Tuesday night’s (February 11, 2025) Scottsdale City Council meeting was a heart-wrenching experience that left
the hundreds of attendees sickened and dismayed.
It was obvious that five of the seven council members came to the meeting to vote to eliminate Scottsdale’s
department of diversity and decades-long commitment to being a welcoming, safe, and accessible
community for all.
Council members Barry Graham and Jan Dubauskas refused to respond to public demands to
explain their positions or address the misinformation about the city’s hiring practice.
Mayor Lisa Borowsky stated that she supports diversity and then voted against it.
Councilman Kwasman, who referred to diversity as “poison” online, made a rambling,
incoherent speech that showed his disdain and lack of understanding on the subject.
The city has been deluged with emails opposing the change along with roughly 50 speakers
and a supportive audience. The crowd was so large, that many in attendance had to watch the meeting
in an “overflow” room across the street from City Hall. Along with residents, the Council heard from
faith leaders, chamber of commerce representatives, business executives, and civic groups.
The demand was clear. Uphold programs that maintain Scottsdale’s values, and correct the record
stating this ordnance will end “DEI hiring practices”! One media outlet is promoting this message
which is far from the truth.
As Councilwoman Solange Whitehead explained, the City of Scottsdale does and always has made
hiring decisions based on merit. This ordinance claims to ’solve’ a problem that NEVER
existed in the first place.
There was fact-based testimony including remarks by the former City of Scottsdale diversity director,
Don Logan. Mr. Logan survived an assassination attempt in the early 2000s. Like many other speakers,
he told the council that their actions were “finishing the job” for the white supremacist assassins
who almost killed him.
For many decades, the Scottsdale City Council has built the city’s reputation as one of the
finest cities in the United States embracing everyone. A successful tourism and healthcare industry
is the basis for Scottsdale’s phenomenal accomplishments.
With one vote, the 2025 City Council majority destroyed years of achievements.
I would personally like to express my thanks, appreciation, and gratitude to Solange Whitehead and
Maryann McAllen for their tireless efforts on behalf of every citizen in Scottsdale.
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These members should think long and hard about their own status in America. It was t so long ago that they were immigrants, their parents or their grandparents. This nation has serious prejudices against all “others” and never consider the contributions of people of all genders and races. I get that trashing special requirements for anyone should not be applied and that certainly any requirements should not take into consideration gender, age or race if a person fills the requirements for the job. But going out of your way to snub your nose at fairness, which I might remind you all had to be legislated in order for you to comply in the first place is inappropriate.
Scottsdale is anything but liberal. You toss that word around carelessly and weaponize it to suit your diatribe. The only thing I can say is that at least it was a vote and not a mandate without a vote. Little comfort for those that will be disenfranchised.
Is that why CM “Dr” Thompson left? He was a self proclaimed “Dr” when he was CM in Bullhead City. Got caught filling his family car with gas at the Public Works yard, said it was a misunderstanding. Thats whats great about Repubs, always solving problems that never existed, and ignoring ones that do.
FWIW, it does seem worse now than it was when I lived there, but the Scottsdale City Council has never been a bastion of non-partisan membership. At one point in the 2010s, every member of the council was then, or formerly, a member of the R state committee.
As for Kwasman, he used to be a state legislator who thinks that body is too liberal.