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Scottsdale fire chief urges stronger authority, targeted fuel management and expanded inspections in wildfire plan update
Summary
Fire Chief Tom Shannon updated the City Council on wildfire risks and mitigation work, recommending expanded authority for the fire chief, updates to the NAOS ordinance, more inspections and better community engagement; Mayor Lisa Borowski asked staff to return recommendations on the topic at a future meeting.
Scottsdale Fire Chief Tom Shannon told the City Council on Jan. 28 that the city must sharpen fuel-management strategy, expand inspections and consider strengthening the fire chief’s authority to prioritize fuels work across the city.
Shannon framed the update around the wildland-urban interface (WUI), the many human-caused ignitions the city sees, and recent large regional fires. "Our goal in everything that we do is to disrupt these pathways as much as we can," Shannon told the council as he described efforts to stop fires moving from vegetation to structures and then structure to structure.
Why it matters: Much of Scottsdale sits next to or inside WUI environments — city staff pointed to tens of thousands of resident contacts and repeated site inspections in 2024 — and the council indicated it wants to consider Shannon’s recommendations quickly because they affect public safety, open-space management and enforcement resources.
Shannon summarized current work: Scottsdale maintains an annex to the Maricopa County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, runs hazard-vegetation assessments and home-defensible-space inspections, and operates a Firewise outreach program. He said the department performed about 33,000 residential vegetation contacts in 2024 and that the city has three community risk-reduction officers who perform education, inspections and initial investigations.
He described a suite of recommendations: expand community engagement and Scottsdale-specific fuel-management guidance; increase inspections and code-enforcement emphasis; review the NAOS (Natural Area Open Space) ordinance to allow more precise, limited fuel treatments where overgrowth or invasive species increase fire risk; require enhanced day-of notification for construction "hot work" (grinding/cutting) in the WUI; and pursue clearer authority for the fire chief to prioritize fuels-management work across the city.
Council members pressed for specifics and for a quick return: Councilwoman Solange Whitehead asked for clarity about which department currently oversees fuel mitigation and whether that authority sits with the fire department. "Right now, obviously, it's the fire department's responsibility to prevent and then, protect against fires. But what I'm hearing is that, overseeing the, the mitigation of fuel mitigation is not currently under your jurisdiction," she said. Shannon confirmed the work is shared across planning, community services and the fire department and said his recommendation would be to strengthen the fire chief's formal authority to act when necessary.
Shannon noted program details such as the city’s tabletop planning meetings each March with regional partners, the use of grant funding (including Healthy Forest Initiative grants) to leverage fuels work, and coordination with federal partners such as the U.S. Forest Service. He also said hydrant inspections are a regular cross-department task; he reported that the city checks more than two-thirds of nearly 12,000 hydrants each year.
Council response and next steps: Mayor Lisa Borowski expressed interest in moving the recommendations to a formal agenda item and said she would like them returned quickly for council consideration. "I would like to add to the agenda that February 11th agenda, assuming that's sufficient time for you to bring back recommendations," she said. City Attorney Sherry Scott cautioned that the presentation was scheduled as information only, but staff said they would work toward returning recommendations for council consideration.
Other council members voiced support for additional emphasis on inspections, preserved-area fuel management, and using Prop 490 funding to increase mitigation work. Council members praised the fire department’s response capabilities and training, while stressing prevention and more robust ordinances and enforcement where legal authority allows.
The council did not adopt any ordinance or formal emergency authority during the Jan. 28 meeting; instead the discussion concluded with a council-level request that staff craft and return specific recommendations for formal action at a future meeting.
