Tucson Weekly: The Skinny (June 24

Skinny KNOCK, KNOCK: The recent apparently random home invasion by an armed thug and an accomplice made the front page of the afternoon near-daily. The story, by longtime Citizen police reporter David Teibel, noted that the perps claimed they were police when pounding on the victims' door at 2 a.m.
Teibel, who has served as a cop reporter for so long it's rumored TPD gave him his own 20-year ceremony with a special award for running the most official handouts, published a list of "Home Security Tips," which came from unnamed "local law enforcement sources." The top tip:
"When someone unexpectedly pounds on your door, saying he is the police, call 911 if you are in doubt. Arrest warrants are always served by a uniformed police officer."
Clearly, Teibel never watches Cops. It's a little hard to get to your phone when you're spread-eagled on your own floor with a Glock at the back of your head. And this, of course, assumes there's a warrant in the first place--something the Pima County Attorney's Office has already told us isn't really needed if a cop thinks there's an "emergency."
So when your door is being kicked down at 2 a.m., you can hope that the guys coming through it in ninja suits are real cops, who have a warrant, and who are maybe even at the right address. But we don't really suggest you grab a cell phone to check them out. Seems a lady in Chicago had one in her hand when the cops stopped her car, mistook it for a gun and put about ten slugs into her. Oops.
WHERE'S THE AGENDA? Earlier this week, Gov. Jane Dee Hull picked former state Rep. Bill Mundell to replace Tony West on the Arizona Corporation Commission. Mundell, a decent lawmaker during his stint, will have his work cut out for him in the ACC snakepit.
Pima County Supervisor Mike Boyd was on the short list of candidates, which is a clear indication of the paucity of Republicans from Pima who wanted the job. We're told Hull's former colleague in the Legislature, recently elected Clerk of the Superior Court Patti Noland, was offered the job but declined so she could continue serving in the lower office she just won. More credit to her for that.
It was disturbing to watch the Democrats on the Board, Raul Grijalva and Sharon Bronson, mumble and weasel when asked about possible candidates to replace Boyd should he get the Phoenix job. They both said they really had "no criteria" for his replacement. Which exposes one of the bigger problems on the Board of Supes.
Excuse us, but the constituencies who did the scut work, put up the signs and raised the money to get those two elected are entitled to a little more than this "noblesse oblige" bullshit from both of them. Environmentalists, neighborhood activists, and the rest of the gang who busted their butts to get both of these pols their current high-paying jobs should be told that both Grijalva and Bronson would support a Republican who shared at least some of their core beliefs and that they'll try real hard to find one.
Unfortunately, the politics of personality have consumed both Grijalva and Bronson for the past few years. In placing their own--often petty--desires ahead of what is good for their own supporters and constituents, both are suffering from that splendid isolation and arrogance of power that often takes over even relatively low-ranking pols like these.
We would remind both that they're up next year and if they'd like four more years in office, it's getting close to the time when you try to at least pretend you care about what the people who elected you last time really want. Nobody's that safe.
SUNNYSIDE DOWN: Roasted scapegoat is what they're serving at the Sunnyside Unified School District. The executive chef is Superintendent Mary Garcia, who led the majority on the Sunnyside Board in racing to put the district's food service scandal behind them.
Garcia had costly help from special counsel John Richardson to persuade Board members Linda Lopez, Ned Norris Jr. and Robert Jaramillo to fire Henry Martinez, a buyer for Sunnyside, last June 8.
Board members Eva Dong and Luis Araiza are to be commended for standing up to the bullying tactics deployed by Garcia and Richardson, who also provides expensive help to the Tucson Unified School District (which is run by Mary's husband, George Garcia).
Martinez took it all with great courage and finesse. He demanded that the Board hear his case in public, yet he wasn't given any opportunity to rebut the preposterous charges.
That was left to Dong, who is showing great strength and independence in her first year on the Sunnyside Board. She had Garcia and Richardson backpeddling on their outrageous claims that Martinez acted improperly. Dong's questions proved that the problems in food service--a $1 million deficit, catered parties for friends--were not of Martinez's doing.
Garcia and Richardson attacked Martinez for not disclosing a supposed conflict of interest and for not keeping adequate transaction records, because he sometimes wrote bids on small sheets of paper instead of the forms that Garcia abruptly demanded later. But Martinez had given Assistant Superintendent Al Navarette written notice of his contract with Bar S for work in Mexico, which should have settled the conflict issue. As for the problems with record-keeping, the real problem was that Garcia's handpicked food service director, Rachel Terrin, never counseled Martinez on the way she wanted things done.
Martinez took the fall six days after the Sunnyside scandal produced indictments against three people: Juan Flores, the former food service director; nutrition specialist Cecilia "Sheila" Encinas, the sister-in-law of Sunnyside's business manager, Hector Encinas; and Carmen Frances Molina, who is alleged to have had a quinceañera for a family member catered by Flores. The indictments came out of a Maricopa County grand jury and the investigation continues.
Martinez, who had been on paid leave for several months, was dignified as he left Sunnyside's Star Chamber. Martinez greeted teachers and colleagues and wished them well as he exited.
The move by Norris, Lopez and Jaramillo should strike fear into all Sunnyside employees. They have no rights. And, as nearly everyone in Sunnyside knows, there is more to this story. Specifically, which top Sunnyside officials enjoyed the steaks and other food at taxpayers' expense?
Before he voted to stab Martinez in the back, Norris, the big man at the Desert Diamond Casino, mumbled something about accountability that rests with Board members and their responsibility in the Sunnyside scandal. Voters will surely remember the Sunnyside Board majority, particularly the asleep-at-the-wheel Jaramillo, who won his seat by a mere 7 votes in 1996. And try as she will, Lopez also cannot escape the mess and the horrendous overruns as she campaigns, against the tide, for a seat in the state House of Representatives from southside District 10.
TUSD PULLS THE PLUG: A myopic quartet on the TUSD Governing Board--Mary Belle McCorkle, James Christ, Joel Ireland and Carolyn Kemmeries--voted June 15 to pull the plug on the four-month-old experiment to telecast tape-delayed broadcasts of Board meetings. All had specious reasons that showed their fear of the First Amendment and the ability of parents, teachers, taxpayers and voters to see government in action.
Freshman Board member Rosalie Lopez tried to keep it afloat and even offered to put her travel budget into the austere Board television venture, which cost a mere $145 a pop.
The televised meetings, which ran on local cable channels, offered a good opportunity for members of the public to see the meetings, which are often crowded because the small hearing room is filled with TUSD bureaucratic hacks.

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