I’ve had a back-and-forth comment war with Stuart Rhoden for a couple of days. You may recall that Stuart is the guy who was running for Scottsdale Unified School District governing board before he wasn’t. I think he figured out that being a card-carrying member of the Denise Birdwell pom squad pretty much disqualified him […]
Developer Dishonesty? Say it isn’t so!
Vicki Falen and her husband Dana live in the Montana Ranch community south of Shea Boulevard at roughly 117th Street. Late last year an adjoining parcel which was similarly-designated as rural residential, was rezoned via “major general plan amendment,” by mayor Jim Lane and the Scottsdale city council to commercial use, for a developer who […]
The Bird is not Well
Because it’s been widely broadcast by the mainstream media, you may have already heard that Scottsdale Unified School District superintendent Denise Birdwell was placed on administrative leave last night by the SUSD governing board. This action comes after a tumultuous two-year tenure, which has seen almost complete turnover in senior-level district staff, wholesale replacement of […]
The most important government
SRP’s Trish Moeck posted a well-written article (which I’ve copied below) yesterday on the Scottsdale Leadership website, and I’d like to use as a jumping-off point for an expanded look at some of the topics Trish discussed. As you may know, Scottsdale Leadership is at its core a training program run by the Scottsdale Area […]
Conflict of Interest: What’s the Big Deal?
A number of folks who I know to be educated (and presumably intelligent) have been astonishingly dismissive of recent findings that Laura Smith, the chief financial officer of our Scottsdale Unified School District lied about the degree of a conflict of interest between her role as steward of taxpayer money budgeted for schools, and her […]
Quote of the Day: Ethical standards matter
“We expect our children to learn that ethical standards matter.” Rose Finocchiaro Smith, long-time Scottsdale Unified School District employee and parent, speaking on the ethics crisis in SUSD administration; via KTVK interview.
Scottsdale Parking Solution? Quit Causing Parking Problems!
According to Daniel Davis, who wrote a letter-to-the-editor on the subject of parking that was recently published: Overlying our parking woes is something called “parking minimums.” Parking minimums are laws requiring developers to build specified amounts of free parking spots. These parking minimums are often totally arbitrary and inflate the costs of building housing and […]
Scottsdale activist arrested at council meeting after free-speech showdown
California attorney David Snyder, executive director for the First Amendment Coalition, said a city can dictate the amount of time given to each public speaker but must keep subject-matter restrictions very narrow. “The idea that a citizen is not permitted to talk about election issues at a public forum runs counter to pretty basic First […]
Scottsdale Citizen-Advocate Silenced and Arrested at City Council Meeting
It was reported to me last night that at the direction of Scottsdale mayor Jim Lane, fellow resident advocate Mark Stuart was cut off during remarks to the city council about the proposed multi-million dollar “Desert Discovery Center,” during the “public comment” period of last night’s council meeting. The live broadcast of the city council […]
Massive crime wave affecting one state legislator merits a whole new law
Just so everyone’s clear, if you voted your straight [Republican] party ticket and you live in Scottsdale, you voted for John Kavanagh. Because our state, presumably, doesn’t have some more pressing needs and all we hear about is a rash of flag theft. I would also like to point out that this man, who doesn’t […]