By Gary Nelson | The Republic | azcentral.com
Mesa City Manager Chris Brady has been honored as the top city manager in Arizona for 2014.
Earlier this month, the Arizona City/ County Management Association honored Brady with the John J. DeBolske Professional Excellence Award at the group’s conference in Sedona. It is the group’s highest honor and is named for a past executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns who served in that capacity for 40 years.
Brady came to Mesa in early 2006 from San Antonio, where as assistant city manager he had helped broker a deal that brought in a large Toyota factory.
He arrived with Mesa in the throes of a debate about whether to impose a primary property tax to fund the general city budget. Voters’ rejection of that idea in the spring of 2006 led to steep budget cuts.
Two years later, an even worse fiscal crisis resulted from the global economic crash, requiring Brady to oversee the elimination of about 350 jobs and a more than $60 million reduction in proposed city spending.
During Brady’s time in office, however, Mesa has been credited with a long string of economic successes, culminatng last fall when Apple Inc. bought the vacant First Solar plant for a high-tech manufacturing subsidiary.
