Please excuse the length of this message, but it addresses the local election, which can be a complex subject but is also important and the one election where your vote really counts.
The November election is nearly on us with early ballots being mailed out shortly. To vote, you must be registered by 10/10/2016, early voting starts on 10/12/2016, and the last day to request a mail ballot is 10/28/2016. You can access the pamphlet for the election at: http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Assets/ScottsdaleAZ/Elections/110816ElectionPamphlet.pdf.
If you already know who to vote for in the city elections you can stop here, but if you want to learn more about the candidates, please read further.
This year, for the city of Scottsdale, three city council seats and the Mayor will be determined plus you will vote on a charter amendment to fix the election dates to coincide with the state and federal general elections (November).
Voting for your city council members is perhaps the most important thing you can do that has a direct impact on your quality of life as it determines how the city will continue to change and develop. The city council is responsible for enforcing our zoning laws and General Plan which directly determines what is built, what amenities we will have, what infrastructure we will need, and indirectly determines what our taxes will be. Through their decisions, they control our future.
Unfortunately this year your choices for city council are limited as there are only four people running for three seats, three incumbents and one newcomer. For mayor you have two choices, incumbent Mayor Lane and challenger Bob Littlefield, who was a past council member. So basically we know a lot about everyone running except possibly the newcomer for Council, Dan Schweiker.
For city council, Guy Phillips is the only one of the 4 running that has a proven record of supporting citizens and the small business that made our downtown unique and desirable. All of the other 3 are members of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce, whose agenda is to transform Scottsdale from a tourist attraction and low density single family city into a dense congested urban city, dominated by night clubs and high dense apartment buildings, which they then say will require light rail up Scottsdale Road to mitigate the resulting traffic congestion. All 3 are also in favor of building the Desert Discovery Center (DDC) in our Preserve, at the Gateway trail head, without a public vote.
For mayor, your choice is between current mayor, Jim Lane, and former councilman Bob Littlefield. Again your selection should depend on what you want to see happen to Scottsdale.
Lane has supported every change anyone has requested which has resulted in dramatic increases in density and height all over the city.
Littlefield has a proven track record, as a city councilman, of supporting citizens and only voting for changes that benefit the city and its residents while opposing the desire to transform Scottsdale into an urban jungle. He therefore does enforce our zoning code and General Plan which is what should determine how we grow, not what change someone wants to make more money off their property.
Read the entire commentary here: URL from last week’s letters page
Howard Meyers
Scottsdale
