by Matthew Holloway | May 2, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Scottsdale’s new City Manager Greg Caton has drawn heavy criticism following the resignations of former City Manager Jim Thompson, former Public Works Director Dan Worth, former Transportation, Assistant City Manager Bill Murphy, and Streets Director Mark Melynchenko. As reported in the Scottsdale Progress, former City Councilwoman Linda Milhaven accused Caton of “creating chaos,” and added that “it’s uncharacteristic for an interim city manager to be letting people go or making changes.”
“(Caton) got to work pretty fast firing people,” Milhaven speculated. “It had to be at the direction of the City Council.”
Concern over turnover seems to be consistent in members of the previous left-leaning City Council, with incumbent Councilwoman Solange Whitehead expressing as much saying, “This year under the new council majority, we’ve lost 100-plus years of experience. These are the people who have delivered for Scottsdale. And people are continuing to leave. For me, this is a top concern.”
Both Whitehead and Councilwoman Maryann McAllen voted against the conservative majority when they approved Caton’s appointment on April 15th.
Councilman Barry Graham, one of the newly elected conservative members, denied the notion outright telling the Progress, “That’s not true. I only discuss city performance and results” with the city manager,” Graham clarified. “I don’t discuss people.”
When asked during an interview with the Progress, Caton told the outlet that “Dan Worth retired, ” adding, “I did not ask him to submit his resignation.” He continued, “I did not ask anyone to retire or resign.” However, Dan Worth contested this, telling the publication that Caton “directed me to resign or retire,” and declined to comment when asked if the move was “politically motivated.”
Vice Mayor Jan Dubauskas also expressed support for Caton saying, “Greg makes independent decisions. I happen to agree with many of them.” Dubauskas noted to the Progress, “Cost overruns and road diets were high profile issues in the community, so I’m not surprised Greg had concerns about them.”
Explaining the staffing turnover, Caton told the outlet that he discussed plans for ‘flattening’ the city’s organization. “In conversations with (Worth and Melynchenko), I discussed future plans to make changes to the organization – the ‘flattening’ we have referred to,” he said.
“Given that those future changes would affect their positions, both Dan and Mark opted to retire,” he added. “The agreements we signed are evidence of our mutual desire to determine what that transition would look like.”
Caton is remembered by Southern Arizonans as the Town Manager for Oro Valley from 2012 until he stepped down from the role to take a City Manager role in Colorado in 2016.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jul 5, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Last week, the city of Tempe approved a $315,000 salary for their new city manager, Rosa Inchausti, a principal figure behind Tempe’s diversity initiatives, police reform, and COVID-19 lockdowns.
The $315,000 salary is just the low end of what Inchausti may make in the near future. Incahusti may receive an annual merit step increase of up to five percent of her salary based on her performance beginning this week, or up to $15,750.
Inchausti is a 30-year veteran of the Tempe government who began as a marriage and family counselor for the city but for the past 20 years has led on progressive reforms for the city.
Inchausti was appointed the director to the city’s first diversity program in 2002, after the city faced a discrimination lawsuit and an investigation from then-Attorney General Janet Napolitano into the town for alleged workplace discrimination. (Ten years later, Napolitano would face a discrimination lawsuit of her own while leading the Department of Homeland Security, ultimately settling on the allegations that she permitted discrimination against male staffers). The diversity program quickly became a model that other cities sought to emulate.
Four years into her tenure as Tempe’s first diversity director, Wrangler News interviewed Inchausti on her claims that her diversity work had improved employee morale. However, a follow-up audit at the time saw an increase in employees who reported witnessing or experiencing inappropriate treatment, and a coalition of residents and former employees were challenging the city council on the city’s work environment.
In 2014, Inchausti concocted Tempe’s Anti-Discrimination Ordinance.
That ordinance prohibits discrimination on sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status, military status, disability, and national origin, in addition to the traditional Civil Rights protections of race, color, religion, gender, and age. Due to Inchausti, the Diversity Office investigates complaints of alleged discrimination concerning employment, public accommodations, and housing.
In November 2021, the city added CROWN Act hairstyle protections to their Anti-Discrimination Ordinance. Meaning: employers, public accommodations, and housing providers may not discriminate against someone based on their hair texture, type, or style if “historically associated” with race.
Following her creation of the Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, the city promoted Inchausti to the Strategic Management and Diversity Director.
While serving in that directorship role, Inchausti convinced the city in March 2020 to engage in wastewater testing for the presence of COVID-19. The idea came from Inchausti’s launch of a similar testing program for opioids that began in 2018. Officials used wastewater testing to track COVID-19 hotspots and issue quarantines.
Although datasets weren’t available until 5 to 7 days after the purported carrier flushes their toilet, Tempe relied on the wastewater data to isolate communities — consequently targeting populations regardless of whether they were symptomatic or not. The city relied on over a million dollars in taxpayer funding to run the program in partnership with Arizona State University (ASU).
Inchausti was responsible for quarantining Tempe residents based on wastewater results despite the city admitting that wastewater doesn’t indicate infection, with some residents moved out of their homes and into local motels to quarantine. In a November 2020 interview with the Washington Examiner, Inchausti said she envisioned wastewater testing as a means of preemptive, forced quarantine for future pandemics.
“I think this is a game changer for public health,” said Inchausti. “I think this is how cities should be managed. The power in this is knowing where the virus is before people are showing symptoms or being tested. So, the asymptomatic is where we need to focus.”
Also in 2020, following the summer of Black Lives Matter riots prompted by the death of George Floyd, Tempe sought to “modernize” its practice of policing. In a webinar event last summer, Inchausti and Wydale Holmes, an interim director of the Innovation and Strategic Management Office, unveiled alternative law enforcement structures.
Tempe proposed an alternative, equity-focused 911 emergency response system to reduce reliance on police. Part of the alternative system includes diverting 911 calls to unarmed social services personnel responsible for mental illness and drug-related calls.
They’ve also begun deploying civilians to respond to scenes concerning vehicle accidents, non-violent animal calls, property crimes where the suspect isn’t present, forgery, theft reports, online reports, parking violations, crime prevention education, community conflict mediations, homeless assistance, drug usage, code enforcement, animal complaints, and city park nuisances.
As part of the police reform, Tempe divested funding from police into social services.
Inchausti’s department also led on the city’s “Right to Breathe” initiative, also prompted by Floyd’s death. The city’s report on the initiative euphemized the riots as “local Tempe events.” Proposals in the report focused on disparate, favorable treatment for minority communities justified as equity work, such as offering those communities exclusive financial benefits, work opportunities, internships, and trainings.
Under Inchausti, the city also achieved recognition and partnership with “What Works Cities” — an initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and led by Results For America. The former organization was created by Democratic billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The latter organization was co-founded by two former Obama administration officials: David Medina, formerly the deputy chief of staff for First Lady Michelle Obama as well as Democratic National Convention Committee deputy CEO, an AFL-CIO union legislative representative, Democratic National Committee policy director; and Michele Jolin, senior fellow for American Progress and formerly the Obama White House’s senior advisor for social innovation, as well as a member of Obama’s presidential transition team where she created the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and their social innovation policy agenda.
In their hiring of Inchausti, the city of Tempe lauded her as the first female to take over the position of city manager.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
