
MAGAZine
Peoria Mayor Cathy Carlat clearly recalls what gave her the spark that eventually led to politics.
She was a mother and business owner living in the small suburb of Plano, Texas, when she witnessed a remarkable transformation. American businessman and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot moved his Electronic Data Systems headquarters from Dallas to Plano. He was quickly followed by other multinational corporations moving their campuses to Plano.
“It was just a huge game changer for the area,” says Mayor Carlat. “All of a sudden, all of these corporations were contributing to the community. They were giving to schools, they were helping to build parks, and they were contributing to the arts. And the children, the next generation in that town, all of a sudden had very high aspirations. They were doing better in school so they could get better jobs and move up the corporate ladder. They were staying in that city and raising their own children there. The families became very strong and very rooted. It changed everything for that city, and it became the most livable city in America.”
It was that experience that followed Carlat to Peoria, Arizona. While she hadn’t been interested in politics before, when she saw similarities between Peoria and Plano, she decided to run for city council.
“It gave me some inspiration, and it made me feel that I had something that I could bring to the table,” says Carlat, who quickly recognized that economic development was her passion. “The Loop 303 was about to go through the northern part of our city, so it was primed to be in a situation that could be a game changer, the same way that Plano experienced. I wanted to bring jobs to our city so that my children would stay here and have a place to work gainfully, to support their families and raise their children—my grandchildren—here,” she says.
That was 10 years ago. In January, Carlat was elected as Peoria’s first female mayor. She says the biggest challenge for both Peoria and the region is explosive growth. The city has grown by 10,000 residents since the 2010 decennial census, and is projected to grow another 30 percent before the next census.
“In order for us to continue to grow in an orderly fashion, we have to be planning ahead 10 years, 20 years; we have to know what our goals are and that we are walking toward those goals every step of the way.”
Having served as a former district manager for a Fortune 500 company, vice president of a real estate leasing firm, and 13 years in communications for the Central Arizona Project, Carlat believes her career path has prepared her to serve as mayor.
“All of those things lead you down the path of standing by your convictions…there are a lot of ways to be taken off course, so you need to make sure that you know what you want and how to get there.”
Among her goals are helping the region become “more multimodal, more environmentally positive, and finding ways to be more efficient and sustainable in the way we grow.” She discusses hopes to bring a resort development to Lake Pleasant, which she calls a “huge treasure,” and believes such a development would become a statewide tourist attraction.
“Another area I am particularly interested in is preserving our open spaces here in the Sonoran Desert. Because Peoria bookends the Valley, we have these beautiful views of untouched desert. I believe protecting special areas from development can actually benefit our economy and boost our investments. It keeps home values up, it’s a great amenity, we are able to provide citizens with miles of hiking and biking and horseback riding trails, and it’s a great incentive we can tout to potential businesses looking for a home.”
Carlat is a “history buff ” who likes to travel to historic places in her free time.
“I’ve visited the ruins of Pompeii and Gettysburg, battlegrounds and Mayan ruins, Pearl Harbor, the Vatican, and one of Picasso’s studios in France. I always like to travel somewhere I can learn about things that have happened in the past, I find that terribly interesting,” she says.
Carlat recently became the first Peoria representative to serve on the MAG Economic Development Committee.
“I would just really like to recognize the impact that MAG has on this region. I am very, very proud to not only be part of it, but to be on the Economic Development Committee, which I think is so important,” she states. “To me, transportation is about economic development, and economic de- velopment is about transportation. They go hand in hand. So I am really glad that MAG took on another segment of responsibility and I’m really glad to be part of that.”
