Third Time Wasn't The Charm For City Bonds

Now that the dust has settled after last week's bond election, it's difficult to deny Guy Phillips' political potency. Like it or not, (and some people don't), Councilman Phillips has proven once again he shouldn't be underestimated.
 
Many wondered how Phillips would fare after political fellow traveler Bob Littlefield left the Council.  That question has been answered. Phillips isn't able to build consensus on the Council because he often takes contrarian positions. He is, however, striking a responsive cord with many voters when it comes to elections. 
 
Phillips worked successfully to defeat four of the six ballot questions. This time, unlike two years ago, he did it without the help of Bob and Kathy Littlefield or John Washington.  The first-term councilman, who is running for re-election next year, has undeniably tapped into an anti-establishment constituency - and they turn out to vote, no matter what.
 
Those voters rejected questions addressing parks and community facilities, transportation, citywide technology and also police - which included funds earmarked for improving the Civic Center Jail and the 44-year-old police station.  The total cost of the four questions voters turned down was more than $68 million.  The total of the two questions voters approved was $29 million.
 
This election, the third one in the last six years that included bonds, had some political peculiarities.
 
Five of the six council members, plus Mayor Lane, supported the bond package.  According to conventional wisdom, that overwhelming support was thought to be a "game changer." Especially Lane's endorsement, which is all it turned out to be - because the Mayor failed to actually campaign for the six ballot questions.
 
His Honor did, however, have an excuse.  He was busy raising money for his re-election campaign.  In fact, on October 21st, just two weeks before the bond election, he held what one of his inner circle called "the biggest fundraiser in Scottsdale history."
 
Another peculiarity that puzzled election watchers was that voters differentiated between the fire and police proposals.  Voters approved the proposal to renovate and build fire stations but rejected the proposal to improve the infrastructure of the Civic Center Jail and Police Station.  
 
The primary difference between the results of the two public safety proposals most likely occurred because firefighters actively campaigned to pass the bonds and police did not. 
 
Of course the city's two police officers' organizations, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Police Officers of Scottsdale Association (POSA), are both experiencing political struggles.  During the past year, FOP has had a revolving door of leadership and POSA has gone into hiding following the scandal late last year about their charitable fundraising practices.
 
Until seven days ago, Scottsdale voters hadn't passed bonds for 15 years.  And that's troubling.  It speaks volumes about our city's changing political environment in which voters are becoming more conservative and less inclined to trust city government - which is allowing the kind of disappointing results we saw last Tuesday.   
 
That isn't expected to change until someone motivates politically moderate voters to get out and vote.

UPDATE: Basha Got The Message
 
Transportation Director Paul Basha got the message from the City Manager ... who got it from the City Council ... who got the message from citizens:  Don't widen Chaparral Road and don't narrow Scottsdale Road.
 
Basha told the Transportation Commission last week that his department would no longer recommend making modifications to either road - which was met with applause from the audience in the Kiva.
 
Politics prevailed.
 
Election season is just around the corner, and the City Council doesn't want to create any more flash-point issues than necessary.
 
The Transportation Department is hosting public meetings for citizens to review the Transportation Master Plan at 6PM in the Kiva at City Hall on three upcoming  Thursdays: November 19th, December 3rd and December 17th.

Will The New Transportation Plan Drive People Out of Downtown?

Audrey Thacker, the driving force behind the popular Artisan Markets, recently posted on her Facebook page:  "The moment you're ready to quit is usually the moment right before a miracle happens."
 
Which is what it's going to take to keep her arts event downtown.
 
Most people in Thacker's position probably would have thrown in the towel by now. But she's pressing on, even though after November 12th the city will no longer permit her event to be staged on the Marshall Way Bridge on Thursday evening Art Walks. The organization will continue operating on Sundays through December.
 
Thacker is appealing the city's decision that denied her a "special event" permit for both Thursdays and Sundays in 2016.
 
The political odds were against Thacker and her organization when gallery owners started bellyaching months ago that they shouldn't be forced to compete with Artisan Markets which has been operating with virtually no overhead expenses.  Let's face it:  The gallery owners and some of the downtown merchants who pushed Artisan Markets off the bridge have political sway ... and it showed. 
 
However ... the true test of the gallery owners' influence and the downtown merchants' clout at City Hall is coming soon.
 
Beginning early this year, the city's transportation department started working on an updated Transportation Master Plan.  The last plan was adopted in 2008.  Transportation Director Paul Basha recommends that the transportation plan be reviewed at least every five years.
 
The current draft plan has addressed several issues that have generated citizens' concerns - especially converting Scottsdale Road through the downtown area from four lanes to two.  That proposal has sparked a flurry of unfavorable feedback.
 
According to Basha, the purpose of the proposal to shrink Scottsdale Road is to reduce traffic and make the street more pedestrian-friendly.  From a traffic engineering perspective, that may make sense.  But Basha and his staff are finding that selling the concept to the community hasn't been easy. And it shouldn't be expected to change.  
 
So far, most residents who have reacted to the proposition are bewildered by such a radical suggestion.  And who can blame them - because many remember the giant "hole" that was created in Scottsdale Road 25 years ago to accommodate underground parking for the now defunct Galleria.  That was a traffic engineering experiment that turned into a costly embarrassment for the city. 
 
One of the chilliest receptions to the notion of narrowing our city's signature street has come from downtown merchants - and not just those with storefronts on Scottsdale Road.  For the most part, downtown businesses are already struggling within a perpetual state of paranoia about feeling as though the city is treating them like stepchildren.  Many also cite concerns about how reconfiguring the road would create lengthy and unpredictable disruptions to their businesses.
 
Basha has implied that the negative reaction to the proposal has been mostly driven by "a fear of the unknown."  In other words: change. 
 
If there's one group that can't stand change, it's gallery owners.

Will Council Make The Non-Discrimination Issue A Non-Issue in Next Year's Campaigns?

Save The Date: August 25th.
 
In a little less than a month the members of the City Council return from their summer recess.  They should be rested and ready to take on the issues that were put on pause earlier this month -- including a dialogue about the General Plan process and a discussion about how best to brand South Scottsdale.  Not to mention the usual potpourri of zoning cases.
 
The Council is scheduled to convene at 5PM the last Tuesday in August.  Early that same morning, scores of business leaders will meet at the new offices of the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors to discuss a topic that remains unresolved: The city's adoption of a non-discrimination ordinance.
 
The issue continues to nag at the city's leadership. In fact there's evidence that the majority of the Council is beginning to fall out of step with the business community whose support for passing an ordinance has been steadily growing this summer.  
 
Some say the Council may be starting to run the serious risk of leading from behind. 

In 2007, Mary Manross, during her final year as Mayor, championed the passage of a non-discrimination policy for LGBT city employees - something that remains an important part of her legacy.  The only member of the current Council who voted on that non-discrimination policy eight years ago is Jim Lane.  Councilman Lane opposed the policy.

 Many wonder why city employees are protected, but not everyone else.  What about all of us who live here and don't work for the city?  And what about those who are considering visiting Scottsdale to eat at our restaurants, shop at our stores and stay at our hotels and resorts?
 
What kind of message is being sent about Scottsdale by not having a non-discrimination ordinance?
 
The city's effort to remarket the UNITY Pledge is chugging along.  Earlier this summer flyers were inserted into water bills encouraging customers to sign onto the Pledge supporting LGBT protections.  So far, a couple hundred residents and 50 Scottsdale-based businesses have signed up.  The businesses that have recently taken the UNITY Pledge join about 200 of the other businesses that had already pledged their support to the LGBT Community.
 
The city's campaign that is scheduled to expire shortly after the Council resumes meeting in August is working slowly but surely.  But according to those who support putting protections in place for members of the LGBT Community, it's only a start.  "Pledges" are nice, they say, but the city needs to make a "commitment" by passing a non-discrimination ordinance.   
 
After all ... pledges are only "rhetoric" and ordinances are "real" because they hold people accountable.
 
The incumbents running for re-election to the Council - Suzanne Klapp, Virginia Korte, Jim Lane and Guy Phillips - would like to avoid making the non-discrimination topic a campaign issue next year.  That's the kind of hot-button issue that can destabilize the political environment and turn campaigns topsy-turvy.
 
The City Council would be wise to quickly resolve the current non-discrimination dispute so it's a non-issue in next year's election.

Kidder Leaving A Legacy.

Last week's announcement caught most people by surprise -because Rick Kidder, who has served for nine years as President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, was pretty much taken for granted.  That's often what happens when someone like Kidder is good at their job.

Kidder is moving on.  Technically, he's moving "back" about 2,000 miles.  Kidder is returning to his home state of Massachusetts to take a job similar to the one he's leaving here at the New Bedford Chamber of Commerce, effective July 17th.

Eric Larson, a former Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Chamber, will serve as the interim President and CEO while a committee conducts a search for someone to fill Kidder's position.  But don't be surprised if Larson, who is well liked in the organization and by the business community, is asked to permanently lead the Chamber.

Kidder steered the Chamber through the most stressful time in the organization's almost 70-year history.  He had barely settled into his job of what he calls the Chamber's "chief cheerleader" when the Great Recession hit like a financial Haboob.  It crippled, even wiped out, many businesses.  As a result, the Chamber's membership and revenue both dipped to anemic levels.  

While the Chamber's budget and staff shrank, Kidder remained steadfast in his commitment to see the organization through an especially tense period of economic recovery.

During the same period, politics compounded the Chamber's challenges.

In 2008 the Chamber supported Mayor Mary Manross in her re-election campaign against City Councilman Jim Lane.  Unfortunately for the organization, Lane narrowly nudged out Manross in a run-off election.  Mayor Lane didn't take kindly to the snub by the Chamber, and it took several years, plus a couple of lawsuits, for the relationship to be repaired between the Mayor and the organization.

Of course almost everyone recalls it was the same election that the Chamber ran afoul of campaign finance law with its "non-political" campaign supporting City Council candidates.  The Chamber refused to disclose who paid for its six-figure direct mail and TV campaign, so a criminal complaint was filed against the organization. The suit was eventually dismissed.  But following that ruling, the Lane for Scottsdale Committee filed a civil complaint against the Chamber that was settled out of court.

The campaign donors were never disclosed.

For nearly a decade Rick Kidder has been the face of the Chamber of Commerce.  It's hard to imagine that anyone could have done a better job than Kidder through thick (politics) and thin (economy).  His ability to rally Chamber members when some felt the sky was falling was nothing short of fantastic.

Kidder, who has worked at the Chamber for 15 years, will probably not be remembered as much for what he did, but for how he did it.  Kidder built consensus and created compromises between strong personalities with diverse opinions in both the business and political communities.  Those are some of the same techniques he has been successfully using to help advance the community outreach effort for the non-discrimination issue.

Non-discrimination Update:  Last week, in record high temperatures, 24 canvassers for the LGBT Community took the non-discrimination issue to the streets. The two-dozen volunteers plan to knock on 31,000 doors this summer to discuss the issue with citizens and gather data about it. 

Meanwhile, businesses are planning a community-wide non-discrimination forum for Tuesday, August 25th.

In his resignation letter to the Board of Directors, Kidder wrote that "for the last few years the siren song to return home has been powerful."  In classic Kidder fashion, he continued: "I have loved my 15 years at the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce and am truly humbled by the show of support you have shown me and this great organization, especially during challenging times.

Recently, Kidder was asked what advice he would give young people.  He said: "Look to do something you love, and never forget to give back because your success came with the help of others."

Rick Kidder will be missed.