Rebutting Campana on the Bonds

The Scottsdale Republic was kind enough yesterday to print my rebuttal to last week’s column by former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana which was promoting the city bond election in November:

Campana lacks credibility on bond

Former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana’s pro-bond column (Sept. 4, “Scottsdale should again vote for quality of life”) was full of false equivalences and utterly devoid of facts.

She says, “Many of the 39 projects on the ballot are ones that are overdue because the City Council prudently delayed them during the economic downturn, when the city’s general fund was dwindling.”

However, she doesn’t tell you that during that same time, concerned citi­zens like me warned the council that the economy was faltering and that they should curtail wasteful spending.

However, we were ignored.

Campana says that the bond projects on November’s ballot are “essential to maintaining our city’s critical infra­structure.”

She does not tell you that even the Bond Task Force said that only a hand­ful of the dozens of projects are actu­ally “essential.” She also doesn’t men­tion citizens’ requests for a line-item ballot, which the City Council ig­nored.

She claims, “As a former mayor of our city, I know firsthand about citizens’ expecta­tions.” Yet she was at the helm for the 2-1 defeat of the Transit Plus plan in 1997, and the em­barrassing blowout of the 1999 “Canals of Scottsdale” proposal.

Completely absent from her column is Scottsdale’s $1.3 billion in debt (more than Glendale) and the one-third of the budget that debt service consumes … money which could be going to resident services.

From the little bit that I’ve talked to Campana, I like her. However, likability and credibility are two vastly different qualities.

Scottsdale resident John Washington is a former mayoral candidate.

 

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