Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

A Civil Inaction

Editorial

Most of us get dozens of e-mails each day. We who toil in the media may get scores of these cyber sound bites, most pitching a story or wanting to pull attention to an event.

Then there’s that one e-mail that comes back to haunt you.

My boomerang e-mail came from Geraldo Higginson, aide to Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon The message was simple: The City of Phoenix was seeking municipal citizens to sit on the 17 subcommittees of the $850 million bond apportionment for a March 13 election vote. Was I interested?

I remember the e-mail because it made me pause to consider my civic duty for a full 10 seconds. Then I made the snap decision that I didn’t have the time for the series of meetings a bond subcommittee commitment would take. Running the editorial side of a magazine was a job that left not too much time for even a personal agenda, much less civil actions. I deleted it and it passed from my mind like thousands of other bits of minutia.

The memory of the e-mail came back full force when I received a call from one of our readers.

"I was at the first bond committee general meeting at the Civic Plaza, and I had to ask, ‘Where are all the Latinos?’ I could count the Latinos in the crowd on one hand."

The woman speaking was a businesswoman and community activist, one that had earned the respect of me and most people I knew for her integrity and selfless acts. She was not, in my humble opinion, one to scream wolf without cause. In addition, I had seen the general meeting televised on the city’s Channel 11 information station, and really couldn’t pinpoint too many Hispanic-looking people in the gathering.

So I investigated. I fired off an e-mail about the matter to Geraldo Higginson, which prompted a quick response from the hard-working city employee, a former TV journalist with Telemundo.

"I have to find out that information, but I sent out about 300 e-mails asking for participation to Latinos on the mayor’s advisory committees," Higginson said from his cell phone.

Guilt tugged at me.

"Yeah, I remember getting it," I said.

"I’ll pass on the message to Bill Scheel, who’s in charge of that."

I recalled from what I read and heard that more than 700 people were selected to the 17 subcommittees. These 700 or so would help decide which projects should be included in the city’s bond offering. Sure, some bond money was already earmarked for the Arizona State University downtown campus and other pet projects, but there was still a lot to be doled out in important areas such as arts and culture, economic development, streets and infrastructure and education. Some of these projects will make big differences in the lifestyles of Phoenix residents in the future.

But because I had deferred, I wouldn’t be weighing in on those matters. I had a magazine to run.

Within days Bill Scheel with the mayor’s office sent an e-mail with the following information:

"A quick scan of our subcommittee rosters show that most of the subcommittees have 6-10 Hispanics as members," Scheel wrote..

"Overall I would estimate we have close to 100 Latino subcommittee members, or about 15 percent Hispanic representation, of the 700 bond committee members," Scheel continued in his e-mail. "This far surpasses any previous involvement by the Hispanic community..."

"Additionally, we have numerous Hispanics in leadership positions," he added. For example, Ronnie Lopez, executive committee vice chair; Harry Garewal, Ernestina Arvizu, and Nereyda Lopez-Bowden, at-large executive committee members. Also, there were subcommittee vice chairs Me lissa Gallegos, libraries; Paulina Morris, human services; Frank Rivera, drainage and storm sewers; Yolanda Kizer, education; Michael Nowakowski, historic preservation; Ed Celeya, neighborhood revitalization and housing; Art Othon, police and homeland security; and Jeffrey Peterson, technology.

That’s why I am publishing the names of those Latinos who stepped up to the plate when civic duty called. And I salute those I did not name, but are serving. Because I am grateful.