For many years, Sedona’s most pressing issue for many residents has been the city’s or lack of supervision over short-term rentals.

But after the city council rarely voted 4 to 3 to hire lobbyists as additional support for the issue, the debate on the city's next move has been ongoing. Although state laws prohibit towns, cities, or counties from monitoring rents, they can persuade legislators to change the law.

On November 9th, the discussion started with past developments and the proposal for new short-term rental regulations led by the Arizona City and Towns Alliance Executive Director Tom Belshe, and finally introduced the city’s new private lobbyist, Paul Senseman, Phoenix Policy Development Group .

"Many towns have private lobbyists who work with them. We have been working with them," Beershey said. "We see it as a power multiplier. If this is something you want to spend money to buy, it all depends on the city. The only thing we have to ask is the coordination with the Alliance and other cities. I believe we will not encounter problem."

After serving as the deputy director in 2004 and the executive director of the alliance since 2019, Beershey said that the first step of the alliance working group will be to review the regulations proposed by cities across the state. Belcher said that since the 2016 Senate Bill 1350 legalized short-term rental issues, other popular tourist cities such as Page, Paradise Valley and Lake Havasu have expressed their desire to include them in the legislature.

"You are going through the exact same discussions that we have been having since 2018," Beershey said.

Together with parliament staff, he submitted the proposed resolution of Lake Havasu City on the issue of short-term leases to the parliament meeting. The proposal includes:

Beershey stated that the main problem faced by the coalition, its 91 cities and its private lobbyists in the past three years is to find "legislative supporters" to accept the proposal. With 11 lawmakers leaving the Arizona legislature in 2021, the process of finding this supporter has become more difficult.

The City Council seems to agree, because Deputy Mayor Scott Jablow said that solving this problem now is more promising than before.

"This is the only problem that destroys our city," said Congresswoman Holli Ploog. "Nothing is more important than this question."

Many council members, including Congressman Jessica Williamson and Congressman Jon Thompson, agreed with Plog's view that short-term leases are the most pressing issue for the city and its people. In introducing the committee, Senseman addressed their concerns about this issue. He also stated that he agrees with the plans and progress made by the alliance on behalf of the towns they represent.

According to Belshe and Senseman, PDG and the alliance have a good working relationship, and they plan to continue this relationship through the promotion of short-term rentals in Arizona towns. The partnership plans to work with the city council and staff to finalize Sedona’s proposed resolution. These proposals will be shared with other towns in the alliance.

Beershey said he hopes that the coalition's working group will complete the four to five agreed resolutions before the end of this month.

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