Scott Anderson

Welcome to a special episode of Guiding Candidate Edition presented by Modern Moments Independent News Media, Gilbert Independent, YourValley.net, and the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce candidates.

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Guiding Conversations with Community Leaders.

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Scott Anderson has served in local governance for over 30 years, working on issues such as land use, city planning, sustainability and essential municipal processes. Since settling in 1988 with his wife, E.J. anderson, and their five children, Scott has involved himself with affairs of the town as a driving force behind the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. He ran for Council in 2016 and has served on the council for seven years in various roles including Vice Mayor and Mayor. Scott holds a Bachelor's degree in Geography and International Relations from Brigham Young University and a Master's in Public Administration from the University of Colorado. Fun fact. Scott has climbed four of Colorado's 14ers and is a collector of antiques, specifically pottery from ancient civilizations. Scott is running for Mayor of Gilbert. Welcome Scott.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

We're glad to have you here today.

It's good to be here.

We're going to start with what we call rapid fire. And Sarah, you go first.

What's your favorite hidden gem in Gilbert that more people should know about?

I think you probably know that before I even say it is the Riparian Preserve, I think that the more that we can get people involved in going out there, they could see the kind of community that we have created here in Gilbert that brings people together for such a special gem like that.

Alright, here's a fun one. If you could have any superpower for a day. What would it be and how would you use it?

I think it would be to be able to gain insight into people's desires because I'd like to be of service and helping. If I can help in some way and by knowing what their desires are, that would help me to fulfill fulfill what I'd like to do. I love it.

What would you consider to be the town's greatest strength?

I think the greatest strength is a simple phrase, a small town feel that we've heard for so many years in the town that even though we've grown to over 280,000 people, everyone still says it's a small town. And I think that's great.

What's your favorite outdoor activity to enjoy in our community?

My favorite outdoor activities, A couple of things. One is to go see my grandkids playing soccer and playing soccer with them. The other is spending time out at the riparian preserve, especially in the observatory when I have a chance.

If our town were a movie, what genre would it be and why?

I don't know how. I think it's good. Family entertainment, I guess I'd call it because it's a family friendly community and so many things that are built around families.

Sounds like a Disney to me. All right. Who is a leader you admire and why?

I think I had pointed out that. And this is kind of strange because in my information I submitted, I talked a little bit about Carl Sagan. I think Carl Sagan is a leader in his own right. Even though he was known as a cosmologist and brought to us Cosmos and all that. But he had some very good insights into things that I use today. Such as when somebody makes an extraordinary claim, I like to investigate and find the extraordinary evidence for that claim. I see him as a leader in helping to understand more about the world around us.

If you could describe our community in three words, what would they be?

Clean, safe and vibrant.

Nice. Rolled off the tongue. Okay. If you could have dinner with any one person, alive or not, who would it be?

I think I'd enjoy having dinner with someone who served in the military during World War II because I am convinced that that's the greatest gener and I just love listening to their stories, even though not many of them will talk about much. But if I can sit down with dinner and just have a frank conversation with them, I enjoy that.

What would you consider to be the town's biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge right now is the next 10 years we are headed towards build out, which is a different kind of growth. And that's going to be our biggest challenge is how we address the growth pains that come with getting towards build out.

All right, last rapid fire question. What's your mantra or words to live by?

I think I mentioned that. To me, the ones that I live by are. And again, this goes back to when I was working on the riparian preserve, a phrase that Albert Einstein always seemed to give when he was challenged about his thoughts. And he said that imagination was more important than knowledge and we need to be able to use our imagination. And that's important to me. Like.

All right, wonderful. Well, now is our opportunity to explore who you are in your journey. So we'll start with. You were born in Billings, Montana. What did childhood look like for you?

Well, I only lived in Montana for five years, and the only thing that I remember is that I got out of the house at one point. My parents couldn't find me and they had the whole neighborhood looking for me. And their fears were there was an irrigation ditch. It wasn't far from our house. Their fear was that I'd fallen into that ditch or something. Turns out that I had gone over to a friend's house and I was hiding in his house. And I paid the price for that.

I bet you did.

But the majority of my growing up was in Colorado, and I spent a lot of time we lived close to the foothills, so I spent a lot of time up in the mountains and doing things up in the mountains, and that was most of my growing up time.

Through your early childhood and maybe even through high school, who do you remember to be people who had influence on your life?

I would say there were a couple of teachers in junior high that had a great influence on me. They got me interested in things that, like, I was talking about using your imagination. They're the ones that got me to do that. I had a French teacher that she had ways of teaching French that you really enjoyed it. And it turned out that that was beneficial to me because later on I lived in France for a couple of years and had to speak French. And I appreciated her and what she. So that was a great influence on me.

So as you look back then and you move past like the early, younger years, like high school onward, what was that like for you then? Where'd you go? What'd you do?

I was actually, while I was in high school, my desire was to attend the Air Force Academy. You have to receive an appointment from a legislator in order to do that. And I was nominated to the merchant Marine Academy rather than the Air Force Academy. At that time, I had no clue what the Merchant Marine Academy was and wasn't really interested. If I would know then what I know today, I would have taken that appointment. But I got beyond that and ended up attending Brigham Young University, which was quite a moment in my life, even going there, because ultimately, if I would have taken that appointment, I wouldn't have gone to France and served a mission for my church. But going to byu, I had that opportunity and was able to do that and then returned and received a degree there, which I originally wanted to. As Sarah was reading, I wanted to serve in international relations. That was part of my degree. And that I have a professor that talked to me about urban planning, and I got more involved in that and really enjoyed that. And that's how I ended up doing.

What I was doing in those first few years. Starting your career and in something that you discovered, what do you remember to be some of the challenges or lessons learned?

I think the challenges for me were once I set my mind on something, I need to stick to it because it was challenging to. To see, especially in college years, there's so much opportunity to do different things. And you need to really focus on what your interest, what makes you feel good, what you will. It's going to be the rest of your life. So you need to find what's going to make you happy and doing whatever it is you choose to do. And that was the biggest challenge for me was decide what that was.

And how did you decide that you were in the right place?

I think it was after I returned from my mission and went back to school. That was when I determined that that was the right place for me and the right thing to do. And so I focused on finishing there and doing an internship that really gave me even more insight into what it meant to be in urban planning. And that's why I got involved in it.

So I want to know about this interest in geography and antiques. Where'd that come from and how'd that get started?

I've just always had a passion since high school, as a matter of fact, in archaeology and in paleontology, which are two different disciplines. But I have passion and an interest in both. And one one is collecting dinosaur material and doing that kind of stuff. And I used to teach out at the Riparian Preserve. I teach a class with kids about dinosaurs and tried to get them interested in something like that too, because those are future scientists that make different discoveries. And it was the same in archaeology where studying ancient civilizations and things that, for me, the specialty was in pottery because there's so much that is reflected on that pottery of the civilization itself that you could understand more about them just looking at the pottery that they produced.

Yeah, that's awesome. Were you able to travel to a lot of these places as well?

No, couple of places, but not very much. Most of what I collect now is in private collections. There's a market out there, people that trade in that kind of thing. So I keep an eye on that and try to follow it as much as I can.

Interesting.

So you are working in Colorado and somehow you make your way to Arizona. What does that journey look like and how does that happen?

I was at the time, I was very happy in Colorado Springs. I was working for a commercial land developer. I was actually kind of their due diligence person and master planner. And that was really a lot of fun. It really gave me a lot of insight into the process that developers go through when they're submitting their proposals to the municipality. It was eye opening to see that as you go through the due diligence, the things that they look for, the things that would cause them to make a decision to go somewhere else. That's why I'm so sensitive to the political atmosphere in a place where I'm working, because it can push somebody away very easily if you get the wrong answer in their due diligence time. So that I really enjoyed that, had no intention of leaving. But the economy turned south as it does in cycles. And I ended up applying to the then town manager, Kent Cooper, for a position down here in Gilbert. And I was successful in that. That was in 1988 when we moved down here.

Early days in Gilbert, in your career, Obviously, Gilbert looked a little different back then. What do you remember about that initial Maybe the first five years in Gilbert?

Well, the first five years were crazy years. There was about 20,000 people. When I moved here at the end of the time when I was the planning director, there were over 100,000 people. And what I remember most in those first five years or so was the number of items we had that were going to the planning commission. It was unbelievable. We had 100 item agendas in the planning commission. And it was just crazy. And I still think I hold the record for the latest meetings.

I was gonna say those are some long meetings.

Do you remember during that time, individuals who you leaned on to guide you or mentor you?

Well, Kent certainly was somebody that. He understood what was going on in the town, what the town needed. He had a very Good grasp of that. And George Pettit also contributed to that. Kent was looking at the overall community and what it would take to turn this into a great community. That it is. He really knew the infrastructure and how it had to be planned, how we would grow. George and I were working together on a lot on the Heritage District. We wrote the first Heritage District plan back then. And as they say, it was the 30 year overnight sensation in the Heritage District. It took that long for everything to finally develop. But that was certainly a needed thing in the town. And we can see what it looks like now.

Busy, busy. What about the repairing? You were heavily involved in that too. Right. So when did that.

Yeah, that was back in 1980. The state passed the Groundwater Management act. And that act required that all the municipalities in the state get creative in the way that we conserve water. And Gilbert has a policy of 100% reuse of all of our water. And so we recycle it by taking it and cleaning it up. And then we send it out to places like the riparian preserve. We actually. People may not know, we actually have three of those preserves in town. One is over on Cooper Road between Elliott and Guadalupe. That's the first one. It's about 75 or 76 acres. But there are basins there that also have solar panels in them right now. But there are basins there where we recharge groundwater. And there's the preserve that everybody's familiar with out on Guadalupe and Greenfield. And that's about 110 acres. And we're doing the same thing there. We've recharged billions of gallons of water back into the aquifer. And there's a third site that's down south off of Higley Road, just south of Queen Creek Road, and that's about 120 acres. And we're doing the same thing there. We're recharging water, groundwater, and that becomes part of our water portfolio in Gilbert. We're able to search for other sources and use credits that we get for that water we put back into the ground. And it just so happens that it also creates needed riparian habitat, which is rare habitat in Arizona, but it's needed habitat. Virtually all species of animals spend time in a riparian area. So it's needed to be able to create things like that.

That is really cool. Yep.

When you look at your time on staff within the town of Gilbert, what do you take away from your career there?

I think I take away. I've always told the executive staff at the town that the thing that impresses me most about the employees of the town is they refuse to quit. They refuse to let anything get them down, which it would be easy to do with the overwhelming task of and pressures that came with the growth and development of the community. That was so rapid, which Queen Creek is going through right now, and we've gone through it, but it was a high pressure time. But the employees and I noticed this especially in the planning department at the time, they refused to let it get them down. They refused to fail at doing their job. And I think that's part of the reason why we have the development that we have in Gilbert, which is second to none, and I'm proud of it.

So you moved to Gilbert for the opportunity for employment, but you chose to raise your family here as well. What did family life look like for you?

Oh, back then it was chaotic as it would be with five kids. One of our five was born here. The other four were born up in Colorado, but we basically raised them all here. And it was getting used to Arizona was. It was hard at first, especially for the older ones making that change. But I think overall they've come around and they're doing a good job now of being citizens of Arizona.

Well, we've put together some questions that we think our listeners would like to hear your responses to, so we will jump in with. What would you consider, should you be elected to be your most significant responsibility in the position, and what would your top three priorities be?

I think the most significant thing that the mayor needs to be able to do is be an example of those priorities and speak of those priorities all the time. And I do have some priorities that I'd like to. It goes to this whole idea of build out that as I said before, we're on a different growth pattern right now. We're approaching build out in the next five or probably 10 years. And as we get to that point, then growth is going to look back into Gilbert and look for the parcels that are vacant. And it's going to be difficult to accomplish the development that will go along with that if we don't pay attention to these priorities. The first is our economy, that we need to maintain a strong economy. We need to have the businesses, both the large and especially the small businesses, which are the bedrock of the community, continue to develop. And we need to find the ways to be able to provide incentives to make sure that they come here and they stay here and that they're high quality. Our employment base has to be, bar none, the best in the state. And we only do that if we're able to attract them. There are things in the community that will attract them to our community. The second priority is our prosperity in the community. And that has to do with the clean, safe and vibrant, especially safety right now. That's an important thing in the community. And we need to stress that how to be a safe community, the policies that go along with that and we need to be able to find the ways to facilitate people making connections with one another. That's how we get that small town feel. And it's our amenities that we provide, it's our design guidelines, our development regulations. Those are the things that bring the quality that will ensure prosperity in the community. And you can just see that by the values of the homes in the community now, which is kind of a good thing, bad thing, I guess. And then the last is the infrastructure, the built environment. We need to pay attention to that. We are, and sometimes I say this and some people kind of shake their heads, but we are in the business of developing wealth in the community. And people say, well, how does the town do that? We build the infrastructure. We provide the infrastructure that attracts the business, attracts the employment base that brings people to the community and that builds wealth in the community. You can see that we've been successful at that. Just if you look at the overall wealth in Gilbert and those are kind of my priorities, especially as we go into build out that we need to pay attention to.

Paint a picture of your vision of a well run Gilbert for us. And how would you contribute to this vision?

Well, I think a well run Gilbert is one that listens to what's going on in the community, has a good pulse on the community and is responsive to the community. But at the same time we're responsible for educating the community on issues that they may not understand. Why we do things the way we do, why it is when there are certain services that are requested by them, we've got to pay for it. So it's an education process to understand how do we pay for it. And that's an important aspect of I think being a leader in the community is you have to be willing to talk about that and be out in front. That's one thing that I would really be interested in as the mayor is being sure that I'm out in front of things. Don't let them act on us, but we act first. And whether it's issues like the safety issues that we're confronting right now in the community or if it's development issues, we should be out in front Always not reacting to criticism, but be out in front so that we minimize that to that point.

When you talk about educating community members or being out in front, what does that look like to you?

I think it's first and foremost is. And I'll use this teen violence thing as an example. I believe that we could have been. When I say out front, we could have used our own PR people to prepare statements and prepare. I don't know what else kind of information, but especially be preparing statements to address that. And do it before the criticism started our council meetings, so that people understand a little bit more about what it is that is going on and the perspective that we have on it, because that's so important. We are aware of so many things in the background that maybe our citizens aren't aware of. And it's our responsibility to share with them. Not to stir things up, but to share with them by educating them. And the education comes through individuals, you know, individual one on one, or being in the community, talking to chamber members, talking to other focus groups or organizations that are interested in what's going on in the town. Rotary Club, others being transparent as much as possible.

The town is approaching build out. And as some areas of our community are aging, other areas can continue to develop. How would you prioritize the needs of build out with the needs of aging areas?

Well, as we. The whole idea behind. We have an initiative in the town that's called City of the Future. And the idea behind that is we want to. Every municipality goes through a natural process, a natural kind of evolution, which when they start is typical of what happened in Gilbert. They start off slowly for a long period of time. There were no more than a thousand people in Gilbert for many, many years. And then it explodes for one reason or another. And there are many development pressures that happen during that time. And there's a lot of stress and so forth. But eventually the town or the municipality will get to a point where things begin. And this is. As you get towards build out, things begin to deteriorate. And all you have to do is go to some of our neighboring communities. You can see some of the areas that are more run down. And that's a natural evolution that's happening in the community. And it'll happen here also if we don't pay any attention to it. But that's why we have the City of the Future initiative and those priorities I was talking about, because we can pay attention to it, we can revitalize areas. We're looking at the northwest area of Gilbert, which is an area that we're concerned about that's starting to show signs of that process. We can establish it as a redevelopment area, much like the Heritage District, and put resources into correcting what's happening there, either through development standards or actually being able to influence what's happening through property maintenance codes and things like that. But that's how you balance out what's happening on the fringe, like in South Gilbert. And there has one kind of development pressure. And then you've got to look back into the community, and that's where we have to pay attention to infrastructure maintenance and the other things I was talking about.

Okay, so how important is it to you that all residents feel represented, even those who don't share your same values?

Well, they need to be, because they. I mean, that's. Even on the council, there are people who don't share the same values that I have. But you have to listen because they all have valuable input. And that's one of the complaints that I have in the political process, is people don't want to listen to one another because they don't feel like, because their values are different, that they have anything that is important enough to pay attention that they may want to say. But to me, everyone has value in what they may want to share with the council.

As a governmental agency, the town is a complex business and major employer with many lines of service and corresponding budgets. If elected to the position of mayor, how would you navigate gaining a stronger understanding of the inner workings of the town?

You're probably asking the guy that knows more about that than most other people do. I've been involved in it. I was involved in it for 25 years. And you, as a mayor, you'd have a desire, I'm sure, to continue to go out and meet with the different department heads as appropriate. But we have to understand that we are the policymakers on the council. We are not the movers and shakers of what's going on with the budget until it's brought to us. And that's formulated by the staff with a CEO who runs that. And our job is to monitor things through him. And I have to say that Gilbert's been very successful and been very fortunate to have a very strong leadership over the years to develop what we have now.

So I will ask, if you're seated in January, would you be comfortable voting on a budget within 120 days of being elected?

I would be, yes. That's no problem. Again, that's probably because I understand what's going on into that process. And I don't have any problem with talking to staff or talking to the town manager about. It's not a problem.

All right, last one. In the future, when you look back on your time in office, how would you measure your success?

I think I'd measure my success by the. I wouldn't say the amount of criticism that comes with the office, but the. I count, for instance, I'd say right now what we've been doing, the subcommittee work on teen violence, I'd count that as success because we've been able to take a very rowdy crowd that has some serious issues. And I have to hand it to them that they were very sincere about it. But I feel like they have come around now to the point that they feel like they've been listened to. They're not. And to me, that's success in the town. When I can talk to a constituent and they say they understand where we're coming from, or they say, I don't agree with where you're coming from, but here's my input and. And they'll share that with me rather than hold it back and do it some other way that I might not know about. I'd rather have them tell me right up front, but I count that all as a success projects in the town. There's virtually every housing development pretty much in town I had a part in, so I count that as a success, as well as creating the riparian preserves. So those are some milestones, I think, in my career.

Yeah, big ones, too.

Well, Scott, thank you for joining us today. Before we let you go, is there anything that you would like to share with our listeners?

Only again, to stress that as we get closer to build out, it's going to be extremely important that we have experience on the town council. They need to be able to respond to some very unique issues as demonstrated by those priorities that I have. They will be very unique and they demand that there be some experience that address those. And so I would say please consider what kind of experience is needed on the council before you vote so you know that we can head in the right direction.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for sharing your journey, answering our questions.

Yeah, we're so glad you're here. We enjoyed this conversation. I know those out there listening enjoyed this, too. So if you want to get this in your inbox, join our tribe. Subscribe and we will send them your way. Thanks for listening. Guiding growth conversations with community leaders.

Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast.

This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor it in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know, and we'll see if we can make that connection.