Phoenix, AZ councilman Sal DiCiccio is in the news again - for all the wrong reasons.
An investigation into the way a Phoenix City Council member used his city e-mail account has been forwarded to the Arizona Attorney General's Office for review, after the city Law Department cited a conflict of interest in the matter.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/...
Sal, who represents the Southeast (Ahwatukee) and Northeast portions of Phoenix (both well-to-do areas) is known for his anti-union / anti-tax positions. In short, he's a TEA drinking GOPer.
What happened to get Sal under investigation by the state's Attorney General?
City code and state law prohibit city employees from using public resources to influence elections.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/...
For this awesome email that appeared to be sent from his City email account:
The union bosses’ control of City Hall cannot be underestimated. Union bosses now want complete control of our city. They have their hand-picked candidates in this City Council election, from union leader Bryan Jeffries in District 2 to union member Danny Valenzuela in District 5 to the union-funded recall against me. And yes, they are paying petition-gathers to collect signatures against me.
http://politicsarizona.com/...
His Chief of Staff also liked to blur the lines when it came to fulfilling their paid-by-the-City duties and campaigning:
DiCiccio's chief of staff, Hal DeKeyser, received a written reprimand from the city for reviewing a draft of the newsletter that was linked to DiCiccio's anti-recall campaign.
The reprimand prohibited DeKeyser from "any involvement in the anti-recall effort or any other political activity." It also said he was not allowed to use his personal laptop to create city documents "to ensure transparency and compliance" with public-records law.
DeKeyser said the city's actions are political and that the reprimand was issued the same day DiCiccio complained about a firefighter involved in political activity.
"This written reprimand is full of uncertain language like 'appeared to originate' and 'apparently linked' that shows the person who produced it isn't sure," DeKeyser said in a response to the city. "This has all the markings of an attempt to neutralize my experience and value and to make Sal less effective."
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/...
Playing the old my-illegal-actions-are-a-witchhunt defense, huh?
While the complaint has been forwarded to the Attorney General's office (headed by banned-for-life from Securities trading Tom Horne (R)), there's no guarantee that DiCiccio would face any fines or punishment.
However, his chronic misuse of City time, equipment, and funds for his anti-union campaigns and recall-fighting should only serve to undercut his chicken-little screaming about how the unions run City Hall. (This in itself is laughable, as Arizona is a right-to-work state with virtually NO union protections)
For More background, see:
http://www.dailykos.com/...