Goodyear to appoint new council member in closed-door meeting

By Madeline Ackley Salazar
Twitter: @Mkayackley

Goodyear City Council is drawing closer to appointing a new council member this week as it prepares to interview its shortlist of council candidates in a closed-door meeting Tuesday. 

The city received 23 applications and narrowed its list of candidates to five men: Paul Smiley, Jason Kish, Jarrett Hickman, Gregg Clymer and Patrick Bray. 

The council seat was left vacant after Joe Pizzillo took over as mayor following the death of Mayor Georgia Lord in December. 

Council members typically are elected by voters, but the city charter allows for council members to be appointed when spots are left vacant mid-term. 

In this case, the decision-making process to choose a candidate to round out the seven-member council occurred outside public view. 

The city did not make public the names, applications and resumes of council candidates; media outlets were able to report on candidates after requesting those documents from the city. 

Three of the five candidates being considered are current or recent members of the city’s planning and zoning commission, which makes recommendations to the city council regarding development and rezoning requests. 

Bray served on the commission since 2013, and retired on Feb. 16 as the commission’s chair, along with three other commissioners that same day. 

Both Clymer and Kish are current commissioners, and if either one is selected, he would need to resign from the commission. 

The candidate may be announced tomorrow or as late as Feb. 28. 

Paul Andrew Smiley

Smiley, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, has lived in Goodyear since 2000 and is co-founder and president of Goodyear-based Sonoran Technology. 

He’s served on a variety of advisory boards, including ones for Arizona State University and Estrella Mountain Community College. 

“I believe it is my civic duty to step up to the plate and volunteer to fill the open city council seat,” Smiley wrote in his application. 

Smiley states he previously served on the Goodyear Public Improvement Corp. board from 2010 to 2013 and was part of the Goodyear Action Plan Committee alongside 30 other business leaders. 

In response to a prompt regarding the most important issues facing Goodyear and how to solve them, Smiley lists water, public safety, and workforce development as his top concerns. 

He suggests the city should consider reducing the amount of grass residents are allowed to have and offering tax breaks for people who choose artificial grass in response to water concerns facing Goodyear. 

Smiley wrote that public safety should be a top priority for the growing city and surveys should be conducted of other similar cities to determine what is needed. 

In response to his concern regarding workforce development, Smiley does not directly answer how to solve the issue but states “Goodyear needs (to) grow and train the workforce of tomorrow now!”

Jason Kish

Kish, a school teacher, has lived in Goodyear since 2005 and has served on the Planning and Zoning Commission for seven years. 

Kish has worked as a teacher for Agua Fria and Desert Edge high schools and as an assistant principal for Legacy Traditional School in Laveen. 

He currently teaches social studies at Canyon View. 

“As a husband, father and teacher, I believe in modeling service and citizenship,” Kish wrote in his application. “I love the city of Goodyear…I believe I bring a unique (perspective) as a teacher that could be useful to the council.” 

Kish also mentions in his application that he is a parking lot attendant for Christ’s Church of the Valley, and spends at least some of his time in Vermont where he serves as a volunteer firefighter. 

Kish did not answer the question about the most important issues facing Goodyear, and instead responded with three issues he had worked on during his time with the planning and zoning commission. 

Jarrett R. Hickman

Hickman has lived in Goodyear since 2008, and has worked in business and teaching. 

He is currently the business development manager at Project Blue and writes he is a “30-year business professional.” 

He was a program director, faculty adviser and adjunct business professor at Estrella Mountain and Scottsdale community colleges from 2013 to 2018, according to his resume.

Hickman also avoids answering the question of Goodyear top issues. He responds that economic development, transportation and regional roads are his top issues but does not state how he will address these points. 

In response to economic development, he wrote: “The LIVE, WORK, PLAY vision that Mayor Georgia Lord had for the city of Goodyear, is very much so a viable reality,” (capitalization in original).  

Gregg N. Clymer

Clymer is an Air Force veteran and has lived in Goodyear since 2000 when it was “a very small town ot 15,000,” he wrote in his application.

“The city councils and city managers have made the growth in the best interest of the city and of its residents,” Clymer states. “I wish to be allowed to continue that tradition.”

He states in his application he is a small business owner. Clymer acquired New Mexico-based industrial equipment business Southwest Quality Suppliers. 

Clymer has served on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission since 2019 and was vice president of the PebbleCreek HOA between 2014 and 2016. 

Clymer’s top issues are transportation, water and crime. 

He states in his application he would advocate for “traffic signal synchronization and “a bus pullout wherever pickups are to be made on our new streets” in response to transportation concerns.

Clymer does not directly answer how he would handle water issues within the city, but says he intends to works closely with the Arizona Department of Water Resources. 

He also writes he believes crime has proliferated over the past year and that he is a “strong supporter of our police force both publicly, loud and clear, and through sufficient funding.”

 Patrick Bray

Patrick Bray has been a Goodyear resident since 2008, and recently left his spot as chair of the city’s Goodyear Planning and Zoning Commission, where he served for nine years, five as chair. 

Bray has worked in cattle and agriculture industry groups. 

He has been executive vice president for the Arizona Farm and Ranch Group since 2018 and was previously with the Arizona Cattle Growers Association from 2007 to 2018. 

Bray is a former Republican Precinct Committeeman for Legislative District 4. 

He listed growth, budget and water as his top three concerns but answers in general terms how he intends to approach these issues. 

He advocates “investing resources now so that our long term future is secure.” 

“We have to work with elected officials, staff and the citizens to continue to address the issues we face.”

Madeline Ackley Salazar can be reached at mackley@iniusa.org or found on Twitter @Mkayackley.