|
June 2, 2000/28 Iyar 5760, Vol. 52, No.39
Woman to take seat as 'queen' of Queen Creek
CHRIS GARIFO
|
 Queen Creek Mayor Elect Wendy Feldman-Kerr, with daughter Sydney, 3, and husband Eric Kerr. The couple raises horses on their Queen Creek ranch. Standing alongside them is Hella. Photo by Mark Gluckman |
The Ohio native moved to the Valley almost 18 years ago.
On June 7, she will take her seat as Queen Creek's second elected mayor. She might also be making history as the Arizona's first Jewish woman mayor, according to the Arizona Jewish Historical Society.
Queen Creek is a rural farming and ranching community about 30 miles southeast of Phoenix.
"It makes me feel very excited," Feldman-Kerr, 39, says of the likely distinction.
However, the married mother of one says, she's used to being first, having also been the first woman Rotarian in Arizona to become a mother while serving as president and "probably one of the first Jewish residents of Queen Creek," as well as the town's mayor-to-be.
"All it really tells me is that, as a role model, I have to do an even better job," she says.
Feldman-Kerr grew up in a traditional Jewish home in East Liverpool and Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor's degree in organizational communication, and then attended graduate school at Arizona State University, earning her master's degree.
She's lived here ever since.
"It doesn't snow here and the airport's close," she says.
Feldman-Kerr runs her own insurance, investments, financial and estate-planning business in Tempe. Until recently, she hadn't considered becoming a candidate for public office.
"I had run a campaign when I was in college and had always thought of myself on the other side of the campaign, not as the actual candidate," she says.
Feldman-Kerr and her husband, Eric Kerr, moved to Queen Creek about 7 1/2 years ago. They live on a 5-acre pecan/horse ranch on the town's northern border.
About a year and a half after moving to town, her next-door neighbor suggested she apply for a seat on the Town Council, which was being vacated by a council member's early departure from the position. She was appointed to the council, then ran for election and won.
Two years ago, after her re-election, the council ratified her as vice-mayor. When current Mayor Mark Schnepf decided to step down at the end of his term, she decided to run. She captured 70 percent of the vote.
Feldman-Kerr says one of her biggest surprises when she became a town leader was discovering "how little the public knows about how a city or town is run and how the ordinances and laws actually affect everything that we do."
She says that, more than trying to bring about any changes while in office, she hopes to keep alive Queen Creek's "small-town feeling." She lauds the town's "wonderful network of volunteers" and hopes that "same feeling of volunteerism (will) continue as we get more and more residents."
Queen Creek has 4,500 residents, nearly double what it was when the town was incorporated a decade ago.
Feldman-Kerr credits her Jewish upbringing as preparing her for town leadership.
"Our religious training - bar and bat mitzvah, confirmation - prepares us to be able to speak in front of people," she says.
She says she's always seen Jews as leaders and "people who, if they saw something that wasn't right, they corrected it and worked together toward a goal."
Feldman-Kerr says being Jewish makes her a town rarity.
"There are a lot of people in Queen Creek who had never met a Jewish person," she says.
However, she was accustomed to that situation since her hometown of East Liverpool also had a very few Jewish families.
"What I've done is taken steps so that we can keep (being Jewish) in our lives," she says. Her 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Sydney, attends preschool at the Tri-City Jewish Community Center and the family attends High Holiday services and has Passover with family or friends.
"We also try to do things on our own, such as Sukkot," she says.
Though the family doesn't belong to a congregation, "what I am looking at more is programs for children and families so that when Sydney is ready to be in Sunday school and Hebrew school, I will be able to join and participate more."
Also, during this past year's holiday festivities and tree lighting in Queen Creek, she gave a talk about Hanukkah.
While admitting one should "never say never," Feldman-Kerr says she doubts she'll consider running for any higher political office and probably will want to serve no more than two terms as mayor.
She says that Queen Creek still is small and "manageable," but "anything bigger than that might not be as much fun, might not be as enjoyable."
Working on her own business, serving the town and being a full-time wife and mother can be exhausting, Feldman-Kerr says.
"Sometimes it seems like there's too much on my plate," she says. "But that's only if I haven't had enough sleep."
She says she doesn't enjoy the "drier" aspects of town government, such as budget meetings, but other parts of the job, such as seeing kids' faces light up during student-of-the-month presentations or the work of the town's economic development commission - which she chaired - help to make "the whole experience rewarding."
When the time arrives for her to leave public office, she says, she hopes "to leave behind a budget that is fully funded by economic development and ... a community that is cohesive, communicative and a place where everybody is happy to live."
Feldman-Kerr will be installed as mayor at the Town Council meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 7, in the Town Hall, 22350 S. Ellsworth Road in Queen Creek.