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Phil Gordon (politician) |
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Phil Gordon
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 Phil Gordon |
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Current Mayor of Phoenix
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 2, 2004 |
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| Preceded by | Skip Rimsza |
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| Born | April 18, 1951 Chicago, Illinois |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Profession | Politician |
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This biographical article or section is written like a resume. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (December 2007) |
Phil Gordon (born April 18, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American Democratic party politician, and the 51st and current mayor of Phoenix, Arizona. He was sworn in as mayor on January 2, 2004.
Born to Sidney and Judy Gordon, he is the oldest of three children. In 1960, the Gordon family moved to Phoenix where Phil attended Madison Meadows Elementary and Middle School and Central High School. He attended the University of Arizona and graduated with a bachelor's degree in education. After earning his undergraduate degree, Gordon entered Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.
Gordon has had worked in a variety of professions, including as a school teacher, lawyer, business owner, chairman of Landiscor Aerial Photography Company, as well serving on the Madison School Board.
After serving as chief of staff to a former Phoenix Mayor in 1996, Gordon's interest in Phoenix became his incentive to seek public office. Pledging to fight crime and preserve neighborhoods, he entered the race for Phoenix City Council and was elected in 1997 and 2001.citation needed
The former city councilman was elected mayor in the non-partisan mayoral race on September 9, 2003, garnering 72 percent of the vote, and re-elected on September 11, 2007, with 77 percent of the vote.12 3
During his tenure at Phoenix City Hall, Gordon has focused heavily on the largest increase in police officers in the history of the city, utilizing higher education as means for economic development, and revitalizing downtown Phoenix. Through a series of public ballot initiatives he and other members of the Phoenix City Council have received voter approval to invest more than $1 billion into the city's core,45 investing in projects such as the revitalization of the Phoenix Convention Center, the construction of a new $350 million Sheraton hotel,6 and the creation of a downtown Arizona State University campus.7
Gordon has also been a staunch backer of a planned $1.1 billion multi-modal transportation system which was approved by 65 percent of Phoenix voters in March, 2000. 8 a project that has faced criticism.910 Most recently, the Mayor has engaged in a verbal dispute with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio over issues related to illegal immigration.1112
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In the past four years, Phoenix has added 500 new police officers to the force, with 200 more coming over the next year and a half. This is the largest single increase in Phoenix police history. Due to its proximity to the Mexican border, Phoenix was the first city in the nation to embed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the police department to assist in investigations of human smuggling, drug trafficking and other crimes related to illegal immigration. In the past 2 years, the Phoenix Police Department has arrested over 11,000 criminals who are also here illegally, and turned an additional 5,000 over to ICE, which is 10 times more than any other law enforcement agency in the State of Arizona.
A planned 20-mile light rail system through the Phoenix metropolitan area will begin running on December 28, 2008. The METRO system will link Phoenix with suburban neighbors Tempe and Mesa. Planning efforts have begun on a METRO light rail extension to Northwest Phoenix scheduled to open in 2012. The METRO is critically important to Phoenix, as during the next 20 years the population of Phoenix will increase by more than 600,000 people. Greater Phoenix currently accounts for nearly two thirds of Arizona’s population and is projected to grow at twice the national average, meaning that by the year 2020, 4.5 million people will reside in surrounding Maricopa County. Given this growth, public transit will play an increasingly important role in meeting the daily transportation needs of Phoenix residents. The METRO has also been an economic stimulator for Phoenix. In the years during construction private investors placed more than $1 billion into new developments near the rail stations. The investment has reshaped key corners and neighborhoods along the 20-mile route. This type of investment is typical of light-rail systems in the U.S. though it occurred earlier in Phoenix than in other cities.
Mayor Gordon worked with university administrators to welcome Arizona State University and 6,000 students and faculty to downtown Phoenix. The campus, which eventually will accommodate over 15,000 students and encompass over 20 downtown acres, opened in the Fall of 2006 with the School of Nursing, the College of Public Programs and the University College.
As an outgrowth of the many downtown development and redevelopment projects, there has been a rapid increase in hotel room demand from business, leisure, and convention travelers visiting the area. To meet this demand, a new 1,000-room Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel opened in September 2008 across the street from the new Phoenix Convention Center.The new Sheraton is expected to generate $4.6 million annually to the State and $700,000 annually to the City general fund (plus another $2 million to the convention center fund). It also creates 1,500 jobs. During construction, the Hotel generated $12 million to the State and $4 million to the City, and created 1,700 jobs. RED Development is currently constructing a second project nearby. City Scape is a $900 million mixed-use project with a hotel, shops, restaurants and condos in downtown Phoenix.
The Phoenix Convention Center is undergoing an expansion to triple the current amount of exhibition and meeting space. Phase I, which includes the new West building, was completed in June 2006. The development concept features a new convention facility with a below-grade exhibition hall, a street-level ballroom with meeting facilities and two smaller exhibition halls. Construction on the multi-phased project began in 2004 and will be completed in late 2008.
When convention delegates arrive at the fully expanded Phoenix Convention Center in 2009, they will find public art, high-tech meeting rooms and an exhibit hall that ranks among the country's largest. Due to the economic impact, competition for conventions in the sun-belt region is intense. A single convention delegate spends about $1,460 when visiting a city. The Phoenix Convention Center has already booked the National Rifle Association's 40,000 members for 2009 and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks' 10,000 members for 2011. The Convention Center plays host to an average of 540 events annually, including 45 conventions representing annual attendee expenditures of more than $160 million, and helping bring over one million people to downtown Phoenix each year. The Convention Center has contributed over $1.5 billion in local economic impact through three decades.
University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix opened in downtown Phoenix in October 2006. The campus seated its first four-year class of students in July 2007. The Phoenix medical school is unusual because it represents a unique partnership between two universities. UA and ASU collaborate on research and share faculty members. The new instituion has stimulated Arizona's economy by bringing new knowledge workers and high-paying jobs to the state. It has also mitigated an acute doctor shortage while giving residents access to clinical trials and cutting-edge research. By 2015 the school will be largest producer of physicians in the state. The opening of the U of A College of Medicine was followed by the relocation of the College of Pharmancy to downtown Phoenix. These new facilties continue adding momentum to Arizona's bioscience and research industry. The college program brings pharmaceutical scientists in training and pharmaceutical scientists, residents and fellows to Phoenix with a mission to study how an individual's genetic inheritance affects the body's response to drugs.They conduct research cures and treatments that can be tailored to individual patients based on their genetic makeup. Researchers expect this has the potential to trigger promising health care advances that can potentially translate into thousands of new treatments and treatment strategies.
Passed by nearly 3/4 of Phoenix voters, this $878.5 million program providies funding for a wide variety of city projects, from police and fire stations, to parks, to libraries, to storm sewers and road improvements. Utilizing a bond program allows the City to raise funds for needed servies without rasing taxes. A bond is like the city taking out a home mortgage. With voter approval, the city sells bonds to investors, pays interest on the borrowed money and uses it to complete the capital projects. When Phoenix residents buy a bond, they become the lender. The City of Phoenix is the borrower. Bonds have traditionally been a favored funding mechanism in Phoenix because lenders have for the most part viewed Phoenix is a good credit risk with high ratings from the financial services industry. Ratings are based primarily on the credit history and current status of the issuer. Phoenix has an AA+ Bond Rating, so it has been histerocally truted by its residents for its bonding capacity.
Opponents of Gordon had a petition circulating in Phoenix to recall him in 2008. The petition was set up by a group led by Phillip Quihuis, an in-line staff member of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. The group, which took the name American Citizens United (ACU), was unable to obtain any valid signature in support of the recall. The group cited insufficient volunteers and too few returned petitions as reasons for failing to accumulate the required minimum number of 24,000 signed petitions. Phoenix has no guidelines for recall, allowing them to be initiated without cause. The group or any other groups or individuals will be able to launch another recall effort in the future.13
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