Editor's Note: Candidates Atenas Rodriguez and Sharnai Fisher suspended their campaigns for city council after their signatures were contested in April. Their names will not appear on the Aug. 2 primary ballot for Goodyear City Council.
Three city council seats are up for election this summer, and Goodyear residents will have a range of choices at the ballot box.
Seven candidates have filed to appear on the ballot. Incumbents Wally Campbell and Brannon Hampton are running for reelection and newcomers Benita Beckles, Sharnai Fisher, Tamara Floyd, Vicki Gillis and Atenas Rodriguez also filed to appear on the Aug. 2 primary ballot.
The third seat on the council is being left vacant by recent council appointee Patrick Bray.
Bray publicly stated in February that he would not run for his spot, and has not filed paperwork with the city as a traditional candidate by the April 4 deadline.
Therefore, the city of Goodyear will gain at least one new elected city councilmember in 2023, regardless of the outcome of the election.
Read on to get to know the candidates for Goodyear City Council and their plans for Goodyear.
Benita Beckles, a retired Air Force colonel and city government worker, is making her first bid for Goodyear City Council.
Benita Beckle’s served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force for 30 years, earning the rank of colonel and retiring as a group commander.
Beckles has had a parallel career in city government and in the corporate sphere. She’s worked in various positions within the cities of Detroit and Phoenix during the past 20 years.
Her LinkedIn shows she retired from the city of Detroit in 2013 after nearly 15 years as manager of human resources.
Her campaign website states she also worked for the city of Phoenix as a senior human resources analyst. She’s also founded her own business, Potential Plus, which is listed as a “professional training and coaching” company on a site that aggregates data from business filings.
Beckles touts her experience in the military and in human resources on her campaign website. She states she will bring “diversity and a distinct perspective” to the council.
Beckles’ “unique experiences as a retired military officer along with over 20 years in large city government and Human Resources will benefit the city of Goodyear City Council,” her campaign website reads.
Beckles is a member of a variety of West Valley organizations including the Goodyear Community Action Network. The organization was formed by Goodyear police officers and community advocates following the killing of George Floyd, and it meets monthly to discuss local and national issues related to law enforcement.
Beckles also is a member of the Luke Air Force Base chapter of the Military Officers Association, Tuskegee Airmen Inc., the Reserves Officers Association, the West Valley Chapter of the NAACP and the West Valley Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
She’s also been part of furthering the efforts of Vision and Sound: An African American Experience, which is a Goodyear-based gallery highlighting the works of Black artists.
Beckles earned a bachelor’s in sociology at Hampton University in Virginia. She has a master’s degree in education from George Washington University.
Beckles lives in central Goodyear and has two adult sons and four grandchildren.
Longtime councilmember Wally Campbell hopes to serve a fourth term on the council.
Wally Campbell is a longtime council member and one of two incumbents running for reelection to the council.
Campbell moved to Arizona in 2000 and was first elected to the council in 2011 to serve out the term of then-Vice Mayor Georgia Lord. She went on to win reelection in 2013 and again in 2017.
Campbell describes herself as an “experienced council member with a demonstrated history of working in the government administration industry,” on her LinkedIn page.
Her stated priorities include “improving city-to-citizen communications, developing community connections, attracting industry-creating jobs, and the city’s fiscal stability,” according to her biography on the city website.
She is a founding member and president of the Friends of the Library-Goodyear branch and has been associated in a variety of capacities with many West Valley organizations including the Goodyear White Tanks Rotary Club, the West Valley Human Services Alliance, All Faith Community Services, the Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce and many others.
Campbell has been involved in several organizations that work to further protections for vulnerable adults.
She was appointed to serve as the public member of the Arizona Board of Examiners of Nursing Care Institution Administrators and Assisted Living Facility Managers by former Gov. Jan Brewer, and later Gov. Doug Ducey.
Prior to residing in Arizona, Campbell worked for over 20 years as a staff member in the California State Legislature.
She graduated from Sierra College in Rocklin, California, according to her LinkedIn page.
Campbell has four children and was married to her husband John for 53 years before his death in July 2020.
Campbell does not list a campaign website on paperwork submitted to the city related to her bid for reelection, but you can read her bio on the city’s website here.
Sharnai Fisher
Military police officer and PI Sharnai Fisher has made her first bid for city council.
Sharnai Fisher is a private investigator, business owner and military police officer in the U.S. Air Force.
Fisher has worked in the criminal justice field for more than 12 years, and started her own private investigation company, Fisheye Investigation Group, in 2018.
Originally from Tennessee, Fisher moved to Goodyear in 2015.
Among Fisher’s priorities are to encourage “economic growth that pays a livable wage,” and create after-school opportunities for “at-risk” teens, according to her campaign website.
She is licensed as a professional investigator with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, according to her LinkedIn page.
Fisher is openly lesbian and is married to her partner, she told Independent Newsmedia. She has a teenage son who attends high school in Goodyear.
Goodyear City Council hopeful Tamara Floyd says she wants to see improvements in public transit, affordable housing and education.
Tamara Floyd has been a Goodyear resident since 1999, and has mounted a campaign for council emphasizing her experience in social services and community involvement,
Floyd “works intuitively with her community and is deeply rooted in a shared connection of partnerships” according to her campaign website. Her stated goals include greater access to affordable housing, improved public transit, quality child care, education and resources for seniors, veterans and vulnerable populations.
Floyd is a senior program coordinator with the Roosevelt Early Childhood Family Resource Center at the University of Arizona, where she connects low-income families to community-based services.
Floyd has been associated with a variety of human services-related commissions and advisory boards both in the West Valley and beyond including the Human Services Commission, and the city of Phoenix Human Services Advisory Committee.
She also served on an advisory board related to Valley Metro expansion and was a Democratic precinct committeeman for Legislative District 4.
Floyd studied sociology at San Jose State University. Floyd has endorsed Carlita Cotton for mayor.
Vicki Gillis is running on her support for first responders. “I’m a candidate that fights for those who fight for us.”
Vicki Gillis has a background in entertainment and political fundraising and is originally from Washington State.
The main focus of her campaign has been supporting first responders and ensuring greater workplace safety for firefighters and police officers.
On her campaign website, Gillis cites a deadly oil refinery explosion at her husband’s workplace as the impetus of her focus on first responders issues.
“I wanted to do what I could to ease the horrific pain one feels after the loss of a loved one due to a tragic accident,” her website reads. “Oil and coal workers, firefighters and police, these are dangerous jobs and we’re a big family that needs to look after one another.”
Her campaign website also mentions her charity work for widows and children of firefighters killed on 9/11, and describes her friendship with the FDNY Chief Steve Mosiello, who later died of cancer from exposure to toxic dust related to the 2001 attacks.
Gillis told The Independent she has since worked to get insurance claims approved for first responders impacted by long-term health issues associated with on-the-job hazards.
“The dangers that firefighters face have dramatically shifted…my candidacy is built around shifting my focus to protect them from the traditional hazards and these new dangers,” Gillis wrote. “I’m a candidate that fights for those who fight for us.”
She said several people had asked her to run for a spot on the council.
“I was asked to run by people who were concerned about keeping Goodyear a special place,” she wrote on her website, “protecting taxpayers and homeowners, looking after our small businesses, and making sure that public safety remains a top priority.”
Brannon Hampton is running to be reelected a second term on the council.
Vice Mayor Brannon Hampton is the newest member elected to the council, having been sworn in for his first four-year term in 2017.
A Phoenix native, Hampton has spent the majority of his life in the West Valley, He graduated from Agua Fria High School and has lived in Goodyear for the past 15 years.
Hampton currently works as a financial adviser with Edward Jones. He previously worked for Arizona Public Service Co. for 18 years in a variety of roles.
On his campaign website, Hampton writes that he has a background in “finance, process improvement, root cause analysis, business administration, engineering, project management and leadership.”
Hampton has been associated with a number of governmental organizations and advisory bodies. He currently represents Goodyear on the Maricopa Association of Governments Economic Development Committee, among others.
His stated goals include attracting and retaining businesses, growth management, improving quality of life and reducing the city’s long-term debt.
Hampton is the youngest member on the current council, and he has previously emphasized his position as a West Valley native, and father of a young family in a city long associated with retiree transplants.
Hampton writes on his campaign website that he “has a unique perspective on the community that will help the council represent the city more fully” and that he “will represent all generations throughout Goodyear.”
Hampton has a master’s degree in business administration from Grand Canyon University.
He and his wife Rebecca have three young children.
Atenas Rodriguez (center) works in the nonprofit sector and as a social media director.
Atenas Rodriguez, 29, works in the nonprofit sector and as a social media director.
She is currently a “community action manager” for ALL In Education, a nonprofit that seeks to increase Latino representation on education boards impacting public policy.
Her stated goals are managing issues associated with urban sprawl, maintaining public safety, protecting farmland and quality education.
She also calls for “innovative environmental solutions so that the negative impacts of urban sprawl do not decrease the quality of life, water, air, and health of our families,” according to her campaign website.
Rodriguez has a significant online presence and her information will sometimes appear under the surname Stuart or the first name Athena.
Rodriguez’s image appears in the marketing for a “social media coaching and management” company Meraki Brand House where Rodriguez is described as the “brains behind the operation.”
Rodriguez’s Linkedin shows she has worked at the company since 2016 as a social media manager.
Rodriguez holds a master’s in environmental science from Johns Hopkins University and she has one son.
Madeline Ackley is a Phoenix-area native who joined Independent Newsmedia in July 2021 as a reporter for the Goodyear-Litchfield Park Independent. She is passionate about delivering hyperlocal coverage of issues that matter to her community.
She has previously covered immigration, policing, homelessness, veteran’s issues and breaking news and her byline has appeared in The Arizona Mirror, The Arizona Republic, The Phoenix Business Journal and Cronkite News.
Madeline is passionate about animal welfare and the environment. She loves to cook, travel and spend time with her family.
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