The former President was many things, including a splicing wordsmith. During Ken Starr’s inquisition who can forget Clinton’s unforgettable, “It depends what the meaning of is, is.”
And that brings us to today, in Scottsdale. And former long-time Scottsdale Planning Department staffer, now developer lobbyist, Don Hadder.
Hadder presided over city staff’s review and ultimate recommendation for the Troon North community approvals in the mid-1990s. That work ultimately led some 1,800 homeowners into one of Scottsdale’s signature communities. They relied on his work and word to invest in the community. And rightfully so.
But now Hadder is singing a different tune, as the paid sycophant for an unproven, unknown group seeking to scar Troon North with an unsightly timeshare plan at its entrance. For months Hadder has been working his former colleagues to find that which he wrote before about what’s allowed at Troon North to not be the case.
Amazingly, Hadder has convinced at least one staffer to do just that, and support the tripling of his client’s timeshare density. How? By taking density purportedly not used by others in Troon North and assigning it to his client.
Whoa. Those property owners and Proposition 207 property rights enthusiasts might have something to say about that. Sounds far more Che Guevara than Scottsdale. Troon North residents aren’t having any of it, having sent some 200 emails in opposition to the idea, and climbing. Even former heads of the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce are weighing in to say don’t do it.
Obe Wan Kenobi once convinced mindless Stormtroopers that R2D2 and C-3PO were not the droids they were looking for. Fortunately, we think Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, the Scottsdale City Council, City Manager Jim Thompson and other senior staff won’t be so pliable.
They know what the meaning of the word is, is, and Clintonian revisions of Troon North’s history shouldn’t wash.