Kate Gallego began a full four-year term as Phoenix Mayor today (April 19, 2021) after getting inaugurated with other members of the City Council (Yassamin Ansari, Betty Guardado, Ann O’Brien, and Debra Stark) who won elections last November and March (a runoff where Ms. Ansari prevailed.)
In her inaugural remarks. Mayor Gallego started by saying it was her “honor to start her first full term as Phoenix Mayor.”
After thanking her family and political teams for their support, she said “I join my colleagues in feeling the excitement of today.”
She then noted that Phoenix is now the “largest city in the United States with a female mayor and female city council.”
Saying “we know the best is ahead,” Mayor Gallego relayed “this is the team that will address the many great challenges facing the city of Phoenix.”
After reminding everyone to get a COVID 19 vaccine and wear a mask, Gallego stated “we know the light is at the end of the tunnel and we have to talk about how we can start planning for how Phoenix emerges from the many challenges that we have faced in 2020 and even before then.”
Citing the efforts of the previous City Council that resulted in a budget surplus, Mayor Gallego relayed that “because of wise decisions the City Council made, we have a surplus which gives us the ability to invest in the future of our city and determine what kind of city we want to be.”
Saying she hopes that Phoenix will become a stronger, smarter, greener, and safer city, she outlined several programs that will take the city forward. These include:
- A $15 million program to have clinicians respond to 911 calls that will “modernize and save lives.”
- Creating the office of Heat Mitigation (“a first in the nation” according to Gallego) that will help combat climate change in the Phoenix area by working to find “innovative solutions” to counter it.
- Continued investments in the Phoenix Transit and Water Systems.
- Investing in the people of Phoenix.
- Promoting small business opportunities and bringing the industries of the future like TSMC, a semiconductor maker, to Phoenix.
The Mayor then said she hoped her son would find one of the jobs of the future in Phoenix when he grows up.
Ms. Gallego then told everyone that the opportunities afforded her in Phoenix, despite family hardships in 2017, enabled her “to pursue her dream” of becoming Mayor.
She then finished her inaugural speech by stating:
“In Phoenix, so much is possible, hard work matters, and people will judge you by the results you get. I hope to make that reality true for so many more people in Phoenix. To have a more responsive, more transparent, more equitable city. I believe the future is so bright with Phoenix and I’m so honored to serve as Mayor and help lead the way to the Phoenix of the future.”
Please watch the entire inauguration ceremony by clicking below.
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