Bridwell responds to Snider’s commentary on hiring convicted felons

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Dear inmaricopa.com readers:

What a load of erudite nonsense. The only thing true in Snider’s commentary is his answer ‘yes’ to his hypophoric question: Have we had scandals and corruption in Pinal County? A typical politician’s response where they answer their own questions by trying to confuse the subject matter by talking like they already know the answers. It’s really just political rhetoric where they try to dazzle some of us with their brilliance and then try to baffle the rest of us with their (expletive deleted)!!

Convicted felons are not a protected class of citizens. Any employer can discriminate against hiring convicted felons as long as they apply that standard uniformly. What Snider is really trying to say is that our County Recorder couldn’t have hired her convicted felon, common law son-in-law as a favor to her daughter, and our Superior Court Judge couldn’t have hired the convicted felon son of his college football teammate as a favor if the county implemented a ban against hiring convicted felons. We can’t have that kind of policy in a liberal government that believes in rehabilitating criminals with other people’s money, can we?

Other not so “gentle readers” have also commented that a hiring ban on convicted felons wouldn’t have protected us against the criminal acts of Stan Griffis or the embezzlement issues at the fairgrounds, and they’re right. We can’t protect ourselves against all criminal activities by not hiring convicted felons, but we could have protected ourselves against the identity theft and criminal conspiracy acts committed by Albert Robbs and the felonious acts of bribery committed by Royzell Williams. These men were hired by friends and family, knowing their criminal background and placed in positions of public trust with unfettered access to their future criminal targets all under the guise that they had served their time and needed a break.

Give me a break. That’s not a rehabilitation hiring policy; that’s just more of the same good ole boy system of nepotism and cronyism that has brought financial harm to our county in the billions and will continue until we retire Snider and his liberal gals and pals at the ballot box.

And a no convicted felon hiring policy will not protect us against the fleecing we get every year when our county supervisors conspire to tax us at the highest rate allowed by law, then calculate how to spend every nickel so they can rationalize going back for more again the next year. Nor would it have protected us against the errant decision making by the board of supervisors that has cost this county a billion dollars in revenues that should have been collected for roadways and infrastructure. Or the loss of another several billion dollars in home equity beyond where this downturn should have taken us because of that prior failed infrastructure decision-making. Nor would it protect us against the failed and flawed decision-making going on today in a myriad of other ways.

Snider talks about unintended consequences in a ban on hiring convicted felons; there’s no end to the unintended consequences our Board of Supervisors have wrought upon us and will continue to do until we change our system of governance.

Help is on the way though. Legislation has been passed and signed by the Governor requiring Pinal County to bring more effective representation and a better form of governance by electing five supervisors. And what does Snider and his cronies do in response?

They authorize the hiring of more lawyers and lobbyists to the tune of $45,000 to fight the process of moving to five supervisors. This expenditure of more public funds on top of the hiring of paid lobbyists to fight the citizens on this matter during the legislative effort.

The money the county has spent and is spending fighting this effort would pay the salaries of the new supervisors. And that’s their purported objection to the change-the money. Well, believe me, it’s not about the money. It’s about power, control and ego. It’s about protecting their fiefdoms for as long as they can.

Sheriff Babeu’s idea about not hiring convicted felons is a good one, and so is the idea of expanding our board to five supervisors.

Tell Snider and his cronies to knock off the nonsense and help us get on with the business of making Pinal County a safer and more fiscally responsible place for all of us to live and prosper.

Bill Bridwell

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