Guest Editorial: Just Say No to Barry Graham

By Steve Tyrrell

Dear Editor:

I previously voted for Barry Graham for City Council but will not be doing so this time.  Like many other Scottsdale residents I have grown tired of Mr. Graham’s attempt to portray himself as putting taxpayers first when in fact he does the opposite. His “Taxpayer First” slogan is just that: A slogan that is belied by action.

Mr. Graham is responsible for the effort to place citizen comment at the end of City Council meetings.  That approach to governance is a slap in the face to citizens and actually places taxpayers last in line to impact the City Council.  I am afraid that was the intention and it is both nasty and shameful.  It was also the last straw for me.

My friend Barry Goldwater once said the “extremism in defense of liberty is no vice”.  But as we have seen recently extremism based on personal ideology that sidelines citizen input and comment at City Council sessions exemplifies that concept of vice.

Most of us who live in Scottsdale want our city to operate in the middle lane of politics, being able to adopt good ideas on their face value and reject others based on pure ideology that fan the flames of distrust or extremism.  Common sense suffers when political ideologies from the extreme detour the Council into the far right brakedown lane of governance.  As we have seen no good comes of that.

I urge all Scottsdale voters to reject as false the notion that it is OK to place taxpayers last at the end of the line to impact our city government.  I plan to vote for candidates who actually value citizen participation while withholding my vote from Barry Graham. I urge others to follow suit.

Steve Tyrrell is a Scottsdale Resident