Scottsdale Bond Campaign Adds Prominent Community Leaders as Co-Chairs

  • June 5, 2019

For The Best Scottsdale Campaign

Diverse and unified support grows for bond measures investing in infrastructure repairs, senior services, public safety and quality of life

(SCOTTSDALE) — The campaign in favor of three Scottsdale bond measures on the November 2019 ballot has named additional co-chairs and steering committee members as the effort in favor of Questions 1, 2 and 3 continues to draw diverse and deep community support.

Andrea Alley, Dana Close and Dennis Robbins are joining as additional co-chairs of For The Best Scottsdale: Vote Yes on Questions One, Two and Three. Paul Messinger, a longtime Scottsdale business owner and community leader, will serve as an honorary co-chair of the bond campaign. Messinger is the first honorary co-chair for the bond campaign and will be joined soon by other honorary chairs.

Additional steering committee members include community advocates Barry Graham and Jon Ryder as well as Gerd Wuestemann, president and CEO of Scottsdale Arts. They follow Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Stanton and Matthew Benson, chair of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce’s public policy committee, also recently joining the bond campaign’s diverse steering committee.

The co-chairs and steering committee members all have significant and longstanding community ties in Scottsdale. They join current co-chairs Paula Sturgeon and Mike Norton in leading the bond campaign which repairs crumbling Scottsdale infrastructure, builds new parks and fire stations and improves police stations, senior centers and recreation facilities.

“I am humbled to serve as a co-chair to help pass the first bond in Scottsdale in 19 years. Investing in our quality of life, especially via the proposed parks and recreation projects, will help our city uphold its status as one of the healthiest and happiest cities in the nation.,” said Alley, a leading advocate in the southern part of the city.

Close has also been a leader in southern Scottsdale. “The bonds make community investments across our city that will benefit neighborhoods and residents,” Close said.

The bond measures fund a new 17-acre park, build a new dog park, make improvements at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park and make overdue repairs to leaking lakes and irrigation systems at Vista del Camino Park in the southern area of the Indian Bend Wash. They also expand two senior centers.

“The bonds are important to maintaining and enhancing our quality of life now and for generations to come. They are important for public safety as well as helping our important small business and tourism sectors,” said Robbins, a former Scottsdale City Councilman who now serves as executive director of the Scottsdale Charros.

The November bond package modernizes police and fire stations, replaces an outdated 911 system and makes infrastructure investments and pedestrian enhancements in Old Town Scottsdale important to tourism, galleries and small businesses whose sales tax revenue fuel our community’s quality of life.

“Support for the bonds is coming from across our community. The measures were formulated through an extensive and transparent public process in tandem with support from a unanimous Mayor and Scottsdale City Council. I am proud join a unified team working together for Scottsdale,” Messinger said.

The Scottsdale Fire Fighters Association and Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce are also supporting the bonds which finance 58 projects totaling $319 million across the city. Scottsdale’s secondary property taxes will still go down with approval of the bonds in November to the retirement of bonds from the last bond package approved in 2000 and the rise in property values in Scottsdale since then.

“Scottsdale voters have not approved a major bond package in two decades. We have essential infrastructure that needs repaired as well as community, public safety and quality of life investments that are important to neighborhoods and Scottsdale’s economic vitality. The bonds do all that. We welcome the additional co-chairs and steering committee members. Their leadership and community ties will be valuable to our efforts and they show how diverse support is for the bonds. We also look forward to adding more civic leaders to our campaign,” Norton and Sturgeon said.

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