Big Park Council, the council which represents 27 home owner associations in the Village of Oak Creek met Thursday, June 11th at the fire station meeting hall in the Village.

The business meeting began at 9.00, but, because of a debate on the NSA Designation, dozens of interested folk from the general public began streaming into the meeting just before 10.00, when the debate was slated to start. The council had advertised this debate days beforehand, and had indicated there would be a vote on the issue by the councilors following the debate. KSB (Steve DeVol) and Ron Volkman (against) presented their cases. It was an exceptionally well-run meeting, and a very civilized debate.

Steve De Vol presented a convincing argument, backed by an excellent power point presentation. It was powerful and well presented. The slides focused on the reason why we needed an NSA: the beauty of the land and the need to protect it. He stressed the importance of keeping our open space and that is basically what the NSA Designation did. He said that we were guardians of this wonder, and we should ensure that our generation and future generations do not spoil it.
Ron Volkman was not quite as convincing. He said he was presenting his own views (i.e. Not the Board of Realtors), and claimed to support Amendment 12. He backed the idea of no land trades, and, as a realtor, believed in protecting the amount of property in the area ( i.e. higher prices). His whole argument was based on the notion that government intervention was bad. Despite the fact that the forest services happen to be a federal entity, Mr. Volkman just kept on insisting that we would be ushering in big brother, and we would be stuck with a piece of legislation which would not allow us to do any kind of changes, and would prevent us from putting in such items as water pipes and other infrastructure.

Heather Provencio, from the forest services, maintained her impartiality, but stressed that the management of the area would not change. It was also made clear that municipalities could build schools, cell phone towers, roads etc. if necessary. Heather stressed that the NSA Bill, as put together four years ago by the staffs of Rick Renzi and John McCain with the help of the Forest Services (Ken Anderson) basically reflected what was in Amendment 12.
There was then a few minutes for rebuttals. Bob Carabel, a lawyer who had been involved with the original drafting of the Bill, responded to Ron Volkman’s comments as regards the extra layer of government and possible restrictions on infrastructure. He pointed out that the Bill did not add anything that was not in Amendment 12, and clearly allowed municipalities to construct schools, road, water pipes, etc. He also pointed out that the management of the land would not change and would stay with the forest services management (which is a branch of the federal government). Mr. Volkman later insisted that it would be harder to change an Act of Congress than it would Amendment 12, if change were needed. And he added that the Bill itself could receive changes as it went through Congress.
The meeting was then opened to the Councilors (there were 22 present), who asked various questions of the three presenters. Most of this was clarification on the Bill itself. Then the meeting was opened to the public. Angela LeFevre, of Democrats of the Red Rocks, stated the local Democrats were endorsing the Bill, and were hoping that Ann Kirkpatrick would support it too. She asked folk to email Ann and let her know their feelings as now was the time to do so.

It was interesting to note the input of various members of the public who related their experiences with national designations and how there was no interference by the “feds”. One member of the public made a very impassioned plea and asked everyone to look on the area as a big barn. She said that the barn had a revolving door, and because of this, many people could come in and trash the inside. It was decided to put a lock on the door, to prevent this and the barn was preserved. She said we should look on the NSA area as a big barn.
And so, when a vote was taken, 21 out of the 22 councilors present voted for the NSA Designation. The one who voted against actually should have abstained because he did not understand the difference of interpretations of the bill and was confused.

The council represents 27 homeowners associations and over 7000 residents. This was an impressive meeting, with everyone being given time to have their say. I would say the meeting was far more democratic than any council meeting I have seen in Sedona. Big Park represents at least as many residents as the Sedona council does. Maybe Sedona should learn something from the folk in the Village of Oak Creek.

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2. Three-punch combo takes out advisory committees