The Arizona Republic
Editor’s Note: Elaine Scruggs was first elected as councilwoman of Glendale’s Cholla District in 1990. In 1993, Mayor Quentin Tolby resigned mid-term, and the council unanimously appointed Scruggs to take over the role. When she steps down in January, she will have held that title for 20 years. Although she is leaving office during a critical time, there is no denying that Scruggs changed the face of Glendale and the West Valley.
Question: What has been most memorable during your time as Mayor?
Answer: You know, it’s very hard to find one thing to talk about in just short of 20 years. I’m going to sum it up this way. What is most memorable to me is the way that our residents have come together in a variety of ways to support our city, to participate in our events and to just connect with people who live many miles from each other.
I came into office in a city pretty well divided, and there was an effort by some people to make that division even broader. And it was the old North versus South. I lived in the northern part of Glendale at that time, however I started out in the very central part of Glendale. The council before us in the early 80s had made a decision to annex the far north and make it part of our city, but Glendale was pretty small at that time. We were in 1993, maybe 150,000 people, and pretty much concentrated in one area. So there was this new growing population up north. It wasn’t well connected to the established part of the city, and most of the people coming in up north were coming from somewhere else, they were not moving from the established part of the city. At that time, an awful lot of the people moving in to Arrowhead Ranch were employees of Sperry Corporation, then Honeywell, and they were moving from other states. And there was a lot of work to connect people.
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