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Korte: Scottsdale leadership cannot waver to address COVID-19 ramifications

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Scottsdale is going through one of the greatest challenges it has ever seen due to the COVID-19 health crisis. This is going to have long-term effects, the likes of which I don’t think we can even imagine.

Because of the long-term magnitude of the impact, there are two things Scottsdale leadership can’t afford to do: under-react or overreact.

On Tuesday night, at the City Council meeting, I witnessed many of my fellow councilmembers under-react when it pushed to approve a budget with an $11 million increase. Even if the budget was developed before the COVID-19 crisis, the wait-and-see approach and pushing things through as though nothing has changed is irresponsible.

This is why I called for a 10% reduction in budget, anticipating the almost inevitable loss of revenue in the coming year. If this was my business, I would be doing the same thing, and I don’t know why the city thinks it should work any differently.

We also can’t afford to just cut everything without strategy and long-term cooperation with the county and state on federal allocated budgets. The culture of no is not helpful and it will ultimately hurt Scottsdale in the long run.

Good leadership means advocating on behalf of Scottsdale to get what it needs through cooperation and collaboration with the state, county and other cities.

During this crisis, we need to be wise, prudent, and balanced. Now is not the time to slow-walk the budget revision. This is a big deal, and leadership matters.

Editor’s note: Ms. Korte is a member of Scottsdale City Council