Two things in my life have remained constant since childhood. The son of a pastor, I learned at a young age the value of servant leadership. As a West Valley and Glendale resident for most of my life, I have loved and served our community for decades. I share your frustrations, your hopes, and your sense that our local government must do more to listen to its ultimate boss – the residents who call Glendale home.
That’s why on Election Day 2024, I hope you will vote for me as the next mayor of Glendale.
My wife, Beth, and I got married in downtown Glendale at the First United Methodist Church in 2015. We moved to Glendale a couple years later. This is where we chose to raise our 4-year-old son, George, who shares our passions for his hometown. He loves downtown Glendale, what’s left of Glendale Glitters, the boat parade in Arrowhead Lakes, and the library on 59th Avenue near Sahuaro Ranch with all the peacocks. Those are some of the best parts of Glendale, and I’m glad he gets to experience them with us. But let’s be honest: Not everything in our city is roses these days.
Glendale residents recently voted down city bonds for parks, streets, and infrastructure improvements. The year before, residents voted down a proposed pay raise for the mayor and council by a landslide. Residents are clearly unhappy with something and someone – the leaders of our city. It’s sad to see city leadership and our residents at such variance with each other.
Too often, Glendale’s elected leadership disregards city residents, including the members of their own commissions and boards. In 2020, the Glendale Land Planning Commission voted unanimously to keep Glen Lakes golf course open. I love that course. My dad and I golfed there when I was a kid. More importantly, scores of residents came to testify against turning Glen Lakes into a housing development. In fact, not a single resident spoke in favor of the housing development. The city council voted to bulldoze Glen Lakes anyways. Your voice didn’t matter.
No city can thrive by ignoring its residents, or by acting like public opinion is a mere inconvenience. We need elected leaders who listen instead of declaring they know better. It's time to put Glendale first – our residents, employees, and first responders. It’s time for Glendale to express a clear vision of what our city is today and what it can be tomorrow. It’s time to remove the largest source of contempt for Glendale residents – our mayor – and start anew with leadership that serves others in word and deed.
I’ve had the privilege of serving Glendale residents in the state Legislature for the last 10 years. Hardly a day went by when I did not have to fight to keep local control in place, fighting against legislators who wanted to preempt cities and dictate to local governments and residents what to do. Those conflicts were not an inconvenience. They were precisely why you elected me, and I’m proud of those successes.
I’m proud, too, of helping to protect an estimated $285 million in annual state shared revenue for cities throughout Arizona during the Flat Tax debate. In my time in the Legislature, we cut taxes for every Arizonan meanwhile protecting cities, which need that revenue to fund the most important element of local government – public safety.
Supporting your first responders, especially firefighters, was another focal point for me, as it will be if you elect me as Glendale’s mayor. We need to reduce response times in our city for the police department and the fire department. And we need to make sure our cops and firefighters are safe on the job, whether the foe is criminals, or the cancer that has decimated the fire service. The firefighter cancer legislation that I sponsored and led to passage, is an example of how I will lead in Glendale.
We will see a problem, arrive at a solution, then fight like hell to get the job done.
Our city has so much more potential than we ever hear from city hall. We need to revitalize downtown Glendale and Murphy Park. We need strengthened public safety, better services for seniors and children, and better infrastructure. We don’t need a mayor who ignores our history and disregards our downtown in favor of picking fights with hard-working small business owners and our city’s Chamber of Commerce.
We need a partner and an advocate, not a carping critic for whom leadership is a constant game of “I know best.”
As residents of Glendale, we want to know our roads are in top condition, our water is clean, and our trash is picked up on time. As a legislator, I supported good public policy regardless of whose name was on the bill and their party affiliation. As former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl once said, “there are no Republican or Democratic potholes.”
Glendale can do better. We must do better. With your support, we can make a change and chart a course to put Glendale first – our residents, city employees, and first responders.
Paul Boyer was named Arizonan of the Year in 2021. He represented Glendale for 10 years at the Arizona legislature, serving as the House and Senate education chair.
*
We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
