Well, that didn\u2019t last long \u2026<\/p>\n
An uneasy truce between Mayor Lisa Borowsky and the City Council majority \u2013 better known as \u201cthe bloc\u201d \u2013 exploded in a string of insults, accusations and counter-accusations last week.<\/p>\n
With the fiery multi-party exchange, hopes that the second half of 2025 will be different from the first seemed to go up in smoke.<\/p>\n
City Council\u2019s seven-week summer break ends Monday, Aug. 25. A few days before, Terrance Thornton \u2013 Borowksy\u2019s chief of staff \u2013 sent out an email to dozens of media outlets about that meeting.<\/p>\n
The missive began innocuously: \u201cScottsdale Fire Chief Tom Shannon will outline the department\u2019s future wildfire mitigation strategies at the next City Council meeting set for Monday, Aug. 25.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two paragraphs later, Thornton and Borowsky lower the boom, accusing Barry Graham and Jan Dubauskas \u2013 key members of the bloc \u2013 of sabotaging Borowsky\u2019s plan for a volunteer fire department.<\/p>\n
The two \u201cworked quickly to kill it behind the scenes,\u201d according to the email, insisting proof was found in the mayor\u2019s public records requests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn emails obtained via public records requests, Vice Mayor Jan Dubauskas dispatched a terse two-line statement to City Manager Greg Caton and Chief Shannon: \u2018This is a terrible idea. Surprised you went along with it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And, the Thornton\/Borowksy email continued, \u201cBarry Graham offered his own opinion: \u2018I think there are plenty of other ways the city can raise awareness of fire prevention and education.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours later, Councilman Adam Kwasman \u2013 another bloc member \u2013 jumped on his X account to defend his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is regretful to see the mayor of Scottsdale use taxpayer funds and public time and resources to cast aspersions against her colleagues,\u201d Kwasman posted.<\/p>\n
He insisted the \u201cofficial press release was simply inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of that, Kwasman railed, \u201cThe mayor is unnecessarily furthering a false narrative of discord among the council that, in truth, but-for a single, troubled individual, gets along quite genially and professionally, no matter each member\u2019s political leanings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mayor,\u201d Kwasman concluded, \u201cowes vice-mayor Dubauskas and Councilman Graham an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not likely.<\/p>\n
Borowsky quickly responded with an outraged comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Kwasman\u2019s hand-wringing hypocrisy is on full display in his nonsensical post, as he manages to perform the neat trick of being insulting and holier-than-thou in the same statement,\u201d the mayor posted.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite his sanctimony, Mr. Kwasman usually prefers to do his backstabbing and threatening out of public view, as repeatedly demonstrated by his emails and texts accessible through public records \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
She insisted \u201cthe people have not only a right but a need to know what their elected representatives are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor concluded with what was about as far from an apology as possible:<\/p>\n
\u201cLet the chips fall where they may.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, that didn\u2019t last long \u2026 An uneasy truce between Mayor Lisa Borowsky and the City Council majority…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":179643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,12176,1589,7600,46683,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-179642","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-mayor","12":"tag-phoenix","13":"tag-scottsdale","14":"tag-scottsdale-city-council","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\/115100614922535918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179642","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=179642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}