As a 30-year resident who has built a successful business and raised a wonderful family, I’m proud to call Scottdale home.
I pay attention to City Hall, and I am deeply concerned about Scottsdale’s future with David Ortega as mayor. Put simply, we can – and must – elect someone better. Ortega’s tenure has been a litany of embarrassments. Yes, Mr. Ortega’s gotta go.
The blunders come drip by drip. About the Rio Verde Foothills water crisis – a crisis he exacerbated thanks to his hubris – he said, “Water is not a compassion game.” Thankfully, the City of Scottsdale found a new water source and is selling that water – at a profit – to Rio Verde Foothills residents. If Ortega was looking to solve problems rather than create them, this approach could have been approved before he cut off the water. Instead, he incurred the anger of our legislative delegation by refusing to work together to find a solution. The national news created terrible headlines for Scottsdale. Competence and character matter.
In the last few years, his budgets have ballooned faster than our population growth and inflation. He has failed to tell us why our expenses have grown so dramatically. We don’t need a mayor who increases spending without a good explanation for where the money went.
He recently made news again with a baffling flip-flop that hurt Scottsdale’s reputation. First, he fired off a letter slamming a $3 billion entertainment district as “not feasible or welcome” in Northeast Phoenix. A day later, he said: Oh, never mind. Huh? We don’t need a mayor who thinks he can bully our neighbors to get what he wants and then flip-flop 24 hours later.
Scottsdale: We need a new leader who is transparent, accountable, competent and a collaborative problem solver. That is not David Ortega.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
