About Our Community

Glendale Districts

OUR GOVERNMENT/ORGANIZATION

The City of Glendale operates under a Council-Manager form of government with a mayor elected at large and six council members elected based upon a system of geographic districts. Council members serve a term of four years on a staggered basis and the Mayor is elected for a four-year term. The City Manager is appointed by the Mayor and Council.

GLENDALE AT A GLANCE

Glendale is located about nine miles northwest of Phoenix, at an elevation of 1,187 feet, with an average annual temperature of 72 degrees. The average annual high is 85 degrees. The average high in winter is 67 degrees, and highs frequently flirt with 80 in the spring and fall. The area receives an annual rainfall of 8.4 inches, with 294 average days of sunshine each year.



Our History

In 1880, the land that is now Glendale was nothing more than empty desert. But in 1882, William J. Murphy joined three Arizona builders, M.W. Kales, William A. Hancock and Clark Churchill, to lead the Arizona Canal Co. project, which would bring water to the desert land by 1885.

In 1888, Murphy, with the help of others, constructed the diagonal Grand Avenue. And on February 27, 1892, the first residential area of the city began to take shape. The Glendale town site began to take shape soon after, and the first school, the Glendale Grammar School, was built in 1895. Its opening drew people from all over the Valley. In the mid-1890s, Glendale became the pathway for a line of the Santa Fe Railroad, linking the Valley to Prescott and northern Arizona. The railroad allowed Glendale settlers to transport goods to the north and easily receive building materials.

More and more families began to settle in Glendale after the turn of the century. Over the years, Glendale grew to become one of the most culturally diverse cities in the Valley. The city owes much of its heritage to early Hispanic settlers as well as Japanese and Russians who moved to Glendale from California.

Glendale’s Beet Sugar Factory, whose structure still stands today just southeast of Glendale’s downtown, was instrumental in the city’s early economic success. Farms and orchards, like the 640-acre Sahuaro Ranch, continued to take off through the early 1900s.

Then World War I brought a new surge of energy into Glendale, with cotton prices reaching $2 a pound and a high demand for food, which kept farmers busy. There was soon a need for more housing, and today’s Catlin Court was born from 1915 to about 1930. Most of these homes are still standing and on the National Register of Historic Places.

World War II brought the birth of Thunderbird Field to train civilian pilots for the Army and in 1941, the Army began working on a larger base 10 miles west of Glendale. Built for $4.5 million, Luke Field (now Luke Air Force Base) was named for the first pilot to receive a Medal of Honor, Lt. Frank Luke Jr. Thunderbird Field would later become the Thunderbird American Graduate School for International Management.

The military and college presence sparked a need for utilities, parks, schools and streets. City officials in the 1960s began to play catch up with the population, and over the next 40 years, the city added an operations center, landfill, water treatment plant, sewage plants, libraries, parks, public safety facilities, an airport, a city hall and a civic center.  

READ more about Glendale's History and Growth...


Future Vision

Balanced Scorecard Strategy MapADOPTION OF A BALANCED SCORECARD STRATEGY MAP 

The city’s Balanced Scorecard Strategy Map was adopted by the City Council at a voting meeting on September 26th, 2017.  This is really exciting because it is the first time (in at least the past 20+ years) that the City Council has formally adopted a citywide strategy verses just identifying priorities.  But what does that mean?  In short, it means that the plan that was developed by our employees is the tool that will be used by the Council to guide resource allocation and organizational performance.  We still have work to do, but this is a significant milestone. 

The resolution specified that the City Manager would be responsible for implementing the strategy map to include developing performance measures, targets, and specific initiatives to achieve results and work is underway to take a comprehensive approach to implementation.  

For more information on our strategic plan, and how your contributions help move our City goals forward, visit the Strategic Initiatives Page