Phil Gordon’s attempt at Mayor-for-Life bid fails

After spending nearly $17,000 to poll Phoenix residents — gauging whether they would support a ballot initiative abolishing term limits for the mayor’s office he holds and the city council seats he endorses — Phoenix’s Sanctuary City Mayor, Philly Gordon, has abandoned efforts to extend his term. The Phil for Phoenix committee also paid a $5,840 retainer fee to Petition Partners LLC, a Scottsdale-based signature-gathering firm.

Scott Wong covering City Hall for the daily, notes that this is the second time this year Gordon has abandoned efforts to extend his term limits. Gordon’s term expires in January 2012 — none too soon for many city residents who have long ago tired of his leftist maneuvers, out of control spending, game playing with the office of the Phoenix Chief of Police, turning Phoenix into a sanctuary for illegal aliens, forcing the calamitous light rail, and high dollar sweetheart deals for his own sister and brother-in-law – among other slick proposals.

Gordon shut down his Mayor-for-Life scheme shortly after polling results from yet another pollster, the Washington, D.C.-based Lake Research Partners revealed that voters rejected the idea of keeping him around any longer.

“We did a poll and it wasn’t very favorable and that was the end of it,” said Bill Scheel, Gordon’s deputy chief of staff. “Phoenix voters overwhelmingly support term limits for their elected officials.”

Or at least THIS ONE.

Business leaders, who have benefited from his spending sprees and some council members who have been reelected in the traditionally low-turnout elections, are said to have urged him to explore an initiative eliminating term limits. The races are touted as “non-partisan” but are quite the opposite and his unseemly endorsements have swayed those who have little personal knowledge of the inappropriate deal brokering in which he engages.

Seeing Red AZ has previously written about the inventive ploys Gordon has used to ensure his job. It’s time for this schmo to go.

Crash, boom, bam: Phoenix’s 51st light rail collision

A bizarre accident in downtown Phoenix earlier this week marked Metro light rail’s 51st collision of the year. The accident, which involved a van and one of the trains, sent three people to the hospital and caused the emergency evacuation of thirty passengers, as well as delaying service for four hours.

The video is available on the daily’s light rail blog here.

Phoenix City Manager wants YOU to help him with budget

The new Phoenix City Manger, David Cavazos, on the job for less than a month, is already admitting he is over his head, although he is a 22-year veteran of City Hall. The one-time deputy city manager is asking city residents to come up with novel ideas to help him deal with the budget shortfall.

“We can’t predict when we’ll get out of the recession,” Cavazos said. “Can anybody predict that? I’d love to know the answer,” he is quoted as saying in the daily.

He needs to get with the program. Obama has declared the recession is nearly over, thanks to his tax infused “stimulus programs.”  Cavazos might get an idea or two here.

The manager’s annual pay range is $163,592 to $257,670, although his specific salary is yet to be decided by the city council. Since few city residents are in that rarified pay stratosphere, it might occur to them that since they are paying his wages, he should do the job himself.

Other Phoenix residents can leave their money saving ideas by calling Cavazos’ office at (602) 262-6941.

1,000 plus stolen bags later, Sky Harbor reinstates bag check

 Many of us are reassured to read that Phoenix is right on top of the airport’s stolen baggage problem, reinstating random luggage checks.

It’s obvious Travelin’ Man  Mayor Philly Gordon hasn’t had his bags missing or this might have been handled sooner.

As Phoenix Sky Harbor spokeswoman Deborah Ostreicher so artfully put it, ”It is 1,000 bags, and we’re very concerned about it, but it’s a rare occurrence.”

It’s good to have friends in high places

City Hall reporter Scott Wong gives the lowdown on the Valley’s newest power couple: Gates & Gates.

$81,245 salary: “very, very severe” punishment for Phoenix’s lewd, crude former spokesman

After tolerating Phoenix’s former chief spokesman’s slurs against co-workers for 13 years, David J. Ramirez, 46,  was finally demoted — to a lesser job with a mere $81,245 salary. Although he was frequently admonished for his crude vulgarities, he was never formally disciplined. Neither was his offensive behavior noted in his personnel file. In fact, he was rewarded with a fat paycheck of $105,368 annually and also received a monthly ‘$100 communications allowance’ and a monthly $435 car allowance.

Toni Maccarone, Ramirez’s former supervisor, who is now Mayor Phil Gordon’s chief-of-staff, admitted the ongoing problem was so pervasive, “I have stopped correcting him.”

Public records obtained by the Arizona Republic, including interviews with Maccarone, Ramirez and 12 other employees, show supervisors allowed the boorish behavior to continue unchecked until it triggered an investigation spanning four city departments, including the Mayor’s Office.

In a letter to Personnel Director Janet Smith, Ramirez appeared to believe sexist and racist comments and disparaging remarks about Mormons and Jews were acceptable and he was untouchable.

“The disturbing part of the complaints is that I and other department employees have engaged in similar banter throughout my employment with the city without any warning that such banter was unacceptable,” Ramirez wrote. “Much of this banter was done in front of other managers including the department director.”

City Manager Frank Fairbanks rejected Ramirez’s assertion that such behavior was pervasive throughout the 14,000-employee organization. “The people that work for the city of Phoenix don’t talk that way. It is unacceptable, we won’t accept it, and people are being severely disciplined,” said Fairbanks, adding that he planned to look into whether Maccarone had taken appropriate action.

Fairbanks said the city had considered firing Ramirez, but the City Attorney’s Office was uncertain whether that decision would be upheld if the 13-year employee sued Phoenix or appealed to a city disciplinary board. “This was a very, very severe punishment,” Fairbanks said.

A two-week suspension and “very, very severe” punishing salary of $81,245 would appeal to a lot of people, Mr. Fairbanks.

When Barneys’ doors swing open, get in line behind Hizzoner Flashy Gordon

This week Scottsdale Fashion Square will host opening festivities for the 65,000-square-foot Barneys New York. The trendy high-end retailer is reputed to be the star of this holiday-shopping season. 

The daily’s business section reports that the retailer could lure customers from other Valley luxury stores. Barneys’ prices are said to be slightly higher than Nordstrom, but somewhat lower than Neiman Marcus and Saks. The stores carry similar merchandise and cater to the same customers.

Ownership is held by Istithmar World Capital, in Dubai United Arab Emirates, one of the wealthiest nations on earth.  Istithmar is the government’s own investment arm.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is no stranger to the oil-rich Arabic nation, often venturing there whenever he is indulging in his famous globetrotting.

Barneys’ will be a natural shopping port for the now-stylish mayor, dubbed “Flashy Gordon” by the fawning Arizona Republic — when he is unable to personally tool around the actual port city of Dubai.

Tripoli trips up

The misadventures of Phoenix City Council candidate Greg Tripoli could qualify as an entire segment on “People do the darndest things.” The District 3 aspirant is an insurance salesman who allowed his own insurance coverage to lapse.  And, then, wouldn’t you know, he just happened to be a party in an accident which left an 81-year-old Phoenix woman injured.

The accident occurred as he attempted to make a left turn on a yellow light, according to the account in the daily.

His challenge to interim Councilman Bill Gates has an interesting component. Tripoli has campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility and public safety. Gates is a lawyer who was named to replace short-termed councilwoman Maria Baier when Gov. Brewer appointed her to the post of State Land Commissioner.

Tripoli has not been considered a serious challenge to Gates, who has enjoyed a good reputation in the district. And like state Treasurer Dean Martin, who is considering entering the governor’s race, having a recognizable name is not a detriment to Gates.

Candidate Tripoli — who does not have a campaign website — said his failure to renew his coverage when it was due on September 10, was an oversight because he was so busy with his campaign. When his insurer got word of the accident, it declined to renew his policy. 

Tripoli, 58, should now have plenty of time to get his insurance affairs in order. 

The City Council election takes place November 3, although early ballots are already hitting mailboxes.

It’s still too hot to be taken in by TUSD’s snow job

The Republic’s Doug MacEachern writes that AZ School Superintendent Tom Horne traveled to the Old Pueblo to shine some light on the Tucson Unified School District’s planned race-based discipline policy. MacEachern reports that he “admires Horne’s moxie for facing down the education ideologues, but it appears he set himself up for the local newspaper — a thorough-going advocate of TUSD’s most radical policies — to whack him.”  In addition to the biased news report, here is the snow-job editorial  — a bit hard to take when the temperature is still in the triple digits.

MacEachern verifies that Horne has interpreted the relevant section correctly. Which brings us to the defense of the policy presented in today’s Arizona Daily Star story by TUSD Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen.

Fagen said Horne’s depiction of the policy “is really not the truth.”

MacEachern writes: That simply is not a fair reading of the Governing Board’s plan. According to the language of the Plan as adopted by the district governing board, African-American and Latino students are singled out because “TUSD recognizes that there are ethnic/racial disparities in student discipline actions,” and, as the Plan repeats several times, “special attention will be dedicated to data regarding African American and Hispanic students.”

To suggest, as Superintendent Fagen does, that African-American and Latino students aren’t singled out for any special attention in the Plan is utterly disingenuous. The Plan employs variations of the phrase “especially African American and Hispanic students” no fewer than seven times in the Discipline section, including this explicit reference:

“The district will reduce the disproportionate number of suspensions of African American and Hispanic students.”

Seeing Red AZ covered this bizarre race-based system of discipline earlier in the week. It even made national news as syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin gave it coverage on her website.

No wonder increasing numbers of parents are taking their children out of the government schools, run by leftist ideologues and NEA unionists.

A rare Gordon sighting in Phoenix

Well, what do you know?  Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon was actually in town last week.

There is even a photo in the daily to prove it. Globetrotting Gordon (for Phoenix residents who may not recognize him, Gordon’s the man on the right side of the photo) was seen touring the construction site of a low-income residential project being built with funds from Arizona’s share the stimulus package.

His recent jaunts have taken him to Montreal and Toronto, Canada; Saudi Arabia; Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Washington, D.C. and New York.

Welcome back, Mr. Gordon. We hardly know ye.