Big ballot to hit Mesa early voters' mailboxes

Oct. 9—The massive Nov. 8 ballot will begin arriving in Mesa early voters' mailboxes this week and some local contests share the spotlight with marquee races like the ones for a new governor and the hotly contested U.S. Senate seat.

Along with races for all statewide offices, 10 propositions and local representatives to Congress and the state Legislature, Mesa voters will be selecting candidates for one city council seat and two Mesa Public Schools Governing Board seats.

They also must weigh in on four local ballot measures.

In the hunt for District 4 council seat, which covers downtown and central Mesa, incumbent Jenn Duff is facing off with challenger Trista Guzman Glover in a runoff after Duff fell short of the 50% needed to win in the Primary Election.

Incumbent Duff is a former pro bass fisher who owns a fishing tackle import business.

On council, Duff has supported the city's downtown revitalization initiatives and championed public safety and environmental issues, advocating for the Mesa Climate Action Plan and urging caution about approving new water-intensive projects.

She's also asserted her vision of diverse housing options in Mesa, pushing for projects with a balance between rental and for-sale units, and mixed styles of housing.

Guzman Glover, a former director of constituent services and boards and commissions for Gov. Doug Ducey's office, is a new mom taking her first run at elected office.

Her campaign has centered on family, public safety and business-friendly city policies.

"In order for Mesa to grow, we need to empower our small businesses with the tools necessary to be successful," her campaign website states, promising to cut red tape at the city level.

Guzman Glover has picked up two key endorsements that overlap with her stated priorities: the Mesa Police Association and the Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

Duff has endorsements from Mayor John Giles and three other current council members, as well as United Mesa Firefighters, Equality Arizona and several Hispanic community leaders.

The other two open council seats were settled in the Primary. In District 5, corporate attorney Alicia Goforth clinched the seat of term-limited David Luna in an uncontested race, and former firefighter and two-term council member Scott Somers won the District 6 seat of term-limited Kevin Thompson outright with 58% of the vote in a contest with small business owner Darla Trendler.

Thompson is leaving council, but voters will still find his name farther up the ballot, as one of the Republican nominees for two open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

The race between Duff and Guzman Glover could be consequential because the city has put millions of dollars behind igniting a downtown renaissance, and work remains on achieving the vision of a culturally and economically powerful "innovation district."

The next District 4 council member could be influential in shaping that transformation.

For example, the redevelopment of the vacant 27-acre Transform 17, now "Nexus," is a historic boondoggle that the city has high hopes for redeveloping as a mixed-use campus in the near future.

That project has been delayed and will only get harder to bring to fruition as interest rates rise and the economy cools, as many are predicting.

Ballot measures

Mesa voters will also have four ballot measures to consider.

Money is a common thread, and when council members called elections for the measures this summer, they also framed these money measures in terms of their importance for public safety.

Question 1 asks voters to approve the Home Rule option for city budget's rather than the State Expenditure Limit, which restricts the city budget based on a formula using inflation and population growth created in 1980.

Voters must vote on Home Rule every four years.

Not allowing Home Rule would require the city to slash its budget by an estimated $825 million. The city says its budget far exceeds the State Expenditure Limit because the limit doesn't take into account bonds or voter approved taxes, like Mesa's Public Safety Sales Tax increase passed in 2018.

Question 2 asks voters to approve a $157 million bond issue for public safety infrastructure, including the building or rebuilding of three fire stations, a revamp of the Police Department headquarters, and upgrades to the evidence building public safety training facility.

The last time voters approved bonds for public safety, in 2018, they signed off on $84.8 million for police and fire out of a total $196 million package including parks, cultural amenities and shared use paths.

City Manager Chris Brady told Council this summer that staff estimates the new financing would cost taxpayers about $43 a year in additional secondary property taxes.

The new fire stations in the plan will help the city fill "gap" areas in the city with slower emergency response times than other parts of the city identified in a March 2022 analysis of response data.

Mayor John Giles signaled strong support, saying that he thought existing public safety facilities were "overutilized," and more space for the police and fire departments was justified.

"With the growth of our community, I think any reasonable voter that looks into this thing is going to support it," Giles said.

Proposition 476 would exclude sworn public safety employees from the city charter's current prohibition on collective bargaining with employees or employee groups. City officials said Mesa is the only city with this prohibition in Arizona.

If passed, Prop 476 would allow the city manager to meet, confer and enter into memorandums of understandings regarding wages, hours, non-health-related benefits, and working conditions not covered under city personnel rules or state and federal laws.

The final measure, Prop 477, would amend the city charter to allow the city council to set by a simple council vote the dollar limit above which expenditures need council approval.

Currently, the Mesa City Charter requires any expenditures above $25,000 to receive council approval. City staff told council this is on the lower end of thresholds across the Valley.

Prop 477 would keep the $25,000 threshold, but allow future councils to change it via vote rather than ballot proposition.

MPS Governing Board

Seven candidates are vying for two open seats on the Mesa Public Schools Governing Board. Board President Jenny Richardson is stepping down and the seat held by current member Marcie Hutchinson is up for reelection.

Hutchinson is running for a second term, and the other candidates vying for the two seats are Ray Deer, Chris Hamlet, Jacob Martinez, Ed Steele, Rachel Walden and J. R. Wright.

An officially non-partisan race, school boards races this year have been colored by the intense of rivalries and high stakes of the partisan races up the ballot

MPS, the state's largest school district, is still trying to recover from student achievement setbacks from the pandemic and is looking to improve outcomes while battling labor shortages and historic inflation.

Scores on math and language on state tests, resumed for Arizona students last year after a skipped year due to the pandemic, were disappointing for MPS in some areas, and graduation rates are at historic lows.

The candidates introduced themselves and answered questions about school safety and growing achievement at two candidate forums held at the MPS Curriculum Services building this fall, and they are available for viewing on the district's YouTube channel.

Below are candidate introductions with quotes from candidate forums.

Ray Deer

Deer, a former MPS teacher at Fremont and Taylor Junior Highs, said he is running for the governing board because "I believe experience matters."

Deer noted that he has previously served as vice chair and secretary of the education board for Salt River Schools. He said that smaller class sizes and eliminating toxic environments would help close achievement gaps in the district.

"I also want to bring common sense governance back to the board. I believe that parents and guardians should not be shut out and that we as board members would have to listen to them," he said.

Chris Hamlet

Hamlet is a former airborne medic in the U.S. Army. He is a single parent to two kids who have attended MPS.

He said he is running because "I want to protect my son and all the children in this community from being indoctrinated."

"I believe we should eliminate politically and philosophically charged teaching practices and customs such as Critical Theory and its progeny such as Critical Race Theory or Critical Gender Theory," he said.

Hamlet says he wants to get "mental health and wellness" programs out of school to focus on academics. He also wants to get rid of the district's Portrait of a Graduate goals, which have "no tangible educational value."

Hamlet regularly attends board meetings and described presentations by district staff during meetings as "political theater."

Marcie Hutchinson

Hutchinson retired from MPS in 2007 after 31 years of teaching American and European history in New York and Arizona.

Hutchinson was elected to the MPS governing board in 2018, and currently serves on several other boards, including the Arizona Council for History Education.

She said she is running for reelection because "I believe that every student deserves a great public education in a safe and healthy school, and that every student must be engaged in meaningful, real life learning that meets their strengths and needs."

She supports the district's current Portrait of a Graduate goals and said "students need to be taught how to get along and see each other as part of a society."

To help close achievement gaps, Hutchinson would like to help teachers focus on instruction by adding more social workers, counselors and nurses to schools.

Hutchinson has a broad coalition of endorsements, including the mayor and entire city council except Kevin Thompson. They also include the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, Save Our Schools Arizona and the Mesa Education Association.

Jacob Martinez

Martinez is an MPS graduate and Mesa native who is a small business owner and student at Arizona State University studying political science.

Martinez said he is running for the board "to represent my community, which is a Mesa community, because we need to put service over anything else in Mesa and make sure that Mesa Public Schools is the premier place to be no matter what walk of life."

He said "there's nothing more important than listening to the community," and said fostering positive environments in MPS would help increase school safety.

He wants to reduce class sizes and give teachers more professional learning time to enhance lesson quality.

Martinez is one of two candidates in the race to be named a "Public School Proud" candidate by the nonprofit group Save Our Schools Arizona.

Ed Steele

Steele is a retired manufacturing business owner who is running because "It's time for a new perspective and new problem-solving skills on this board."

He touts his background in engineering outside of the "education space" as a valuable addition to the board.

Steele said that increased "discipline" would increase school safety.

On school funding, he said "There's no shortage of money, but we have an allocation problem."

Steele thinks the district has overburdened teachers, and he would get rid of social emotional learning and focus on academics.

Steele is an outspoken critic on social media of accommodations for transgender students, equating transgender identity with "suffering from a mental illness."

Steele is endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus of Arizona, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and other organizations.

Rachel Walden

Walden says she is a "Mesa mom," and she decided to run last year because "I was really concerned about what I was seeing with the kids in my community, the learning loss that we experienced. We had so many students that were not performing at their grade level."

She said she wants to "bring our focus back to academics" on the board.

Walden said that academic achievement builds confidence in students and would solve many problems the district is facing, from school safety to achievement gaps.

Her campaign website states, "Political agendas and 'Critical Theories' have no place in our taxpayer funded education. The curriculum and programs infiltrating our schools are founded on Marxist principles with the end goal to fundamentally transform America."

"I'm also running to help restore and bring back American history, education and strong civics education, as this can unite us all as Americans with a common interest in upholding the dignity and freedom of everyone," she said during a candidate forum.

Walden is one of two MPS board candidates endorsed by the Arizona chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus, as well as Free Enterprise Club and other organizations and Mesa council member Kevin Thompson.

J.R. Wright

Wright, a Mesa business owner, said he is running because "I'm a proud graduate of Mesa Public Schools. I had an amazing experience in the public school system that shaped my life."

Wright is the father of seven kids who have been in the MPS system, including three still attending.

He's been involved in MPS as the booster club president, and sees serving on the board as "another great way to give public service and to make Mesa Public Schools the best that they can be."

Wright said students need to feel safe on campus and "community partnerships" between MPS and other organizations like the City of Mesa and local companies can help the district close achievement gaps.

Wright has picked up a slew of endorsements, including current board president Richardson, Mesa Mayor John Giles, and Mesa council members Mark Freeman and Julie Spilsbury.