Scottsdale City Council Outlines Their Priorities – Are They In Touch With the Needs of Scottsdalians?

Photo Credit: scottsdale.gov

Last week, the Scottsdale City Council convened on a retreat in order to outline some of their priorities as they apply to the implementation of the Scottsdale General Plan 2035. It is a good window into the mind of the members of the Council, and we are here to dig deeper into them.

First, we seem to get some insights into the “teams” that might have formed on Council. Notable is that council members Whitehead, Littlefield and Janik team up to agree on the importance of the issues of heat mitigation and sustainability and their importance to the city of Scottsdale’s future.

Heat mitigation is obviously a major hot-button issue and one that impacts perhaps our most significant economic driver in this city: tourism. We hope that the city can do everything it can to expand shade options within the city and give tourists and residents alike more opportunities to avoid the blazing hot sun. And while we agree that sustainability is important, and finding additional opportunities to capture the energy of the sun is vital, this seems like a less pressing issue than heat mitigation as our earth continues to warm.

Tom Durham pointing out the need for water integration resources seems vital, especially considering the news of Scottsdale locking out the Rio Verde Foothills from water resources. Everything else is limited in importance if we do not have long term water resources secured.

Vice Mayor Caputi and Littlefield bring up the need for emergency preparedness. Obviously, having a solid emergency preparation plan is quite important. We haven’t had to test ours recently (although you could make the argument that the Scottsdale Fashion Square riot would have been an opportunity) and hopefully we won’t need to. But not needing to use it doesn’t negate the importance of a plan, any more than not having had a car accident doesn’t mean that you don’t need insurance.

Additionally, Mayor Ortega and Janik listed housing and human services as the most pressing needs. It is great to hear Mayor Ortega take housing needs seriously, although we have concerns that perhaps his view of how to solve that issue isn’t precisely what we would prefer, but it’s at least a start. 

City Manager James Thompson said that it will take a while for all 28 action items to be addressed, which is obviously fair. It is heartening to see the Council get together and actually work together on these points however, and underscores how important it was to pass the General Plan in the first place.