Scott Anderson
Scott Anderson, a dedicated Gilbert resident of over 30 years. Since settling in 1988 with his wife EJ Anderson and their five children, Scott has been deeply involved in town affairs. As the visionary behind the Gilbert Riparian Preserves, he is steadfast in his commitment to preserving Gilbert's status as a nationally acclaimed community and a top-tier destination in Arizona.
With three decades of experience in local governance, Scott brings a wealth of expertise in land use, city planning, sustainability, and essential municipal processes. His track record is adorned with accolades for his innovative projects and programs, demonstrating his ability to lead with creativity and efficiency.
Scott holds a Bachelor's degree in Geography and International Relations from Brigham Young University, along with a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Colorado. Trust in Scott Anderson to continue shaping Gilbert's future with his unwavering dedication and proven leadership.
2024 CANDIDATE EDITION
This episode is part of our 2024 Candidate Edition. Candidates' participation in this podcast does not constitute an endorsement, express or implied, by the podcast, its host(s), its sponsors, or its production team. The purpose of these interviews is to provide listeners with insights into the journey, perspectives, and policies of various candidates. All candidates running for Gilbert Town Council were invited to participate. Listeners are encouraged to do their research and make informed decisions when casting their votes. Thank you for listening!
Episode Transcription
Welcome to a special episode of Guiding Growth, Candidate edition presented by Modern Moments, independent news media, Gilbert Independent, Your valley. net and the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce. Candidates participation in this podcast does not constitute an endorsement expressed or implied by the podcast. Its host, its sponsors or its production team. The purpose of these interviews is to provide listeners with insights into the journey perspectives and policies of various candidates. All candidates running for Gilbert Town Council were invited to participate. Listeners are encouraged to do their research and make an informed decision when casting their votes.
Thank you for listening, Guiding Growth, conversations with community leaders in this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned, come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments, an event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert and at Gilbert Independent, your valley. net dedicated to serving readers with good community journalism.
The Gilbert Independent is a nonpartisan newspaper, an online site that covers our town's institutions, development and events, subscribe and follow your valley. net Daily to stay up to date with latest local news. Scott Anderson has served in local governance for over 210 years, working on issues such as land use, city planning, sustainability, and essential municipal processes. Since settling in 2100 with his wife Ej 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 220 10003 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 21000 years and is a collector of antiques, specifically pottery from Ancient Civil A. 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, 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. All right, here's a fun one. If you had, 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 um because I'd like to be of service and helping if, if I can help in some way and, and by knowing what their desires are, that would help me to fulfill what I'd like to do.
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 225,2120 people, everyone still says it's a small town and that's, I think that's great. What's your favorite outdoor activity to enjoy in our community? Uh My favorite outdoor activities. There, there are 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 repairing 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. I think it's good family entertainment. I guess I'd call it because it's 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, in my information I submitted, I talked a little bit about Carl Sagan and I think Carl Sagan is a leader in his own right, even though he was, he was known as a cosmologist and brought to us cosmos and all that.
But he had some very uh good insights into things that I use today. Uh such as uh when somebody makes an extraordinary claim, I like to investigate and find the extraordinary evidence for that claim. And 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, roll out the tongue. OK. If you could have dinner with any person alive or not, who would it be?
I think I, I'd enjoy having dinner with someone who served in the, in the military during world war. I, I could because I am convinced that that's the greatest generation. And I, 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, uh a phrase that Albert Einstein always seemed to uh 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.
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 they, their fears were there was an irrigation ditch that wasn't far from our house and their fear was that I'd fallen into that ditch or something.
It turns out that I had gone over to a friend's house and I was hiding in his house and um I paid the price for that, but uh the majority of my growing up was uh was in Colorado. And uh I spent a lot of time, we, we live close to the, 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, 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. Um I had a French teacher that uh she had ways of teaching French that you really enjoyed it and it turned out that that was um beneficial to me because later on I lived in France for a couple of years and uh I had to speak French and uh I appreciated her and what she taught.
So that that was, 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, what, what was that like for you then? Where did you go? What did you do? I was actually uh while I was in high school, my, my desire was to attend the Air Force Academy and you have to receive an appointment from, um, from a, 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, which was quite a moment in my life even going there. Because ultimately, I, if I would have taken that appointment, I wouldn't have gone to France and served a mission for my church. Um But going to BYU, I had that opportunity and was able to do that and then returned and um received a degree there which uh I originally wanted to as Sarah was reading, I wanted to um serve in international relations.
That was part of my degree and um that I have a professor that talked to me about urban planning and I got more involved in that and just, and really enjoyed that and that's how I ended up doing what I was doing in those first few years um starting your career and in something that um you discovered, what do you remember to be some of the challenges or lessons learned? I think the challenges for me were to 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 you, what makes you feel good, what you will, uh, it's gonna be the rest of your life.
So you need to find what's going to make you happy and what's, uh 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 uh 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 um so I, I focused on finishing there and uh doing an internship that uh re 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 um antiques. Where did that come from? And how did that get started? I've just always had a passion since high school as a matter of fact to um in archaeology and in, in uh paleontology, which are two different disciplines, but I have passion and interest in both and one, one is uh collecting dinosaur material and, and uh and doing that kind of stuff. And I used to teach out of the repairing preserve and teach a class with kids about dinosaurs.
And so, and try to get them interested in something like that too because of the future scientists may just make different discoveries. And, and it was the same in archaeology where you did uh studying ancient civilizations and things that uh for me, the specialty was in pottery because there's so much is reflected on that pottery of the civilization itself that you could, you could understand more about them just looking at the pottery that they produced. That's were you able to travel to a lot of these places as well or just no, a couple of places but uh not very much.
Uh Most of what I collect now is in private collections. There's a um a market out there that people that trade in that kind of thing. And um so I keep an eye on that and, and uh 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. Uh 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 and it really gave me a lot of insight into the process that developers go through uh when they're submitting uh their proposals to the, the municipality. It was um 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 uh where I'm working because it can push somebody away very easily if they get, get you get the wrong answer in their due diligence time.
So that uh I really enjoyed that had no intention of leaving, but the, the economy uh turned south as it does in cycles and I ended up uh applying uh to, to the then town manager, Kent Cooper for a position down here in Gilbert. And uh I was successful in that, that was in 1988 when we moved down here early days in Gilbert in your career. Um Obviously, Gilbert looked a little different back then. What do you remember um about that initial, maybe the first five years in Gilbert?
Well, the first five years um were crazy years. Um There was about 20,000 people when I moved here. Um At the end of the time when I was the planning director, there were over 100,000 people. Uh 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 uh 100 item agendas in the uh the Planning Commission. And it was just crazy and I still think I hold the record for the latest meetings.
A long meeting. Yeah. Yeah. 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 um and George Pettit also contributed to that. They, they both Kent was looking at the overall community and what it would take to turn this into a great community that it is he, he really knew the infrastructure and how it had to be planned, how we, we would grow.
George and I were working together a lot on the heritage district and we wrote the first uh heritage district plan back then. And as I say, it was that the uh 30 year overnight sensation in the heritage district, it took that long for everything to finally develop, but that was certainly uh um a needed thing in the town and it's, we can see what it looks like now. Busy, busy. What about the apparent you were heavily involved in that too, right. So when did that? That was uh back in 1980 the uh 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 need and cleaning it up and then we send it out to, uh, 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, um, 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 ground, recharge groundwater.
And there's the preserve that everybody's familiar with out on uh Guadalupe and, and uh Greenfield. And uh that's about 100 and 10 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 uh Queen Creek Road. And uh that's about 100 and 20 acres and we're doing the same thing there. We're recharging water groundwater. So, and that's part, 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 uh riparian habitat which is uh rare habitat in Arizona, but it's needed habitat, virtually all species of animals spend time in a repairing area.
So, uh, it's, it's needed to, to be able to create things like that. That is really cool when you look at your time, um, on staff at, within the town of Gilbert, what do you take away from your career there? Um, 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, to quit, they refuse to let anything get them down, which it would be easy to do with the, the overwhelming task of uh and pressures that came with the growth and development in the community that was so rapid which Queen Creek's 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, to let it get them down, they refuse to fail at doing their job. And they, I think that's part of the reason why we have the development that we have in Gilbert, which is sec second to none. And uh and I'm proud of it. So you moved to Gilbert um for the opportunity for employment, but you chose to raise your family here as well. What did family like look like family life look like for you?
Oh, back then, uh it was chaotic as it would be with five kids. Uh, one of our five was born here. The other four were born up in Colorado, but we basically raised them all here. And, uh, it was, um, getting used to, to Arizona was, um, it was hard at first, especially for the older ones making that change. But, uh, I think, uh, overall they've, they've come around and, and, and they're doing a good job now of being citizens of Arizona. Well, our, uh 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 that the most significant thing that the, 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, it goes to this whole idea of build out that, uh as I said before, we're on a different growth pattern right now.
We're, 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 in, in to 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 uh the businesses, the both the large and especially the small businesses, which is 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 are employment base has to be bar none the best in the state. And we only do that if we're able to attract them. And there are things in the community that will attract them to our community. The second uh priority is our, our prosperity in the community. And that has to do with the clean, safe and vibrant, that especially safety right now, that's an important thing in the community.
And we need to stress that uh how to be a safe community, the the policies that go along with that. And we need to be able to find the ways to um 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 uh our design guidelines, our development uh 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. Um And sometimes uh I say this and some people kind of shake their heads but we are in the, we are in the business of developing wealth in, in the community. Um And people say, well, how is the, how does the town do that? We build the infrastructure, we provide the infrastructure that, that attracts the business that attracts the employment base that brings people to the community and that builds wealth in the community.
And you can see that we've been suc successful that just if you look at the overall wealth in, in, in Gilbert and those are kind of my priorities, especially as we go to build out that uh 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? I think a, a well run Gilbert is one that's uh that listens to uh what's going on in the community has a good pulse on the community and is responsive to the community.
Um 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, uh why it is when there are certain services that are requested by them, we've got to pay for it. And so it's an education process to understand how do we pay for it. And um that's an important aspect of, of I think being a leader in the community is you have to be willing to, to talk about that and be out in front.
That's one thing that I would really be interested in is 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 uh issues like the, 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, not reacting to, to criticism but be out in front so that we minimize that when you um to that point, when you talk about educating community members or being out in front, what does that look like to you?
Um I think it's um first and foremost is, and I'll use the this teen violence thing as a, as an example. We, I, I believe that we could have um been, when I say outfront, we could have used our own pr people to prepare statements and prepare. Um I don't know what else uh kind of information but, but especially be preparing statements to address that and do it before the criticism started our council meeting so that people understand a little bit more about what it is that uh is going on and, and the perspective that we have on it because um that's so important.
We, we are aware of so many things um in the background that maybe our, our uh 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 uh individuals, you know, individual, one on one or being in the community, talking to uh chamber members, talking to um other uh 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 continue to develop. How would you prioritize the needs of build out with the, with the needs of aging areas? Well as we, the whole idea behind that, 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. And which when, when they start is typical of what happened in Gilbert, they start off slowly for a long period of time.
You know, there were no more than 1000 people in Gilbert for many, many years and then it explodes for one reason or another. And there, there are many development pressures that happened during that time and there's a lot of stress and so forth. But eventually the town or, 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, and put resources into correcting what's happening there either through development standards or actually uh um being able to influence what's what's happening through property maintenance codes and things like that.
But those are the, that's how you balance out what's, what's happening on the fringe like in South Gilbert. And, and there will, will, has, 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. Ok. 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, uh, I mean, that's even on the council, you know, people don't share the same values that I have.
Um, but you have to listen because they all have valuable input and that's, 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 uh important enough to pay attention that they may want to say. But to me, everyone has uh has value in what they may want to share with uh 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? Asking the guy that knows more about that than most other people do? I've been involved in it for, I was involved in it for 25 years. And, and um you as a mayor, I have a, you'd have a, a desire I'm sure to continue to go out and, and meet with the uh the different uh department heads as as appropriate. But we have to understand that uh 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 uh who runs that. And our job is to, to a monitor things through him. And uh I have to say that Gilbert's been very successful and been very fortunate to have a very strong leadership to 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 uh talking to staff or talking to the, to the town manager about it. And yeah, 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 that the, the amount of critic criticism that comes with the, the office.
But the uh I count, for instance, I, I'd say right now what we've been doing the subcomittee work on teen violence. I 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 uh sincere about it. But uh I feel like they have come around now to the point that they feel like they've been listened to, uh they're not. Uh And, and to me that's success in the town when I can talk to a constituent.
And they, they say they understand where we're coming from or they say I don't agree with where you're coming from. But uh here's my input and, and they'll share that with me rather than hold it back and, and, and do it some other way that I might not know about. I'd like, I'd rather have him tell me right up front. But I count that all as a, as a success um projects in the town. Um There's virtually every housing development pretty much in town was uh I had a part and so I count that as a success as well as uh creating the repa and preserve.
So those are, those are some milestones I think in my career, 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, they will be very unique and they demand that there be some experience to address those.
And so I would say please consider what kind of experience is needed on the council before you vote so that you know uh that we're, 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 and we enjoyed this conversation. I know those out there are 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 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.
