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Sedona officials step up short-term-rental enforcement as citizen work group pushes staffing and process changes
Summary
Short-term-rental staff reported 744 hotline calls and 47 enforcement citations in a recent audit window; the city is prosecuting permit violations and the Citizens Budget Work Group urged clearer performance metrics, better onboarding of volunteer budget reviewers and more transparency on staffing increases.
City officials told Sedona's council at a budget work session that short-term-rental enforcement has been stepped up and that evidence-gathering is underway for permit-related citations.
"Of the 47 in-process citations, 29 owners have repurmitted and several have already paid their fines," Short-Term Rental Specialist Teresa told the council, describing outreach and evidence collection that staff say will reduce past practice of dismissing citations if owners later came into compliance. City Clerk Joanne Cook said STR-related hotline complaints totaled 744 in a recent sample window, with roughly 128 routed to code enforcement (primarily trash complaints).
"We're in the process of working through 47 of them right now," Teresa said, noting staff will present evidence at hearings and expects many citations to be upheld.
Councilors pressed staff about enforcement capacity. "This would be a team approach," City Manager Annette Spicker said of a proposed new code-enforcement officer proposed to sit in the City Clerk's office but coordinate closely with Community Development's code team; staff and Community Development Director Steve Mertes described an initial allocation estimate of 75% Clerk's Office / 25% Community Development for the position. The council discussed whether that worker would be cross-trained to support wider code-enforcement tasks during quieter periods.
The Citizens Budget Work Group presented recommendations to the council earlier in the meeting calling for more transparency, better performance metrics and a standing or recurring membership to the work group so volunteers can build expertise over multiple years. "We found the role of the Budget Work Group is sometimes too narrow — we looked through a soda straw," Jolene Pearson told the council. Citizens recommended changes including improved technology for STR enforcement, clearer priority-setting and more robust performance measures for permitting and customer service.
City staff supported many of the work group's observations but said some requests required more time or resources; staff and volunteers agreed to improve communications and bring more complete data to council deliberations. The short-term-rental enforcement team asked council to consider the code-enforcement officer decision package to help manage compliance work, collect evidence for hearings and reduce reliance on contracting and ad hoc responses.
No formal vote was taken; council directed staff to include enforcement and staffing needs in the deliberations of the proposed FY2026 budget and to return with implementation details if council chooses to allocate funding.
