Comments on: A moratorium on purchasing more land for the McDowell Sonoran Preserve?

By: gppablog

gppablog — Wed, 14 May 2014 20:56:29 +0000

From Howard Myers on May 13, 2014.

The city council tonight, in a study session, gave staff direction to continue to pursue the two parcels we were trying to acquire for the Preserve, so we are back on track with land acquisitions. A big thank you to those of you who contacted the council about the proposed moratorium as it obviously had an impact. To her credit, Councilwoman Korte apologized for bringing up the moratorium and re-affirmed the goal to acquire the two parcels of land we were going after this year. While no vote was taken, because it was a study session, they did give staff the direction they needed to continue the process to acquire land.
If you get a chance, it would be good to write the council and thank them for putting the land acquisitions back on track. Their e-mail addresses are below.
Thanks again.
Howard
E-Mail addresses:
Mayor W.J. “Jim” Lane jlane@scottsdaleaz.gov

Councilwoman Virginia Korte vkorte@scottsdaleaz.gov

Councilwoman Suzanne Klapp sklapp@scottsdaleaz.gov

Councilman Robert Littlefield rlittlefield@scottsdaleaz.gov

Councilman Guy Phillips gphillips@scottsdaleaz.gov

Councilwoman Linda Milhaven lmilhaven@scottsdaleaz.gov

Councilman Dennis Robbins drobbins@scottsdaleaz.gov

One e-mail for all: citycouncil@scottsdaleaz.gov

By: Bob Littlefield

Bob Littlefield — Mon, 05 May 2014 21:44:19 +0000

I am 100% opposed to Councilmember Korte’s proposed “moratorium” on purchases of land to complete the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Unfortunately, this is not an idle threat – at the Council work study session where Korte proposed this, only Guy Phillips and I voted against considering it further. So, the Council will be considering this idea at our May 13th meeting. Citizens need to make it abundantly clear to our Council colleagues that they will not tolerate this breach of faith with the voters. Hopefully we can put a stake through the heart of this “moratorium” at that meeting.

By: guy phillips

guy phillips — Sat, 03 May 2014 01:29:40 +0000

Hello,
I want to make a correction to your blog about the moratorium article. You said the vote was 6/1 but it was 5/2 as recorded on the scottsdaleaz.gov website.
When we were having our strategic planning session, the mayor wanted us to vote on direction to the council.. I feel that staff should weigh all our concerns, and not just the ones we all “agreed to”. If I or any other councilmember suggest something to staff, they should take it into consideration. If we vote on all suggestions, then staff will ignore the ideas that werent approved by council.. the only time we should vote is when we direct staff to an action. there wasnt supposed to be any action at the strategic planning session, yet council decided to vote anyway.
So as a protest I did not participate in any voting. Our clerk, Carolyn Jagger, informed me later that abstaining from voting was the same as voting yes. (who thought that one up??) so I told her if thats the case I would have voted no on the moratorium, and in fact after Korte suggested it, I spoke up and said it wasnt needed, that the conservancy is doing a great job, and if any money was ever needed for maintainance we could get it from the tourism bed tax since tourism benefits from the preserve. (watch the meeting online at scottsdaleaz.gov)
Our clerk noted my request and the item is marked as a 5/2 vote.
Councilman Guy Phillips

By: P Wallace

P Wallace — Thu, 01 May 2014 16:19:35 +0000

As a Scottsdale taxpayer I am disappointed in the Mayor and council. We want this land preserved. We agreed to be taxed to do this very thing. We had already agreed on 34,000 acres. The solution is simple at the next elections-get rid of those politicians that do not listen.