Text of Ms. Chaffee’s speech on January 17, 2008

Sedona, AZ – The early bird gets the worm! Great to meet some more of you Sedona movers and shakers this morning!

I am Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee, alias Suzy Chapstick, and I am running for City Council to help make Sedona the “Green Capital of the World.” And at the same time making us an even more thriving artistic, spiritual and adventure Center.

I believe in conservative growth, with architecture in harmony with one of the “Wonders of the World.” Because we are blessed to be able to live in a National Park, we have a responsibility to be Olympic stewards of these magical lands that are sacred to the tribes and our spiritual community.

Therefore my first priority as a Council member would be to make Sedona a National Scenic Area to protect our Red Rock Cathedral from becoming a Phoenix; make the Council and Mayor fiscally accountable, and the budget better balanced.

As a Girl Scout I learned to “Be Prepared.” They say smaller communities that are prepared will survive and thrive in case of environmental surprises. Therefore we need to be energy independent through Sedona becoming a Solar City this year, thru Citizenre.com’s affordable system ($500 refundable plus regular monthly bill).

We need some wind energy turbines (in case of volcanic eruption that would block the sun), to also streamline shifting off coal energy, our main source of electricity that blankets us with mercury. Clean energy mass transit is also a must to cut down traffic, including to Cottonwood, Oak Creek Village, Cornville and Flagstaff, where 70% of our workers are from, in addition to some affordable employee housing.

We also need to be food independent starting with a “farmers market.” Aspen’s is fun, the tourists love it too, as buying local is more green. We also need to create permaculture gardens starting with the schools so children can learn survival skills while eating organic foods for lunch (like other schools).

As Vice Chair of Green Sedona, I helped Matthew Turner, an environmental scientist, replace the pesticides at City Hall with green cleaning, saving the City $22,000 not to poison its citizens. Matthew also replaced the herbicides on 89A with Vitamin C-cide and he was honored last weekend at the Hyatt as a “Local Illuminary” for cleaning up Sedona. Let’s give him a hand.

Next I’d like to focus on shifting the schools to green cleaning and other natural products because the real cause of so many children having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is environmental toxins. We also need to clean up our homes from synthetic products that Los Angeles scientists found are the No. 2 cause of pollution next to tailpipe exhaust, which are melting our glaciers and my snow!

To protect our drinking water and aquifers, I urge an alternative to Mayor Colquitt’s plan to inject reclaimed water directly into our aquifers on 89A toward Cottonwood, to filter it Mother Nature’s way – She knows best – by expanding the wildlife sanctuary there, which has become an eco-tourism attraction. Plus we need to protect Oak Creek’s water.

As a Council member I will continue to write local, national and world oress stories, like preserving our renowned starry skies. Thanks to my Native Voices Foundation, Sedona is getting amazing coverage worldwide which is bolstering tourism (see all these stories on http://www.snow-riders.org home page bottom).

Here are some of the other issues I favor:

Registration for short term vacation rentals to also provide revenue to the City.

Solar-lit bike lanes and a walking path along Oak Creek.

Mandatory recycling (using local companies) and creating a local toxic waste disposal, as part of our green model.

As a former Olympic downhill racer, I’ll speed up getting our Performing Arts Center completed so our businesses and culture here will ROCK!

My background

After the Olympics I worked with 8 US Presidents – including getting Title IX – Equal Opportunity for women in school sports strongly enforced, because women are key to getting the whole family healthy. President Clinton applauded me for creating interracial harmony for inspiring 60 ski areas to invite nearby tribes back to their ancestral mountains to ski, snowboard and share their magnificent Earth-honoring dancers. That inspired the Indian Elders to save ski areas in 10 states from snow droughts. I am bringing that know-how to this region.

Many Sedona leaders were part of our international prayer, along with Arizona’s 13 tribes, which resulted in Flagstaff’s San Francisco Peaks getting six feet of natural snow. Therefore, they don’t need to use waste water in their snowmaking machines that contain hospital pharmaceuticals that cannot be filtered out, which would end up in Oak Creek and our drinking water and aquifers. Our foundation currently heads the Presidents Healthier U.S. Initiative on behalf of Native Americans in the Great Outdoors; and I am related to the late Senator John Chafee (R) who helped author the Clean Air, Water and Endangered Species Acts.

While I am a Democrat, I am honored to have Republican and Independent supporters because of my experience, connections, and bi-partisan spirit, which helps streamline getting things done, and making it fun. As an Olympian, running for office for the first time, I say, let’s shift to a clean campaign to make Sedonans proud!

This election is critical for the healthy future of Sedona at these environmental crossroads.

Remember, action speaks louder than words. Given the Council and Mayor’s resistance to going green for the last four years, your vote can go a long ways toward getting Sedona up to speed in becoming a more economically, sustainably thriving community.

Let’s do it together!

Thank you!

A Video of Suzy Chaffee’s speech can be found at this link.
http://www.sedona.biz/suzy-chaffee0108.htm