The first half of Scottsdale City Council\u2019s year was marked \u2013 or, perhaps, marred \u2013 by one exhausting battle after another.<\/p>\n
There were the repeals of DEI programs and the city\u2019s sustainability plan; the \u201cParkingate\u201d dramas that swirled around a planned parking garage; wild skirmishes over Mayor Lisa Borowsky\u2019s staff; a standoff over an independent ethics\u2019 panel report; \u201ccanceling\u201d a roundabout and risking $30 million in funding; a behind-the-lines battle over Axon\u2019s plan for 1,900 apartments.<\/p>\n
Just to name a few.<\/p>\n
So, the second half of 2025 can scarcely match all that furious in-fighting, right?<\/p>\n
Well \u2026<\/p>\n
A big week at City Hall features back-to-back meetings Monday and Tuesday to meet the two meetings per month mandate.<\/p>\n
One week before Monday\u2019s meeting, the agenda with proposed changes to the city\u2019s General Plan threatened to spark a full-on war.<\/p>\n
The likes of Jason Alexander have a nasty term for what they say the majority is attempting: \u201cculture cleansing.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the city released the agenda for the 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25, meeting that kicks off City Council\u2019s second half of 2025, it featured a love-or-hate star:<\/p>\n
\u201cCity of Scottsdale General Plan 2035: Targeted Policy and Implementation Alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the topic is perhaps too hot to handle.<\/p>\n
Like a quarterback lining up under center and seeing a blitz coming, City Manager Greg Caton apparently called a last-moment audible.<\/p>\n
As Kelly Corsette, a city spokesman, explained:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe revised General Plan attachment is being replaced with a version that focuses solely on updates required by recent state law changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means that the revision that featured scrubbing of references to \u201cdiversity\u201d and \u201csustainability\u201d has been pulled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHallelujah,\u201d commented Councilwoman Maryann McAllen. \u201cIt should be pulled.\u201d<\/p>\n
McAllen said the originally proposed changes \u201cshould have never been on the agenda. It\u2019s up to the citizens to make changes: they voted on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a staff presentation published on the original agenda, the changes to the voter-approved General Plan were aimed at putting the document in alignment with recent state zoning changes \u2013 as well as some of the recent, controversial city changes mentioned above.<\/p>\n
The requested action was first pitched as \u201ca minor amendment to city of Scottsdale General Plan 2035 for the purpose of amending applicable sections, consistent with recent actions of City Council and changes to state law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Language has been added to reflect new state requirements that overrule the city\u2019s previous stance on \u201ccasitas,\u201d for example.<\/p>\n
But some are furious over the \u201credlining\u201d of dozens of references to \u201cdiversity\u201d and \u201csustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexander, who frequently takes to the microphone to bash bloc members during the public comments section, was not buying that.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of changes, he insists, \u201cgo far beyond the stated purposes of aligning the Plan with the discontinuation of the Office of Diversity and the repeal of the Sustainability Plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey attack the fundamental values the residents of Scottsdale voted for.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, Alexander raged, \u201cThe changes also attack the integrity and voice of the voters as expressed in the passage of the Plan in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Solange Whitehead, who was frequently out-maneuvered and out-voted during the first half of the year, agrees with Alexander.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere (are) no DEI references in the General Plan,\u201d Whitehead insisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are references on how to represent, serve and embrace diversity in our community. Diversity of age, income, ethnicity, religion etc. \u2018Diversity\u2019 and \u2018Sustainability\u2019 are part of the vision statement on page 4.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran, liberal-leaning councilwoman stopped just short of calling the changes a sneak attack:<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of this came up in my regular city update meetings with the city manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
New security measures<\/strong><\/p>\n When Scottsdale City Council returns to regular meetings this week, after an extended \u201csummer break,\u201d one thing will be different.<\/p>\n As part of new security measures, visitors will be required to walk through metal detectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first half of Scottsdale City Council\u2019s year was marked \u2013 or, perhaps, marred \u2013 by one exhausting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":173927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,99067,1589,7600,99066,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-173926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-general-plan","12":"tag-phoenix","13":"tag-scottsdale","14":"tag-scottsdale-city-counci","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115088586667681677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}