The Piercing Truth

This is right from the dictionary and seems to describe Albuquerque, Berry and Schultz. Fascism (f ash ,izem) noun An authoritarian right wing system of government and/or social organization. (in general use) extreme right wing, authoritarian, chauvinistic and/or intolerant views or practices. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one group over another, national, ethnic, especially social strata or monetarily; a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Compliments of one of our Eyes

Apr 12, 2007

Marty's Minions: Michael Padilla

For the past few weeks we had been hearing rumblings from city hall about 311's golden boy Michael Padilla. Our Eyes told us that Padilla had been suspended for an undisclosed reason. Today's Albuquerque Journal shed some light on that development. Turns out that Padilla had been accused of sexual harassment and of making sexist remarks. (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required).

"Ten supervisors, including 911 director Pauline Sanchez filed a complaint with the city's Employee Equity Office claiming Padilla had created a hostile work environment.

A three-week investigation conducted by the office determined Padilla told some of the center's employees that "it may be 2006 out here, but in my house, it's 1969 and the women make tortillas, take care of the kids and clean the house."'
Don Imus has nothing on this guy... but where are Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton when you need them?

Not too terribly long ago, Padilla was the rising star at city hall. He had successfully started up the city's very popular 311 call center and was reveling in the praise being heaped on him by the public and the media. (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required)

The 311 call center was so popular and successful that Padilla was tapped in January to revamp the city's 911 call center that had drawn criticism for poor performance. (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required)
(Sidebar)
Running a customer service call center is far different than running an emergency response center. For one thing, calls are considerably longer as operators need to stay on the line to help direct responders to the location. For another, someone can quite literally die if they screw up. Other than using a phone their mission is totally different and telling callers to "have a nice day" when some crazed maniac is trying to kill them, probably won't help.
(End Sidebar)
Padilla claims that it's his work to reform the 911 center that has created these claims not his actions on the job, telling the Journal "[t]here is a team of folks here who have worked here a long time who are circling the wagons."

Today's article got us wondering... where did Padilla come from? And why was such a young man chosen to develop the 311 call center in the first place? That's when one of our Eyes popped up and noted that according to campaign financing reports, 28 year old Michael Padilla contributed $4,000 bucks to none other than Mayor Martin Chavez in his first 2005 campaign report.

The timing looked a bit suspicious to us, so we ran down a few things and it turns out that the 311 call center opened July 1, 2005. Marty's campaign report was due July 15, 2005. Since the call center opened July 1st, work had to have begun on the center at least 30 to 60 days prior to opening. Padilla's contribution was made somewhere between April 15th and July 15th of that year. Further, Padilla claims that he worked for Altivus CRM Solutions, LLC at the time of the contribution. Yet somewhere in that 90 day period he got a job with the city and successfully started the 311 call center.

Forgive us if we're a bit skeptical... A 28 year old coughs up $4,000 dollars and gives it to the Mayor of Albuquerque and just happens to get a job running a new city department. That donation puts Padilla in the top 4% of contributions to the Almighty Marty's campaign going back to the 3rd quarter of 2004. Of 77 total contributions of $4000 or greater, he's in a group with only 21 other individual donors. That's a pretty select group with names like Don Chalmers, and Will Ferguson; and companies like Premiere Distributing, Brad Francis Ford Mercury, Jason Daskalos Properties, and Hunt Uptown LLC.

When we were 28 we didn't have $4,000 sitting around and even if we did we weren't going to drop four grand on something like a mayoral candidacy unless we were sure to get something out of it. Can you say quid pro quo?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does an APD Captain make as much as Micael Padilla? That's what the price is for those shiny silver bars. Just ask Mike Castro(paid $4,000 to Marty's campaign to get them) and, another lump sum in this last campaign to Marty for the DC job. What happened to earning your way or paying your dues? Where do they get that kind of money to begin with. Can an APD Sergeant afford that? Maybe there's a loan shark business going on here we don't know about.Maybe this is how it works. You give me 4 grand or whatever the job calls for, you get the $80,000 a year job and you pay back the $4,000 plus 20% compounded.
Sounds about right. And we thought Al Capone had his hands in everything.

Anonymous said...

OH speaking of Marty's pets there are some new developments with Mark Sheppard AKA Shep...its no surprise that Mark and Jimmy the so called union stewards lost or I mean resigned for reasons unknown (we all know why...you smart little thieves) But after a new union had taken the reins to clean up the mess they caused Shep acted as if the union no longer existed...wow harder huh Shep to get what you want, or maybe harder because no one from the new union will get on their knees like Mark and Jimmy did...someone say "knee pads" Anyways because Ol Shep decided to ignore the fact that his employees were represented by a union he and several other Sergeants were SERVED for unfair practices. A little too late if you ask me all employees of the Security department have to live with the latest bid for the next six months.

ALSO FYI it is apparent that hiding a hidden camera is not unbeneath Shep and his crew of stooges (still wondering how they figured that out did it take three to hold the camera and one to figure out that there was no plug?) Anyways be on the look out at security posts because Shep and the stooges are so mad they got in trouble they are trying to get back at anyone and everyone. Oh Shep you ol dog everyone else will get fired except you the one that LIED and what’s his name Cooney..I didn’t know making racist remarks would get you job security, but then in Marty's world I guess anything is possible!

Anonymous said...

first of all michael padilla isnt that young (28) he is much older more like 36. the people writing this need to get facts straight before talking badly about a person. i didnt realize that if you donate money you will be critized for it and put down.

Anonymous said...

you people dont know where michael padilla came from. he has gladly paid his dues. he never mentions it but he has gone through alot to get where he is NOT because he has sneaked his way up but because he has done everything step by step. the people critizing michael padilla need to really look into his back ground before jumping to conclusions!!!!!!!!!

Garcia said...

Michael Padilla is 36 and is a very hard working man . I personally think that I ridiculously now this is non sense because personally have seen this man work non stop for everything he has so I know he would work for are state no doubt about that.