The Battle Lines are Shaping Up for Scottsdale District Idea, with Some Surprises

Photo Credit: Arcadia News

Last week we talked about the impending push to turn Scottsdale city elections into a district system instead of the current at-large election system. While there is still a long way to go, as sufficient signatures still need to be collected before it can even go to a public vote, the difficulty that the future proposition will likely face is already becoming evident.

In the original council vote which was voted down 5-2, councilmembers Linda Milhaven and Tammy Caputi, frequent critics and antagonistic votes against much of Mayor David Ortega’s initiatives, let their thoughts be known publicly. While they have often been on the other side of votes during Mayor Ortega’s short time in office, there have been rumblings that both of them are considering a run for Mayor themselves in 2024, so like any good chess players they are likely thinking a few steps ahead.

Perhaps even more notable is former Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross. She wrote a letter to the editor to the Arizona Republic, printed in the 2/12 weekend edition of the paper, stating her opposition to the plan. She states assumptions about larger involvement from special interest groups, a higher operational budget, and division it would generate as reasons to be against it. She finishes by saying that “the reasons to oppose districts are as strong as they have ever been”. Ouch.

It is worth mentioning that the district system has been brought up several times before: it came to a public vote in 2004 and lost quite handily, and was brought up in council chambers in both 2009 and 2016 but was defeated in council both times. Because of the 5-2 council vote down of the plan this year, it will need to come to a public vote via initiative if it were to be implemented, which will take a large number of signatures and probably in the ballpark of $100K to accomplish that. And this is just to get it on the ballot, and leaves aside the massive amount of money that will be raised to defeat it.

A very tall task indeed. However, Ortega defied odds to become Mayor in the first place and managed to get a General Plan accepted by voters late last year, so perhaps he shouldn’t be underestimated.

We are just out of the gates with the proposed Scottsdale district system, but already the battle lines are being drawn. As things go further down the process, we imagine that things will only get more interesting, and our popcorn will be ready.