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2010 Council candidate packets now available

  October 16, 2009

  Contact: City Clerk Carolyn Jagger, (480) 312-2411


  SCOTTSDALE CANDIDATE PACKETS AVAILABLE OCT. 19


Candidate packets for citizens seeking a spot on a fall ballot for the Scottsdale City Council will be available Monday, Oct. 19, from the City Clerk’s Office.

Three City Council seats are up for election in 2010. The city’s general election is set on Aug. 24 and a runoff, if needed, is set Nov. 2, 2010.

The packets include a new candidate handbook, which is also available on the city’s Web site for anyone interested in requirements to run. The handbook includes information on filing petitions, starting a candidate political committee, filing campaign finance reports and other topics. (Link to the candidate handbook.)

The packets incorporate new information resulting from changes in state law and city code. The changes include:

  • A slightly earlier election date. The state recently passed legislation adjusting its election dates, and the state requires Scottsdale’s general election to coincide with the state’s primary election date. Consequently, the city’s general election, which was held on Sept. 2 in 2008, moves ahead to Aug. 24 in 2010.

  • A cap of 1,000 on the minimum number of signatures required to run. At the direction of the City Council, the city successfully lobbied the Legislature this year to allow an optional cap on the number of signatures required to run for a council seat. Without the option, candidates in the 2010 election would have been required to gather more than 5,100 signatures to qualify to be listed on the ballot. The City Council recently adopted an ordinance applying the new cap to Scottsdale. As a result, to be listed on the ballot, candidates are required to file nominating petitions containing at least 1,000 valid signatures, but not more than 10,310 signatures, with the City Clerk’s Office between April 26 and May 26.

Residents are limited in the number of nominating petitions they can sign. Arizona law requires only one petition be signed for every open seat in the election. In the Scottsdale general election, that means residents can sign three petitions for City Council candidates.

Successful candidates will be sworn in during the first City Council meeting of January 2011.