Tucson Sammy

I am willing to bet that many of you wonder why the crooks at City of Tucson Waste Management were reinstated in their City jobs after they were fired for cheating on the time clock. I think I can explain the situation with an anecdote.

Many moons ago, I had a friend who worked for the City. She worked in the Tucson, Pima County Public Library (it was owned jointly then). She worked as a manager of a small department, and supervised two to three people.

We were chatting once, and she talked about work, about how much she liked her job. She said that she really liked the people with whom she worked – except for one.

I asked about the one she disliked – I’ll refer to her as “Amy”. She told me that Amy did not do her work. I asked if she meant that Amy was slow, or did she commit many errors. No, she did not do her work. In fact, my friend asked her boss if she could tell Amy to stay home and just mail her check to her. In so doing, my friend would have freed up valuable time that she wasted trying to explain to Amy that which she was supposed to do, but apparently could not.

I thought that I must be missing something. I figured that if I kept talking, I would pick it up. I suggested that Amy might be terminated. “You can’t fire anyone,” my friend told me. This gave me pause. I had heard that government jobs were relatively secure, but this was something else.

“Who has the authority to fire Amy?”, I asked. She told me that the authority was hers. I felt as if I had moved from missing something, to not seeing anything. I backed up a little, and asked why she could not fire anyone – particularly someone who did not do her work.

She explained that she could fire her, but then Amy would appeal the firing to the independent review commission (I forget the formal title of the commission), and the commission always reinstates the employee. I asked why it always sides with the employee.

The answer is a simple case of incentive. You see, if the employee is reinstated, the case is over, and the employee is no longer the commission’s problem. There is no recourse for the City, and the employee has what he wants. On the other hand, if the firing is sustained, the employee can retaliate in any number of ways. For example, he can sue the City and the commission, or he can go to the media and make a public stink that might draw negative attention to the commission. If he is a member of a protected group, both those efforts are slam-dunks.

The commission is so independent that it serves its own interests, rather than fulfilling its responsibilities to the City and the employee.

And that, my friends, is why City of Tucson employees cannot be fired.

I just added a piece to the “Articles” section in the column at the right – the title is “Street Protests in the New Millennium.” It covers an anti-Bush protest/counter protest. Note that the anti-Semites have a home on the Left; if you’re still in doubt regarding this, read Jimmy Carter’s latest book.

I did not mention, in the article, that I ran into a couple of friends there. They were on the anti-Bush side. They were full-on kook-fringe types. I’ll bet that when they sit down to talk national politics, it’s not about whether or not “No Child Left Behind” is working, it’s about whether or not Bush is the Anti-Christ. (I actually have a Democrat friend who made that suggestion)

Now, I have many policy and philosophical differences with President Bush. He’s certainly no libertarian, nor is he particularly conservative, but I do not feel the need to create a fantasy world in which President Bush vacillates between being an evil genius and a total moron. I think he’s a good man, just wrong on a lot of stuff.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Yeah, well, you sure were critical of Clinton when he was president.” C’mon, you don’t have to pay close attention to see the difference. I’m not aware of anyone who called Clinton evil, or a Nazi, much less the Anti-Christ. President Clinton was criticized for illegalities ranging from hosing the subordinate at the workplace on the clock (textbook sexual harassment), to selling missile technology to the People’s Republic of China for campaign money (illegal campaign funding). When he did stuff that the conservatives liked (NAFTA, welfare reform), they praised him. Is that sort of fair treatment too much to expect from Democrats regarding Bush?

Anyway, I asked one of my friends, an older woman, why she hated Bush so much. She said that he’s destroying the Constitution. I challenged her to give me an example of his extra-constitutional activities. She told me that he appointed judges when Congress was not in session.

“Yes,” I said, “They’re called ‘recess appointments’”.

“I know what they’re called,” she said, acting a little offended.

I explained that recess appointments were not some evil thing that Karl Rove developed in the White House basement. They’ve been around for a long time. She said that she new that, but Bush made a lot of them.

I pointed out that if the Democrats had not blocked the voting with filibusters, he would not have to make any recess appointments. I was about to point out that if anyone created a new evil thing with which to destroy the Constitution, it was the Democrats and their new application of the filibuster which changed the votes necessary to confirm a judge from a simple majority to a de-facto super majority!

Alas, I could feel my anger rising along with my voice; worse yet, I could see the same thing beginning in my friend. I changed the subject. We finished our conversation saying that it was nice that we could be friends and disagree, blah, blah, blah.

Though I failed in my quest for reasoned conversation, I witnessed some successes that day when other people crossed over to the other side and spoke one on one.

There is always hope.

It appears that our City Council has negotiated a deal with the Eastborne Company. They plan to put in a huge development that will include a tract of KB Homes houses, a retail complex (complete with a “big box”), and, of course, some University of Arizona “park” of some sort. It will be located in the South Park neighborhood near Park and 36th. But hey, at least we got rid of those dang Republicans on the City Council who suck up to KB Homes, change zoning for rich developers, and allow more of those awful “big box” stores! (Har, har, har, chortle, chortle).

While most council business goes on as usual, our elected representatives were flirting with a new and very wicked idea – all mail-in voting. Thankfully, in the course of Tuesday evening’s meeting, the idea was officially abandoned …for now. Unfortunately, mail-in voting, like “light rail” and herpes, never really goes away. Remember, too, that if they do it in the Emerald City (Portland, Oregon), the Democrats will want to do it here.

This time, the discussion avoided the real issue, and focused on pragmatic problems such as Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. Frankly, I would be tempted to tell the swinging Richard from Washington to shove it – but that’s just me. The City Clerk is faced with the huge headache of bringing all polling places into compliance. Of course, if most of the polling places went away, so would the headache. Expect support from City Clerk Kathy Detrick next time around.

The elephant in the voting booth, about which no one is speaking, is fraud. You know, we have had pens, paper, and a postal system for over two hundred years, yet we go to the voting booths to cast our votes. Why is that?

Here’s a hint. When you are in the booth, you are alone with the ballot, you mark it, and then you put it in a locked box that is guarded by people from both parties. It’s called a “secret ballot”. Secret ballots are important because they insure that your vote reflects your choice, and not that of your spouse, employer, union representative, landlord, etc. Get it? Why do you suppose that the poll worker will not touch your ballot, and makes you put it in the box yourself?

Some say that making voting easy would encourage more participation. We already have mail-in voting on demand with the absentee ballots – but we know it’s not about participation; it’s about the F-word.

The Motor-Voter law made registering as easy as breaking wind, and now taxpayers from Hyannis to San Francisco are spending big bucks trying to remove fraudulent registrations from the voter rolls.

A number of ACORN people were indicted in St. Louis for submitting fraudulent registrations (it’s still against the law, even for Democrats). Voting by mail is an invitation for similar shenanigans a little further along in the process. There is an ACORN chapter in Tucson, by the way.

There was an election recently in which voters resoundingly defeated a ballot initiative that would have created a statewide mail-in voting scheme. In light of this fact, one would imagine that mail-in voting would now be the “third rail” of Arizona politics. Facilitating fraud must be one heck of a motivation.

One last thing, and this is something that every American knows at a gut level (Tom Danehy will back me on this). Voting with a secret ballot is the most important civic duty that a citizen can perform. It is a right that should be exercised with some gravity. It is not the equivalent of mailing in a magazine subscription – 5 years for $50.00, 2 years for $30.00, 1 year for $20.00, Libertarian, Republican, Democrat. If you increase the turnout fifty per cent with voters who do not take the decision seriously, have you improved the process, or cheapened it?

So, the next time that this mail-in vote stuff comes around, call your Councilman and tell him to knock it off, and get back to greasing the skids for developers and building “big boxes” on the South Side.

Election day is Tuesday the sixteenth. Let’s talk some Regional Transportation Authority (RTA).

Libertarians are sometimes humored, but more often horrified, by the focus of the debate. Reporters enumerate the details, commentators debate the details, while huge violations of liberty - and the concept of representative government - are ignored. Proponents and opponents prattle on about whether or not the trolley from the University of Arizona to the downtown area is the stupidest part of the plan (it may be), or if purchasing rights-of-way in the southeast is smart (it is). Meanwhile, the single most important issue is left to me to address.

If members of the Tucson City Council are irresponsible with the tax dollars they raise, we get rid of them at the election time. If the Pima County Board of Supervisors are irresponsible with tax dollars they raise, we get rid of them at the election time. If the appointees at the RTA are irresponsible with the tax dollars they raise we….we what?

The overriding mistake, the one that trumps all other issues, is the creation of yet another level of government composed of unelected bureaucrats that will have taxing authority. Unelected appointees with taxing authority is anathema to citizens. Any government official with taxing authority must be subject to firing by the people directly. How many other ways can I put this? Is there anyone who disagrees?

I know that they promised to stick to the plan, and I know that they have procedures for deviating, as in the requirement to hold a referendum if they deviate by a certain percentage, but they are not bound by law. If anyone says that they are bound by law, ask him what remedy is in place in case it is violated. I’m not suggesting that they should be bound to all the details of the plan. That would certainly be unreasonable considering the nature and magnitude of the projects. They should, however, be accountable directly to the people – which they will not be.

It is typical for this sort of “authority” to eventually slip under the radar, accrue large amounts of money and political power, and become an entity in and of itself, instead of by and for the people.

If you like the plan, vote for it; tell them that it is a good plan. If you don’t like the plan, vote against it; tell them it stinks. Whatever you do, vote against the tax! It is not really an issue of the tax itself, but rather to whom the funds will flow.

It is too late to stop the creation of the monster, but we can keep it from getting any teeth.

Governor Janet Napolitano, whose activity in the Clarence Thomas hearings earned her a place in the Clinton administration, just vetoed Senate Bill 1425. This piece of legislation would have prevented the wholesale confiscation of privately owned weapons when they would be needed most – during “states of emergency”. Remember post-Katrina New Orleans? Remember the National Guard handcuffing citizens on the porches of their homes while those homes were searched and property (firearms) was confiscated without cause?

We all know that New Orleans was founded by the French. Do not expect Arizonans to allow themselves to be handcuffed and sit placidly by while agents of the federal government have their way.

This veto must be overridden. It’s a safety issue. It’s a civil rights issue. It is an issue of who serves whom.

If you do not believe that Governor Napolitano has contempt for the people of Arizona, click here to read her letter to Ken Bennett, President, Arizona State Senate, in which she not only proclaims her contempt, she insults our intelligence.

Have a nice day.

Congratulations to Jim Nintzel of the Tucson Weekly for blowing the hypocrisy whistle on the new City Council in last week’s Skinny.
Apparently, after campaigning on impact fees, and beating up the Republicans for not implementing them fast enough, the freshmen councilmen (Uhlich and Trasoff) were part of a unanimous vote to essentially wave fees for a commercial development on the south side for the Barclay Group – a heap big out-of-town special interest corporate type.

Not one, but both hapless dailies took editorial positions in favor of voting by mail. This is astounding. Are they really that naïve, or are they just stupid? Even Tom Danehy of the Weekly got this one right! This has been in the news lately because the Old Pueblo Politburo is discussing this latest iteration of Motor-Voter for city elections. I suppose that their experience has shown that committing voter fraud in Tucson is far too costly and inefficient.

If you would like to read a rant by yours truly, check out “The F-Word is the Bottom Line” under “Articles”.

Have a nice day. (insert smiley face here)

Speaking of Tom Danehy, Tucson’s premier local talk radio program, Inside Track with Emil Franzi and friends, may now be found at 690AM KVOI “The Voice” from 1:00 to 3:00 PM on Saturdays and 7:00 to 9:00 AM on Sundays - Emil and Tom mix it up during the Saturday show.