Guest Editorial: First Decision Handed Down in TAAAZE Lawsuits

 

By Bob Littlefield

Dear Friends: As you may have heard a Superior Court Judge has ruled against TAAAZE in our lawsuit against the controversial “Axon Law.” While this result is disappointing, we are considering our options for appealing this bad decision. Plenty of issues over the years have been approved in Superior Court only to have them overturned later at the Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court. A second lawsuit, challenging Scottsdale’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Axon to proceed with its massive apartment complex, is still pending and will be heard in Superior Court June 5th. Among other things, the MOU sidesteps traditional water supply requirements during a time of drought and grants Axon unprecedented rights to police its own construction rather than have city staff do so as has been the case for every other development in the city’s history since inception. One major lesson this controversy has taught us is it matters more than ever who you elect to City Council! The whole reason we are in this mess is because in 2024 four Councilmembers (Whitehead and lame ducks Janik, Durham and Ortega) went back on their campaign promises to be resident-friendly and approved the largest apartment complex ever proposed in the entire state, despite massive opposition from Scottsdale residents! Whitehead (who is running for re-election in the upcoming city election) has actually voted for the Axon apartments twice and has become their chief cheerleader and lobbyist at City Hall. No wonder she received a $5,000 contribution from an Axon executive early in the campaign! That’s why, if you want to preserve Scottsdale’s special character and high quality of life you should support me in the upcoming city election. For twelve years I served on the City Council and have a documented record of fighting overdevelopment. In the last ten years as a private citizen, I have been involved in every major resident-driven battle to preserve Scottsdale’s special character and high quality of life. Bottom line, I am the proven commodity you can trust to stay true to my resident-friendly promises once I get in office!You can find out more about how you can help me stop overdevelopment in Scottsdale on my web page at https://www.boblittlefield.com/help.html. Thank you for your support. Former Councilman Bob Littlefield