PLEASE CHECK OUT THE LATEST CHAVIRA VIDEO. IT WAS INDEPENDENTLY PRODUCED AND NOT PAID FOR OR AUTHORIZED BY CLARK FOR COUNCIL. IT IS TO THE LEFT OF THIS COLUMN.

I have never seen local Glendale campaigns as dirty as they have become in this election cycle or the tremendous amount of outside, special interest money being spent on them.

 Case #1: Another Sammy lie. At the Glendale Women’s Club Forum on August 4, 2016 Sammy claimed responsibility for securing $5.5 million dollars in Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant funding. He said it was the result of his trips to D.C. Not so. There is not one scintilla of evidence produced by Sammy on his 2015 receipts for any D.C. trips stating they were for UASI grants. Scouring the City of Glendale website, in 2015 the Glendale Police Department (GPD) received $100,000 of UASI funding. No record of any grant for the Fire Department could be found. USAI grants are sought through and the funds are awarded to cities by the Arizona Department of Emergency Management. Sammy did turn in receipts for two meals with Phoenix fire officials and stated they were for “UASI regional funding.” All Glendale UASI grants are sought through and administered by personnel with the Glendale PD (GPD), not Sammy.

Case #2: Sammy’s unusual connections. Revitalize Arizona and Residents for Accountability are two PACs that have made independent expenditures in opposition to Mayor Weiers and me.  OpenSecrets.org says this on their website about Revitalize Arizona, This PAC does not exist in the 2016 election cycle. Try another cycle.” Residents for Accountability appears to be a shell PAC administered by the Torres Law Group, the same Torres Law Group that Sammy paid approximately $1700 to check petition signatures. It is registered in Tempe but has not been active since 2013. It is not registered with the Glendale City Clerk despite the fact that it has provided “major funding to Revitalize Arizona” for all of its mailings in Glendale.

When a PAC does independent expenditures in support of or opposed to a local candidate it must register with that community. In this case, that would be Glendale, since it is spending money in opposition to Mayor Weiers and me. I checked the Glendale City Clerk’s website as of August 6, 2016 and its list of registered PACs. Would it surprise you to find out that Revitalize Arizona quite recently was added to the Glendale City Clerk’s list but Residents for Accountability is not on her list? I wasn’t.

As for the required legal prohibition from consulting with a candidate or a candidate’s campaign committee keep in mind that BILL Scheel (Sammy’s consultant in 2012) of Javalina Consulting is using these two PACs as well as the Truth and Leadership PAC for nearly all of Chavira’s campaign mailers. BEN Scheel has been paid $1500 to date by Sammy as his campaign manager.

There appears to be a web of interconnectivity between those working on Sammy’s campaign or spending money in support of Sammy’s campaign.

Case #3: Sammy violates federal law. Sammy and those working for him deliberately placed Sammy’s campaign material in mailboxes in the Yucca district on August 6, 2016. It is a violation of U.S. postal regulations to place material that has not been mailed and has no postage in mailboxes. I am surprised that his consultants did not advise him not to do so or that Sammy allowed it to occur.

Case #4: Sammy lies…again. Sammy has consistently, deliberately and willfully misrepresented the truth. He uses not one single fact to substantiate his accusations. In other words, he is lying. He conveniently ignores City Manager Ed Beasley’s misrepresentations to city council (and Beasley’s inner circle who abetted him) and he ignores the actions of former Mayor Scruggs and her merry band of “yes-men” councilmembers who voted in the majority on everything Beasley and Scruggs wanted.

I, on the other hand, did not have to manufacture a single word. Sammy had self-inflicted wounds. The facts regarding Sammy’s abuse of taxpayer money was reported by the Arizona Republic and TV Channel 15. The facts about Sammy’s legal issues with his Glendale traffic ticket was reported by the Glendale Star. The facts regarding Sammy’s dozen absences from city council meetings and workshops are readily available from city council minutes on the city’s very own website. I didn’t have to make anything up.

These facts demonstrate a man lacking in ethics as a result of his own actions. He has disgraced the position of Yucca district councilmember. Add his lies and exaggerations about his record and his determination to smear me. This is a man who desperately wants to be re-elected and will resort to whatever is necessary to make that happen. The only way to try to make that happen was to deflect voters’ attention away from his record of misdeeds and inaction. He simply cannot defend it.

He truly believes, and is absolutely relying on his belief, that Yucca district voters are stupid and ignorant or that they will overlook his transgressions. He has been totally invisible to his residents and has done nothing to assist them yet he’s counting on their vote by using platitudes and wonderfully trite phrases. He has emphasized his fire fighter status assuming that because he is a fire fighter, voters will vote for him.

He can’t see to accept the fact that he has failed in his responsibilities to not only the people of his district but to the people of the community as a whole. He fails to realize that his abuse of power, lies and deceptions have made district voters very angry.

This has been a year of hanky panky by the fire-sponsored candidates in Glendale. The fire union has been low profile this election cycle but we should wonder about how much money they have spent in support of Burdick and Chavira. I suspect we won’t know until the next campaign reports are filed with the City Clerk on August 26, 2016.

This is a year of change and Yucca district voters have decided they can’t afford Sammy financially or ethically.

© Joyce Clark, 2016        

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.