Former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana is a trailblazer. Now she's championing the city in a new way

The Show's Second Acts series tell the stories of Arizonans who are starting over, trying something new or turning a new leaf.

Every so often, we'll bring you stories of Arizonans who are starting over, trying something new, turning a new leaf, so to speak. Maybe midway through life, maybe in retirement, maybe just as they're getting going.

The COVID-19 pandemic made a lot of us rethink our careers and priorities. Now, we’re seeing waves of quiet quitting, squabbles over making employees come back to the office and lots of folks changing course entirely.

Former Mayor Sam Campana had a long and trailblazing career in Scottsdale — and now is spreading that deep knowledge to others in a rather surprising way.

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: It's a crisp autumn morning, and I'm standing outside of the Old Mission church in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale. I'm about to start a tour of this historic part of the Valley. And I couldn't ask for a better tour guide.

This is not your average tour of downtown Scottsdale, because you are not just an average tour guide. You are the former mayor of this town.

Lauren Gilger

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KJZZ

SAM CAMPANA: I am the former mayor of Scottsdale. That would be true. But, Lauren, that was a quarter of a century ago.

GILGER: That's Sam Campana. She served as mayor of Scottsdale from 1996 to 2000. She was the first female mayor the city ever had. Before that, she served for 12 years on the Scottsdale City Council, and she's been a trailblazing force in Scottsdale politics, politics and arts, for decades.

What a tour guide, right?

CAMPANA: Well, it's very fun for me because almost every day during the season, I get to sort of relive my past, you know, and with a big smile on my face, you know, share the kind of things that went on before me, you know, during Mayor Drinkwater and eight mayors before that.

GILGER: And, man, is she a fount of knowledge about this town and its long western history.

CAMPANA: I always surprise people by telling them, though we were only incorporated in 1951, so in many ways, we're a young city. But we were founded in the late 1800s, and we're just coming up on the sculpture of Winfield Scott.

GILGER: Scott, as in Scottsdale?

CAMPANA: Scottsdale. Although it was originally Orangedale and it was his brother George, when he came out and saw what his brother Winfield was doing, that he changed the name from Orangedale to Scottsdale.

GILGER: Orangedale would have had a very different feel. So these buildings, when you walk by and you see the kind of adobe style and the beams, and it looks kind of Santa Fe right. Like, these really have been there that long.

CAMPANA: Lauren, we are the West's most Western town.

GILGER: Of course. How could I forget?

CAMPANA: We had the best Chamber of Commerce, is what that really is.

GILGER: So how did this former mayor become the most plugged in tour guide the city's ever seen?

Let me ask you just how you got into doing this. I mean, obviously it's sort of your retirement project, but why would I've never heard of another former mayor giving tours of their city?

CAMPANA: Well, it evolved. I had a lot of requests from lots of friends that when their family was in town, Sam, you know, take them and show them downtown, you know, they'd love to see the Civic Center, you know, share what you know.

And then I'm involved with a lot of not for profits and charities. And so, you know, I would donate a tour, you know, with the former mayor, you know, as something that they could auction off. And it was kind of popular. And so I did that and kind of put a number on what it was worth so that people would say, "oh, I want to do that" because look, you know, it's valuable.

And then happily, Experience Scottsdale, which is our convention and visitors bureau, now called Experience Scottsdale, reached out to me and asked if I would do these kinds of things for people that they were arranging lots of things for their tours to do. And so I said, sure.

GILGER: Campana has lived in Scottsdale for 55 years. She grew up on the banks of the Snake River in a small farming town in Idaho. And when she came to Scottsdale, it was a very different place.

CAMPANA: Well, it was a very small community of about 60,000, but it had big dreams even then. And we continued to annex and annex and annex.

GILGER: She's been a big part of that growth. But now she told me, the pressure is all to build up, not out.

CAMPANA: Now it is going to be more controversial because when you're at build out and can't go any further out, we saved a third of the city in the country's largest urban preserve, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. So, so then the only way you can go is up, and people want to live in Scottsdale.

So we're trying to be very thoughtful, very strategic, very careful about where that is. But really, the singular genius in all of this preceded me for sure, was making sure that our downtown stayed vital and healthy, the West's most Western town, and protecting that historic downtown, our Native American roots, the Mexican heritage that we have here, the pioneers who came, and the wonderful story of how Scottsdale grew.

There's cities all over America that their downtowns have died and moved out to suburban malls. They've lost all that tax revenue, but they've lost the heart of their community. And Scottsdale has never and will never let that happen.

GILGER: So what do you think the key is to that? Is it not letting that, you know, very distinctive area we just walked through look different than it's looked for, you know, 10- plus years? Is that the key?

CAMPANA: It is, but then, you know, being very careful about what surrounds it. We're standing right here at the Civic Center complex and you can't see a car anywhere. This is all enveloped right in here. And it's the same thing in downtown Scottsdale. It is surrounded everywhere by high rise, you know, 60 feet, six stories, you know, but it's on the outskirts and it's out of the view line. So when you're walking on our tour in downtown Scottsdale, you don't see all those people.

Lauren Gilger

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KJZZ

GILGER: And that pressure to grow up is certainly controversial already. Residents have for years pushed back against major developments by companies like Axon, even with the promise of jobs and industry.

But if there's a thread that runs through all of Campana's tour, it's not development or even history. It's public art, from City Hall to the iconic Love statue outside of it to acclaimed sculptor Louise Nevelson's "Windows to the West." Perhaps Campana's most passionate about the art that is just everywhere down here.

This is one of those things that always, I think, surprises people about the Valley, but Scottsdale is a big part of this, and I understand you were a big part of this, that we're like a public art mecca in this place, right?

CAMPANA: We are. We're a national, if not international, public art mecca. I did not, and Arizona did not conceive of that concept, 1% of any municipal building project being set aside for the arts. But we embraced it.

And for 15 years, I headed up the statewide arts advocacy organization. One of the things that I did was go to virtually every little town in Arizona and urge their city councils, as a member of the Scottsdale City Council, to my sort of colleagues, this is something that could really change your community and support your local artists.

And so about two-third of the cities in Arizona have a percent for art ordinance through the efforts that we did.

GILGER: I mean, every time you see a new piece of public art go up, I think you probably feel a little proud, right?

CAMPANA: Well, I do. And probably the single most significant piece in the Valley, but it's probably the biggest piece in the country. And Always will be is we were at one of my first City Council meetings on the City Council, and we were finally approving where the Pima Freeway was going to go. And so the head of the Arizona Department of Transportation was there, and it had already been decided where it was going to go. And we were just doing the final OK as the City Council for that.

So as that motion was made where it was going to be placed, I raised my hand and said, and 1% for the arts.

Charlie Miller stormed the dais. "And no, that would set a precedent. We could never do that. That's not what we do."

I said, well, if you're building in Scottsdale, we have a percent for art ordinance, and that's what you have to do. And really, there was a lot of huffing and shuffling and coughing and all that, but in those days, under Mayor Drinkwater, we wanted everything to be unanimous.

And so we unanimously agreed to that amendment. And so that's why those 7 miles of the Pima Freeway look the way they do, because of that vote at Scottsdale City Hall and the percent for art ordinance.

GILGER: I mean, so you were incredibly impactful in that. I wonder, like, what do you think the legacy of that is here in Scottsdale, right? Like that 1%, which is so little, which has done so much in the last, you know, decades since you did this work, I mean.

CAMPANA: It gives people such a sense of place. And people who come to visit, you'll get to experience Scottsdale and our history and our legacy in so many different ways in contemporary art, in classic art and Western art. I like to say that you're never out of sight of a horse in Scottsdale.

If there's something controversial, you know, let's get a horse statue in there and then, you know, it'll be made better by that. And there's some truth to that. That does work.

But it really is kind of a signature for us. And it's not only in, like an iconic piece like the love sculpture or in Tammi Lynch-Forrest beautiful mosaic in front of City Hall. It's really in the curbs and the bus stops and the signage and the lamp posts. It's everywhere, and you don't even see it. But, you know, it's embraced by everyone.

GILGER: A big legacy in Scottsdale. Well, Sam Campana, thank you so much for having me.

CAMPANA: It's been a real pleasure. Thanks for having me on, Lauren.

GILGER: That was former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana taking me on one of her coveted tours of Old Town Scottsdale, and it's the first edition of our new series, Second Acts, featuring Arizonans who are starting over at any point in life.

If you know someone who we should feature, send us a note at [email protected].