It's Time For Harmony In Oro Valley

Council member Mary Snider presented a 10-minute chastising of Council Member Mike Zinkin at last week's Oro Valley Town Council meeting.    Snider, essentially blaming Zinkin for all the ills of Oro Valley, cherry-picked passages from a letter written to the town on which we reported last week.  The letter was from the attorney that investigated the very old, but recently filed complaint on Zinkin by town employee and economic development director Amanda Jacobs.

In our opinion, this inquiry far exceeded it's scope. Rather than focusing solely Jacob's allegation, it also focused on anything else Zinkin was alleged to have said.  It also cost the town over $8,000.  This is almost as much as the $10,000 the town spent on defending the serious harassment and bias grievance leveled against the Majority-4 and others by Betty Givens, then town human resources director, in 2011. 

Snider  started her performance, and it was definitely that,  by saying that she had to speak out as a woman.  She did this while sitting in her council seat, where she is first, a council member. That she is a woman is irrelevant.

Her remarks were written, we assume, with the help of her co-recall conspirators.  She was "making it personal" as suggested by Council Member Waters in his memo in January, which we published Friday.

The comment that Zinkin made to Jacobs occurred while he had been in office for less than two months. We also wrote about the complaint.  We even published the entire conversation.  It was a conversation in which Jacobs attacked Zinkin with truly foul language.

We repeat the findings of this inquiry:

"Nearly all of the inappropriate conduct alleged by Employees A, C, and D took place many months ago, in most instances more than a year ago. The Town responded appropriately by counseling the Councilmember orally and in writing, and by implementing protocols that minimize direct interaction between the Council and employees."

You would think that the case would've been closed from a reading of the report.

No.  Rather than letting this pass, Snider, and her recall buddies, decided that she had to just keep picking at Zinkin.

We were sitting in the back of the room.  We had come to the meeting to observe some of the early presentations, one of which was update on the activities the Oro Valley Historical Society.  We will publish more on this in Friday's "Bits and Pieces."

We were taken aback when Snider launched into her 10-minute "get Zinkin" diatribe.    Council Member Zinkin sat quietly. He listened patiently.  He did not react.  He did not respond.    He demonstrated great restraint and patience.

We, on the other hand, were frankly sickened by Snider's use of  her position as a council member to attack another council member.  We know that you are sick of hearing about this recall.  We are also sick of the fact that this robs all of us in Oro Valley of harmonious leadership.  So, we spoke on your behalf.  

We rarely speak at Council meetings.  In fact, this was our second time.  We felt, however, that no individual should be so brazenly attacked when the real issue is that the majority-4 of this Council apparently lack the civility and the leadership skills to bring Oro Valley town together.  Instead, at a time when the town is trying to come together to build a general plan update, the majority-4 have split us apart!

Rather than react to all of Snider's negativity, we chose to focus on this single issue: The issue of bringing harmony to Oro Valley.  That was the theme of our posting on Friday.  It continues to be the theme of our posting today.

"I just want to say: Can we all get along? " (Rodney King: 2/22/10)

It is time to get along, Mayor Hiremath. You are our leader. Please lead us.

Watch our remarks.  Let us know what you think.
---