By Alexander Lomax
Greg Caton. Photo Credit: City of Scottsdale
Having “interim” or “working” before the job title of many of your employees is never a great sign, at least in the long run. It implies too much change and not enough certainty and experience. This was precisely where the city of Scottsdale had found itself recently, typifying a few month period of relative tumult.
The city took a major step towards long-term certainty however, taking the “interim” off of a number of significant city roles and codifying them as official employees.
The most important salaried role in the city, City Manager, did so several weeks ago by naming city employee Greg Caton as the official Scottsdale City Manager. Last week, Caton did the same by officially appointing Jeff Walther as assistant city manager and Joe LeDuc as police chief.
Caton came here from Colorado, and while he holds two decades of municipal experience is relatively new to the city. That said, all accounts seem to say that he has done good work while here, yet the vote to confirm him, like so many others in this iteration of council, was a contentious one. The two liberal members of council, Solange Whitehead and Maryann McAllen, voted against him, with Mayor Lisa Borowsky expressing regrets about a lack of a national search with her Yes vote.
Jeff Walther has taken a more unusual pathway to his current role. He is a longtime employee of the Scottsdale Police Department, having started back in 1994 and having moved up to the role of Police Chief in 2020. He will now be serving in a more holistic role of helping manage all of the operations of the city.
LeDuc’s path is a bit more conventional. He started with the Scottsdale Police Department all the way back in 1991. He has served as a property crimes detective and homicide detective, worked with a federal Drug Enforcement Administration task force and supervised the special victims unit. He rose through the ranks in a more traditional sense, becoming a sergeant, lieutenant and commander.
With that, Scottsdale now has certainty as to its leadership. While there is nothing in particular to complain about with these picks, it is worth noting Mayor Borowsky’s complaints about a lack of a national search for talent. It does seem as though the city went with the path of least resistance (and cost) with these choices. Will it work out? Probably. But the Mayor is not wrong on this one.