Why she matters
Kathy Littlefield came to the Scottsdale council from the opposition. She argued against the 2012 General Plan and the 2013 bonds, and voters rejected both. Once elected, she did not stay a no vote: she signed for smaller bond packages in 2015 and 2019 and said plainly that the earlier defeats were what gave her the power to shape them. On the Preserve and on Old Town towers she stayed with the slow-growth side.
Where to find her work today
In the city’s ballot pamphlets from 2012 to 2019 and the council’s minutes. The 2010s politics chapter and the Desert Discovery Center page carry her votes.
Against, 2012 and 2013
In the 2012 pamphlet she warned that under the proposed General Plan, Character Areas “will not be considered when determining if a proposed project would require a super majority vote for approval by the City Council,” and that the state had “extended the cities’ deadline for General Plan updates to July, 2015. We should take advantage of this gift.” The plan failed by 1,064 votes.
In 2013 she and Councilman Bob Littlefield signed the argument against the $212.1 million bonds: “Scottsdale already has the highest per capita debt of any major city in the Valley.” Her 2014 candidate statement said she had “formed and chaired the Keep Scottsdale Special PAC” against them. She also wrote that the bonds lost “in every precinct,” which the canvass does not bear out; two questions carried a few districts.
For, 2015 and 2019
Elected by 54 votes in 2014, she signed for the 2015 bonds: “Last time a city bond request came before you, I chaired the ‘Say No’ committee … you gave me a powerful gift: leverage. Now that I am on Council, I have been able to use this gift on your behalf to create a reasonably-sized bond request.” Two of six questions passed. In 2019 she sat on the subcommittee that built a $319 million package, and wrote: “I also demanded more citizen input before any decisions by Council were made: we held 6 open houses.” All three passed.
The Preserve and Old Town
At a 2015 work study on the Desert Discovery Center she said of the 2010 estimate: “74 million, I think is a killer. $3 to $5 million, I don’t think anybody would have cared.” As vice mayor in September 2016 she seconded Councilman Guy Phillips’s motion toward a public vote on building in the Preserve, which the majority set aside. In 2018 she argued for Proposition 420: “I am the only Councilmember who has voted 100% not to move forward with this project without the approval of the voters.” On the same ballot she argued for the transportation sales tax: “We need to use Scottsdale’s taxes for Scottsdale’s benefit.”
She voted against Southbridge Two in December 2019, and in April 2020, as vice mayor, against its repeal: “Over 17,500 citizens signed the petition in only 28 days,” she said, by the city’s transcript, and “I also believe it is very much illegal to do this under the Arizona constitution.”
Her city biography lists her as a co-founder of NetXpert Systems, and her 2018 statement as a Scottsdale native and ASU graduate. Her later terms belong to the 2020s.