[poll id=”31″][poll id=”30″]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.
Several Ocotillo residents emailed me their copy of Jamie Aldama’s latest mailers. Here is the front and the back of the first one. My apologies if they did not reproduce well.
It appears that Aldama is having difficulty getting endorsements. To my knowledge, Mayor Weiers, I and Councilmembers Hugh, Tolmachoff and Malnar are endorsing his opponent, Emmanuel Allen. The only councilmember not endorsing Allen is Councilmember Turner. That should not be a surprise as Turner and Aldama have voted in lock step on some important Glendale issues such as light rail.
As you can see on the front side of this mailer his wife and daughter endorse him. On the back side is his announcement of reelection and a reminder to vote. In my humble opinion, the mailer is a ‘nothing burger’. It would have been a golden opportunity to remind potential voters of all of his successes within the Ocotillo district. But then again, what wins for the people of the Ocotillo district can he point to?
Here is the second mailer.
Note that it is paid for by A Better Glendale, the fire union PAC. It is filled with generalities and platitudes. One line reads “Better for Education.” It seems I have to remind folks every election when Aldama uses this, that Glendale government has no control over schools. That is the responsibility of district school boards. Aldama, as a city councilmember, has no ability to make Glendale’s schools ‘better’.
If anyone out there knows how Aldama is better for Glendale, families, education and community I hope you will share with the rest of us. Also note the endorsement from the Police FOP. It could be the state organization but it is not the Glendale police union. The same is true for the Arizona Police Association.
Aldama is a nice person but choosing someone to represent you is not a popularity contest. Your choice should be based upon your representative’s performance and making sure the candidate’s positions on the issues align with yours.
I became concerned about Aldama’s performance with regard to the issue of council’s decision to place School Resource Officers in all Glendale high schools. During consideration of the initiative by council Aldama never once stated that he did not support the decision due to reason A, B or C. It was surprising to all councilmembers when he did not show up for the Press Conference to announce our decision.
Instead immediately after the press conference, Councilmember Aldama offered a Guest Commentary in the Glendale Star on March 27, 2018 saying, “Clearly this was an insensitive headline-grabbing political response to a larger problem than just having an officer in each high school, or on any or all school campuses in Glendale. To suggest this action taken by the city of Glendale is a solution to preventing future school shooting incidents is misleading.”
His commentary was followed by Perry Vandell’s story in the Arizona Republic of March 29, 2018. Vandell stated, “Glendale City Councilman Jamie Aldama this week hammered the city’s quick decision to add police officers to all of its traditional public high schools.” Aldama is quoted within the article saying, “The police and fire associations were told of the adverse impact on their memberships, but not consulted with.” His stance on the issue earned Aldama this rebuke in an Arizona Free Enterprise Club mailer:
Yet, by June 8, 2018 in remarks promoting his “Glendale Today” edition on the city’s Glendale 11 TV show he said, “Glendale’s School Resource Officer program is an important step toward ensuring communities are safe and protected. As a current school board member here in Glendale, I recognize firsthand how imperative this issue is to our community.”
Then in July of 2018 in his message in the city’s “Connection” sent to every water household in the city he said, “It is with great pleasure to announce that I am working with city council and city staff to make our schools safer by implementing a School Resource Officer program…I am very supportive of the SRO program.”
What is troubling was his failure to inform city council in March that he did not support the SRO program for various reasons (take your pick) and failed to show up for a council press conference announcing the program yet three months later (and just before the Primary Election) Aldama does a 180 and full throatily supports the SRO program.
Taking a position in opposition to the SRO program and emphasizing that decision by failing to attend a council press conference and then announcing support for the program just before the Primary Election appears to be a case of political expediency.
Aldama had the opportunity to make his case in his political mailers and failed to do so. I’m for a better Glendale, and I can say I’m better for families, education and community…and so can you. With that criteria I guess we all qualify to be the Ocotillo district councilmember.
© Joyce Clark, 2018
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I wasn’t going to post my opinion but I think in all fairness, I will. As an Ocotillo resident for over 55 years, I have been completely happy with Jamie Aldama as my councilperson. For the first time since living here, I have a council representative that has listened to my concerns and completely followed up on the problem. He and his staff have kept in touch with updates all along and I couldn’t ask for anything more. Yes, I have disagreed on some of his votes but obviously that will happen with any issue or any person. I guess my biggest peeve about this whole election is that our illustrious mayor who I have doubted his integrity both on a professional issue and on a personal issue, feels that he needs to go out and handpick who he wants on the council. The best City Council is one that is diversified in their opinions so that all aspects of any issue will be looked at. Making sure that everyone in any decision making group has like opinions is not a healthy situation for good decision making.
Sorry, I guess I should have been more specific on how Jamie Aldama not only listened to me, but helped not only myself but the whole Ocotillo southside community. For years I have been complaining about the high speed traffic on Maryland Avenue between 67 and 59. Three other times the City did their research and speed analysis and every time they said yes, there is a big problem but this is not a priority at this time. When I contacted Aldama’s office he went through the same process with the City speed analysis and safety issues (after 6 accidents in a month’s time) and found it was such a safety problem that they needed to act on it. Jamie Aldama and his staff helped get the petitions signed as I am not that mobile and it looks like finally after all these years, they may be implementing some speed and safety corrections that will mean the world of difference. Maybe this may not seem so important to others in higher income districts where things seem to get done a lot faster, but I have at least 70 or 80 children walking by here every day either to catch a bus or go to school. There already was a 5 year old hit a year or two ago, but luckily not a fatal, but a broken leg. School will be starting again next week and hopefully something will start being implemented to prevent a major fatality. I have cars going 55-70 mph going by every day. It is a 25 mph street. I have had two cars in the last 6 months come up through my yard to pass on the right, where there is no lane. So yes, I will vote for Aldama and I will keep on appreciating that finally there was a Council person that cared enough to pursue this.
Dayna, thank you for your reply. You mentioned Jamie initiated a petition drive. Based on the petitions what speed and safety measures is the city taking?
That was up to the City’s transportation/roads to decide. They opted originally against any humps or bumps because the emergency vehicles all use Maryland on their calls. They had something else in mind and I do see they are working on Maryland around 63rd. I had a call in to the City to find out exactly what it would be. One of the biggest things we seem to be missing was enough signage on tis stretch to emphasize the 25mph. And the biggest missing link was no police enforcement on this street. I know they are limited on officers but this seems to be such a safety issue, that just some police traffic enforcement presence would alert some of the drivers that there are speed limit laws. I had talked to one of Aldama’s staff and they were going to follow up on that aspect also. Obviously, they wouldn’t change the speed limit to accommodate the speeders, especially with the number of children using this street for to/from schools.