By Tommy Acosta, SVVT
Sedona, AZ - Sept. 13, 2008 - In the famous words of Yogi Berra -- “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over,” -- and if one thinks the battle over the 76 lights on 89A is over, they had better think again.
On Friday, Sept. 12, Dr. Samantha Ruckman, a Sedona resident, presented the Sedona City Clerk’s office a petition for referendum to support or reject the Sedona City Council’s Aug. 13 decision directing ADOT to install 76 lights on 89A.
Referendums allow the public to change or support an existing law. Initiatives allow the public to create new laws.
Referendums and initiatives provide a legal means for the public to affect or create laws without having to depend on elected officials.
A total of 660 signatures calling for a referendum on the 76 lights were accepted by the city clerk from the more than 700 collected by Dr. Ruckman in eight days of petition circulation.
“The big story is not that we were able to collect so many signatures in such a short amount of time or the overwhelming opposition in the community to the 76 lights,” she said. “The real message is citizens can take action as individuals and change things when we are not happy with decisions made by public officials.”
Sedona Mayor Rob Adams said he supports the right of citizens to petition for referendums and hopes to have the contentious issue finally put behind them.
“Nobody in the city would like the lights on 89A issue resolved more than me,” he said. “It has been extremely distracting for me as the mayor and divisive for the council. I’m not comfortable with being railroaded by ADOT at the 11th hour to accept the lights. The argument that we had to have the medians was simply not true. We should have stood our ground and stayed with our original decision to support the Safety Committee’s recommendations. I support the right of citizen’s to call for a referendum.”
Dr. Ruckman said she was totally disappointed with the council’s Aug. 13 vote and wasn’t sure what she or anyone else could do about it. “A lot of people were upset,” she said. “People said they felt helpless, ignored. They were angry.”
Then, the idea of initiating a referendum came to her. “I started doing research on the Internet on referendums,” she said. “I realized I didn’t have to wait for our public officials to take action. I could learn to do it while doing it. You don’t have to wait for the government. If you are passionate about an issue people will follow you.”
She said she called Keep Sedona Beautiful with the referendum idea and said “If you don’t do it, I will.”
Left to her own devices, she talked to friends, got the petitions and went out into the public to get signatures.
“I learned a lot of things while out in the public,” she said. “If I had to do it again I wouldn’t wait as long as I did. If I had been collecting for one month I would have gathered many more signatures. Basically, I was able to gather more than the required amount of signatures in eight days.”
A little less than 400 signatures from qualified electors in Sedona are required to put the referendum on the ballot.
She said she was inspired by the heartfelt support she received from individuals in the community.
“People felt like somebody was listening,” she said. “Everyone said thank you. People were overwhelmingly emotional. They wanted to give me money, buy me lunch but I refused.”
The effort required she be on-point from the minute she got up in the morning to the end of the day.
“I was getting 90 phone calls a day,” she said. “I’d wake up in the morning and change my voice mail to let people know where I would be collecting signatures during the day. I relied on my friends to make calls and get the word out as well. I had signs on my car and wore sign boards on my body so people would know who to go to. I learned that if you get kicked out from a store to come back an hour later and do it again.”
Dr. Ruckman placed signs on her car so residents would know how to find her.
She said she constantly had to change locations during the signature-gathering process.
“You can’t set your locations for an entire week,” she said. “We were constantly shifting. We called each other and friends to let them know where we were going when we were kicked out of a location. We had to call people to let them know we were no longer there and where to find us.”
She said there were moments when the task seemed to be too much but she still found the strength to continue.
“I just kept saying to myself that the only way out is through,” she said.
Should her petition survive a legal challenge from ADOT, the city or the 76 lights proponents, the referendum will appear on the national-election ballot in November.
Reader comments:
#1 Way to go, Dr. Samantha Ruckman! You are, perhaps, the ONLY shining light Sedona needs at this critical juncture. Greetings from you for even a split second at one of your locations was an honor, as was the opportunity to sign one of your petitions. Thank you.
#2 Thanks for all the hard work, Samantha. It's still amazing that after nearly every city in Arizona has been eliminating lights or switching to choices that emit less light, Sedona would try to ramrod through a clearly unpopular measure to change the character of the town. It is very heart-warming to know that the bulk of citizens are able to get involved and work to change the insane.
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