Dunn, Thompson Interview – Podcast July 18, 2022

A Long-Term Vision For Sedona. Steve and Karen welcome Melissa Dunn and Jon “JT” Thompson (sedonajt.com) who are standing for Sedona City Council.

Dunn is an accomplished high-tech professional who has owned a home in Sedona for 14 years, while Thompson has served on the City Council for more than five years. He had stepped down to focus on sustainability and several non-profits but was asked to serve the remaining term of an open seat. “I’m standing again,” he says. “And I use the term standing for re-election rather running because I’m running a different kind of a campaign.”

Both candidates believe in the importance of having a long-term vision for the future of Sedona, which means they both support home rule. As Dunn explains, “Any time you take a drastic action, you have to think further than the two seconds after the vote is announced. You have to have a broader view – a longer view about the impact.” Thompson adds, “If we had to finish something and we couldn’t spend our cash, we would probably have to borrow money. And how crazy is it to borrow money when you have all that cash sitting in the bank?”

As for individual issues, Dunn responds that you have to understand what your long-term vision is and what your goals are. She says, “One of the things I find missing from our current set of pillars and other documents that are out there is the idea of a smart goal. What is it that we can really do? How can we measure it? What’s the baseline? How are we achieving our goal? How are people responding to what it is we’re doing?”

Thompson shares that point of view, saying, “We need to know what we want to be as a city before we can figure out all the details.”

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