It has been 17 years and 250 days since the city’s pledge to build the West Branch Library.

Courtesy Charlie Leight/The Republic

By now the general public is keenly aware of the Hillary Clinton scandal regarding her emails and the use of a private server while she was serving as Secretary of State. The general public consensus seems to believe that she is arrogant and believes that the law doesn’t apply to her. Perhaps the same can be said of Councilmember Gary Sherwood, Sahuaro district, currently facing a recall election on November 3, 2015.

There are some people with a lot of time on their hands and they do research. Recently I received via email a packet of material related to Sherwood and his driving record. I did not do the research on this material but I did go to every link provided and assured myself that all of the information I am about to share is a public record. I will provide the links and copies of the material I found on each site. So, thank you to anonymous for sharing.

Just about everyone on the planet has received a traffic ticket at some point in their driving lifetimes. In my 50 years of driving I have received 3 speeding tickets. I paid my fine, took the defensive driving class, received points on my license…and vowed to stop being a “lead foot.” Gary Sherwood appears to have received 6 traffic citations over a 12 year period from 2001 to 2013. In the great scheme of things, no big deal. However, it is the last and most recent traffic violation that is troubling. Here is the link to his list of violations: http://apps.supremecourt.az.gov/publicaccess/ .

The Round Valley Justice Court case appears to still be an open case according to the records. That case shows 3 counts: Count 1-a local driving violation to which he pled guilty and sentence imposed on 8/18/2013; Count 2-“drive with license suspended/revoked/cancelled” which appears to be open and unresolved; and Count 3-“Failure to Appear, 2^nd degree” which also appears to be open and unresolved. Use the same link provided above and click on J-0101-TR-20131487 . Below is the case file from that link.

Here are the details of the Case Activity. As of 12/8/2014 there appears to be an Active Warrant still open for Sherwood. If this warrant is still active, why hasn’t the Glendale Police Department arrested him? They know where to find him on Tuesdays…at city hall attending council workshops and meetings.

This case is raises some vexing questions. Mr. Sherwood was seated as the Glendale Sahuaro City Councilmember in January, 2013. At that time he is no longer private citizen Sherwood but public official Sherwood. Whether one likes it or not, a public official is held to a higher standard than that of a private citizen.

If you take note in the Case Activity there is a TR/SR Suspension Only on 8/12/2014 and the suspension was lifted on 8/20/2014. Was this a driver’s license suspension? In talking to persons in law enforcement the consensus is that it probably was suspended but they cannot verify that opinion without seeing some of the original documentation. IF his license was indeed suspended, did Mr. Sherwood stay home on 8/12/2014, day of council meeting or did he have someone drive him around? Apparently not. On 8/12/2014 there was a city council executive session at 4 PM followed by a city council meeting that evening. Sherwood attended both. Did he drive himself to City Hall that day?

The following day, 8/13/2014, Sherwood was in St.Paul/Minneapolis for a League of Cities and Towns National Conference. Here is the link and the material copied from the link: http://www.glendaleaz.com/FollowYourMoney/Dept.cfm?Type=5&DeptID=112&DivID=10140&Account=511400 .

As you can see, Sherwood rented a car from National Car Rental and paid $44 to park it that day paid with the city’s ProCard (taxpayers dollars)…on what may have been a suspended driver’s license. So, you, dear Glendale taxpayer, could have funded Sherwood’s disobedience of the law.

These publicly accessed facts could lead one to assume that Sherwood is at the very least a scofflaw and at the very worst, believes the law doesn’t apply to him. These facts appear to lend credence to Sherwood’s habit and pattern of ignoring the rules whether they are rules of the road or the filing necessary political documents.

Malfeasance is also a word that comes to mind. Webster’s Dictionary defines malfeasance as “wrongdoing or misconduct especially by a public official.” Voters of the Sahuaro district, is this the man to represent your interests?

© Joyce Clark, 2015

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