\u00a0<\/p>\n
TAAAZE, the thorn in Axon\u2019s side, has struck again.<\/p>\n
Last week, the political action committee Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions \u2013 better known as TAAAZE \u2013 filed its second Axon-related complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court.<\/p>\n
This one challenges the legality of an Axon-city of Scottsdale memorandum of understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The agreement negates previous Scottsdale City Council action for up to 1,900 apartments, allowing Axon to build 1,200 units, a hotel and new office near Hayden and the 101 in Scottsdale.<\/p>\n
The complaint was filed Jan. 26 by TAAAZE, chaired by former councilman \u2013 and current candidate \u2013 Bob Littlefield.<\/p>\n
TAAAZE\u2019s legal team at Coppersmith Brockelman PLC claims the MOU is \u201cillegal and invalid under Arizona law and the Scottsdale City Charter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Progress asked Luis Santaella, the city\u2019s interim attorney, how the city will respond to the new lawsuit. \u201cWe have no comment at this time,\u201d a city spokeswoman responded.<\/p>\n
Axon also declined an offer to comment on the new Littlefield\/TAAAZE lawsuit.<\/p>\n
The city waived its right to a service of the summons, giving it 60 days from Jan. 26 to respond to the complaint.<\/p>\n
Unlike a previous TAAAZE lawsuit against the city and state, the Jan. 26 lawsuit also names Axon as a defendant.<\/p>\n
According to a TAAAZE press release, \u201cA 4-3 vote of the Scottsdale City Council in November tried to sidestep a public referendum and a full public hearing by improperly declaring the MOU an administrative action.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November 2024, a year prior to the MOU, Scottsdale City Council approved by a 5-2 vote \u2013 with Littlefield\u2019s wife, Kathy, and Barry Graham opposed \u2013 a plan for upwards of 1,900 apartments and a hotel on former state land zoned for industrial\/commercial uses only.<\/p>\n
One month later, Bob Littlefield submitted more than 25,000 signatures asking for a referendum on the Axon zoning issue.<\/p>\n
Axon then successfully lobbied at the state legislature, winning the passage of a law bypassing the referendum and allowing the Taser maker to build founder Rick Smith\u2019s dream \u201cinternational campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this long chess game, TAAAZE countered with a Sept. 26 lawsuit against Arizona and Scottsdale challenging Senate Bill 1543, also known as the \u201cAxon Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorneys for the city and state filed answers to the complaint Jan. 23.<\/p>\n
Oral arguments were originally scheduled for January but delayed twice; they are now scheduled for April.<\/p>\n
TAAAZE believes a successful ruling against the state law would be a two-for-one, as it \u201cwould also have the effect of invalidating the MOU.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city-Axon agreement allows Axon to \u201cself-certify\u201d its plans, with no city review required.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe MOU is actually a zoning ordinance,\u201d Bob Littlefield insisted, \u201cwhich cannot be approved before the city follows certain procedures and affords its residents due process.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the new lawsuit, TAAAZE complains Scottsdale did not consider a housing impact statement prior to entering the MOU and failed to hold a public hearing on the matter.<\/p>\n
And the complaint claims \u201cAxon received a whole new series of perks in the MOU that were not contained in previous agreements with the city, such as sidestepping traditional water and inspection requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Littlefield, \u201cThe MOU took a lousy deal for the city and made it worse. And they made this deal trying to duck public scrutiny. Our complaint seeks to restore the rule of law in Scottsdale and make it clear that residents are the ones in charge of Scottsdale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Bob Littlefield filed preliminary paperwork to run for Scottsdale City Council in this year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield will term out at the end of 2026, after being reelected twice. Two other City Council seats are in play, with Barry Graham and Solange Whitehead both running for reelection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 TAAAZE, the thorn in Axon\u2019s side, has struck again. Last week, the political action committee Taxpayers Against…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":568018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,4193,69258,1587,166900,166898,5310,183858,166899,57353,1589,7600,247315,46683,152497,189882,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-568017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-axon","tag-axon-enterprise","tag-az","tag-barry-graham","tag-bob-littlefield","tag-city-council","tag-kathy-littlefield","tag-luis-santaella","tag-maricopa-county-superior-court","tag-phoenix","tag-scottsdale","tag-scottsdale-city","tag-scottsdale-city-council","tag-solange-whitehead","tag-taaaze","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116017913219574427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568017","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=568017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}