It was the storm of the century. A tempest created by so rare a combination of factors meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." When it struck in October 2091, there was virtually no warning.

No one is prepared for the Hispanic storm but the Hispanic storm is coming

Three weather systems are now forming: The first weather system forming is changing City of Phoenix Police Order 1.4, the second weather system forming is City of Phoenix discrimination as evident by the lack of Hispanic middle and executive managers, and now the third weather system forming is exposing City of Phoenix double standards (Tracey Short) and countless Hispanic workers degraded and abandoned with total disregard of human and labor rights.

The Perfect Storm — in Phoenix's case, the force of humanity demanding an end to discrimination by white employees on American Hispanic employees. Discrimination prevalent throughout the City of Phoenix oozing latent effluvium dispersing its stench nourished daily by victimizing City of Phoenix American Hispanics.

The count is now 43 emails from Phoenix city workers detailing a rampant blatant disregard for the dignity of City of Phoenix American Hispanic employees.

The count now is more than 100 persons ready to join ALEC.

Last week Hispanic News did battle with the City of Phoenix as it stonewalled the discovery of information of one of its employees — Tracey Short, the Canadian hired by the City of Phoenix as the assistant director of the Phoenix Convention Center.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stonewalling: To engage in delaying tactics; Stall; To be uncooperative, obstructive, or evasive; To resist or rebuff.

"I want you to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment." — Richard M. Nixon.

With the publishing of City of Phoenix, Cunning Discrimination and Highly Effective, on January 8, I received four emails and three telephone calls from former employees of the City of Phoenix who cited special treatment for Tracey Short, assistant director of the Phoenix Convention Center. The claim is Tracey Short received financial assistance to obtain an immigration work visa or her immigration work visa was modified in some regard. It is also conceivable Tracey Short did not have or does not have a work visa to work in the United States.

Telephone calls on January 8, to Tracey Short were not returned. On the same day I called David Richert, senior executive assistant to the city manager and responsible for the Phoenix Convention Center. Richert did not take my calls.

On January 9, I called Frank Fairbanks, Phoenix city manager, who took my call. I informed Fairbanks, Richert was not taking my calls and I wanted to know if mayor and council had approved any item concerning Tracey Short and specifically, had Tracey Short received assistance in obtaining a work visa by having the City of Phoenix pay for said services to an immigration attorney.

Fairbanks responded, "I have no knowledge but Richert would know." Fairbanks said he would have Richert return my call.

Hispanic News supports Tracey Short receiving financial assistance to obtain immigration documentation so long as all city employees are afforded the same benefit but the question of double standards arises in regard to other workers — are Hispanic workers offered this benefit if needed.

On January 9, David Richert called to inform me he would provide the information "tomorrow."

On January 10, I called Richert to find out if the information was available. I did not get passed Melissa his secretary.

Later on January 10, David Richert called me to tell me to submit a Request for Public Records to David Ramirez.

With the inefficiency of city staff and suspecting a cover-up, I decided to find the information myself. On January 10, I called the City Clerk's office and asked for a search of any request for assistance for Tracey Short taken to the Mayor and Council for approval. Within seconds, the computer search located a request had been taken to mayor and council 1 1/2 years ago asking for approval to hire Tracey Short at a higher rate of pay than had been advertised. Mayor and council approved the request.

This city clerk computer search found only one item. I have some experience of how a city works being a former department head. I know a city department head could have authorized the expenditure of city funds without anyone in the city manager's office or for that matter, mayor and council knowing about the expenditure.

Since the possible expenditure to obtain immigration services for Tracey Short did not go before mayor and council, the only way to find this expenditure, assuming there was a expenditure, is to go to the finance department and search all Phoenix Convention Center expenditures. This assumes it did not come from the city manager budget. Of course, the Phoenix Convention Center would have this information but it is doubtful, the Convention Center will release this information considering Tracey Short did not return by calls and on each occasion, I left a message for Short as to the reason for my call.

Returning to my notes of my conversation with Fairbanks, either Fairbanks is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's in not remembering an item considered by mayor and council regarding Tracey Short or Fairbanks lied as part of a cover-up or he is sending Richert to the lions.

If I succeeded in finding out about an item placed before the mayor and council, surely the city manager, if he had wanted to, could have made a request for this information concerning Tracey Short.

On January 10, I called the Washington D.C. office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to report the possible infraction of Tracey Short not having proper documentation. I emphasized I did not know this to be a fact but four individuals were adamant in stating Tracey Short is undocumented. The Washington D.C. ICE office referred me to the Phoenix ICE office to report the possible infraction.

In the event ICE proceeds to the Phoenix Convention Center to arrest Tracey Short for deportation, the whole world will know Tracey Short has no documentation.

The important question still remains to be answered: Did the City of Phoenix pay for immigration services for Tracey Short? If the answer is yes, has the City of Phoenix offered this benefit to all city employees who need assistance?

On January 1I, I received the following email:

Hello Mr. Garrido,

David Ramirez is working with David Richert on the information you requested and is happy to provide it to you. As with other, similar information, please fill out the public records request form and David will forward the information to you accordingly...thanks!

We apologize for any delay and inconvenience this may have caused you.

Lisseth Leon,
CMO-PIO

On the same day, I filled out the form and emailed it back with my signature.

On January 12, I called Fairbanks but he did not accept my call.

To date, the City of Phoenix has not provided information to answer: Did the city pay for immigration services for Tracey Short? It is obvious, there is information someone does not want disclosed.

Sidebar: There used to be a picture of Tracey Short on the Phoenix Convention Center website.

The picture has been deleted. Is this a sign of things to come?

Does AFSCME provide adequate representation for  American Hispanics?

On January 14, Hispanic News published the major headline of the day: AFSCME endorses Hillary Clinton for President. I visited the offices of AFSCME on 16th Street and Indian School Road to see if I could interview the person in charge of the office about the AFSCME endorsement.

The old man who answered my ringing the buzzer at the wrought iron front gate opened the office door and stood between the front office door and behind the wrought iron front gate taking a hard look at me as he asked what I wanted. Not a cordial, "May I help you?" But a stern, "What do you want?" I felt like I was back at Pruitt's with my brown face standing on the wrong side of the street.

I told him about the Hispanic News headline of AFSCME endorsing Hillary Clinton and I wanted to speak to the person in charge but then he asked me, "So what do you specifically want?"

I repeated, "I would like to interview the person in charge of the office for an article Hispanic News is drafting."

The old man responded, "I am the boss."

Sensing I was not getting anywhere with this old white man, I then stated, "I just spoke to the Washington D.C. national office of AFSCME speaking with assistant political director Linda Canan to see if Hispanic News could work with AFSCME supporting Hillary Clinton for president. The assistant political director responded she would have Lawrence R. Scanlon, Jr., AFSCME director of the union's Political Action Department call me from Las Vegas. The assistant director said AFSCME would be very interested in having Hispanic News work with AFSCME to influence the Hispanic vote to elect Hillary."

Name dropping worked but it was all true. The old man said, "You better speak to the president," as he opened the wrought iron front gate to let me in.

Nancy Gray, the president of AFSCME Local 2960, was gracious but told me I needed to talk to Sheri Van Horzen, President, Arizona State Employees AFSCME Union, Local 3111.

My conversation with Gray continued. To my astonishment I learned AFSCME employees are also employees of the City of Phoenix. I think the axiom "one never bites the hand that feeds you" is self-evident of the AFSCME conflict of interest. To compound the problem, the AFSCME staff I met and observed at 16th Street and Indian School Road are all white senior citizens who sat around drinking coffee, eating donuts, and gossiping on the telephone.

The old man who called himself the "boss" sat next to me and read the newspaper as I spoke to Gray. I wondered that day if I had worn a tie and was a "white" person, if the old man would have stood guard until he was satisfied I was acceptable to enter the AFSCME office.

If I had been a AFSCME member working for the City of Phoenix wanting to file a discrimination complaint, I would have had to dance on the table top before I would have been allowed into the office to file a complaint.

Racism is encountered at Pruitt's each Saturday. On January 14, racism raised its ugly head at AFSCME as a wrought iron gate separated me and the old man. This behavior is not acceptable for a labor union that is supposed to represent Hispanics. This old man needs to be fired. The wrought iron front gate needs to be removed.

It is inconceivable this staff will ever prioritize representing American Hispanics complaining of discrimination found within the City of Phoenix.

On January 22, I will send an email to everyone at the national AFSCME Washington D.C. office to share my experience with the Phoenix AFSCME office on 16th Street and Indian School Road.

When I worked for the City of Tucson, I became a member of AFSCME. To my knowledge, AFSCME Tucson never provided anyone assistance with discrimination complaints.

In Phoenix, what history does AFSCME have in addressing injustices? The problem of inadequate Hispanic representation among middle and executive managers has been the case for countless years. Did AFSCME ever address this issue? The knowledge of double standards concerning Tracey Short has been around for one and half years. Did AFSCME question this double standard of inequality? Regarding countless incidents of specific individual discrimination complaints at the City of Phoenix, what is the track record of AFSCME successfully addressing any of these incidents?

It is evident, AFSCME does not represent City of Phoenix Hispanic employees. Hispanic News has come to the conclusion, AFSCME across the United States does not serve the needs of Hispanic public employees.

Does the Phoenix Equal Opportunity Department provide adequate representation for  American Hispanics?

There is a Phoenix department called Equal Opportunity but many who emailed or telephone me citing a discrimination complaint stated the Equal Opportunity Department is a Black city staff organization and does not provide advocacy for Hispanic employees. There may be some truth in this as evident by Blacks being 5.6% of the Phoenix population and African Americans exceeding parity by holding 7% of middle and executive manager positions.

This reinforces what I believe, if someone aggressively promotes the hire of minorities, it does happen. In the case of African Americans, someone at the City of Phoenix was aggressive in their hire. My guess it was Carole Coles Henry.

The real question is why was a African American hired to head the Equal Opportunity Department when Blacks only make up 5.6% of the Phoenix population and Hispanics are 41.2%? One would postulate a Hispanic would have been a more appropriate choice to head up the department. The only conclusion is someone very powerful pushed through the appointment of an African American to head up the department.

It appears, no one is presently aggressive in the hire of Hispanic middle and executive managers. On January 18, I asked Carolyn Gall, the acting Equal Opportunity Department head, why there are only 13.3% Hispanic middle and executive mangers when the number should be 41.2% to achieve parity? Gall responded, "They (Hispanics) are not available."

My response, "This is the same answer given in the 60s when the question was asked why there are no Blacks public officials."

Presently when discrimination is directed at a Hispanic city employee, the Hispanic employee for the most part is required to fight discrimination by himself.

The Equal Opportunity Department director's job is now vacant. This position is key to hiring Hispanic middle and executive managers.

The next action for Hispanic News and ALEC is to send a letter to the City Manager and council members on doing the right thing — hiring an American Hispanic to be the new director for the Equal Opportunity Department.

Even more important than having a Hispanic become the new department head for Equal Opportunity is the appointment of a Hispanic city manager. Fairbanks is on his last leg and now with his possible cover-up of Tracey Short, it is time for him to go.

ALEC will begin searching the United States for a Hispanic city manager to be recruited to Phoenix. And no — none of the so call pseudo Hispanics who serve under Fairbanks deserve consideration. The new Hispanic city manager should clean house and start off with a new slate of Hispanics committed to equality for all.

Fighting discrimination with a twist — the Tucson model

My Tucson experience took a different twist. There was discrimination and there was a dire need for an affirmative action office to pave the way for Tucson Hispanic employee promotions.

Just out of the U of A, I started as a city planner and left the City of Tucson as the economic development coordinator working for the city manager. My friends did not fare as well as I so I was recruited to do something to help them. What I did was start a Tucson Hispanic organization that grew to 1,000 members within a two year period.

As founder and president, our approach to fighting City of Tucson discrimination did not include the traditional way things are handled today by hiring an attorney and filing a complaint against the city.

The novel approach we used was conventional but it succeeded. We boasted a 1,000 member Hispanic organization which meant 1,000 votes with a multiplier effect of four.

We maintained most of us were married. In addition, we had friends, parents and extended family in Tucson. Thus the 1,000 votes became the base and another 4,000 votes could be counted on for alignment with the initial 1,000 votes.

The 5,000 person voting block became a considerable force in Tucson. Using the Sol Alinsky model of not forcing an issue unless we knew we could win proved to be a very successful strategy of influencing the nine member mayor and council. We learned to count to five and when we had five votes, we would present our request to the City knowing we had the majority of mayor and council votes needed to win.

Our biggest achievement was the City of Tucson established the City of Tucson Affirmative Action Office.

The Tucson model will work in Phoenix. I recommend everyone read how we succeeded in Tucson. The model we followed in Tucson will be our strategy for change in Phoenix.

After Tucson came El Paso

On the day I arrived in El Paso to head up economic development for the City of El Paso, I was contacted by LULAC. I had never even heard of LULAC prior to that day but I was invited to their monthly meeting and I accepted.

If I was successful with Hispanic issues in Tucson, El Paso was more of a challenge. The night I attended my first LULAC meeting I accepted to join if I could make changes. The night of my first meeting I made observations and to my astonishment there were no women. The second thing I notice, there were no professional persons. The third observation, there were no young or middle age persons. The fourth observation came from looking at the check book. There was no money and the only source of funds was the annual New Year's Eve Dance at the Civic Center and car washes. The fifth observation there was no action master plan. The good old boys wandered from item to item with no agenda. Any member could bring up any topic for discussion. There were many topics but few germane to LULAC.

And the end of the meeting, I told LULAC Council 8 of my observations. I told the men of Council 8, I would join if we could make changes. They agreed and gave me carte blanche. At the next meeting I became president of LULAC Council 8.

The first change I made was to open membership to women. The second change I made was to recruit young and middle age professional persons — women and men, mostly city, county, state, federal employees and also bankers, accountants and business owners primarily from the downtown area where I worked. The third thing I did was to change how we raised funds. The fourth thing I did was to establish a political agenda to notify the El Paso community, we would help elect persons who came to us for help. And, finally, I laid out a game plan for increasing LULAC's influence in El Paso.

As the director of economic development I also wore another hat as the staff director of the City of El Paso Industrial Development Authority issuing bonds to finance fixed assets of capital expenditures of land, buildings, fixtures and equipment for new companies coming to El Paso. By the time I left the City of El Paso to establish my own manufacturing company in Cuidad Juarez, we had processed over $200 million in bonds.

The bonds were placed with the three large banks in El Paso. One afternoon, I called the three banks and asked for donations to LULAC Council 8. I asked for $5,000 from each bank. I received a commitment for $14,000 that afternoon and LULAC Council 8 used all the money for scholarships for El Paso university students. My most gratifying remembrance of El Paso was a small ceremony giving a $1,000 scholarship to a Hispanic student to attend Harvard and another $1,000 scholarship to a Hispanic student to attend Notre Dame. That year LULAC Council 8 came in 3rd in the nation for giving LULAC scholarships.

LULAC Council 8 became a power house in El Paso politics. All city council candidates came hat in hand asking for LULAC's blessing in their candidacy for office. Council 8 also became a power house in Texas politics. Arizona is not like Texas. I thought LULAC could play an equivalent role in Arizona but I was wrong. In Arizona, a dead dinosaur has more life and smarts than Tucson and Phoenix LULAC.

Now Phoenix

I know Tucson and El Paso and I also know Phoenix. Actually, I know a lot about Phoenix by being born and raised in Superior, Arizona. I started coming to Phoenix with my parents when I was a little kid. Every three weeks for two years, my parents brought me to my orthodontist on the corner of 16th Street and Camelback (now a McDonald's). The rest of the day was spent going to the movies on Central and eating a hamburger at Big Boy's.

22 years ago, I moved back to Arizona from El Paso. I moved to the Town of Paradise Valley and then up to Pinnacle Peak where I joined then the largest real estate development company in the Phoenix area. My responsibility as v.p. for planning and development included Surprise, Arizona where we bought 5,550 acres and proceeded on master planning the parcel for development. All of our consultants were Phoenix based and with my travels throughout Phoenix, I could tell you what was on every street corner in Phoenix.

3 1/2 months ago I moved from Scottsdale to central Phoenix to become involved in Phoenix issues. I came with significant information already about Phoenix primarily from Hispanic News publishing national news but also about Phoenix. If there is one dismal failure in Phoenix Hispanic politics it is the village idiot — Phoenix "do nothing" Congressman Ed Pastor. The other village idiot is El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes.

ALEC will duplicate the Tucson and El Paso models to address discrimination in Phoenix

Borrowing the strategy used in Tucson and El Paso is key to success by the number of votes ALEC, the Hispanic labor union now forming, can muster up for each city election.

ALEC will become involved in city political campaigns using membership dues to pay for campaigns including advertising to get out the vote and vote for candidates ALEC has endorsed.

There are eight districts plus the mayor for a total of nine voting members of the mayor and council. Five votes on the council are a majority giving control of all policy managing the City of Phoenix.

Winning 5 districts is achievable using the Tucson model of building a base of public sector employees and then expanding the base with family, friends and support from the community.

The smart thing to do is to open membership to all public sector entities (city, county, state, and federal agencies — exactly what we did in Tucson) in Phoenix and also to open membership to small businesses particularly those involved in procurement, real estate and mortgages (again, what we did in Tucson to expand our membership). There are many non-Hispanic women interested in advancing the amount of procurement provided to women. All will be invited to join. For that matter, anyone with a voter registration card is welcome to join ALEC.

The amount of City of Phoenix procurement obtained by Hispanics and others is smoke and mirrors. In identifying procurement, the City of Phoenix does not include all procurement the city purchases but only selected categories.

Even using only selected categories, the City of Phoenix has a dismal record of awarding procurement to minorities and women.

According to a report prepared by an outside consultant for the City of Phoenix, "significant discrimination" is documented as the cause for the dismal failure of the city's procurement program.

The City of Phoenix report is available on the Equal Opportunity Department website at  http://phoenix.gov/CITYGOV/disparty.html

The report states the following:

(1) The results of the statistical analysis in Chapter 4 support a finding that available M/WBEs in the relevant market area are significantly underutilized and have encountered significant levels of disparity and discrimination.

(2) The results of the anecdotal analysis in Chapter 5 support a finding the City has been: A passive participant in discriminatory practices against minority and women owned prime contractors in the construction industry; a passive participant in discriminatory practices against minority and women owned subcontractors in the construction industry; and a passive participant in discriminatory practices against minority and women owned general services and commodities vendors.

(3) Significant statistical disparities found in Chapter 4 and supporting anecdotal testimony found in Chapter 5 compel an inference of discrimination.

The above report prepared for the City of Phoenix by outside consultants shows a pattern of City of Phoenix discrimination which supports the indictment there is significant discrimination found at the City of Phoenix with the lack of parity of middle and executive managers, the stonewalling of information concerning Tracey Short and complaints of Hispanic workers falling on deaf ears with no assistance from the Equal Opportunity Department.

Lastly, it appears no one actually reads these reports. On January 18, I called Carolyn Gall, interim director of the Equal Opportunity Department to inform her I had found an error on page 3 of the executive summary of the City of Phoenix Equal Employment Opportunity Report 2007.

The report states: The number of full-time city employees totaled 14,393 on July 1, 2007, representing a net increase of 458 or 3.3 percent from July 2006. Minorities were 40.1 percent of the total, females were 32.2 percent and males were 67.8 percent. Whites accounted for 59.9 percent of the current city workforce, Latinos for 27.9 percent, African Americans for 7.2 percent, Asian Americans for 2.0 percent and American Indians make up 1.1 percent. Employees self identifying with a category of two or more races were 1.0 percent and those who identified as “Other” accounted for 0.7 percent.

The error is there are only 39.9% minorities, not 40.1% as stated in the report.

The ALEC Game Plan

With ALEC membership available to city, county, state, federal and small businesses interested in procurement as well as small businesses dealing with real estate fraud and others, the 1,000 votes using the Tucson model goes to 5,000 in Phoenix and with the "multiplier effect" the vote count goes to 20,000 votes.

With eight districts this computes to having nearly 2,500 votes in each district — enough to dominate elections of council members.

In the event any council member opposed our efforts after being elected with the help of ALEC, every recall would be successful considering the small amount of votes required to successfully recall a council person.

As for the mayor, it does matter who the mayor is for he only has one vote and it is the city council who approves policy for the City of Phoenix.

Community support would add another 2,000 votes per district. Community support plus ALEC votes would total 4,500 votes in each district election. Every candidate would require ALEC support to win in any of the Phoenix districts. This only includes the votes ALEC brings to each campaign and does not include the votes each individual candidate brings to the election. Thus, the City of Phoenix will go from a racist city to a city that will not have any discrimination because those that discriminate will loose their jobs with the City of Phoenix.

All students of political election history in the United States know all of this has been done before. To those that think this is not achievable, I invite you to go read how Mayor Richard Joseph Daley of Chicago used Chicago's employees to create an unstoppable political machine to win elections.

ALEC and Hispanic News

The mayor and council will address discrimination policy and enforce anti-discrimination policy.

ALEC will hire an anti-discrimination officer with staff to investigate City of Phoenix discrimination complaints and other entities. The ALEC Office of Anti-Discrimination will be independent of the City of Phoenix but ALEC will recommend the City of Phoenix cooperate and provide any relevant information to the ALEC Anti-Discrimination Officer in investigating discrimination complaints.

This position is different than the mission of the City of Phoenix Equal Opportunity Department which will be charged with finding minorities to fill city positions and to increase procurement opportunities for minorities.

ALEC will work in tandem with Hispanic News which will publish articles detailing discrimination complaints to expose them and build community support to eliminate discrimination. It will be the purpose of Hispanic News to shed transparency so the entire Phoenix populace is aware of victimizing City of Phoenix Hispanic employees. Hispanic News and ALEC will present discrimination complaints to Mayor and Council for compensation for discrimination by public reparation for hardships.

If you are a victim of discrimination at the City of Phoenix or any other entity, Hispanic News will publish details of the discrimination. Send your information and visit the ALEC website to join by paying your the monthly dues and at our first meeting, be prepared to show your voter registration card.

Membership in ALEC requires a voter registration card and $15 per month dues that will be used to pay ALEC costs and most importantly, to finance political campaigns to elect persons ALEC deems in unison with the goals of ALEC.

More actions

Hispanic News and ALEC call for all Hispanic organizations and businesses across the United States to boycott the Phoenix Convention Center.

Hispanic News will add a new section for the boycott of the Phoenix Convention Center conventions and other events and will begin sending out emails across the United States and Latin America to the Hispanic News email directory to boycott Phoenix.

The next phase will include sending out press releases using the wire services (English and Spanish) for publication in all print, television and radio media in the United States.

In addition, each time a convention comes to the Phoenix, ALEC will demonstrate outside the Phoenix Convention Center to make all aware, discrimination is rampant at the City of Phoenix.

These demonstrations then become the new Pruitt's. Sheriff Joe Arpaio can bring a thousand deputies to make arrests but we will not be intimated because all ALEC members are American citizens (ALEC membership requires a voter registration card, a pledge to vote and to include family and friends in voting) and we will wear our voter registration t-shirts proudly.

These actions will continue until the City of Phoenix ends all discrimination actions.

New National Hispanic Labor Organization (ALEC) starting with City of Phoenix

Last week I discovered in Washington D.C. there is a African American labor union that has agreements with other labor unions to represent Blacks.

My experience with Phoenix AFSCME is probably the same across the United States. The time has come not to depend on non Hispanics to provide us services. The time has come to replace AFSCME with a Hispanic labor union.

To my dismay there is no Hispanic labor union in the United States. Some labor unions have a Hispanic component but there is no single stand alone Hispanic labor union. With the growing work force of Hispanics across the United States, the time has arrived to start a national Hispanic labor union. Let it begin in Phoenix. Let it begin with

Why the name ALEC? The answer is at the ALEC website.