Phoenix Mayor Candidate Daniel Valenzuela Blames Ex-Wife
for Garnished Pay
Mayoral candidate
Daniel Valenzuela had his salary garnished last year while a member of the
Phoenix City Council because of thousands of dollars in unpaid debt, Phoenix New Times has learned.
Valenzuela owed $12,208 in debt and interest
to the Arizona Federal Credit Union as recently as last year, court documents
show. Until April, Valenzuela’s city salary was being garnished to pay back the
money owed after the creditor secured a judgment against Valenzuela in Agua
Fria Justice Court.
Daniel Valenzuela for Mayor Full Story
Speaking at a Friday gathering organized by Ahwatukee Realtor Christie Ellis, Sanchez said he figures he needs 90,000 votes to become the mayor of a city with a population of more than 1.6 million – and the first in more than three decades who didn’t get to that office via City Council.
He noted that Ahwatukee is in a city council district that consistently sees the biggest voter turnout. Last year about 60,000 voters cast their ballots in the race between Councilman Sal DiCiccio and challenger Kevin Patterson.
That total alone dwarfs the less than 8,000 votes that either of the two Democratic front-runners in the race – council members Kate Gallego and Daniel Valenzuela – received in total in their most recent reelection. Gallego and Valenzuela have indicated they intend to run.
In all, seven people have declared their candidacy for mayor – and now each faces the task of getting about 1,500 signatures by early August to qualify for the Nov. 6 ballot.
“I hope to wrap that up in three weeks,” the buoyant Sanchez said.
A longtime Ahwatukee resident who owns a social media marketing company with his daughter, Sanchez stressed the three major planks of his campaign, promising to roll out detailed position papers over the 20-week campaign.
“Public safety is No. 1, then infrastructure, then quality of life,” he said, noting that the city has fewer uniformed officers now than it did when the economy collapsed in 2008.
Sanchez, a Republican, suggested a formula guides his calculations of what it will take to defeat Democrats Valenzuela and Gallego – or at least get out the Ahwatukee vote.
He said Ahwatukee receives only 2 percent of the money Phoenix spends on services, is home to 4 percent of the city’s registered voters and routinely records an election turnout of 15 percent of all votes cast in citywide elections.
But beyond Ahwatukee’s paltry amount of the $2.8 billion the city spends on operating expenses, Sanchez reiterated his campaign theme of putting people and neighborhoods first.
“We’re the fifth largest city in the country and what are we in the top 10 for? People getting killed crossing the street?” he said, noting that outside of weather, Phoenix has failed to distinguish itself on the national scene.
And part of the reason that’s so, he said, is because City Hall has largely become a closed-door club whose “members” rarely listen to residents, let alone effectively addresses basic neighborhood needs.
Indeed, his campaign website declares bluntly:
“We deserve better than the status quo. For too long, political insiders have gamed the system at City Hall. All too often success is determined by who you know and the size of your checkbook – and hardworking Phoenicians are left without a champion.”
Moreover, he said, those city leaders spend too much time talking about national issues that they can’t do much about instead of focusing on the problems in their backyard that they can impact.
Sanchez also took a shot at Valenzuela, who has been quoted as saying he intends to continue his 52-hour-a-week job as a firefighter.
Sanchez said he already has entrusted his day-to-day affairs in his business, Nonnahs Marketing – the backward spelling of his partner-daughter Shannon – to his daughter.
And while he reupped for three more years as a Navy reservist to get in his 25 years in the service, Sanchez said “there’s a zero to none” chance he’ll be called up for active duty, as he was in 2011 when he was sent to one of Afghanistan’s fiercest combat zones.
Unless World War III or something close to that occurs, he said, his primary responsibility to the Navy will be a weekend a month of reserve duty.
“I am going to be a full-time mayor,” he said.
A former member of the Tempe Union High School Governing Board who holds an MBA from ASU and teaches at South Mountain Community College, Sanchez fielded an array of questions about his candidacy – and provided answers to some that he encounters in at least some of the more than a dozen gatherings he attends across the city every week since he unofficially launched his campaign in January.
“Yes, I am a naturalized citizen,” said Sanchez, who came to America with his parents from Panama when he was 5 years old.
Asked where he stood on the issued of sanctuary cities, he replied, “I believe in the rule of law” and that city police must work together with state and federal authorities when it comes to illegal immigration.
Sanchez said he’s prepared for a grueling campaign.
To win the November election, a candidate will need at least 51 percent of the vote or else the top two vote-getters will have to duke it out for four more months until a runoff election in March.
“I intend to get 4 percent over that,” he said.
Coffee with Mayoral Candidate Danny Valenzuela
-Council member Joyce Clark
I don’t generally write about political affairs in other communities but the Phoenix mayoral race has special relevance to Glendale. One of the mayoral candidates is current Phoenix Councilmember Danny Valenzuela. Councilmember Valenzuela also happens to be a Glendale fire fighter.
Councilmember Valenzuela invited me to have coffee with him on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 at a downtown Glendale site, A Shot of Java. Out of an abundance of curiosity I accepted his invitation to meet.
First, a little background is in order about the Phoenix mayoral race. The current mayor is Greg Stanton. He has announced his intention to run for Congress in District 9 to replace Krysten Sinema, who is running for U.S. Senate. Stanton has until May 30, 2018, to submit his nominating petition signatures. At that time he must resign as Phoenix’s mayor. That action will trigger two of the current Phoenix councilmembers, who have already declared their run for mayor, Kate Gallego and Danny Valenzuela, to submit their nominating petitions and resign from office as well. As a side note, Moses Sanchez (R) and Nicolas Sarwark (L) have also announced their candidacies for Phoenix mayor. Lastly, Michael Nowakowski, another Phoenix councilmember, is still mulling whether he, too, will run for mayor. Potentially, there could be at least 5 candidates for the Phoenix mayoral position. Since it appears that Stanton will stay as Phoenix mayor as long as he can (May 30th) it means that the election will take place in August or November of 2018. An August election date favors Republicans and a November date favors the Democrats (even though Phoenix races are supposed to be nonpartisan). My bet is we will see a November date set for the election of the next Phoenix mayor.
Let’s take a closer look at Valenzuela’s political and fire fighter lives. Valenzuela was first elected to the Phoenix city council and took office in 2012. Coincidentally, that is when Danny’s pal, Sammy Chavira, ran for the Glendale Yucca council district seat and defeated me. Sammy and Danny have been friends for quite some time. More about this relationship later. Something not heard of before on the Arizona political scene occurred. A Glendale fire fighter ran for Phoenix city council and won and at the same time a Phoenix fire fighter ran for Glendale city council and won. The fire fighters’ union had to have been in “hog heaven.” Valenzuela ran for his second term in 2016 and won. Sammy ran for his second term in 2016 and lost…to me.
During the bulk of my time as a Glendale councilmember from 2000 to 2012, I never interacted with Glendale fire fighter Danny Valenzuela. During that time I do know he served as Glendale Fire Department’s Public Information Officer but I never had occasion to contact him about any matter. We may have occasionally attended the same functions but I simply didn’t know him.
Back to our meeting on February 6th. I did not initiate the meeting. Councilmember Valenzuela’s staff contacted my staff to set it up. Since it was his meeting it was appropriate for him to set the topic of conversation. Obviously, it centered on his announced candidacy for Phoenix mayor. Since I did not know him, he offered a short biography of his professional life. After that opening, I felt it was appropriate to ask him a question that many have wondered about…and that was, if he were elected as mayor would he resign as a Glendale fire fighter? Surprisingly his answer was “No.” He stated that he works a 40 hour week as a Glendale fire fighter (even though the work week for Glendale fire fighters is 52 hours a week). He said he usually does one shift over the weekend at a Glendale fire station and the balance of his time is spent at the Glendale Public Safety Training Facility (GRPSTC) working on ‘special projects’. Knowing the time commitment of a Glendale councilmember and knowing that Phoenix is ten times larger and hence the responsibilities of the job greater, my reaction was that the time commitment as Phoenix’s mayor simply would not allow him to continue as a Glendale fire fighter. He believes that he can do both.
We moved on to the topic of Sammy Chavira, Valenzuela’s long time friend, although Valenzuela contends that their relationship is no longer close and has been severed. For those of you who don’t know the history, Sammy Chavira is a former, disgraced Glendale councilmember, who served only one term. During his term, Sammy was found to have habitually used his councilmember budget (taxpayer funds) inappropriately. During the 2016 election cycle it was discovered, among other things, that Sammy had used his budget to fly to D.C. to see the Pope and used his city pro card to pay for dinner and drinks for a large contingent of Phoenix officials, including Valenzuela. Valenzuela insists that he had no idea that Sammy was using city funds to pay for that dinner. After the incident became public, he, along with other Phoenix officials, has reimbursed the City of Glendale for their portions of that infamous dinner.
Sammy and Danny, at one time, were both members of the International Association of Hispanic Fire Fighters Union. Although details are murky apparently they engineered a fund raising event for the organization that resulted in unaccounted revenues that disappeared. The organization was informed that there were no profits generated from the event and ended up having to pay off creditors. Subsequently, both men resigned from that organization. What troubles me is the old saying, “you are judged by the company you keep.” While Sammy and Danny have been long time friends, they are no longer…due to political expediency?
Another area of conversation between Valenzuela and I centered on a future Ball Park Boulevard extension. This road is adjacent to Camelback Ranch and its extension would open up the entire area around it for economic development. I was not on council between 2012 and 2016 but I know that Glendale staff and various Glendale councilmembers discussed this issue with Valenzuela during his first term on Phoenix city council, seeking his support for Glendale’s goals with regard to Ballpark Boulevard. While Valenzuela expressed his support to various Glendale entities for Glendale’s vision, he never acted upon his declared support.
By now, we had consumed over an hour of discussion and both Valenzuela and I had other commitments to attend. I thanked him for arranging our meeting and for his time and I wished him well. Over the past 3 weeks I have had time to digest that meeting and Valenzuela’s responses to my queries. I have talked to countless others, political insiders and ordinary citizens. I find that I cannot support his candidacy for 3 reasons:
- The major reason is his intent to retain his position as a Glendale fire fighter should be become Phoenix’s mayor. It is unrealistic to assume that he could do both jobs well. One would suffer and I suspect it would be his fire fighter job.
- Even though Valenzuela now disavows his long time relationship with Chavira, it signifies poor judgment for having maintained a friendship with him for so long despite Chavira’s unsavory financial activities.
- Valenzuela’s inability to or unwillingness to move the issue of Ballpark Boulevard forward on Phoenix’s agenda seems to indicate that he may say one thing yet do (or not do) another.
I wish Valenzuela luck in his run for mayor of Phoenix but I believe there are other candidates out there worthy of your consideration. I urge you to check them out and to consider voting for one of them.
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