By Ronald Sampson
Photo Credit: AZ Central
This year’s iteration of the Scottsdale City Council has been a surprisingly contentious one, sometimes seemingly needlessly so, but new Mayor Lisa Borowsky has generally stayed above the fray. She has taken diplomatic approaches to a few sticky situations and has generally led with grace and decorum. However, she has recently found herself in the crosshairs of a small-scale scandal, and if we’re being frank…she shouldn’t be, because it’s silly.
The city was reviewing plans for a new parking structure in Old Town, and by all measures they seem to have gone with the least expensive bid, but also the least visually appealing one, essentially $1.6 million of boring concrete. And mind you, this isn’t a parking structure for a hospital or a Wal-Mart. This is Old Town Scottsdale, where hundreds of thousands of tourists will see this structure every year, let alone all of the city residents and other Arizonans.
Mayor Borowsky was not a particular fan of this design, so she asked for the opinion of David Hovey Jr., the co-founder and developer of Optima and a donor to Borowsky. And Hovey created an illustration of what he thought would be a superior design.
At first glance, it might appear that Borowsky was trying to funnel business towards a donor, a clear ethical violation. But according to Hovey, he has no desire to design or develop the project (i.e. he stands nothing to gain), and more than anything it seemed to be the other way around: Hovey doing Borowsky a favor rather than the other way around. And as a result, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is now looking into whether or not procurement rules were broken.
It is worth emphasizing that David Hovey Jr. is not a small fish in a big pond. He focuses on big, iconic projects that typically run in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and sometimes aim as high as over a billion. Biltmore Towers, the Optima projects, those are his wheelhouse. It is absurd to think that he would even consider bidding on a $1.6 million parking garage, let alone demonstrate a potential conflict of interest for such a tiny deal. It’s a charge that makes no sense.
Assuming that Hovey is being honest (and we have no reason to believe that he isn’t) and that taxpayer resources weren’t provided to him for that illustration, what is this other than an elected official asking a subject matter expert for their thoughts on a matter? What is this other than an elected official believing that the city could do better and utilizing their network in order to potentially create a better outcome? How is this a bad thing?
The path of least resistance (and least immediate outrage) would have been to take the lowest bid, because it’s just a parking garage, right? It doesn’t need to be aesthetically pleasing, it just needs to be able to hold a bunch of cars. And for decades we’d lament the relative eyesore in the midst of an otherwise beautiful, appealing city. But hey, at least we saved a few bucks decades ago, so it’s worth it I guess?
Assuming that everything is true as stated (and again, no reason to think otherwise), it’s shocking that this has even turned into such a kerfluffle. We should be applauding the fact that a leader said, “You know what? We can do better than this. Our city deserves better than this.” and was willing to think outside-the-box and ask for advice in order to do so. This is what should expect from our elected officials, not boring concrete slabs that we settle for because it’s easy.