By Wayne Schutsky | Scottsdale Progress
When Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane exits City Hall next month, he will leave as the longest-tenured mayor in the city’s history not named Drinkwater.
Lane, who served 12 years as mayor after a four-year stint on City Council, is second in longevity to the late Mayor Herb Drinkwater, who served 16 years before voters approved a three-term limit for future mayors.
Lane’s tenure is marked by two not-so-neat bookends – the Great Recession and the coronavirus pandemic – but those unprecedented crises only account for a fraction of what occurred in Scottsdale during his time in office.
The city, already in the midst of population boom, continued to add residents. From 2010 to 2019, the city’s population grew 19 percent from 217,000 to 258,000.
