Arizona Bully of 2011 Nominee: Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio

Arizona Bully of 2011 Nominee Councilman Sal DiCiccio

Being able to play nice with others is the hallmark of any good politician.  Trying to circumvent your fellow city council members who won’t agree to your demands by asking the state legislature to force the city to do what you want is the sign of a pure bully.  In 2011, Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio did just that in his attempts to have all services provided by the City of Phoenix privatized.  Councilman DiCiccio is a big fan of privatization of city services and was able to get the Republican dominated Arizona Legislature to contemplate bills requiring Tucson and Phoenix to put any expenditure over a certain dollar amount for “competitive bidding”.  Luckily the bills both died, but I am sure they will be resurrected in the coming session.

If Councilman DiCiccio’s attempts to circumvent the Phoenix City Council weren’t bullying enough, The Arizona Republic reports that Councilman DiCiccio wants to take “pay raises and bonuses” off the table for upcoming contract negotiations with city employees.  He wants to do that by voting on parts of the city’s Fiscal Year 2012-2013 budget before negotiations begin.

Congratulations Councilman DiCiccio, you are an Arizona Bully of 2011 nominee!

The Unholy Union

I think we can all agree that certain members of the "elite" are well benefited by the policies of the modern Republican Party and the current manifestation of social conservatives, the "tea party" movement.  We can also agree that the elite would like nothing better than a permanent underclass in this nation that can be used for cheap if not slave labor.  We already see the start of it with high unemployment and the refusal of companies to hire those recently unemployed.

Now the Republicans have systematically been attacking organized labor, in particular those civil service employees represented by unions.  We have seen the attacks on public sector unions in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey and Florida.  The attempts to weaken if not destroy the public sector unions is mostly allow for the privatization of services provided by the various governments.  If there are no unions to represent the workers, they can't fight against privatization.

With the unions representing civil service workers gone, the next step will be to more or less criminalize private sector unions.  This has been the dream of American corporations for over a century.  If they can break the unions by criminalizing them, then they will have removed the last impetus to wholesale slashing of wages and benefits.

But getting rid of unions isn't enough.  You need people to be truly terrified of being out of work by getting rid of the social safety net.  If there is no social safety net workers won't want to demand higher wages for fear of losing their jobs.  We already see element of this with Michigan cutting the number of weeks someone can receive unemployment benefits and Arizona looking to remove up to 300,000 people from the state's Medicare rolls.

With permanent unemployment of 20% or more and no social safety net, those who will be lucky enough to be employed will be too scared to fight for better working conditions, higher wages and benefits.  It has been a long process in the making, requiring the right economic disaster to foment the right type of fear.  The Republicans are laying the legal groundwork for the elite to have their permanent underclass.

It is an unholy union that must be stopped.  The question is: Can we stop it?

I Believe

I believe.

I believe that government is for the benefit of all the people no matter their birth status, the financial status, their political connections (or lack thereof) or their location.  I believe government should never be on the cheap and should be as big as needed.  I believe that taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society and yes, I believe that the rich should pay a higher percentage of their income than a person working at Burger King.

I believe in a strong public education system that isn’t forced to turn out automatons who only know what was the standardized test required to graduate.  I believe in open and honest sex education in our nation’s schools.  I believe that religion has no place in what our schools teach or how they are governed.  I believe that charter schools are anathema to strong public schools.  I believe that taxes should never be used for vouchers or tax credits or other incentives to send children to private and/or parochial schools.

I believe in strong regulation of business, making sure they provide safe products and/or services at reasonable prices.  I believe that businesses are not persons and should not be allowed to contribute to politicians or political parties.  I believe that businesses should actually pay taxes and not receive special tax breaks.  I believe that privatization of government services to be wrong.  I believe in strong private and public sector unions.

I believe in a strong social safety net.  I believe in Social Security and the financial security it provides our elderly.  I believe in single payer universal health care and short of that I believe in Medicare for all.  I believe in unemployment insurance and food assistance for the unemployed and the working poor.  I believe in public transportation and a high speed passenger rail network across the nation.  I believe it does take a village.

I believe in a strong, smart military.  I believe in marriage equality as well as equal rights for gays and lesbians.  I believe that my love for Michael is just as valid as the love my mom and dad hold for each other.  I believe those who enter our nation illegally in the hopes of a better life deserve our full protections and should not be demonized for political purposes.

I believe there is goodness in all, even Dick Cheney.

I believe.

An Open Letter to Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio

Mr. DiCiccio,

I understand that being the pockets of businesses is par for the course in American politics.  In fact, its a time honored tradition.  But the latest move by you is the worst form of corporate ass kissing I have seen in a long time.  I am speaking of course about your attempt to end run the Phoenix city council by going to the Arizona Legislature to force the city to privatize most of its services and to dictate what the city can offer for wages and benefits to its public employees.  That's pretty bold for someone who wasn't even elected to the city council, but was appointed.

I understand that you believe that privatization is the most efficient way for the City of Phoenix to deliver services, but I believe privatization to be nothing more than a diversion of limited city resources and corporate welfare of the highest order.  Currently, out of an operating budget of $3.5 billion, $425 million is paid to corporations to operate certain city services such as public transit.

I am sure that you have a lot of friends who are investors, company heads or owners that would like the majority of the city's budget paid out to them.  But you have been rebuffed by the seven others sitting on the city council.  You can't help your corporate friends if your city council members won't play ball, right?  So what's a person who doesn't play with others do?  He finds the biggest bully around and gets them to do his dirty work for him, the Arizona Republican controlled Legislature.  That is what you have done and its rather shameful, because I have no doubt they will do the dirty work for you.  Too bad its the residents of Phoenix who get screwed by this deal.

Its too bad that you don't actually care about the people of Phoenix, only your corporate buddies.

Sincerely,

Phoenix Justice