Scottsdale seems to be rolling from one mystery-shrouded scandal to the next.<\/p>\n
\u201cForget about \u2018Parkingate,\u2019 \u201d one City Hall insider snarkily commented. \u201cThis is \u2018Whitmergate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, as an onlooker at Mayor Lisa Borowsky\u2019s Jan. 21 press conference on the cryptic suspension of her chief of staff R. Lamar Whitmer demanded, \u201cWhy?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is there all this drama in Scottsdale?\u201d MaLeesadee Meyers asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy can\u2019t these people get along?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
By \u201cthese people,\u201d she was referring to the mayor, members of Scottsdale City Council and City Manager Greg Caton.<\/p>\n
Borowsky spent much of last year battling against a City Council majority dubbed \u201cthe bloc\u201d and the new city manager they appointed.<\/p>\n
The latest \u2013 and potentially most explosive \u2013 battle is over Caton\u2019s suspension-sans-explanation of Whitmer, Borowsky\u2019s chief of staff for three months.<\/p>\n
At her press conference, Borowsky insisted inside attacks on her \u201cstarted day one \u2013 and it’s been aggressively getting worse and worse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
This time last year, the then-new mayor hosted a few private meetings on a planned Old Town parking garage, during which she pitched an alternate design by prominent local architect\/developer David Hovey Jr.<\/p>\n
As Hovey was a campaign contributor to Borowsky, City Council representatives Jan Dubauskas, Barry Graham and Adam Kwasman thought that was an ethical violation \u2013 complaining to county detectives in what came to be called \u201cParkingate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Borowsky brought that up at this week\u2019s press conference: \u201cA week before my very first State of the City address, anonymous sources broke the story of the county attorney investigation against me, which were later and wholly debunked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose accusers,\u201d Borowsky added angrily, \u201cthose anonymous sources turned out to be my fellow council members, my colleagues on City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cut to a year later.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 14, Whitmer \u2013 a staunch defender of Borowsky who harshly criticized \u201cthe bloc\u201d for months before setting up an office at City Hall \u2013 was \u201cplaced on paid, non-disciplinary suspension,\u201d according to Holly Peralta, a city spokeswoman.<\/p>\n
A week later, no details were provided.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis action occurred after allegations of policy violations by Mr. Whitmer were received by the interim city attorney (Luis Santaella) and the city manager,\u201d Peralta stated.<\/p>\n
That was not good enough, Borowsky demanded.<\/p>\n
Whitmer\u2019s suspension, the mayor led off her press conference, \u201chas been done without any disclosure of the allegations or accusations or the accuser. This simply is unjust and violates our Constitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m here today to demand that the city attorney disclose exactly what Mr. Whitmer violated in terms of city policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the press conference, the Progress asked Caton\u2019s office if it would comply with Borowsky\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an active personnel investigation,\u201d Peralta responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo protect its integrity and ensure fairness to all parties, the city will not comment any further on allegations, investigative details or internal deliberations.\u201d<\/p>\n
At her press conference, Borowsky said she was \u201cconsidering to call upon Mr. Caton to resign.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city manager can be fired \u2013 but not by the mayor alone. She would need three others to join her in that.<\/p>\n
Attorney blasts city<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea what this is about,\u201d Whitmer told the Progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s no basis for any complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennis Wilenchik \u2013 who also represented Borowsky during last year\u2019s \u201cParkingate\u201d allegations and counter-allegations \u2013 emailed the Progress on behalf of Whitmer.<\/p>\n
Wilenchik blasted \u201cthe city manager\u2019s unexpected and absurd removal of my client from City Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon being told he was suspended and ordered to leave city property immediately, Whitmer was escorted by police officers from his second-floor office \u2013 passing by a crowd packed into City Hall for Banner\u2019s Planning Commission meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wilenchik decried City Manager Greg Caton\u2019s \u201cinsistence, along with others, on walking Lamar out in a \u2018perp\u2019 walk public display in front of numerous people attending the city Planning session, designed to humiliate and publicly embarrass him for no good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Peralta, immediate action was required.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs recently as Jan. 14, during the workday, new allegations regarding potential policy violations were reported, requiring the paid, non-disciplinary suspension to occur without delay,\u201d according to the city spokeswoman.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause a public meeting was scheduled to take place that evening at City Hall, the meeting with Mr. Whitmer was planned to occur in an area out of public view. In order to protect the public and employees in City Hall, and in consultation with the Chief of Police, public safety personnel were present.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Whitmer refused to leave his office for the suspension meeting; therefore, the meeting took place in his office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilenchik mocked this week\u2019s city press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe so-called \u2018response\u2019 by the city to public questioning of this fiasco didn\u2019t provide any real response or additional useful information at all,\u201d Whitmer\u2019s attorney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot providing any tangible information at all supporting the need for this exercise is not a good look for city management, and is embarrassing and damaging to the city as well as our client and seems designed to embarrass the mayor for no good reason as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know of nothing our client was doing or engaged in that was any violation of any ordinance or city code,\u201d Wilenchik continued, \u201cand nothing has been revealed to him at all to enlighten us, let alone any prior warning received.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitmer quietly started \u201cmy first office job in 40 years\u201d Oct. 6, at an annual $135,000 salary. Shortly after taking the job, Whitmer told the Progress he would \u201chelp everyone work together\u201d in his new role.<\/p>\n
Last year, Wilenchik threatened to sue several City Council members unless they \u201cpublicly denounce \u2026 wild accusations made against the mayor\u201d \u2013 regarding reports Jan Dubauskas, Adam Kwasman and Barry Graham complained to county detectives about Borowsky pitching alternate parking garage renderings by one of her campaign donors.<\/p>\n
Less than a year later, Wilenchik sounds ready to put up a fight on behalf of Whitmer.<\/p>\n
The attorney called Whitmer\u2019s paid suspension \u201cbeyond disturbing on so many levels. Particularly when shrouded in mystery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially forcing him to be locked down in his own home on top of it, is beyond disgraceful, insulting and ridiculous for such a high official, that one has to obviously wonder what and who is really behind all this, and what the real motives are here and who is the real target.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel we are in Tudor England with all this palace intrigue,\u201d Wilenchik added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His promise: \u201cWe will get to all that for sure, once we get more information, or force it out of them soon, if necessary. We will then be in a better position to fully respond to this outrage and take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Borowsky did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
But, two days after Whitmer\u2019s suspension, the mayor sent out a press release stating, \u201cI was not provided with any information before or after the city’s recent actions, even though the chief of staff position reports directly to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, the story was leaked to an \u2018anonymous\u2019 blogger six hours before Mr. Whitmer was notified of any investigation,\u201d she added, alluding to a Scottsdale Edge post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appearance of two police officers, used by management to \u2018escort\u2019 Mr. Whitmer past a packed Planning Commission meeting was meant to defame and humiliate Mr. Whitmer,\u201d Borowsky said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city manager\u2019s actions were wholly unnecessary and have the appearance of a blatant political hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
She concluded \u201cthe idea that you can be removed from your job without being informed as to the reason why \u2013 what is the accusation, and who is the accuser \u2013 is designed to inflict the maximum damage to your reputation and is fundamentally unfair and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Undercut\u2019<\/p>\n
Borowsky insisted the suspension of Whitmer was not an isolated incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince being appointed city manager,\u201d Borowsky complained, \u201cMr. Caton has consistently undercut my agenda, an agenda that the voters of Scottsdale chose and approved through their duly recognized and certified election of me as their mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the city manager’s watch, the city’s upper management, those with long time institutional knowledge, have left the city’s employ.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s an atmosphere of fear in the remaining staff that is widely known, and a fear \u2013 a concern \u2013 that they might be pushed out as well, especially if they’re known to be working with the mayor’s office.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Progress asked the city manager\u2019s office how long the investigation of Whitmer is expected to last.<\/p>\n
No response was received as of press time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottsdale seems to be rolling from one mystery-shrouded scandal to the next. \u201cForget about \u2018Parkingate,\u2019 \u201d one City…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":541489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,166900,119118,238858,153464,138901,12176,1589,238857,51069,7600,46683,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-541488","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-barry-graham","12":"tag-city-manager","13":"tag-dennis-wilenchik","14":"tag-greg-caton","15":"tag-lisa-borowsky","16":"tag-mayor","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-r-lamar-whitmer","19":"tag-scandal","20":"tag-scottsdale","21":"tag-scottsdale-city-council","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115955033925144065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541488","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=541488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}