The business story of Chandler, Arizona over the past couple of decades is a compelling one. Big jobs at big (and small) technology companies.
There are many explanations for the city’s success. But there is one not often discussed.
It’s spelled A-P-S, as in Arizona Public Service. 
The company’s avaricious attitude toward rooftop solar over the past year has been well understood and documented. But its poor reputation among big energy users, especially those in high-tech, has not been.
To say these large energy consumers dislike the utility monopoly is an understatement, and a key reason they have concentrated in the utility territory of Salt River Project, where energy prices are lower and the corporate attitude isn’t to treat Arizona businesses merely as a carcass to prey upon.
Enter Chandler. Benefit Chandler.
The disdain for APS and problems the monopoly presents for economic development efforts was a key reason some of Arizona’s largest employers endorsed efforts by the Arizona Corporation Commission to entertain more energy choice and competition in 2013, before those deliberations were curtailed. While deregulation was short-circuited, ongoing concerns for what APS is doing to hinder economic development for cities within its territory have not been.
Bill or Brandt? As the parlor games begin as to who might replace the current CEO the discussion often turns to the camp internally at APS that favors a return to the benevolence and citizenship of Bill Post versus the ego and aggressiveness of Brandt. Think of it as a choice between Pope Benedict or Pope Francis. Chandler understandably might be rooting for the former. But just about every other Valley city?