TEMPE, AZ — Corey Woods beat incumbent Mark Mitchell in the race to be Tempe's next mayor. When Woods is sworn in this July, he will be Tempe's first African American mayor.
Woods talked to ABC15 at his home Wednesday afternoon. He was on the Tempe City Council for eight years before leaving in 2016.
Now that he will be mayor, Woods wants to focus on developing a long term plan when it comes to development.
The city has seen a boom in the downtown area but Woods says there's no direction. He also wants to address the city's homeless population.
"I think we need to take a hard look at the human services budget and see what we're actually currently spending money on," said Woods. "It's not a enough to simply say we're spending a lot of money."
We have to be able to show the residents who are paying taxes in the city that the programs that their money is actually going to are producing, you know, demonstrated results and outcomes."
Woods will take office July 2.
