Scottsdale At-Large:
Wrangling
with
Representation
Shea Boulevard is often cited as the dividing line between north and south Scottsdale. Photo: Luke Brenneman.
By Isaac Stone Simonelli, Luke Brenneman, Izzy Koyama and Nicholas DelCorpo
Scottsdale, Ariz. — Dave Ortega stops by an aging strip mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, with campaign fliers tucked under his arm. In the closing hours of Election Day, he sets to work under the sparse shade of a tree in the Scottsdale East Plaza parking lot, intercepting residents before they get in line to vote.
His message: Scottsdale must adopt a districting council system if it wants to fairly represent all of its residents.
Four weeks later, mayor-elect Ortega continues pushing to end Scottsdale’s at-large city council election system — a system where high campaign costs often leave less wealthy residents without a direct voice to negotiate for their neighborhoods’ needs, especially as cities grow.
Dave Ortega stands in Old Town Scottsdale on Election Day 2020, reaching out to voters in a last attempt to win the mayoral election. Photo: Luke Brenneman
Upscale Scottsdale, which brands itself as the “West’s Most Western Town,” is the second most populated city in the U.S. still using an at-large system, behind Cincinnati. Third and fourth on that list, Chandler and Gilbert, are also in Phoenix’s East Valley, where populations continue to boom. Since Ortega moved to Scottsdale in 1978, the city’s population has tripled in size to more than 255,000 residents.
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Many U.S. cities have moved from an at-large system to districting because it often ensures that residents are represented on council in ways that reflect the cities’ racial, geographic and socioeconomic makeup.
Timothy Krebs, political science department chair at the University of New Mexico and an expert in local election systems, said at-large systems are well-suited for small, homogenous cities. However, he noted that as cities grow and diversify, districting systems are better at representing the population.
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“It's an institutional fix to a lack of representation,” Krebs said.
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In an at-large system, all residents vote on the council seats up for election, resulting in what Ortega calls “mini-mayors” responsible to residents throughout the city. In a districting system, regions with roughly equal populations elect councillors tasked with moving the entire city forward while advocating for the specific needs of their districts.
Ortega, who was a “mini-mayor” himself from 2000 to 2004, is the only person of color among the 89 council members ever to serve in Scottsdale. The mayor-elect downplayed the identity politics of his Latino heritage during an interview before the election.
“I am the only Latino ever elected in Scottsdale,” Ortega said. “Did I surprise people? Yes. Was that a big win? Yes. Was it ever affected by the Latino population? No.”
Instead, Ortega is fighting for a districting system to assure residents from all areas of the city, specifically south Scottsdale, are represented on the council.
“I think South Scottsdale has gone from being completely disregarded with no representation to now getting attention but only from those that want to use our area solely for economical gain with no interest in building a stronger community,” south Scottsdale resident Karen Davis wrote in a reply to a Facebook post about the south’s representation.
An analysis of more than 30 south Scottsdale residents’ responses to posts on Facebook and NextDoor revealed consistent concern about a perceived lack of representation in the city’s governance. Residents also shared concerns about increased traffic, high-density housing development and lagging infrastructure updates.
DIVIDED in Scottsdale
Now one of the wealthiest communities in Arizona, Scottsdale was once a dusty, cow town. Growing pains has left some in the community feeling divided. Video: Isaac Stone Simonelli
Barriers to Representation
All six city councilors and the outgoing mayor, Jim Lane, live in wealthy communities north of Shea Boulevard, a thoroughfare often cited as the boundary between north and south Scottsdale.
“Low-socioeconomic status neighborhoods almost never get represented in at-large systems,” University of California Merced Political Science Department Chair Jessica Trounstine said.
The average median household income below Shea Boulevard was $60,985 in 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The median household income north of that is nearly twice as much.
Scottsdale, an archetype of the fast-growing Southwestern city, hosts costly and daunting city council campaigns for positions toting meager salaries. These factors discourage a more socioeconomically diverse array of people from running for council because they can’t afford it, explained City Councilor Suzanne Klapp.
This cost could be mitigated by a districting system, which produces less expensive campaigns because candidates are stumping in a confined area, Trounstine explained.
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Candidates for Scottsdale City Council in 2020 raised an average of $83,255. Tammy Caputi, who won one of the three vacant seats, raised $266,818, according to her most recent filings with the City. Caputi raised more than twice the amount of any other candidate. The other two candidates who secured seats were Tom Durham and Betty Janik, who each raised about $55,000.
All three candidates are from north Scottsdale.
The pay-off for competing in Scottsdale’s expensive campaigns is barely enough to live on without additional sources of income.
City councilors in Scottsdale make $18,000 annually, increasing to $30,000 in January. Despite the raise, they will make less than half the median household income in south Scottsdale.
VOICES of scottsdale
“You can’t live on that salary. You have to have another job,” Klapp said, adding that she had little time to run her business while serving on the council.
Those with enough time and financial security to run for council are wealthy professionals and retirees with affluent networks in the business community, according to Klapp. This is a trend that both Krebs and Trounstine have seen at a national level.
Trounstine emphasized that a districting system in Scottsdale would likely impact the demographics of who was elected to the council, but wouldn’t necessarily lead to policy changes.
“When you have at-large city council members, they understand that development is good for the city at some level, but they don't want it in their neighborhood,” Trounstine said. “Once those neighborhoods get a seat at the table, they stop that process. They act as veto players. They start blocking development in those communities, and overall development slows down.”
A CITY UNDIVIDED
City council gridlock is exactly what former Mayor Mary Manross is worried about with a districting system. Manross remains one of several strong voices opposed to districting.
“I still feel I have a very good sense of our community … how we get along and how we communicate with one another,” Manross said. “So I've never felt, even today, that we need districts.”
Manross added that she supported Ortega’s mayoral run but is prepared to battle him on the issue of districting.
This isn’t the first time Ortega and Manross have sparred over Scottsdale’s election system.
Some community leaders are confident that they still understand the needs of all of Scottsdale.
Photo: Luke Brenneman
With the population slightly more than 200,000 in 2002, then-mayor Manross and the City Council, including Councilman Ortega, established a 14-member task force “to research, analyze and make recommendations with respect to whether the City should change its form of government by creating districts.”
In a final report, all but two members of the task force urged the City Council to put the option of switching to a district system on the ballot for the 2004 election cycle. One reason cited in the report was that “a significant number of residents believe that they are disenfranchised, or are not adequately represented, under the current system.”
The proposition failed in a resounding 60-40 vote in 2004.
“I thought it was a slam dunk win,” said Jim Derouin, a member of the task force who spearheaded the districting effort from 2002 to 2004. “And, in fact, we threatened the political establishment the way that it existed.”
Nearly two decades later, Ortega remains undeterred.
At a Southwestern jewelry store in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale on Election Day, Ortega talked through a possible blueprint of district lines. The southernmost five miles could constitute three of the six districts, in a city that’s 31 miles long, he explained.
Due to the north’s sparse population, it’s possible that the area would only host two council seats — a far cry from its current monopoly — if a districting system is established.
“I've lived here, worked here, you know, played here and enjoyed here — the voices that I'm hearing is ‘we lack equal representation,’” Ortega said a couple weeks after the election, remaining committed to a system that he said promotes the idea of “one person, one vote.”
When residents’ voices are not heard, the narrative is written by special interests, zoning attorneys and lobbyists, Ortega said.
“The people who built the city and live here, they’re going to rebel,” Ortega added.
Ortega said that maybe the at-large system worked for the city when there were fewer than 200,000 residents, but now the city has outgrown it.
“You have to be a council person to everybody just like the mayor has to be a mayor to everybody,” he stated. “In my opinion, it's not possible for a council person to be a mini-mayor.”
Ortega’s solution: a districting system.
“We're at a point where I am an advocate for it,” Ortega said. “And, I'm not a lone voice.”
Faces of Scottsdale
Despite the relatively homogenous nature of Scottsdale, many residents in south Scottsdale, as well as those in the far north, feel that the City Council doesn't understand or care about the needs of their specific communities.
North Scottsdale Residents
South Scottsdale Residents
Ortega's Dream
Kylee Richardson
Susan Sauro
Debbie Sinani
Liz Kraker
Justin Wilde
Adam Sauro