The Independent Interview: One-on-one with Mayor Jim Lane

On edge of tomorrow, a reflection of civil service

By Terrance Thornton
Twitter: @ININEWSMAN

This coming January will signify the beginning of a new decade, a new year and for the first time in 12 years, “The West’s Most Western Town” will no longer be under the political helm of Mayor W. J. “Jim” Lane.

Mr. Lane is first and foremost a fiscal conservative, businessman and consensus builder who during the past several years — and still today — is navigating unchartered political, economic and pandemic waters.

But on Monday, Aug. 10, the man at the helm of the city of Scottsdale was cool, calm and collected atop Scottsdale City Council Chambers at City Hall, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd. During the time of the novel coronavirus, the epicenter of Scottsdale politics, development and civil service was empty aside from key municipal staff.

“It is really not as dramatic as some people might think it was,” Mr. Lane said, recalling a time when he had just sold his business to an out-of-country tech firm based in Canada in the early 2000s. “I was in-between, I got involved with a political initiative with the city at somebody’s request and was successful at getting it passed.”

From that point, Mr. Lane explains, he became a local voice of reason in what ultimately became the creation of the Scottsdale Fire Department, a feat he looks back upon fondly.

“I became somewhat of an authority on that given subject and that happened to be fire and EMS with Rural Metro — it just went from there.”
Meeting one-on-one questions with ease and poise during the morning hours of early August, Mr. Lane offered a narrative of his motivation for pushing the political ball forward.

But if you ask him, “I never had previous aspirations to hold office, but that is not to say I didn’t have political opinions,” he said. “It was not a course for me that I saw for myself.”

But stick around he did.

Following volunteer service at the Scottsdale Fire & EMS Advisory Committee in 2002, Mr. Lane rode the wave of support from that success to his first City Council term. He served as a member of City Council from 2004 to 2009 when he was elected Mayor for the first time, taking office in January 2009.
“I actually promised my wife I would only be on council for four years,” he quipped, adding, “and, I am not in the habit of breaking promises.”

But Mr. Lane describes a scenario where motivation might not be the right description, but he says he fit into municipal government and brought something unique to the political table of the time.

“The motivation from there was somewhat happenstance,” he said after being elected to City Council in spring 2004, noting the Arizona Attorney General’s Office held the City Council, at the time, in a negative light because of allegations of operating in secret, too often behind closed doors.

“A culture of secrecy was here in Scottsdale, according to the AG’s office,” Mr. Lane said of the political climate of the time. “That was something that really struck me early on. We were never told about the sanctions that were placed on us by the AG, but we did make notice that what had occurred.”

Mr. Lane says he dedicated his focus to improving municipal transparency through the creation of various Charter reforms and played a pivotal role in developing the structure of what is now known as the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

The man, the myth and the mayor

Mr. Lane hails from New Jersey, coming to Scottsdale in 1973 with aspirations of working as a certified public accountant after accepting a position at Peat Marwick, which has evolved into the KPMG International Cooperative.

KPMG, a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations known worldwide. Based in the Netherlands, KPMG is a network of firms in 147 countries, with more than 219,000 employees.

Mayor Lane, who operated as a CPA for 20 years, has a business history akin to an entrepreneurial spirit, building, buying and selling businesses across the globe primarily in the tech and accounting sector.

Industries he worked in included construction, mining, computer technology, telecommunications, regional aviation and financial consulting. He also taught business and accounting at Scottsdale Community College.

“I was on a path people wanted to see,” Mr. Lane said how holding an elected position became a major milestone of his adult life. “This wasn’t a path I thought very much about. It had an appeal to me right then and there, I recognized a few things going on that could use a bit of a business perspective to it.”

--- Jim Lane

Mr. Lane recalled that time as a political candidate as an embodiment of the idea of a business voice a part of the local political fabric at Scottsdale City Hall.

“I ran on that, as the embodiment of that,” he explained. “I am a fiscal conservative by background: I know to ask some of the questions others might not know to ask.”

When asked why he stuck around so long professing his narrative of happenstance, he smirked, replied after a brief pause, “I enjoyed the challenge.”

Mr. Lane pointed to several political divisions, friends and allies turned otherwise, and others who fall somewhere in between.

“It was a matter of directional guidance that emanates from this office and should emanate from this office,” he said of his service at an executive level. “There is an element of business, where you want people to be able to talk to you, but you don’t expect someone coming so hard at you in an effort to turn you upside down.”

A major challenge for Mr. Lane?

“To be challenged on your integrity — just by virtue of your position,” he said. “Just your integrity, if you think differently than they do, you are somehow a liar. I am not trying to cast dispersion on City Council as in an executive position, I will take input, but it is ultimately my decision. But with a council, and as mayor, it is a collective decision.”

But the No. 1 thing, Mr. Lane credits as moving his political career forward was a willingness to lead when the call came.

“When I came in with the economic world upside down people were looking for answers,” he said. “And, frankly, I was willing to give those answers.”

Political turning points

During the one-on-one interview with Independent Newsmedia, Mr. Lane offered two examples of pivotal events helping to frame his political mindset.

One, the creation of the municipal mechanisms to purchase adjacent Arizona State Lane ultimately becoming the 47 square miles of protected lands locals call “The Preserve.” The second was the Liberty Charter effort.

“I was running for mayor at that time and I said, ‘no,’” he recalled of a pivotal local debate when the McDowell Sonoran Preserve was a figment of the Scottsdale Preserve Commission’s collective mindset.
“Not the way we are handling it now; I said, it was bogged down in the Preserve Commission.”

Mr. Lane says that was a main catalyst to pursue the mayor’s seat following his time as a member of City Council. He points to an underlying truth of leadership: The strategic plan is essential.

“We needed to have the policy with a strategic plan underneath it, to do it,” he said of getting the vision of the Preserve to the finish line.

“From the first time I ever mentioned it, they had an overall conversation with all the council and mayoral candidates, they were all asked whether or not we would be able to complete the Preserve. I wanted action, I wanted to get something done.”

--- Jim Lane

From there, a consensus of process emerged, and the rest, as they say, is history, Mr. Lane explained.

“We then became on a very good path and now we are 47 square miles of protected lands,” he said pointing out he may have one more bright idea.

“We are looking at other things, new things, as I always thought we could take the burden off our residents. Some kind of funding for what we need to be done on the Preserve, maintenance, trailheads etc. to relieve the burden off of the residents. But those are details that still need to get worked out.”

Public office and the private sector are two very distinct roles with built-in underlying truths, Mr. Lane explains of why the Liberty Charter reforms — the primary creation of Charter Officers responsible for key leadership roles at Scottsdale City Hall.

“Liberty Charter, as we dubbed it, was to increase transparency in a very substantive way through accountability and control by the elected officials,” he said of the Charter officer system.

“There were a number of reasons that became very, very important because, during my time on the council, I noticed our council was held in a little bit of disdain by management. It was just not a healthy environment for an important competent of governance and, frankly, our economic engine.”

Mr. Lane called the charter reforms as a critical component of creating a workable environment in concert with the manager-council form of Arizona municipal government.

“Charter reforms, a critical component to change the environment here at City Hall that I think really helped to change the environment and atmosphere here at City Hall — I think to the betterment of the general population,” he said. “I wanted to create an environment to change the mix of business and to strengthen our position in the event of a downturn. A diversity of business, that is still talked about today, but we have made great strides in that area.”