DC Ranch asks Scottsdale board for $6,750 increase to cover bridge upkeep; council adopts FY2025-26 CFD budget

Scottsdale City Council, sitting as the DC Ranch Community Facilities District Board of Directors, adopted the final fiscal year 2025-26 DC Ranch CFD budget and ordered a tax levy on June 10 after a public hearing that included a request from DC Ranch for higher maintenance funding.

At the start of the DC Ranch CFD meeting, Mayor Brodsky recused herself from the DC Ranch proceedings, citing a conflict because her husband serves on the finance committee; Vice Mayor DeBoskis briefly left for the conflict and later returned to the meeting.

During the public hearing, Chris Irish, director of public affairs for DC Ranch, told the board that DC Ranch and city staff are aligned on most items but disagree on the maintenance budget. "DC Ranch is respectfully asking that the city council raise the fiscal year 2025-26 maintenance budget from $107,000 to $113,750," Irish said, asking that the board approve an approximately $6,750 increase to cover bridge maintenance at DC Ranch standards.

Irish said the board report contains $4,447 for bridge maintenance within the $107,000 figure and that DC Ranch’s internal cost study estimates annual bridge labor and supplies at about $11,200. The board report, Irish said, estimates bridge expenses at about $12,000. Irish also noted the board report’s example showing a property owner with $1,200,000 in assessed value would see an 18% decrease in their CFD taxes under the 2025-26 budget and argued the requested increase would not offset that tax decrease.

The public hearing was closed after Irish’s remarks. A presiding board member—who reviewed the differences with Acting City Auditor Leigh Clough—said they had met with the acting auditor about the delta in the bridge figures and that, for this year, they would support the auditor’s findings.

The board previously adopted Resolution No. 63 to approve the proposed DC Ranch CFD budget and order the public hearing. After the hearing, the board adopted Resolution No. 64, adopting the final FY2025-26 DC Ranch CFD budget and ordering a tax levy. Meeting minutes and the resolutions were moved and approved by voice vote; the record does not list individual vote tallies in the transcript.

No formal direction to change the adopted FY2025-26 budget was recorded. The presiding board member said there may be further discussion next year to resolve the differing maintenance estimates between DC Ranch and city staff.

Background: The Scottsdale City Council convened consecutively as four separate community facilities district boards (D.C. Ranch, McDowell Mountain Ranch, Via Linda Road, and Scottsdale Waterfront Commercial) on June 10 before the regular 5 p.m. council meeting. Public comment and discussion specific to the DC Ranch CFD centered on the bridge maintenance funding; the other CFD board meetings in this session recorded no public testimony or substantive debate in the transcript.