Legally speaking, it was a busy year for Scottsdale.
Just over a year ago, Sherry Scott resigned as Scottsdale’s city attorney.
On July 1, 2025, the first day of the 2025-26 fiscal year, City Council tapped Luis Santaella as Scott’s interim replacement. Santaella, Scott’s second-in-command and a longtime city employee, also took over Scott’s annual salary of $319,000.
In May, as the fiscal year was ending, Santaella had the “interim” lifted from his title.
“Under my leadership, the Scottsdale City Attorney’s Office is moving forward with purpose and vision – fully dedicated to supporting the mission and goals of our City Council,” Santaella began his June 19 report.
His highlights included:
Ordinance No. 4680. “This ordinance bars anyone under 16 from riding a Class 3 e-bike (21+ mph) or an electric motorcycle on city property and requires all electric motorcycles on roadways to be titled and registered with Arizona regardless of the age of the rider.”
Ordinance No. 4681. “This ordinance … prohibits smoking in or near city playgrounds and related outdoor recreational amenities.”
Ordinance No. 4684. “This ordinance creates a new prohibition … that prohibits standing or remaining on a traffic median where the posted speed limit is 30 mph or greater, except for briefly occupying a median at a signalized intersection as a temporary refuge”
His bullet point of highlights includes: “Worked on various changes to the Rules of Council Procedure and served as the Council’s parliamentarian.”
Santaella bypassed the controversy when his initiative to move non-agendized public comment from the beginning of meetings to the end. It was passed by a City Council majority.
Another big one, and even more controversial, was “Drafted and collaborated on the Axon Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).”
After negotiations and Santaella’s legal wording, City Council passed the agreement Nov. 17, 2025.
It “creates a self-certification program for Qualified International Headquarters campuses” – namely, Axon Enterprises, which agreed to reduce its apartment-condo count from 1,900 to 1,300 in return for self-certification and other allowances.
And, Santaella noted, his office “received 21,409 public records requests.”
The report itself was provided to the Progress after a public records request.
Santaella also noted his office drafted a $3.7 million purchase agreement with Scottsdale Unified School District “for the purchase of real property for use as office and workspace for municipal employees” and drafted a revised development agreement with One Scottsdale “to change the zoning … for a mixed-use development, including residential, commercial, and hotel.”
After Council approval, this allows the developer to build an extra 350 condos in North Scottsdale.
Lawsuits, resolved and unresolved
An eagerly-anticipated portion of the annual report outlines the lawsuits filed against – and settled with – the city.
“The City actively defended/prosecuted 93 civil litigation cases in FY25/26,” Santaella wrote. “This number increased by 55% from FY 24/25 (60 cases) and by 79% from FY 23/24 (52 cases).
“The city resolved 31 cases in FY25/26.”
Santaella highlighted “Smith v. City of Scottsdale,” in which “the plaintiff argues officers defamed her, invaded her privacy, and negligently inflicted emotional distress by photographing her injuries … and demanded $250,000 to settle her claims.”
Santaella boasted that after the city refused to settle and filed a motion to dismiss the suit, “the court ruled that the officers’ actions were protected by absolute immunity as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, rejected all asserted tort claims, and dismissed the case in its entirety.
“The plaintiff recovered nothing.”
A case floating for seven years had the same result: In 2019, the Neptune Swimming Foundation sued the city for $1.4 million over “its pool licensing and procurement practices, arising from claims that its license with Scottsdale Aquatic Club violated the gift clause and the City Charter.”
Scottsdale won a summary judgment in Maricopa County Superior Court, with the Court of Appeals affirming the decision.
“The Arizona Supreme Court later confirmed there was no gift-clause violation but remanded a narrow procurement-code issue relating to a canceled 2018 pool-time RFP. On remand, the City obtained a second summary judgment after showing the license had expired, and no remedy remained, and the case was dismissed with the plaintiff taking nothing.”
Regarding another lawsuit, “The city attorney’s office successfully resolved a catastrophic injury lawsuit, arising from a man’s fall over a boulder that encroached onto the Princess Drive sidewalk.”
The man who fell “alleged he suffered a spinal cord injury causing quadriplegia with complete loss of sensory and motor function,” filing a $20 million claim.
“After a thorough investigation and hard-fought discovery in the case, we were able to negotiate a pre-trial settlement of the claims against the city for $20,000,” Santaella wrote.
Missing lawsuit
Discussion of a few notable lawsuits was missing from the annual report, however.
Shawn Fuller, a former city assistant attorney, sued the city and Scott in 2020. He claimed wrongful termination as retaliation for him bringing to light improper procedures in driving under the influence cases.
According to Santaella’s January agenda report, “The Superior Court of the State of Arizona County of Maricopa made rulings, decisions, and took other action which (Scottsdale) believed to be erroneous.”
A jury ruled in Fuller’s favor in 2024, leading to a city appeal.
After a Court of Appeals decision, Santaella advised Council “it is in the best interest of the city … to authorize the City Attorney’s Office and/or outside counsel engaged by the City Attorney to file a petition or counter-petition and appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.”
Council unanimously approved Santaella’s request to continue funding – at an undisclosed rate and/or estimated total – an outside lawyer to continue defending the city in a case haunting it for years.
The 158 claims against the city in 2025-26 comprised a four-year low, down from an average 194 the previous three years.
But the 158 claims totaled a demand of $56.5 million from the city.
Santaella’s annual report noted the city – “after careful evaluation” – agreed to settlement payments of $725,000, a mere “1.28% of all amounts demanded.”
But individual cases are not cited in the annual report.
On Feb. 10, Council approved paying Keith Lanning $135,000 to settle a lawsuit. Lanning is a former police detention officer who “suffered a left shoulder injury during a physical struggle with a subject,” according to the Feb. 10 agenda report.
“As a result of his injuries, he was unable to return to work as a police detention officer for the city.”
Santaella’s annual report also does not provide an estimate of the city’s exposure regarding lawsuits looming after a fatal bad-landing at the Scottsdale Airport Feb. 10, 2025.
As Santaella’s May 5 agenda report noted, “several of the parties involved have filed lawsuits against the city.”