentals. Fortunately, we had [State] Senator [Ken] Bennett [R-District 1], who championed for the Verde Valley and fought to make changes for [accessory dwelling units]. We rebuilt relationships with ADOT, who now has an interest to better control the Y roundabout.”

Jablow proceeded to tout the current council’s attempts at OHV regulation to reduce noise, the creation of an emergency evacuation plan, the city takeover of destination marketing from the Sedona of Chamber of Commerce after the chamber terminated its contract with the city, the buildout of the Sedona in Motion plan, the new bocce ball and pickleball courts and the construction of Ranger Station Park on Brewer Road.

“I am proud of the fact that I was a major contributor of the team that negotiated a half cent sales bed tax with the chamber and the hoteliers that generated an $18 million net surplus to city revenue from the period of 2014 to 2019,” Martinez said. “It must be noted that the higher taxes that are being paid by the guests are not from the residents. Because … the guests pay over 77% of all the services that we benefit from. This strategy was necessary because we were still reeling from the 2008 Great Recession; the city budget was cut by 30% which aggressively affected city services.”

Martinez also referred to his involvement with area nonprofits including the Sedona Symphony, the Sedona Public Library and the Sedona Area Veteran and Community Outreach. Martinez is also a founding member of the Coalition Against Human Trafficking.

Transportation

On traffic issues, Jablow mentioned working with the Arizona Department of Transportation to install a traffic light system at the Y roundabout.

“ADOT currently doesn’t have a project planned for this location,” ADOT Spokesman Doug Nintzel said in a recent email.

Jablow subsequently stated that the city will request this project going forward.

“The people that need to know, the construction people, know about it, but it’s not an official request yet,” Jablow said. “It just hasn’t gotten to the point where it’s in the public information officer ’s queue yet.”

Another project Jablow touted as moving forward “with an expected construction start date” of January 2025 was the installation of new electronic signage along Interstate 17 near Camp Verde that would tell motorists on the interstate whose destination is Flagstaff or the Grand Canyon not to drive through Sedona.

“The SIM plan, I agree with basically everything that was in there … The parking garage was in the SIM plan, Forest Road was in the SIM plan,”

Martinez said after the forum. He added that he was opposed to the construction of alternate routes from West Sedona to the Village of Oak Creek.

“No. 1, the energy and the resources spent,” Martinez said of the alternate route proposal. “Because we’ve revisited that year after year after year. You need the county, you need the National Forest … It’s too expensive, and it would never get done. Same thing [when] some people talk about putting a bridge from up in the canyon … all the way across to Schnebly Hill [Road], you’re talking $40 million. We’ve got more priorities [where] that could be more well spent.”

Martinez instead he would prefer the construction of new surface street connections between neighborhoods and promoting public transit to reduce traffic congestion.

The candidates were also asked their positions on a proposal for the city of Sedona to acquire the Sedona Airport; Martinez expressed opposition while Jablow said he was undecided and awaiting a report from the city’s airport consultant. OHVs

“What steps will you take to advocate for the off-road tour and rental industry, and how will you work to improve the relationship between these businesses and local residents?” Chicoine asked during the forum.

Neither candidate answered that question during the forum, instead focusing their responses on the city’s attempts at OHV regulation during Jablow’s term.

“I’m not going to promote them,” Jablow subsequently said. “ I’m promoting the safety of OHVs.”

While Martinez was previously critical of the city’s attempts to restrict OHV use on roadways, he later explained that his criticism was directed at what he saw as threatening language used toward local business owners and the U.S. Forest Service. Martinez also supports an OHV permit system to restrict access to the Morgan Road, a public road.

Martinez was subsequently asked by Sedona Red Rock News if his and Jablow’s differences over OHVs were less about policy than about language and approach.

“I think that’s a fair statement,” he said. “I think it definitely brings tax revenue. I believe that we need to make them quieter. But we should allow them to rent to our guests, we got the beautiful red rocks, we got the trails, they should be able to see those.”

Tourism

Each candidate was asked how he would be a proponent of tourism and its management and how Sedona’s economy can diversify.

“The DMO, I want them to be successful,” Martinez said. “But I’m concerned that the programs that have been initiated are not going to be able to sustain our needs [of] tourism that is the economic engine for Sedona.” 

He also added that he would like to see more offseason tourism promotion.

“I would like to see more focus on the performing arts,” Jablow said. “The performing arts would be the best in my mind to start, because those are the biggest shows. We can have shows [at the Sedona Performing Arts Center], we can have shows at Barbara’s Park … But we also need to worry about the other businesses that we have. And we need to have better guests coming here.”

He said that work-from-home employees would be an attractive group to whom to market and that the city is working towards increasing local broadband capacity. 

“I still am concerned, this city organization [the tourism advisory board] … is going to be about $2.7 million to promote Sedona,”

Martinez said. “The … chamber, when they were doing that, they were only like at $1.7 million. That’s a million-dollar increase to basically do the exact same thing.”

Jablow subsequently said that the city is paying the same amount of money that it formerly paid the Chamber of Commerce for destination marketing.

The cost of the city’s last contract with the chamber in FY23 was $1,670,211; the city’s proposed FY25 budget for communications and tourism combined is $2,566,110 with $2,077,730 specifically allocated to tourism programs.

Jablow was subsequently asked if he saw a disconnect between his stated desire to have more arts performances in Sedona and his opposition to the Sedona Cultural Park as a concert venue.

“I don’t believe that that’s the best place,” Jablow said. “I think the fact that the Cultural Park is not able to be used many times during the year because it’s outdoors without an overhang which is a similar kind of problem for Barbara’s Park, but not to the [same] extent. Also the fact of matter is the Cultural Park for 5,000 people would require 2,500 parking spaces. They don’t have that.” 

Martinez has expressed support for the local nonprofit group Sedona Cultural Park 2.0, which is advocating for the restoration of the Cultural Park as a concert and community venue.

“I would hope and have to do the research,” Jablow said when asked if current venues have the capacity to drive economic growth during off-season tourism. “ I haven’t done a study on SPAC because it’s not our property, but Barbara’s Park, there’s plenty of parking for it.”