Contributed by Victoria Kauzlarich, Scottsdale Citizen
Welcome to the first installment of Searching for Scottsdale. I chose this moniker because it reflects my new perspective on my city and my concerns for its future, the epicenter of which is the new city council - sworn in just a month ago.
The new City Council’s first move - at their first meeting - was to repeal the city’s Sustainability Plan - coincidentally and ironically at the same time that Phoenix was rolling out their Climate Action Plan and holding resident meetings to identify ways individual citizens could become involved. You can’t make this stuff up.
Their second act - at their second meeting - was to kill DEI. I’m guessing that the rest of the city’s affirmative action initiatives will soon follow. Whither Trump goeth, so goeth the 5-2 majority on this council.
Just as the landscape of the federal government is changing at warp speed, so is the character of our city. Scottsdale has always been a proud city, mindful of its residents with a firm eye on the future. No longer.
A local writer for The Scott cites the irony of Scottsdale’s long-held pride in being a Golden Rule City. Read that brief piece here and the Arizona Republic’s coverage of Tuesday's meeting here.
I generally try to avoid speaking for others, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and speak for those 45 individuals who spoke in favor of DEI at Tuesday’s Scottsdale City Council meeting as well as the 200 folks who showed up to support them, along with the hundreds of others who submitted written comments in favor of DEI. Many thanks to all of you who helped make our voices herd.
We are dispirited, disappointed, pissed off and not ready to give up. Not by a long shot.
Tuesday night’s crowd overflowed the council chamber; it was standing-room only. The Fire Marshall directed over-flow attendees to a separate facility to watch the meeting remotely.
The hundreds in attendance made for an incredibly diverse audience and those who spoke in person were compelling, passionate and articulate in their support of DEI. Several members of the clergy spoke, as did two former city council members, a former city manager and residents from all walks of life who made strong arguments for keeping DEI. My remarks followed a guy with a prosthetic devise on his right leg which he removed and placed on the podium while he spoke.
Still, the council voted to kill DEI - without sending the ordinance through the normal work study process and without public input. Before the vote was taken, Maryann McAllen proposed sending the DEI ordinance through the normal work study process; that motion was defeated by, you guessed it, a 5-2 vote.
In the end, the audience booed when the Mayor said, “We’ve heard what you have to say,” confirming the source of my growing concern - that the council heard but didn’t listen.
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