Correction: A previous version of this story printed in the May 7 Village View erroneously stated that 88 votes in VOCA’s recent election were disqualified. That number represents the total number of members not in good standing who were ineligible to vote, not actual votes cast. Only four ineligible members actually cast a vote, according to VOCA Manager Deb Brewer. Brewer said seven additional votes cast on the fee increase question were disqualified for lacking a signature, which is less than the 25-vote margin that the measure passed with. The story has been updated below.
On April 22, the Village of Oakcreek Association’s two newly elected board members officially took their seats, and their votes made a difference in a lingering skirmish connected with the board’s decision to approve the design of a Hilton Garden Inn on State Route 179 and Jacks Canyon Road earlier this year.
With the increase of short-term rentals in the Sedona area since 2016 — when Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law barring localities from regulating them — and a surge in tourism in the Village of Oak Creek and Sedona in the past year, the addition of new hospitality inventory is a sensitive subject in the VOC.
For years, the VOCA board has partly protected the VOC from short-term rental conversions by banning them in the 2,300-member HOA, but its vote to allow the design for the proposed hotel on Jan. 6 still irked many.
New directors Melissa Fernandez and Von Nelson faced an early test related to the hotel fight when incumbent director David Hanke motioned to remove Bob McCann from the HOA’s Architectural Review & Restrictions Committee.
The motion was made under an agenda item labeled “ARRC member review,” but it was made with little prior discussion.
Why Remove McCann?
During the back and forth in 2020 and into 2021 between the ARRC committee and the board of directors over Jack and Chandrika Patel’s hotel design application, McCann vocally opposed approving the application. He was outspoken at committee meetings and showed up to board meetings to argue against approval.
Since the board’s decision to override the ARRC committee, McCann has pushed the HOA to change the wording in its covenants to make height restrictions less ambiguous. Ambiguity in the “no two story” clause in the Pine Creek II subdivision’s CCRs was one of the reasons cited by the board for approving the three-story Hilton Garden Inn hotel design.
After months of sometimes controversial maneuvering — including the replacement of an architecture committee member mid-fight — VOCA’s board of directors eventually exercised its final authority on the hotel application.
Hanke’s argument for removing McCann echoed reasons given by board members when they voted to replace Kevin O’Connor on the architectural committee on Dec. 2: The view that opposing hotel approval went against legal advice the HOA received, and this constituted grounds for dismissal.
“When you have legal opinions, two of them, and then you continue to go against them, you’re just needlessly wasting money of the association for additional legal reviews, and as a fiduciary of the board, it’s our responsibility to properly manage our money,” Hanke said.
After Treasurer Jim Kautz seconded, there was a discussion. O’Connor argued against removal, calling the move “autocratic.”
“If the ARRC committee itself had said Bob McCann’s a bad member and had asked the board to remove him, then I think the board should take a more serious look at it. But I don’t think that’s the case here,” O’Connor said.
When everyone was called to show their cards, Fernandez and Nelson didn’t vote with the three incumbents voting to oust McCann, making it 4-3 to keep McCann in the committee.
President John Rogers, who voted to remove McCann, sounded a note of conciliation after the vote, but also surprise.
“The board has spoken and I accept that. Bob McCann remains on the committee,” he said.
A Victory on Dues
Besides learning who the two new directors would be at its annual meeting on April 17, VOCA’s board also got a prize it has been angling for for over two years: A doubling of its annual dues spread over the next five years. The two ballot questions needed to raise dues passed 396 to 371 and 396 to 370, respectively.
On the question of removing the board’s annual spending limit without a vote of the members, that passed with a more comfortable margin, 426 to 334.
For those disappointed in the outcome, the relatively close tally on the increase was a reminder of the importance of voting. VOCA Manager Deb Brewer said that seven ballots for the fee increase question were disqualified for lack of signature. This is less than the 25-vote margin that the measure passed with.
Periodically, in meetings during the past two years, VOCA board members have lamented the lack of participation by the membership outside of controversial issues, and this was evidenced by the lack of participation in the annual meeting via video conference, which just a handful of members outside the board attended.
The directors were buoyant at the end of the brief annual meeting when the election results were announced. Someone said “hallelujah” as the Zoom feed cut out.
