Getting to Know: Councilman Kelly Haddad

May 18, 2008

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This is the third in a series of video interviews with the candidates running for two seats in the General Election on Tuesday.

Kelly Haddad is a native Arizonan, a second-generation American of Lebanese descent and an active member of the local community as a member of the Maricopa City Council.

He’s also a father of three, a husband of nine years and a bookkeeper and controller for two dairies and seven farms.

Together, he and his wife, Jenny Haddad, are raising Brooke, 14, Ethan, 4 and Mia, 6 months.

When it comes to caring for a tank of freshwater fish the entire family enjoys, Haddad said he’s most often on his own.

“Dad gets to feed them and clean the tank,” he said.

When he’s not feeding his family as an agriculture facilities bean counter, he’s out planting a few crops of his own. Haddad owns 1,200 acres where he primarily grows alfalfa, some cotton and a little corn. He sells the yield of his fields to dairies who use it to feed their cattle.

So, how does a City Councilman raise a family, raise crops, count the profits of others’ and manage a small real estate business on the side and still have time to spend with his wife?

“I have no clue,” Haddad said. “No sleep. It’s a lot to juggle.”

Haddad did explain, however, that the real estate license he holds and on occasion uses is mostly there for personal business and to assist family and friends.

Maintaining family and friends is something Haddad appears to value. His friendship with fellow Councilman Will Dunn goes back to their high school days when they both played football in Kearny.

Haddad, then a sophomore, was on both the junior varsity and varsity football teams while Dunn, a senior, was playing strictly varsity.

“I got to watch Will play football and sit on the bench,” Haddad said with a grin. “My mom and his family are still friends to this point.”

Haddad said he believes in living life with passion, a quality he brings to whatever he does from playing golf to leading the city.

“My family, that’s my most important passion,” he said, adding that serving on the City Council is good for the community where they live,

“so there is a direct link to my family.”

“It is our home, and I want it to stay home, if that makes sense,” he said.

Haddad also appears to have a sense of humor.

“I was putting up one of my political signs using a slide hammer to put the post into the ground,” he said, “when I pulled it down on my head and nearly knocked myself out.”

“I went to my truck and called my wife and said I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the Salsa Festival,” he said.

“Blood was pouring everywhere,” Haddad said, adding that he wound up needing a few stitches for what looked to be an inch-long cut on the top of his head.”Being bald, it was just pouring.”

At the time, he said he did a quick look around to see if anyone saw him.

After the fact, however, Haddad said he is taking the mishap in stride.

“It’s kind of funny that I almost knocked myself out,” he said.

Below: Kelly Haddad speaks.

Video by RuthAnn Hogue