And now let’s turn our attention to Scottsdale City Hall, where three City Council seats are up for grabs this November — and things are getting complicated for Mayor Lisa Borowsky.
On the campaign trail, there is a slate of candidates vying for those open seats — and the race is getting messy — even dragging in Scottsdale’s famed “toilet-to-tap” program and actor Rob Schneider into the fray.
The Arizona Agenda’s TJ L’Heureux joined The Show to talk more.
Full conversation
TJ L’HEUREUX: Morning. Thanks for having me on the program.
LAUREN GILGER: OK. So, let’s begin inside City Hall, where things have been interesting since Mayor Lisa Borowsky took office last year, and this kind of right-wing majority took over.
First, there was Parking Gate. Tell us about this.
TJ L’HEUREUX: Yeah, this basically happened right as Mayor Borowsky entered office. The Scottsdale City Council had already started the process of approving a contract to build a parking structure in Old Town Scottsdale.
Mayor Borowsky came in and didn’t like the plan, wanted to scrap it, and basically hand over to somebody she knew, David Hovey Jr., who was also one of her campaign donors. And this sparked a lot of controversy, and ultimately, she was unsuccessful in swaying the rest of the council to do this. It was a 6-1 vote to continue on the path that Scottsdale was already on.
And so, that kind of started her whole tenure as mayor on a really interesting, funny note. In her first State of the City speech, she actually said, "Where’s my honeymoon phase? I wanted my honeymoon phase."
LAUREN GILGER: Didn’t get a honeymoon phase. OK. And then, this was quickly followed by the ouster of her chief of staff, Lamar Whitmer.
TJ L’HEUREUX: Yeah, Lamar Whitmer was put on suspension earlier this year, and after a thorough investigation by the city, it was found that he was given a ticket for a a parking violation and tried to flash his business card and name drop a few powerful people in trying to get out of that parking ticket. And ultimately, that resulted in his firing.
And Whitmer was a key adviser to the mayor throughout her time in office, and obviously, was her chief of staff at the time of his suspension. So, it was kind of one of those big moments of a, a key Borowsky ally coming under the lights more, and controversy being added to this drama unfolding at the City Hall.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. All right. So, let’s talk about this upcoming election. The primary is just around the corner, and the mayor herself is kind of getting involved here, going after some members of the City Council, right?
TJ L’HEUREUX: Yeah, that’s right. The two incumbents who are up for reelection, Barry Graham, who has been around Scottsdale City Council longer than Borowsky and kind of the new wave of conservatives that came in last year, and Solange Whitehead, who is one of the critics of that right-wing majority on the council. Kathy Littlefield is also an incumbent, has hit her term limits, and is not running for reelection.
But there are a lot of interesting challenge I mean, there are six candidates running for the three seats. Challengers on top of those two incumbents, among them, Bob Littlefield, who was previously on the council and is the husband of Kathy Littlefield, Eric Sloan, who has his own history of controversial, questionable behavior, and Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who is a very well-known name for a number of reasons.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. OK. So, let’s talk about Bob Littlefield first. He is also the person behind this kind of very big and aggressive push to get rid of this deal with Axon that the city of Scottsdale had made to create this major development there that would include a lot of housing. He really doesn’t want that to happen and is running for a seat.
TJ L’HEUREUX: That’s right. He runs a PAC called TAZES, which is Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemption, which the whole purpose of of the PAC is to oppose the Axon campus development. And this has resulted in a fair amount of controversy because Kathy Littlefield is, of course, on the council.
So, there’s, to some, an appearance of impropriety or of a conflict of interest. An ethics complaint has been filed, but the Littlefields have said there’s no conflict of interest because they never discuss the project. So, that is ongoing, and there’s some question about that.
LAUREN GILGER: Interesting. OK. You also mentioned Michelle Ugenti-Rita, of course, a former state lawmaker, a name lots of folks have known here. She’s teamed up with Rob Schneider, who lives in Scottsdale, to attack a sitting council member as well, and this is all kind of bringing up this toilet-to-tap program, which has been pretty successful in Scottsdale, right?
TJ L’HEUREUX: Well, yeah. You know, Scottsdale’s kind of one of the the leading proponents of researching toilet-to-tap, and obviously, toilet-to-tap is kind of actually more of a name that has stuck more for critics of it. They there are other names, advanced water purification, I believe, is what Scottsdale rebranded it to,
LAUREN GILGER: The official name.
TJ L'HEUREUX: yeah. The official name. But you know, naturally, I think especially in a well-off area like Scottsdale, there’s kind of going to be an ick factor for people. But Rob Schneider, of course, like one of those big entertainment figures who has solidly jumped behind the MAGA movement, has come out and criticized the mayor about this program.
The mayor has shot back saying, "I, I asked you to meet with me about this so I can explain my position, but you haven’t taken me up on that. I actually am still undecided based on the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is still undergoing some some regulatory research on this." So, the mayor says she hasn’t made up her mind on whether to expand the toilet-to-tap program more.
LAUREN GILGER: And he and Michelle Ugenti-Rita have made a little video about this. We’ll hear a little bit of that now.
[VIDEO CLIP]
ROB SCHNEIDER: Toilet to tap. You and your family to drink it. Let’s take a look at regular water.
MICHELLE UGENTI-RITA: That looks delicious.
ROB SCHNEIDER: Doesn’t that look more like you want to drink that or this? Well, if you voted for Sewage Solange, say it.
MICHELLE UGENTI-RITA: Sewage Solange, that’s right.
ROB SCHNEIDER: Sewage Solange, she wants you to drink this, your family. I don’t know why her parents named her that, but that’s what she wants you to drink.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
LAUREN GILGER: So, TJ, tell us, you know, a lot of kind of drama in this race, a lot of controversy already at City Hall in Scottsdale. Looking forward to, you know, many new members being added to the City Council potentially, how could these candidates shift the political makeup in Scottsdale? What might this look like going forward? And, you know, keeping in mind, these are technically nonpartisan races.
TJ L’HEUREUX: Right, that’s the interesting thing about municipal government, and that’s why I love to cover city politics. You know, down at the state Legislature, it’s pretty much a stark divide. You have your Republicans and your Democrats, and you know, while there is some bipartisan work, there’s a lot of, you know, shouting matches and and posturing and standing and stances.
City politics, it’s a lot more interesting how these alliances get made. I think personalities have a lot to do with it. You know, pretty much immediately Borowsky cornered herself in entering office. There’s a good possibility that this cycle, if things continue on the road they are, that there’s going to be a lot more turnout for Democrats, just based on the kind of the anti-Trump sentiment. The candidates higher up and the general sentiment nationally will often impact the lower-ballot races, and you know, we’ve seen that quite a bit in other races going on around the country. But you know, it’s yet to be seen whether that has any effect on the local level.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. All right. Lots to watch for heading into the primary and the general election in November here. The Arizona Agenda’s TJ L'Heureux joining us. TJ, thanks so much for coming in. Appreciate it.
TJ L’HEUREUX: Thank you. Yeah.
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