Municipal elections in Phoenix, Arizona (2015)

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2015 Elections for Mayors and City Councils

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Note: Cities listed in this box are those among the 100 largest in the United States that held elections in 2015.

The city of Phoenix, Arizona, held elections for mayor and city council on August 25, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was May 27, 2015. Four of the eight city council seats were up for election.

Incumbent mayor Greg Stanton won re-election for a second term. He defeated Anna Maria Brennan​​ and Matthew Jette. Council incumbents Thelda Williams, Bill Gates​, Daniel Valenzuela and Michael Nowakowski all won re-election. Valenzuela was the only council incumbent to face a challenger. He defeated Felix A. Garcia​.

Stanton was first elected in 2011. He won a crowded general election on August 30, 2011, with over 37 percent of the vote. This put him almost twenty points ahead of any other challenger, but did not win him the simple majority he needed to avoid a runoff. On November 8, 2011, he defeated lobbyist and political consultant Wes Gullett 56 to 44.

Phoenix municipal elections are officially nonpartisan. Unofficially, however, the elections frequently feature partisan elements, and the respective party affiliations of local candidates are often common knowledge. Stanton, for example, is a Democrat. His chief opponent in 2011, Wes Gullett, was a Republican. In 2015, Stanton again faced a Republican challenger in Anna Maria Brennan​​, a medical-spa owner, who took five percent of the vote in the 2011 general election. Stanton also faced Matthew Jette​, a local educator and Independent.

The four city council seats up for election in 2015 attracted the smallest number of candidates for a Phoenix council race since at least 2001, according to The Arizona Republic. A total of five candidates qualified by the deadline on May 27, 2015. Four of them were incumbents. Only first-term council member Daniel Valenzuela faced an opponent.

A major point of contention in the Phoenix mayoral race was the state of the city's budget and the cost of police and fire fighter pensions. Read about candidates' stances on the issues below.

Mayor

Candidate list

August 25 General election candidates:

• Anna Maria Brennan​​
• Matthew Jette​
• Greg Stanton - Incumbent Stanton was elected in 2011.

Election results

Phoenix Mayor General Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Greg Stanton Incumbent	65.3%	85,629
Anna Maria Brennan​​	29.1%	38,118
Matthew Jette	5.6%	7,356
Total Votes		131,103
Source: City of Phoenix, "Official election results," accessed September 15, 2015

City council

Candidate list

District 1

August 25 General election candidates:

• Thelda Williams - Incumbent Williams was elected in 2007.

District 3

August 25 General election candidates:

• Bill Gates​ - Incumbent Gates was appointed in 2009.

District 5

August 25 General election candidates:

• Felix A. Garcia​
• Daniel Valenzuela - Incumbent Valenzuela was elected in 2011.

District 7

August 25 General election candidates:

• Michael Nowakowski - Incumbent Nowakowski was elected in 2008.

Election results

Phoenix City Council District 5 General Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Daniel Valenzuela Incumbent	74%	7,609
Felix A. Garcia​	26%	2,677
Total Votes		10,286
Source: City of Phoenix, "Official election results," accessed September 15, 2015

Ballot measures

General plan, Prop. 100

See also: City of Phoenix General Plan Ratification, Proposition 100 (August 2015)

A measure to ratify the city's proposed general plan was on the ballot for Phoenix voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, on August 25, 2015. It was approved.

Proposition 100 ratified the city's proposed general plan for the city regarding construction, development and infrastructure.

Expenditure limitation, Prop. 101

See also: City of Phoenix Alternative Expenditure Limitation, Proposition 101 (August 2015)

A measure authorizing the city to set its own expenditure limitation was on the ballot for Phoenix voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, on August 25, 2015. It was approved.

Proposition 101 allowed the city council to set its own spending limits, providing for a more flexible budget. The Arizona Constitution sets a spending limitation for cities. The state constitution also allows city voters to override this limitation and allow the city to set an alternative expenditure limitation. Voters in Phoenix had approved such an override every four years between 2000 and 2015. The state-set budget limitation was designed to mandate a city budget $928 million less than the city council's proposed 2016-17 budget. This reduction in the city's budget would have been required if voters had rejected Proposition 101.

Electronic payments, Prop. 102

See also: City of Phoenix Electronic Payments Amendment, Proposition 102 (August 2015)

A charter amendment authorizing the city to make electronic payments was on the ballot for Phoenix voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, on August 25, 2015. It was approved.

Proposition 102 amended the city charter to allow the city to make electronic payments. Without Proposition 102, the city charter would have continued to require the city to make all payments through a physical form approved by the city manager.

Pension reform, Prop. 103

See also: City of Phoenix Pension Plan Charter Amendment, Proposition 103 (August 2015)

A charter amendment concerning city pensions was on the ballot for Phoenix voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, on August 25, 2015. It was approved.

Measure design

Proposition 103 was designed to curtail pension spiking and to address issues with the previous pension measure approved by voters in 2013 by setting a cap on what percentage of an employee's salary can be taken for his or her pension fund contribution. City officials estimated that the provisions under Proposition 103 would save the city approximately $38.8 million over 20 years. This measure was the fourth pension-related measure city voters had seen in three years.

Transportation sales tax, Prop. 104

See also: City of Phoenix Comprehensive Transportation Plan Funding, Proposition 104 (August 2015)

A measure authorizing a sales tax for a Comprehensive Transportation Plan was on the ballot for Phoenix voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, on August 25, 2015. It was approved.

Proposition 104 authorized the city to impose a transportation sales tax at a rate of 0.7 percent—seven cents for every $10 purchase—for 35 years. The revenue from the tax would be used to fund a transportation improvement plan for the city, including expansion and improvement of light rail and bus routes and road maintenance and repair. The city of Phoenix already had a 0.4 percent transportation tax in place. This tax was set to expire in 2020. Proposition 104 was designed to increase the tax to 0.7 percent and extend it until 2051.

The proposed plan was designed to include the addition of 42 miles to the 13.5-mile city light rail system. Among other stops, the new routes were drawn to include stops around Grand Canyon University on the west side of Phoenix, the Glendale ASU West campus and Paradise Valley Mall.

Issues

Budget and pensions

In June 2015, projections for the new city budget in 2016-2017 showed a possible deficit between $31 million and $58 million. Dustin Gardiner, a local journalist with AZ Central, noted that this deficit was caused primarily by the city’s expenses and, in particular, the cost of funding pensions for the city’s police and firefighters. A pension reform measure was defeated at the ballot in November 2014. You can read more about that measure here. The city government delayed payments to the state pension fund in order to balance the 2015-2016 budget. The Phoenix Budget and Research Department issued a report that stated that the deficit could have lasted until the 2019-2020 budget. Read more about each candidate's stance on the issues below.

Comments from Phoenix's 2015 mayoral candidates on budget and pensions:

Anna Maria Brennan Anna Maria Brennan​​ told azcentral.com that privatization was the key to removing things that she identified as inefficiencies in the city’s government. “City management is charged to balance revenue and spending and must be held accountable to provide an affordable government. In 2011, three city employees walked away with $1.5 million in cash and a lifetime pension of $140,000 per year each. A city clerk new hire gets 40.5 paid days off in the first year. This is not sustainable. Privatization can lower the costs of government, achieve higher performance and better outcomes for tax dollars spent.” Brennan echoed that claim on her own campaign website, saying "I believe, as many of you do, that government needs to be smaller and more efficient, our neighborhoods and cities – safer and more secure. I recognize that if we focus on what works, such as free markets and less government red tape, then a smarter more robust economy will flourish." Speaking to azcentral.com, Matthew Jette said he believed that increasing revenue was the solution to the city’s deficit concerns. “Cutting spending represents a lack of economic understanding, asks city employees, including police and fire, to again sacrifice and ignores infrastructure. New revenue streams, including taxes and fees, rezoning unused properties, or re-organizing priorities must spark economic growth.” Jette offered an additional solution on his campaign website, saying “Healthy economies need a government that aims to reduce duplicate and wasteful regulations and promotes technological advancements. Enduring economies are built around a collaborative partnership between private enterprise and public investment, between manufacturing and technology, and between innovation and opportunity.” Matthew Jette Greg Stanton In his submission to azcentral.com, incumbent Greg Stanton defended the city’s fiscal position and budgeting process. He said, “Phoenix is a fiscally well managed city and maintains the highest credit rating of the largest six cities in the country. Phoenix was projected to have a significant deficit for the 2015-[20]16 budget just a few years ago. However, the 2015-16 budget is balanced, without service reductions, because of smart planning, pension reform, innovation and efficiency, as well as reductions in workforce size. We are utilizing the same approach to ensure future budgets are also balanced, while still making critical infrastructure investments to build our city for the future. For statewide public safety pension reform, I believe the Governor and legislature can use as a model the successful pension reform we have accomplished here at the city of Phoenix.”

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Phoenix Arizona Election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Municipal elections in Phoenix, Arizona (2015) - Google News

See also

• United States municipal elections, 2015
• Phoenix, Arizona
• August 25, 2015 ballot measures in Arizona

• City of Phoenix Pension Plan Charter Amendment, Proposition 103 (August 2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• City of Phoenix - Elections information
• City of Phoenix - Important Dates: Mayor and Council Election, August 25, 2015
• City of Phoenix - 2015 Candidate List
• City of Phoenix - Official election results