Jermiah Perez responds to DiNunzio RNN article

By Jeremiah Perez

With all due respect to appointed Councilman Mark DiNunzio, I must take the time to clarify his article supporting continuous lighting for S.R. 89A.

At first read the article seems to be making sense because he argues we’ve already had a bunch of lights strung up along S.R. 179 with no big deal so why should we complain about what he claims will be less intrusive lights along 89A.

Well, one can also look at his reasoning thusly: If someone steals your life savings, why complain if they come back to crack open your Piggy Bank? How much worse can that be?

No matter how you look at it, the community is being had by the same element that holds the reins of power in Sedona with or without the lubrication of manipulated reason

What a farce the whole thing is. Let’s get it straight. From the beginning ADOT wanted those lights. The Safety Committee was nothing but a cover up to make those who want those lights look reasonable. The committee came up with ideas that were cheap to initially implement. But ADOT held the city over a barrel by demanding expensive mediums and all that stuff be built as an alternative to the lights, knowing full well the city did not have the cash to do so. So, they come to council with a cold plan, and lay their cards on the table – pay for expensive options or take the lights.

In a beautifully orchestrated maneuver by the council’s real leader, the committee’s recommendations are shelved and the lights are back in.

To maintain the illusion the public still has a say, ADOT puts on a dog-and-pony show offering all these lighting choices knowing the city will not be able to afford any of them, save for the ones they already have in stock and are predestined for Sedona.

Now comes the timing of the erection of those lights. The lights will go up while sidewalks are torn up and trees are killed and a paving project hits the streets at the same time. This should really help the struggling businesses along 89A but who cares.

Politically speaking, DiNunzio’s article in the Red Rock News is but the first of a volley from the majority to deflect community anger against their insistence on lights for 89A. This needs to be done to sway the public from not voting for the majority because of those issues. Further, the same cartel will initiate a writing campaign against an NSA designation for Sedona for the same reason.

The majority must shirk the negative feelings in the community towards their decisions in order to maintain their control on the council and they will do so by any means, including intimidating the press.

Already they have neutralized the only publication that had the testicular fortitude to tell it like it is. The Sedona Times is no longer the newspaper it started out to be. It has been sanitized and taken over. What surprises me is that editor Tommy Acosta has allowed this to happen, a great disappointment to me and many in the community who had hoped he would continue to offer a voice to the disenfranchised in the community.

What happened behind the scenes is the ruling council member cornered the paper’s designer and convinced him to quit unless the paper was defanged and neutered.

The ruler knows it was the Sedona Times that made the difference in the last election where the present mayor defeated the incumbent, one of their own, by a few votes. They would not allow this to happen again.

Since the majority has the backing of the Red Rock News, now they only have to take control of the only other media in town, Sedona.biz, to have complete control. There is argument in the community if Sedona.biz has also been neutralized.

So now we have Sedonaelection.com, basically the last hope of communication to the community.

So with no media willing to move their cause forward, the candidates wanting dark skies and an NSA designation need to take their fight to the streets. They need to knock on every door in Sedona and deliver their message directly. This is the only way they could win. The only way.