Report on Board of Supervisors Meeting

Report forwarded from Liz at CODE Pink Phoenix:

Subject: Sept. 2: Public Comments at Board of Supervisors meeting
Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 6:40 PM

“This town is the laughing stock of not only the U.S., but of the world!!”

Those words were said Tuesday, September 2, 2009 in the Public Comments agenda of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting. During the Public Comment, there were about 15 individuals from the MCSA-like POV and 3 or 4 individuals who spoke about the MCSO detention officers who are having unpaid overtime withheld.

Guierillima Pritchardo spoke in Spanish. Though we know at least two of the Supervisors understood, (Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox), the other Supervisors do not speak Spanish and they need translators to understand the concerns of their contituencies, the non-Spanish speaking people attending BofS meetings also need to translators as well, and visa versa, the Spanish speakers need to understand what the Supervisors are saying during the meetings. I can quote Guierillima from one of her phrases: "quiermos cambio positivo" Note that there were observers from the U.S. Dept. of Justice in the Supervisors Auditorium today to see about translators.

Kristy Thielen and Joel Nelson and Jason Odhner expressed how they had been acquitted of the charge of Disorderly Conduct yesterday. Kristy asked: "you have the power and responsibility to oversee Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the MCSO" and that the arrests (twice for Kristy) were unreasonable and irresponsible."

Shana Higa, defense attorney for Kristy Thielen, stated that the violation of the defendants rights were violated as much by the Board of Supervisors as they were by the MCSO, and Supervisors have a responsibilty to uphold the Constitution.

Irene Chavez said that since 1996, Joe Arpaio has been responsible for deaths in the Jail facilities. She listed many of the gruesome deaths and then demanded that the Board of Supervisors do something to stop this man Joe Arpaio.

Raquel Teran asked the Board if they understood the Spanish language speaker, Guillerima? She then described the intimidation and harassment she felt when 3 Sheriff Deputies arrive at her door in the early morning of December 19, 2008, two days after the Board of Supervisors meeting when 4 others were arrested for Disorderly Conduct. She stated that the Court ruled that the Sheriff's decisions were wrong and political in nature. She suggested that instead of harassing, those Sheriffs should have served some of the 40,000 outstanding criminal warrants, not making political maneuvers.

Liana Rowe spoke as a clergy person, she said she sometimes speaks for those who cannot speak or themselves. She spoke of the expenditures of the MCSO on petty crimes when they are not funding the safety of the incarcarated. She spoke of the health denials of the incarcerated. She said there are international treaties that state the rights for translations, that there are 30% monolingual Spanish speakers in Maricopa County.

Carlos Galindo spoke of the behavior on the witness stand of Supervisor Kunasek and of MCSO Sgt. Arcitelli. Their answers were deceptive, uncooperative, and that they spoke in biased and a defamatory manner. He spoke of how Barb Heller, a nativist, was seen in a video during the trial and she was demeaning immigrants and that Chair Kunasek applauded her defamatory words. That Arcitelli was bullish and showed how he felt he was above the law. He said that the only honorable thing for Kunasek to do would be to resign, that he had violated public trust.

Randy Parraz spoke, he exclaimed to the Board that he is NOT GUILTY of the charges of Criminal Trespassing and of Disorderly Conduct as charged in September, 2008. He said that the Supervisors should now send a Letter telling Arpaio and the MCSO NOT to come to provide Security at the Supervisors meetings. That they had tried to suppress Free speech. He said that Chief Thrombi of the MCSO had provided such a low threshold of evidence of the charges against him that his Defense Lawyers did not even have to provide defense, the charges were dropped after the State had presented their case. He again requested that the Sheriffs conduct be on the Board's Agenda.

Monica Sandschafer  said she grew up believing it is not only a right, but a moral and ethical obligation to address elected officials. That being engaged with government to make sure officials hear what we have to say, she was disillusioned upon finding out the indifference of government officials in Maricopa County, Arizona. She told of trying to get on the agenda for 6 months with no response. She said that before the arrests in December (twice), 2008, she had never been arrested before. Her voice was faltering as she described her experience of spending 10 hours in detention for coming to a public meeting and clapping.

Finally, Jameson Johnson spoke observing that the subject of much of this scorn against the Board of Supervisors, Andrew Kunasek was not present. He said he can't imagine what Kunasek has to do that is more important than being here today. He read the 1 st Amendment of the Constitution"

 

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

He referred to a case from 1938, Lovell v. City of Griffin (from Wikipedia):
The Court reasoned that the ordinance violated the Freedom of the Press condition of the First Amendment, as the city demanded that all distributed periodicals, not merely those that were considered obscene, offensive to public morals, or which advocate unlawful conduct, obtain a license from the city before they could be distributed. The Court felt that the First Amendment was not limited to periodicals and newspapers, that it necessarily included the publication of leaflets and pamphlets as well.

Not to forget Blue or Pat Crowley, who made comments on the busses in the far West Valley, but he spoke of the travesty of justice that has occurred at the Board of Supervisors meetings.

In the end, Mary Rose Wilcox commented to the issues, making a personal apology, and Max Wilson said that he would try to live up to the Constitution and said that what he knew, he needed an occassional reminder. Supervisors Fulton Brock and Don Stapley had no further comment. Andrew Kunasek was absent. County Manager David Smith responded to the MCSO and Detention Officers that their concerns may be further addressed in the afternoon during a County Buget meeting.

 

S.O.P. for Arpaio: Arrest if we Protest

Not to be upstaged by a lawsuit against him, Arpaio had to drop this piece of non-information about Smith to the media today. Apparently he needed to remind us all that it's wise not to mess with this man unless you don't mind a SWAT raid on your home and a criminal investigation into your life and work, all possibly being conducted by officers more loyal to Arpaio than to the law. Sometimes he does scare me; more accurately, though, I find him deeply disturbing.

Which is all the more reason people need to keep calling him on his shit. We owe it to Wilcox and Smith - both of whom went out on that limb. Maybe Stapley too. Not to mention all the protesters and opposition supporters he's harassed or prosecuted.

Anyway, Wilcox and Smith have earned my respect by calling Arpaio out. He usually wins by wearing his opposition down, it seems, but that could just be PR. I frankly don't think he's going to get far trying to prosecute anyone with the county; it just looks too vindictive. And I think he's begun to lose too much power; Joe's about to go down himself, by the looks of things.

..

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MCSO investigating Maricopa County Manager David Smith

Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 6:16pm MST

Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks

County Manager David Smith is included in some of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office inquires and investigations into county government, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday.

Arpaio said his office is investigating the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and county government on several fronts and some of those inquiries include the county manager’s office and Smith.

Smith has been county manager since 1994 and has become critical of Arpaio of late. The MCSO is investigating airport restaurant leases held by businesses owned by Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and helped secure 2008 indictments against Supervisor Don Stapley over disclosure of real estate development and business deals.

Wilcox says Arpaio is investigating her because of her opposition to this hard-line immigration policies and Stapley denies wrongdoing. The Sheriff says his office received information prompting the Wilcox investigation.

The sheriff would not say specifically what the MCSO is looking at in terms of Smith. He added just because someone is part of an inquiry or investigation does not mean they are guilty.

Arpaio said his office has several criminal and other investigations into parts of county governments, and he did say Smith and his office were part of that.

Smith and Arpaio’s critics among the supervisors have blocked insurance and operational approval for new transport bus bought by Arpaio with jail inmate fee funds. Smith also called the hard-nosed sheriff a “thug” in a recent Arizona Republic story. Arpaio says his office needs the bus to transport prisoners and replace older buses.

County spokesman Richard de Uriate said the MCSO has made public records and e-mail requests of 36 top and mid-level county officials as part of an unnamed criminal investigation.

“The sheriff might be referring to that. But the sheriff has threatened investigations on a host of issues in which we have policy disagreements. It is very disturbing,” de Uriate said.

De Uriate said the county is resisting Arpaio’s request citing costs, opting to fight it in court. He also notes Arpaio’s attorneys have said there was an investigation of Maricopa County Superior Court Presiding Judge Barbara Mundell.

“This is really SOP (standard operating procedure) over there,” de Uriate said.

The MCSO is fighting with the Board of Supervisors and Smith over the Sheriff’s office raid Aug. 12 and takeover of a $25 million criminal justice computer system shared by county legal and law enforcement agencies.

The MCSO said county officials were trying to make changes to the system without approval by partner agencies and they cited worries about system security.

County officials say Arpaio sent more than a dozen deputies to county computer rooms as part of the raids.

Former county school superintendent Sandra Dowling is suing the MCSO and Arpaio over a 2006 SWAT team raid of her home and offices. Dowling was indicted on theft and embezzlement charges but eventually only pleaded guilty to a nepotism charge. She also resigned her post.