Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.
In this week’s Glendale Star there is a story on all three of Glendale’s incumbent councilmembers winning reelection. Let’s share some of the conspiracy theories Aldama claims in the article. Let’s begin with:
- “As I have said before, to each his own (in their support) but when there are five current councilmembers supporting a new candidate, it says to me that there is a will to remove democracy and add a dictatorship, and that is not how we function.”
- “I don’t see any reason why five would want me out, but I don’t answer to the five. I answer to my constituents in my district.”
- “…And to those who opposed me, I am sorry that I fell short if that is what they feel, but I hope I can work with them to build a better relationship and work together to continue to improve the city.”
- “The four councilmembers who endorsed my opponent was an attempt to curry favor with the Mayor,”
- “The attempt by Mayor Jerry Weiers to unseat me and Councilman Turner was a purely political attempt to create a ‘dictatorship.’ His desire was to have a ‘yes’ council that would remove any objections to his political goals and aspirations.”
Once I was able to pick myself up off the floor after having laughed so hard that I slipped out of my chair, I decided that among other things, Aldama thinks an awful lot of himself. Does he really believe we are obsessed with him? OMG!
Poor Jamie, he’s really angry and can’t seem to figure out what happened to him and why. If he’s such a nice guy why would 5 out of 7 other councilmembers endorse his opponent? In a bout of apparent paranoia (or perhaps he’s been listening to Councilmember Turner too much) Aldama has convinced himself that Mayor Weiers is destroying democracy and had ordered the rest of us to endorse Aldama’s opponent. Sorry Jamie. There’s no “will to remove democracy and add a a dictatorship.” I’m still grinning over that one.
For those who don’t know me very well I have a reputation of taking orders from no one. I have never been a ‘yes person’. I have never felt the need to “curry favor” with the Mayor or any other member of this council. I never had a conversation with the Mayor or any Councilmember before I made my decision to endorse Emmanuel Allen or Ray Strahl. Both endorsements occurred after in-depth interviews with each and were published in my previous blogs.
Aldama can’t “see any reason why five would want me out.” It’s really quite a simple explanation. He never expressed opposition to council’s collective decisions when he had abundant opportunity to do so. Yet he would turn around and publicly oppose those very same decisions without alerting council or staff of his intentions. Aldama has lost the trust of this council. That is something very difficult to regain and occurs with action, not with words of platitude.
Several councilmembers were dismayed by Aldama’s abusive treatment of council staff leading to three council assistant resignations over time. One assistant was brought to tears. Since council assistants serve two councilmembers the situations often resulted in the leaving of a council assistant valued by the other councilmember. For a period of time the council office included a set of revolving doors. His actions created a decidely unstable atmosphere.
In his four years of service, what tangible results has Aldama produced for the people of the Ocotillo district? None. Nada. Zip. In his four years of service did you see him really push for action with regard to O’Neil Pool? When I came back into service a year and a half ago, I started to advocate not only for the completion of Heroes Park but for action regarding O’Neil Pool, abandoned in 2011. The O’Neil area was part of my council district for many years until the last city council redistricting which occurred in 2011 and the area remains important to me as I lived there for 30 years.
I resumed my council service in 2016 and as a result of my efforts, council will shortly take up the issue of the abandoned pool and allocate CDBG funds to remove it. I am not happy with staff’s proposal that provides only passive recreation on the former pool site and will continue to press for active recreational opportunities such as a splash pad where the pool once stood. Jamie had four years to make O’Neil pool a priority and failed to do so.
I noted at the Womens’ Club Candidate Forum Aldama spent almost all of his introductory speaking time thanking everyone for everything – a penchant of his at nearly every public speaking opportunity – conveniently leaving very little, if any, time to speak to the issues.
He often takes credit for successful council decisions and actions whether he supported them or not. Code enforcement is perhaps one of the most critical issues for the Ocotillo district yet it is Councilmember Malnar that has taken up the challenge of code, not Aldama. Another critical issue for Aldama’s Ocotillo district is advocacy for small businesses yet I successfully won approval from council to initiate a council business subcommittee, not Aldama. Yet Aldama has the hutzpah to say, “he is ready to continue improving the district…” How exactly Jamie? And please be specific.
Lastly, I would remind the reader that several weeks ago at a Glendale Chamber breakfast, Aldama stood before God and the breakfast attendees and accused the council of “corruption.” That wasn’t a smart move designed to ‘win friends and influence people’. It’s time Aldama came forward with facts to support his allegation or to apologize to this council. As of this writing he has not done so.
I feel sorry for Aldama for all of his decisions and actions appear to be politically motivated. If it’s good for him politically he’ll support the issue or action. He seems to have failed to learn that his job is really about representation and giving voice to the people he represents. When residents disagree it’s time to listen rather than devise payback. Goodness know the people of the Ocotillo district can use a lot of help. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Aldama can provide it.
© Joyce Clark, 2018
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Joyce, you may be right about Jamie but I believe and others think the council and Mayor should not be endorsing any candidate and certainly not public. It is up to the voters to make that decision after doing their own research throughout the chamber,local newspaper,other organizations.
Tom, Ordinarily I would agree with you but historically councilmembers have endorsed councilmembers in previous races. One example that comes to mind is my 2012 race against Chavira when a majority of council endorsed Chavira. It is not without precedent. I, on the other hand, have problems with the Chamber endorsing candidates or with the fire union endorsing candidates.
I have no problem at all with city council members endorsing other candidates or not endorse? Who better to endorse or not endorse than those who have worked with council members or will be working with them in the future. I have many reasons to believe the council endorsed who they did for good reasons.
Joyce, you and I have agreed on a majority of things through the past couple years and usually are like thinkers, but this sure isn’t one of those times. I so agree with Tom Traw, this just sounded like a Council that wanted who they wanted to work with and not who the citizens in the separate districts wanted or needed to represent them. The majority of us in the Ocotillo District have been very happy with his representing us in voicing our concerns and problems and also responding to them. I was so surprised that after reading the large article in the Arizona Republic on his opponent and how he lied to the city about his financial status with his non-profit organization and receiving free access at the O’Neil buildings, that the Council or anyone would still support him and endorse him for a Council seat. That was big red flags to me and should have been for the mayor also. I kind of think Aldama has every right to feel that Council just wanted to pad the group with “like” thinkers and political allies. Actually, like you said, you were the one person that surprised me to agree with them.
As I have mentioned in other posts, I have to agree with the two above. The moment current council members start endorsing candidates it becomes very political. Of course this is my opinion but I am glad to see others seem to have the same opinion.
In my district, a member of the challengers campaign team stood on my front porch and said “Mayor Weirs called him[the challenger] personally and asked him to run because the incumbent is an obstructionist.” That was an immediate red flag for me. The council member is elected to serve the constituent of their district, not fellow council members or mayor.
I agree with all three of you. The people I know in Ocotillo District are very happy with Jamie. I also heard that the Mayor asked the two opponents to run against the incumbents. NOT good. And I also checked out Emmanuel and his non-profit on GuideStar. I cannot believe the city contracted with this non-profit without going to bid or even accepting his application.
Jamie was on TV praising Roots prior to Emmanuel deciding to run for council. (I recently saw a rerun). Have you ever been to Roots to see the young lives that are being changed. I have. Emmanuel and his wife Belinda have done a great work with the young people in the Ocotillo district. It did not surprise me to learn of the Glendale Police Department stating one of the leading reasons for crime going down in the Ocotillo District was because of Roots. Instead of criticizing go to the center and volunteer for a day. Your perspective will be much different. Emmanuel and Belinda have given their time and not drawn a salary for their work, because they care about the young people. By the way do you believe every thing you read in the paper without checking out the facts?
Hang in there Joyce. I too remember the days of consistently dysfunctional councils. They couldn’t agree on what day it was much less whose side they were on. Today’s council is accessible which is hugely important to guys like me who have been around awhile. I have also had my share of problems with representatives who should be have been there to help instead of putting up roadblocks. Thank God the majority of those are gone. See your projects through to the end and keep looking at new ones. The citizens of Glendale know the good from the BS. You’ll have all the support you need. Best Regards, Ron Kolb