Tempe-Chandler election wrap-up
Tempe voters stepped up in the Nov. 3 General Election to keep their city a desirable place by overwhelmingly favoring measures to maintain and improve basic services.
Approval was given for each of five parts of a $349 million bond request to go toward capital projects. The bonds are to be paid with secondary property taxes. According to Maricopa County Elections Department returns posted as of Nov. 16:
- $134 for water and sewer improvements: 70.1 percent in favor.
- $74 million for street and storm-drain improvements: 69.7 percent in favor.
- $34 million for public safety: 62.2 percent in favor.
- $45 million for park and community services improvements: 67.6 percent in favor.
- $62 million for municipal infrastructure preservation: 59.2 percent in favor.
CHANDLER UTILITY FRANCHISE
Chandler voters approved re-awarding a franchise to Southwest Gas to maintain the city’s gas system and facilities for 25 years.
The vote, with 51.6 percent in favor, amounts to an extension until Dec. 31, 2045, of a franchise that voters granted Southwest Gas on Dec. 11, 1995, that would have expired in January of 2021.
TEMPE UNION SCHOOL BOARD
In tight races, Tempe Union High School District Governing Board President Berdetta Hodge was reelected with 45,236 votes. Also elected were 2019 Desert Vista High graduate Armando Montero (43,516), the youngest candidate, and Sarah Lindsay James (41,361), a teacher for 21 years.
They edged Lori Bastian (40,148), former teacher Don Fletcher (36,345), two-term board incumbent Sandy Lowe (31,111), middle school teacher Paige Reesor (31,863) and Michael Myrick (26,969), president of the Kyrene School District Governing Board, who did not seek reelection there to instead run in TUHSD.
CHANDLER UNIFIED SCHOOL BOARD
Barb Mozdzen was reelected to a fourth term on the Chandler Unified School District Governing Board with 75,595 votes.
She will be joined by Joel Wirth (71,026) and Jason Olive (68,402), winners of the two other seats up for election this year.
KYRENE SCHOOL BOARD
In still more tight races, Incumbent Kyrene School District Governing Board member Michelle Fahy was reelected, leading a five-person field for three seats with 39,106 votes. Also elected was Margaret Wright (34,535), who has lived in the district for nine years and has three children.
The third seat went to Wanda Kolomyjec (33,212), a Justice Studies professor at Arizona State University, who prevailed in a tight race with Trine Nelson (32,724), a curriculum manager at ASU and the mother of two Kyrene students. They finished ahead of Ivan Alfaro (27,583) in a competitive field.
TEMPE ELEMENTARY BOARD
This was a mad scramble with the addition of four write-in candidates to two declared candidates vying for three seats on the Tempe Elementary District Governing Board.
Board president Monica Trejo (33,255 votes) was reelected. Allison Ewers, a Tempe mom and business owner, and the other declared candidate, also won a seat 26,437 votes.
The counting of write-in candidates was slow to be posted, but when it finally was, write-in candidate Jim Lemmon, a former board member, who is supported by Mayor Corey Woods, was elected to the third seat with 2,498 votes.
Write-in candidates who were not successful were Michael Metzger, an MIT-trained engineer; Tim Taylor, a 13-year U.S. Marine, who grew up in Tempe; and board incumbent Rochelle Wells, who was not a certified candidate because she said it was inappropriate to go out during the COVID-19 pandemic to get signatures required to get on the ballot.
