Cottonwood’s new city manager, Scotty Douglass, started on May 15, replacing interim City Manager Rudy Rodriguez, the current deputy city manager.
Douglass said that familiarization with the organization and with the community of Cottonwood itself is one of his top priorities. He plans to determine the health of the organization and familiarize himself with policies and procedures, the direction the council has chosen and the city’s strategic plan.
“It’s my philosophy that everything ties into the strategic plan,” Douglass said. “The strategic plan is the guiding document that is the tie between the council, community and the city staff and how we carry out those things to accomplish the council’s direction.”
Noting that the city manager position had been vacant for a period of months, Douglass described the transition as “an opportunity for me to come in and evaluate the staff and the executive team and how effective we are, setting my expectations and learning what they need from me.”
One of Douglass’ specific goals is to build a tight-knit team. He wants to take the coming year to assess the overall needs of the community and how it might grow.
“It’s my opportunity to really get to know individuals in the community at all different levels and find out what’s important to them and tie that back into the strategic plan,” Douglass said. “The better that I can know the council and their direction and the community, the more aligned I can be in being of service to them.”
Douglass discussed some of the city’s current projects, such as the new Cottonwood Municipal Center, which is intended to be the city’s one-stop-shop city hall building. He also noted the opportunity to continue expanding Old Town Cottonwood.
“There’s such an opportunity for tourism here and continuing to expand on our economic development opportunities while also preserving the way of life that a lot of long-term residents here have experienced, making sure that there’s a balance,” Douglass said.
Douglass also addressed the need for housing, stating that there will be a hyperfocus on it.
Previously the deputy city manager of Modesto, Calif., a city of 214,000 residents, Douglass was part of an initiative that built a 186-bed shelter in partnership with Stanislaus County, as well as other interim and long-term social services infrastructure. He helped develop the city’s first blight abatement strategy, including the creation of a blight abatement advisory committee that advised the Modesto city council on dealing with illegal dumping, graffiti, vandalism and abandoned vehicles.
Another of his projects was a smart city strategy to coordinate the technology and data that the city collected, ensuring that all of their systems were interoperable.
When Douglass looked out his window onto Old Town, he said he was reminded of a downtown parking master plan he worked on in Modesto.
“I think there’s some real opportunity in Old Town, and maybe some other areas across the city, to take a look at our parking from a holistic approach so that we can accommodate the new development that’s in Old Town and other parts of the city,” Douglass said.
Douglass had had his sights set on Cottonwood for about a year and a half. He had previously lived in Chandler before moving back to California, and he and his wife wanted to go back to Arizona where they had family. He loves the outdoors and feels that his family fits into the community. Their 19-year-old son also moved with them and is looking at potentially attending Yavapai College.
“Every community has its challenges, but there is nothing that we can’t overcome as a team here,” Douglass said. “We have such a strong team. I’m very impressed with the acumen, the level of dedication and professionalism that our staff has here. I’ve been meeting with everybody and I think we’ve hit the ground running.”
