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<\/p>\nFormer Scottsdale Councilman Tom Durham has filed an ethics complaint City Councilwoman Kathy Littlefield regarding her voting in issues involving Axon Enterprise Inc. while her husband is running an opposition campaign against the company\u2019s world headquarters development.<\/p>\n
Durham filed the complaint with Interim Scottsdale City Attorney Luis Santaella after reading a Jan. 20 article in the Scottsdale Independent connecting Kathy Littlfield to the Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemption political action committee.<\/p>\n
TAAAZE was created by Littlefield\u2019s husband, Bob Littlefield, to oppose Axon\u2019s development of its campus \u2014 including 1,200 residential units \u2014 near the intersection of North Hayden Road and Loop 101. The PAC has gone as far as filing two lawsuits against the city on the matter.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s happened while Kathy Littlefield has voted multiple times during council meetings against the project. <\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Littlefield is therefore guilty, at a minimum, of negligence concerning the conflict of interest requirements of Arizona law and the Scottsdale Ethics Code,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cAs such, she should be removed from public office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durham was unavailable for comment for this story. <\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield consistently claims she has no conflict of interest because she and her husband have never discussed the issue. <\/p>\n
\u201cBob and I both have kept that subject completely off the table between us,\u201d Kathy Littlefield has said in the past. \u201cWe don\u2019t discuss it. I don\u2019t listen in on his conversations on the phone. He does not hold meetings at our house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durham\u2019s complaint contends that is irrelevant. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a relative who has a substantial interest in matters before the city council, and she has regularly voted on such matters without declaring a conflict of interest or recusing herself on such,\u201d the complaint stated.<\/p>\n
Bob Littlefield\u2019s periodic chain emails opposing Axon\u2019s new campus, which are all signed by him as chairman of TAAAZE, all use the same Mailchimp account as the political action committee Keep Scottsdale Special. Kathy Littlefield has been treasurer of Keep Scottsdale Special since its organization in September 2020, until it disbanded on Jan. 13, according to campaign paperwork filed with Scottsdale City Clerk Ben Lane\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Bob Littlefield\u2019s emails have listed Keep Scottsdale Special\u2019s mailing address as the couple\u2019s home address.<\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield has said her duties with Keep Scottsdale Special consisted only of running a monthly financial report.<\/p>\n
But Kathy Littlefield also signed campaign paperwork filed with Lane\u2019s office listing her as the treasurer of her husband\u2019s current reelection campaign.<\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield called Durham\u2019s complaint \u201ctypical\u201d and said \u201cit\u2019s just politics at play.
\u201cA long time ago, I went to our (interim) city attorney and asked him if there was a problem, and he researched it and studied the issue and said no there was no conflict, so I went ahead and did my job,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield has gone as far in the past to have Santaella say during a council meeting there is no conflict of interest, though he offered no further explanation during those meetings.<\/p>\n
The complaint also questions whether Bob Littlefield profits financially from TAAAZE, a claim he denies.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat side … they have no ideology, they have no campaign, they have no platform, so all they can try and do is stir stuff up against me and (City Councilman) Barry (Graham),\u201d Bob Littlefield said.<\/p>\n
Durham also filed an open meeting complaint with the Arizona Attorney General\u2019s Office in March 2025 against the council out of concern that several council members may have instructed City Engineer Alison Tymkiw to eliminate a controversial roundabout on Scottsdale Road and Dynamite Boulevard without having had a public vote on the issue. It is still being investigated.<\/p>\n
An Axon spokesman declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n
Axon, best known for its Tasers and body camera technology, is building a new campus that will include a 401,085-square-foot world headquarters, five five-story retail buildings, one three-story retail building and a 435-key hotel. It would also have seven restaurants on site as well as a dog park, a walking trail and a real-time crime center for the Scottsdale Police Department.<\/p>\n
The new campus is expected to create 5,500 jobs with an average starting salary of $135,000. It\u2019s predicted to have a $3.5 billion annual economic impact on the area.
The plan is controversial because it includes 1,200 residential units \u2014 600 apartments and 600 condominiums \u2014 which has drawn the opposition of many in the community as well as both Kathy and Bob Littlefield.<\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield voted for a public infrastructure reimbursement of up to $9.4 million to Axon on Aug. 25, 2020, for the creation of the campus, but there were no residential units attached to it at the time.<\/p>\n
The project then lay dormant on the city side for about four years until council voted on Nov. 20, 2024, to rezone a piece of Axon\u2019s land to make way for the residential units, which numbered 1,882 at the time.<\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield voted against the rezoning.<\/p>\n
The next day, Bob Littlefield announced the creation of TAAAZE, which garnered nearly 27,000 signatures to put the rezoning issue to a referendum.
When it looked like council members would not permit the referendum to occur until November 2026, Axon leaders got Senate Bill 1543 through the Legislature and signed by the governor allowing them to build the campus without the city\u2019s consent.
TAAAZE then filed a lawsuit against the state and city challenging the new law\u2019s constitutionality. The city was included in that lawsuit because it would have to enforce the new law.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 9, 2025, Kathy Littlefield voted against a motion to take no action on an agenda item that would have had the city file a lawsuit against the state on the constitutionality of SB 1543. She ultimately lost that vote 4-3.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 17, 2025, council voted to approve a memorandum of understanding on the campus, which dropped the number of residential units to 1,200.<\/p>\n
Kathy Littlefield was on the losing end of a 4-3 vote to approve the agreement.<\/p>\n
That same night, Kathy Littlefield also voted against using third-party architects and engineers to certify building plans and inspections during the construction of the project as well repeal the Nov. 20, 2024, rezone of the land because it would assist Axon with building the campus.<\/p>\n
That lead TAAAZE to file a second lawsuit against the city on Jan. 26 for adopting the memorandum of understanding.<\/p>\n
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J. Graber
News Editor | Scottsdale<\/p>\n