Scottsdale is Suing Itself?!? What’s Up with That?

No one likes it when lawyers get involved (except for lawyers themselves). Legal battles always lead to an incredible amount of money spent and rarely is anyone truly satisfied with a result (again, except for the lawyers). Thus when a recent headline hit the wire, it had us double-taking: the city is suing itself.

Wait, what? Yes, put more specifically, the city of Scottsdale is suing the city’s public safety retirement board, basically its pension and benefits governing body.

The spat is a result of three board members deciding not to follow term limit rules, with two members being on the board since 2014 and one since 2005, and the rules dictating that nine years is the limit. 

This begs another question: how are they 10 years late in detecting that the longest serving board member was past the limit? It feels like the equivalent of taking several years to finally get to a spring cleaning only to see that an item of food expired in 1998.

The independent counsel for the board members state that the city rules don’t apply to them, because of course. Again, the only winners are always the lawyers.

One has to wonder why being on a relatively arcane board is such a matter of importance for the three members. While it is a noble endeavor, making sure that first responders are provided the benefits that they were promised, it is hard to believe that their institutional knowledge is of such a necessity that they can’t be replaced. Is actually enjoying retirement so difficult?

No one should be above the law, even those in governing boards. While we will leave the arguing and the technicalities to the well-paid professionals, it is our simple hope that this is resolved quickly and cheaply. We have more value-adding items to spend money on as a city.