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OPINION

Schenkat: Online bullying in Scottsdale fuels dissension, community unrest

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Mark Zuckerberg is causing dissension in Scottsdale.

Facebook is being exploited by a group of naysayers with constant barraging of city government and Scottsdale citizens. It started when the Scottsdale Bond Committee was formed.

The leaders of the bond committee have been hassled and mistreated.

It has now continued with praise for the Old Town Alliance PAC against Southbridge 2 and Sunday Goods. The impact of this harassment went as far as city court and then onto Maricopa Justice court with Michele Reagan as Justice of the Peace.

The “dirty tricks” of these participants has cost the city taxpayers money by wasting court time and resources. The plaintiff who created this abuse did not show up at the court hearing so the case was dismissed. These people should be stopped but Facebook will do nothing. I have filed over 25 complaints against these Facebook postings related to harassment but Mr. Zuckerberg appears to be good with attacks of defamation of character.

Taunting language continues against every positive action the city is proposing.
The leader of this assault against Scottsdale is Bob Littlefield, as far as I can determine. Mr. Littlefield and another sore loser are still upset over their losses to run for mayor. Rather than helping the city, they both continue in many ways to degrade every person who tries to improve the city.

Their attempts to character assassinate via social media is proof of their “sour grapes” attitude.

They have now assembled a few others and fuel those people with insider information. There’s about six people who truly have the ambition to bring down this city. The petty language and constant attacks can be seen on two different pages on Facebook and, of course, on all comments on the Scottsdale Independent articles.

Most recently the attacks have been against the article written about Southbridge 2 by Andrea Alley.

Ms. Alley wrote a comprehensive and intelligent assessment of the proposed redevelopment of Old Town’s 5th Avenue area. The area shops have been assembled by Fred Unger’s Springcreek Development for well over 25 years.
The shop keepers have known that this area would be redeveloped. Many have had rent fee advantages because of this probable development.

Now they are claiming that it is not fair that they will have to relocate. This is simply wrong.

They all have known for years. This is no surprise, but they are rallying on social media against Southbridge 2.0. This again is “sour grapes” and is fueled by Bob Littlefield with another person (a gallery owner) chiming in. These people have nothing better to do but to agitate those concerned and they use others to voice their opinions on Facebook and on comments in the media.

This city does not need the likes of Bob Littlefield running for office again.

He is acting like a bully with assigned mouthpieces spreading his messages. He gets insider information about everything going on in the city through his wife who is a City Council member. This is not right. And all of her city communications should be held in confidence. Using his wife on the City Council is not fair. I voted for Kathy Littlefield but I did not vote for Bob Littlefield to be so involved in her decisions and speech writing.

This unfortunate new PAC formed and fueled by unknown money sources, is halting progress in this city. Time for citizens to wake up and avoid reading or participating with the naysayer and evildoers. All of this dissension is causing setbacks in our city.

Time for it to end.

Editor’s note: Ms. Schenkat is a resident of Scottsdale and longtime community advocate