By J. Graber | Daily Independent
Security technology maker Axon was willing to make a deal with the Scottsdale City Council over the number of apartments and condominiums it intends to build as part of it’s new world headquarters campus but pulled out of discussions Monday because of the council’s “toxic” inner workings, Axon President Josh Isner said.
Company officials were prepared to reduce the number of living units built from 1,895 to 1,700 (850 apartments and 850 condominiums), but ultimately decided that it would not improve relations because vice mayor Jan Dubauskas and council members Barry Graham and Kathy Littlefield.
He predicted the three would commit “political terrorism” by continually crusading against Axon, so there was no value in trying to reach a compromise.
Isner said the fact that Graham,Dubauskas and councilman Adam Kwasman requested an investigation of mayor Lisa Borowsky by the Maricopa County Attorney’s office over a possible procurement violation related to the parking garage planned for First Street and Brown Avenue showed him there was no working with them.
“It’s a juvenile environment driven by those three on the city council (Dubauskas, Graham and Littlefield) and it’s going to prevent anything meaningful getting done in this city for the next three years,” Isner said.
Littlefield scoffed at Isner’s comment about the three committing political terrorism.
“We’re the terrorists?” she said. “He’s the one that took away the right of referendum from citizens.”
The last city council approved in the company’s plans for the campus near the intersection of N. Hayden Road and the Loop 101 in November 2024.
Those plans included a 401,085-square-foot world headquarters, five five-story retail buildings, one three-story retail building, a 435-key hotel and seven restaurants on site.
The new campus would be expected to create 5,500 new jobs with an average starting salary of $135,000 and predicted to have a $3.5 billion annual economic impact on the area, according to the city’s estimates.
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