Gilbert Town Councilmember Kathy Tilque announced Jan. 15 that she will not run for re-election this year.
“Today represents just one moment in time, yet captures decades of service to this community, as I announce that I have made the decision to not seek another term on Town Council and retire to spend time with my family,” Tilque wrote in her announcement. “This past year was filled with deep soul searching to reach this decision, and I've come to realize it is time to enjoy life's blessings while Greg and I are still young and healthy enough to do all the things we have been putting off.”
Tilque’s announcement comes on the heels of Vice Mayor Scott Anderson’s kickoff Jan. 12 to a mayoral campaign, leaving two council seats vacant in the August election.
Tilque won election in 2020 shortly after retiring as president and CEO of the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, a post she had held for 24 years. She was appointed to fill a vacant seat on council in August 2020 in the aftermath of Mayor Jenn Daniels’ resignation and shortly after Tilque had won her own term that was to start in January 2021.
Tilque recently finished a year as vice mayor and led the creation of the town’s Community Engagement Task Force. That task force came after weekly dueling protests in 2020 for Black Lives Matter and Back the Blue in the wake of the death of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody.
Tilque often served the role of conciliator on a deeply divided council or when divisions happened with the community, such as when she helped bring sides together between developers of The Ranch light-industrial development and residential neighbors in Morrison Ranch, whose loud protests rocked council meetings in the fall of 2022.
The sides reached an amicable agreement this spring that allowed a revised development plan to win approval from council.
Those protest, along with misunderstandings about the town’s role in rail development that also led to protests last fall, spurred Tilque to make efforts to improve communications with the community, standardize meeting protocols and rewrite ethics and code of conduct policies.
In her statement, Tilque expressed a sadness about ending her years of service but excitement about plans with her husband — a former Gilbert Economic Development director for 19 years and president of Gilbert Sister Cities for five years — plus children and grandchildren.
She further noted she will have a year left on council.
“I will be working hard to leave a legacy of financial stability long into the future,” she said. “I’ll focus on long-term decisions, as hard as they may be, to ensure all the work we have put into creating a community that is one of the best in the nation will stay that way and thrive long after I’m gone.”
She added that she will not be going away but rechanneling her energy into championing Gilbert’s proposed Family Advocacy Center, which will bring together multiple resources for victims to streamline the investigation and aid processes.
“Together we can reduce violence against women, children, and teens within our community,” she stated.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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