On what should have been an evening of celebration and hope offered by a new mayor and council, just a few hours after being inaugurated, members of the Scottsdale council came out of the box and fell flat on their faces in their first meeting of 2025. I'm embarrassed for them and for Scottsdale.
After a sneaky last-minute add to the agenda, and then proclamations of transparency, accountability and "residents first," the council disregarded the overwhelming public comment in the meeting, a huge public email response, and disregarded more than two years of public input, thousands of hours of volunteer and staff work, and voted to repeal the city's first Sustainability Plan — a plan that was passed just last month!
It is a plan with no mandates or requirements, only aspirations for cleaner air, ample water and heat mitigation. Who is opposed to that?
And I must say that how the final vote went down in their first meeting together, without debate or the ability for councilmembers to comment about how they would vote, was manipulative and despicable by Vice Mayor Graham and Councilmember Kwasman. The new mayor was caught flat-footed, outmaneuvered, stammering.
And the anti-sustainability vote happened two weeks before 800,000 people pack into the TPC in Scottsdale for the world's premiere sustainable golf event! Talk about tone-deaf. Apparently, we don't want Axon or golf tournaments here.
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