- I think it's important, at least it's important for me to say, that I grew up in the projects here in Flagstaff.

I grew up in Siler Homes, a housing project.

And people assume where public officials come from and where mayors come from.

And there's people who think that they can't reach that because of where they grew up.

- I love to pioneer things.

I love to do things that people think that it's impossible to do.

I love to prove people wrong because they didn't think that I was gonna win, they didn't think that I was gonna be able to make it because again I was a woman, I was a black woman, I have an accent.

And people were even thinking that I might not be black enough to represent our community.

And so all these odds, I had to define them.

And when I looked at myself in the mirror, I said, "Girl, you were born for a time just like this."

(train whistle blares) (upbeat music) - So if you're walking through Flagstaff the very first thing you're gonna notice is that we sit in the middle of the largest ponderosa pine forest in the world.

You are going to see that there's not a whole lotta tall buildings.

You are going to see this funky eclectic look.

You're gonna see some buildings that look like they're stuck in the the '20 and the '40s.

I think though if you actually hit the street level and you walk it, you're gonna notice that there's just a vibe here that's just hard to explain.

People are genuinely nice.

Like, people in Flagstaff are nice.

So that would be my community.

People care about people here.

(birds tweet) - I was born in a little village in Haiti.

I came into this country at 17 years old.

Didn't know word of English.

I was taking ESL and read "Mice and Men" at the same time.

I found myself (chuckles) with a little bag and three little dresses in it in Kennedy Airport when I came in.

Well, Arizona was never on my radar.

To tell you the truth, when my family heard that I was coming here, they were like, "Where?"

Because all they thought about was tumbleweed and snakes.

I didn't just show up and wanted to be a council member here in Chandler.

I had been in Chandler for all those years working in the background and helping so many different people.

And when that feeling came over me and I looked around, and I realized I would be the first one doing this.

And then so, I went back to those who had asked me, which was Bob Caccamo, who was also vice mayor, and I had known him for so long he was like a father to me, I went back to him and he looked at me in the eye and he told me, he said, "If you don't do this, who else?"

- If it were not for the Murdoch Center, I definitely would've never ran for council.

I would never been on council.

What's really cool about the Murdoch Center, it was the site of the Dunbar Elementary School.

It was a black segregated school here in Flagstaff, Arizona.

It was desegregated almost two years before Brown versus the Board of Education.

And it was held as a model of how education should be done in our country.

My mom went to school here.

(soft piano music) And we thought, what better way to first acknowledge the history that's here in this community, but then show what can be done through the understanding of that history to have a vibrant community center that is open to everyone, that has classes and workshops, that, you know, highlights the need for diversity and the importance of diversity, and the importance of healing, tolerance, and acceptance.

And I was at a community meeting one night and the individual who was the then mayor just mentioned that the city council had a bond override and they were thinking about selling this building.

It'd probably be torn down to make up the difference.

And that's literally what kicked off all of this.

And it was along the way in talking to the council and asking a mentor of mine, "Who are these people?

Why can't we just talk to their bosses?

Because they're not getting what the importance of this building is."

And he said, "Don't you get who their bosses are?"

I'm like, "I really don't.

If I could just talk to their boss, we'd be done."

He's like, "You're their boss."

"What do you mean?"

He goes, "You're a voter."

We are their bosses, they're supposed to be reflective of us.

That's what started this whole thing.

- So those are their names, first and last.

- Okay.

- And that's just- - I worked hard.

I pushed through.

And I kept telling people, "You don't have the right to define who I am."

I had somebody literally looked at me and said, "Well, I don't know if you can transition from being a servant leader, like helping the homeless and doing all these things you're doing in Haiti, doing all these things you do here, teaching.

I don't think you can transition from that to being on council."

And I said, "Who else?

Who else needs to be on council but those who have a heart for people?"

This segment needs somebody to speak for them.

And I'm gonna speak for them.

This is such an amazing moment for Southside tonight.

I came to Chandler 35 years ago, and if you had told me that I will be sitting here and I will be one of the yes for something like that to go forward, I probably would've said, "Absolutely not."

But because we have people who have a heart for this city and because they want to recognize the fact that efforts was made prior to all of us coming, this is not about whether we come from the islands, or we come come from Africa, or we come from anywhere else, it's just because we have been here in Chandler and the people of Chandler who had started this had made a mark on us and because of that we are here.

- I grew up in Siler Homes, a housing project.

And so to be able to then represent my community on council is just absolutely an honor and something that I took very seriously.

And then I was fortunate enough to have my community believe in me enough to also elect me as mayor eight years later.

And it was absolutely a joy and a privilege to represent my community.

(soft piano music) This is my street.

That's my house.

I am a product of my community.

Like, I am a child of the village.

There is no way that I would be standing here today if there hadn't been a village.

And so, that's why I love my community so much because I feel like my community love me.

Sorry.

(soft piano music) I think everybody should have a chance to grow up here.

(uplifting music) I hadn't been home in a while.

I think it says a lot for a community that their mayor came from here.

(uplifting music) - One of the challenges that I faced really, truly was having people thinking that I didn't know anything budget.

Thinking that I didn't know anything about how to run a city, but that really, truly was not the truth.

when the market crashed in 2007, 2008, I was running a multi-million-dollar business.

And when that went crazy, everything caved in.

I was in the middle of a 23-million project.

And for me to survive from 2007 to 2015 before I sold my business, I had to have sheer determination.

I had to know what I was doing to keep taking care of those people and keep those people hired.

So a challenge for me was not what I thought it was going to be, it was what people were saying that I thought was challenging.

- We had a trailer park here in town.

This trailer park had 58 trailers in it.

53 of the families were immigrant families from Mexico.

The majority who did not speak Spanish.

A developer showed up and decided that he was gonna drop student housing on top of this development and that was just gonna be it.

So those individuals came to council, many of 'em were speaking Spanish.

I was sitting up at the dais, I speak conversational Spanish.

I understood maybe 70% of what was being said.

I looked around, nobody else on council knew what that was being said.

One particular lady came up and she put her head on the podium and she broke down in tears.

And her story was that she had taken all her life savings, she bought a trailer in this park six months before.

The park was now being closed and it was too old to be moved.

So she was losing everything.

She had three kids and she said that she had gone from working two jobs down to working a job and a half because now she could afford to pay rent because she owned this trailer.

I remember sitting there looking at her being just horrified by what was going on and what was happening, and then I heard this banging of the gavel.

So, everyone's looking this way and you hear the banging of the gavel.

And then I heard the individual who was the mayor at that time say that "You need to pull yourself together, this is a business meeting, we have important business to get to.

So you need to wrap it up, finish up your thoughts."

And it was at that time, I was like, sitting here and I never turned my head back to look, 'cause I was just looking at her.

And I thought to myself, "Even if you don't understand the language, you understand the emotion.

(uplifting dramatic music) The next time this happens in my community I'm either gonna be in that seat right there, or I'm gonna be standing next to her helping her fight."

(uplifting dramatic music) - So today, Councilor Ellis, the only thing that we have, I'm just waiting to hear (indistinct) for her going- (upbeat music) - I want people to remember being the first requires a sacrifice.

Being the first for me, I belong to the people, I belong to the cause, I belong to what we want to achieve as a people collectively and individually.

I belong to that cause, to that fight.

I've already put my hand to the power and I cannot take it back.

- I remember the day I got sworn, the night I got sworn in.

That was incredible.

I was the first black woman to be elected mayor in the state of Arizona, in the entire state.

To be the first comes with a higher responsibility.

This means that when someone calls me and there's a kindergarten class somewhere that needs to see the first, then I need to show up.

I remember I went to go talk to a group of young people down in the Phoenix area and I purposely had asked the group not to put my picture, not to put the name, I was just there to talk and they were gonna meet a mayor.

And we had a conversation and I finally asked 'em, I was like, "What do you guys think a mayor looks like?"

And they had every description of a mayor but me.

And so then at the end of it I was like, "Okay, well, I'm currently the mayor of the city of Flagstaff, the largest city in northern Arizona."

And they were like, "You're a mayor?

You're black, you're female, you said you grew up in the projects.

Whoa, wait a minute, you're a mayor?"

I'm like, "Exactly."

I'm like, "I'm standing here as the mayor and I want you guys to know that all the descriptions you came up with, those can be mayors, but also this description can be."

(soft piano music) (soft piano music continues) (dramatic music)