They’ve been accused of duplicating efforts, taking up too much city staff time and even being a shadow government.

Now, the mayor’s three committees are disbanded.

On Tuesday, Feb. 17, Sedona City Council voted 4-3 to dissolve Mayor Rob Adams’ three committees immediately, after convening a special meeting to discuss them.

The motion included direction to the city manager to set up a City Council retreat as soon as possible, for council to look at its priorities and get back on track.

Adams, Vice Mayor John Bradshaw and Councilman Cliff Hamilton opposed the motion.

“I’m just absolutely disgusted,” Adams said. “After watching the pathetic display of government last night, I plan on moving forward as mayor and do what the people elected me to do and that was to represent them.”

Apparently, Adams said, he’s one of the few on City Council who is going to do that.

Councilwomen Nancy Scagnelli and Pud Colquitt and Councilor Dan Surber requested the special meeting, even though City Council voted Jan. 27 to discuss all of the city’s commissions, committees and task forces the second meeting in March.

On Jan. 27, council also voted 7-0 to revise city rules and procedures so no member of council nor the mayor can independently form committees, commissions or a task force without prior approval by City Council.

Although the rule was changed for the future, the mayor’s committees, formed last summer without City Council approval, were still troubling some councilors.

The last straw came for Scagnelli after a member of the mayor’s Economic Steering Committee sent out a “scathing” e-mail questioning the interim city manager’s approach to the budget. When the author of the e-mail sent out a second e-mail, threatening to “go public,” Scagnelli took that as “a full-on frontal attack,” she said.

“I just really want to come together and decide if we support our city manager and our staff or this shadow government,” she said. “I don’t feel like going on another six weeks like that was fair to anyone, especially staff.”

Hamilton warned that if City Council opened the discussion to debate disbanding the committees, “we’ll have some interesting information coming out tonight that will be embarrassing.”

As far as the e-mails in question, the information critiquing the city’s budgeting process is true, Hamilton said, and the information Interim City Manager Alison Zelms provided in her responding e-mail is not.

“We should be thanking these folks for what they’ve done because they’ve brought to light issues that if left unattended will lead us down a bad path,” he said.

Surber’s problem with the committees was that even though City Attorney Mike Goimarac OK’d the mayor to form “informal” committees, they didn’t seem that informal to him.

Each committee had three or four issues, Surber said, but how did those issues fit with City Council priorities and how did they fit with staff time?

There was no validity in the arguments, Adams said.

His committees took a lot of time making sure they weren’t stepping on toes or duplicating efforts, he said, and they made sure they were working toward staff workloads, not adding to them.

The Economic Steering Committee was reviewing the city’s budget; working on an economic forecasting model; looking at how to expand the city’s tourism revenue base; and looking at revenue generation from sources other than tourism.

The Environmental Sustainability Committee was working on energy conservation codes; working on green building codes; looking at the Arizona Department of Transportation’s light proposal; and working on a recycling program.

The Community Enhancement Committee worked on community events; community buildings; a center that would be the heart of Sedona; and signs.

The committees’ list of tasks prove their worth, Adams said.

“It’s not political,” Councilman Marc Sterling said after hearing from the public. “I have nothing to gain and nothing to lose.”

But he did find an overlap on many issues in the commissions, he said.

“It’s not operating how it was intended to operate even though the goal is good by good people,” he said.