By Alexander Lomax
Checks and balances are important in life. We need checks and balances in our government, checks and balances in our interpersonal relationships, and checks and balances within the corporate world. Complete overregulation is bad, but a world where corporations have no checks on their power isn’t any better either as the industrial revolution taught us (if you weren’t a titan of industry, that is).
An example of a lack of checks and balances is when a corporation has control over both the government and the people and is willing and able to circumvent the will of both that it is critical to insert those checks and balances by any means necessary in order to restore balance. Thankfully, the Scottsdale City Council and Mayor understands just this.
Recently, to a crowd that was largely in their favor even despite the deep pockets of the opposition, City Council authorized that funds be set aside for a potential legal foray against Axon’s recent actions to attempt to thwart the will of the people and put their foot on the throats of the community.
Why does this matter? And why is this not about jobs like Axon’s messaging points dictate, a talking point that is difficult to criticize if you don’t understand the details of this deal?
We need to talk more about how Axon robbed tens of millions of dollars from Arizona’s schools by initially submitting for an office/manufacturing zoning grade, leading the land to be sold at a lower price than the residential zoning grade that it clearly intended to obtain in the first place. Lower sales price to the Arizona State Land Trust means less funds for our schools.
We need to talk about how Axon decided that it needed to take away your constitutional rights to disagree with its activities. While the debate between overdevelopment and cautious development, NIMBY vs. YIMBY is a reasonable debate to be had, the right to vote your conscience and vote your values shouldn’t be, and Axon was willing to go to the State Capitol and twist arms to take that away from you.
So what options do we the people have that Axon hasn’t taken away from us? The Scottsdale City Council is going to find out, and I, for one, am glad as hell that they’re willing to be our checks and balances.