By Michelle Ugenti-Rita

Scottsdale Councilwoman Solange Whitehead Cannot Be Trusted

With the election just three months away, Scottsdale voters deserve to know which candidates can be trusted to, say what they do and do what they say. Councilwoman Solange Whitehead is running for re-election, and her record on one of the most consequential development decisions in our city raises serious concerns about whether the public can trust her to be forthcoming about where she stands on critical issues facing our city.

On November 19, 2024, following the council election and recognizing that the public had spoken in strong opposition to further development, the lame-duck Scottsdale City Council approved Axon’s massive 1,900-unit high-rise apartment project, relying almost solely on the support of councilmembers who had lost their elections. The community’s response was immediate and overwhelmingly negative. Within a month, residents organized and gathered enough signatures to refer the decision to the ballot, ensuring Scottsdale voters would have the final say.Faced with mounting public outrage and a likely loss at the ballot, Axon decided it didn’t want to face the voters and went to the State Legislature to override the referendum and seek State approval for their controversial development. There, a bill was introduced to create a new zoning category that would allow projects like Axon’s to bypass approval of the Scottsdale council altogether. Even more concerning, the bill effectively gutted the referendum.

As this legislation was being considered by the legislature, Councilwoman Solange Whitehead, alongside every member of the council, signed a letter opposing the bill. That letter was sent to every member of the Arizona State Senate in the hope of persuading Senate members to oppose the bill.

The letter warned about the assault on voters’ constitutional right to refer council decisions to the ballot via a referendum:

“This bill represents a direct challenge to the democratic rights of our citizens.”
“SB1543 undermines the right of Scottsdale voters… to make critical decisions about development in our city.”
“This legislation bypasses the democratic process and effectively removes the authority of local governments.”
SB 1543 “takes away the rights of our voters…”

The letter also warns about overdevelopment and its consequences:

“Scottsdale currently has approximately 9,000 apartments in the pipeline that are already approved and ready to be built.”
“Within a 5-mile radius of the Axon site, there are 21,457 apartments with a current vacancy rate of 5%, which amounts to 1,072 available units.
“There is no immediate need for state intervention when the local market is adequately addressing housing demands….”
“Large-scale developments…overlook the real and immediate concern of the people who live here. Issues such as increased traffic, strained infrastructure, and the potential loss of community character.”
“Large-scale developments such as multifamily housing and hotels may not align with the needs of our residents. They could lead to overcrowding, rising costs of living, and changes to the character of our neighborhoods…”

With the passage of SB1543, signed into law on April 18, 2025, the Council had multiple options available to them, including pursuing litigation challenging the constitutionality of the bill. Unfortunately, on November 17, 2025, a bare minimum majority of the Council agreed to a “compromise” with Axon, including Councilwoman Whitehead, who flipped her previous position and voted in favor of Axon’s dubious development.

Here’s what she voted to support:

Reduced the units from 1,900 to 1,200, keeping it one of the largest apartment developments in Arizona history.
Repealed the referendum signed by more than 26,000 Scottsdale residents, stripping voters of their right to weigh in.
Waived Axon’s water obligations, enough to serve the equivalent of 12,000 homes.
Introduced new development mechanisms like self-certification and third-party inspections, allowing developers to bypass council oversight.

How can a sitting councilwoman so boldly sign a letter demanding the legislature uphold “the right of voters to make decisions about their own neighborhoods,” insisting that it “is a fundamental principle that should not be compromised,” while also making the case that Axons’ 1,900 apartment proposal is completely unnecessary and harmful to our city’s character, then turn around and vote in support for the very project she publicly advocated against.

This raises serious questions. Voters must ask themselves:

If she believed what she signed, why didn’t she stand by it when it mattered?
And if she didn’t mean it then, why did she go out of her way to mislead the public about her opposition?
How can anyone trust her now, and what else has she been dishonest about?

I raise this issue because when the voters, stakeholders, and the bureaucracy cannot take an elected official at their word, it destabilizes almost everything. While it is not expected or practical that everyone agrees on everything all the time, what is expected and necessary is that when an elected official strongly states their position on an issue, they stick to it. Policy debate is both healthy and productive to ensure the best result for the public, and sometimes that results in disappointment for some. While disappointment can be a tough pill to swallow, duplicity is a much more severe violation of the trust the public gives to elected officials.

Scottsdale deserves leaders who don’t say one thing and do another. We can’t afford four more years of Councilwoman Whitehead selling out Scottsdale to the highest bidder and pretending to care about our city, while voting time and time again in contradiction to what she says.