The Sedona City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday, Sept. 9, to approve the creation and eligibility requirements of the new $200,000 Arts and Culture Organizations Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2026, with Councilmen Brian Fultz and Pete Furman dissenting — while the two supported the funding they took issue with the eligibility requirements.

ACOG is open only to Sedona-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits with an annual budget of at least $1 million with arts and culture as their primary focus. Eligible groups must provide year-round programming that benefits residents, spend funds within the fiscal year, report outcomes and cannot receive other city grants in the same year.

“I think there’s a whole scope of other elements of Sedona culture that are yet missing in this, in this version. … We have a lot of categories that are put in here, but we still really only have two eligible entities, and it just makes me a little uncomfortable,” Furman said prior to the vote.

SAC and SIFF were originally awarded $30,000 and $27,300, respec­tively, under the city’s Small Grants Program. Following the council’s vote, they will now be moved into the new program, for which they will still need to apply. Their previously awarded amounts will be redistributed to other small grant recipients under a funding contingency plan approved alongside this year’s Small Grants Program during the Tuesday, July 8 meeting.

“I’ll echo Councilor Furman’s concern [that] having only two quali­fied entities to apply just feels like it’s been designed for two qualified enti­ties. And that there’s no real competi­tion for the grants, it just feels like it’s precluding other entities potentially,” Fultz said.

“If we’re going to be animated by the arts, we need to be animated by the arts,” Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow said. “The fact that these two organizations have hit that high-dollar amount releases [money] from the other funding for more organizations. … These [are], two organizations that

are supported heavily by our community, and we need to show our community that we are supporting the arts.”

The following groups will see their funding increased from the reallocated SAC and SIFF funds: the Sedona Symphony, $19,500; Low-Income Student Aid, $6,065; Chamber Music Sedona, an additional $4,500; the Sedona Chamber Ballet, $4,500; Gardens for Humanity, $4,500; the Sedona-Oak Creek District Educational Foundation, $3,225; Piano on the Rocks, $2,500; the Rotary Club of Sedona, $2,000; the Sedona Arts Festival, $2,000; St. Vincent de Paul, $2,000; the Sedona Sister Cities Association, $1,000; the International Hummingbird Society, $1,000; and Wisdom Age Metaverse, $5,000 of its original $8,795 request.

“It just feels like it picks two winners, and that’s it at the end of the day,” Fultz said about ACOG. “I’d like to see where there’s at least a handful [such as] five enti­ties that potentially qualify. So there is a competitive nature to it, just like there is with our small grants program.”

SIFF Executive Director Patrick Schweiss hailed council’s approval of ACOG as a “victory for the arts” in Sedona.

“City council saw the vision of what this was intended for, and we abso­lutely support their deci­sion,” Schweiss said imme­diately following the vote. We support the fact that now the small grants recipients will get more money since we’re taken out of that pool … it’s a win for everyone in this community.”

“It’s a great start,” SAC CEO Julie Richard said. “We’ve been pushing for this for two years, actually, and so the fact that it came to fruition is wonderful. … It will just be a matter of time before there are more [organizations] that have the [million dollar] budgets.”

One member of the public spoke in opposition to ACOG prior to its approval.

The city of Sedona is still working on the implementa­tion of ACOG process.

“So we may not know that yet for a month or two,” Schweiss subsequently wrote. “But it would be for this year’s funding.”

Hillside Parking

After spending 75 minutes largely discussing the details of the construction of a fence, Council voted 6-0, with Councilman Derek Pfaff abstaining, approved rezoning of 1.6 acres at 62 and 86 Royal Glen Lane from residential to commer­cial, allowing Hillside Shopping Center to build an employee parking lot on the back side of the property, northeast of The Hudson and southeast of Javelina Cantina.

Three members of the public spoke in favor of the change and Royal Glen Lane resident John Burst with his attorney Aaron Lumpkin spoke against the plan citing concerns of noise and privacy.

The land is currently a non-permitted overflow parking lot with signage for tour bus and RV parking during the day. After the main discussion council took a 10 minute break with the developers coming back to state they will build an 80-foot-long wooden fence on the property line.

In other council news, the city’s automatic license plate reader program was unani­mously voted to be termi­nated and all Flock Safety cameras removed from the city during the meeting.

The next day council also voted 5-2 to censure and call for the resignation of Jablow finding that he had created a hostile work environ­ment at the Sedona Police Department, violating the principles of ethical conduct for elected officials, working unilaterally by working to bypass council among other reasons. Pfaff and Jablow voted against the censure, which came after Jablow was previously admonished twice behind closed doors in executive session.