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Landmark day • Tuesday, March 9, 2004

March 9, 2004: Scottsdale Says No to Los Arcos, and to Districts

The most lopsided city vote of the decade kills a 40-year subsidy for big-box stores, and voters keep electing the whole council at large.

Illustrated plaque for March 9, 2004 in Scottsdale history MARCH 9 2004 THE RESORT METROPOLIS

What happened

At the city's general election on March 9, 2004, Scottsdale voters decided two measures. Proposition 300, a referendum on the council's July 2, 2003 approval of a redevelopment agreement with Steve Ellman's Los Arcos Development for a Walmart, Sam's Club and Lowe's center, failed 29,444 to 5,856, though the developer had already withdrawn. Proposition 100, a council-referred charter amendment to elect six council members from districts with the mayor at large, failed 21,345 to 13,684. In the mayor's race Mary Manross led with 47 percent, short of a majority, and Councilman David Ortega, the Los Arcos deal's council opponent, finished second; Betty Drake won the only council seat decided that day.

Why it matters

The Los Arcos vote, 83 percent no, was the clearest verdict Scottsdale voters ever gave on subsidizing a private developer, and it cleared the way for the land's sale to the ASU Foundation two months later and for SkySong. The districts vote kept the at-large council the city still elects.

Los Arcos

The arena plan for the old Los Arcos mall had died in 2001. In July 2003 the council voted 4 to 3 to give the site’s developer about half the sales taxes from a new Walmart, Sam’s Club and Lowe’s for forty years, and a committee called STOP’EM forced a referendum. By election day the developer had withdrawn, but the question stayed on the ballot. “Don’t write off southern Scottsdale! Don’t pay $37 million for big boxes!” the Chamber of Commerce urged. The committee paid for by the developer’s company answered that “there is no risk to the city because funding would come from tax dollars from the Los Arcos site itself.” Voters rejected the agreement 29,444 to 5,856; it lost in every district. The Los Arcos referendum page tells the story.

Districts

The council itself put Proposition 100 on the ballot: six council districts, with the mayor still elected citywide. Council Districts for Scottsdale said “the quest for districts is not new, having surfaced over 20 years ago,” and future councilwoman Suzanne Klapp noted that “five of six councilmen lived relatively near each other and relatively far from the greater number of Scottsdale citizens.” Former mayor Bill Jenkins: “If democracy is a good thing, then certainly, a little more democracy is even better.”

Opponents answered that residents would trade three council votes every two years for one every four: “Under the district system, citizens lose this power with only one vote every four years.” Others called it “A TROJAN HORSE” and warned of “Splitsdale.” Voters rejected it, 21,345 to 13,684; it carried only six of the city’s 32 districts. Scottsdale still elects its whole council at large, as the mayor and council guide explains.

The candidates

Mayor Mary Manross led a field of four with 16,903 votes, 47 percent. Councilman David Ortega had 7,627, former state Senate president Bob Usdane 5,663, and Cynthia Lukas, who had resigned from the council to run, 5,507. Manross beat Ortega in the May 18 runoff, 21,949 to 11,007. Betty Drake won a council seat outright; six others went to the runoff, where Ron McCullagh, Jim Lane and Kevin Osterman won. About 31 percent of registered voters took part. The 2000s politics chapter tells the rest of the decade.