The Bird Trumpets Redflex’s Demise in Pinal County and Tweets About Nova M’s Move Left on the Dial

Of course, you have to dodge the process server for four months, but if you make it past that marker, the citation's history.

Does the fact Babeu's gotten camera tickets invalidate his stance or make it less dramatic? Nah. After all, Redflex spokeswoman Vaitheeswaran caught a photo citation in late 2007, court records show, for speeding on Loop 101 at Shea Boulevard. Doesn't seem as if her support for her employer has flagged.

Despite his lead foot, Babeu could've cynically decided he'd rather his county have the loot Redflex generates. Instead, he told the Redflexers to go screw themselves.

FRANKIE THE SNITCH

Sure, everyone had Guadalupe Mayor Frankie Montiel figured for a kiss-ass, especially after his groveling performance before the Board of Supervisors back in September, when he called Sheriff Joe Arpaio's racial-profiling April raid on his little town "a good day for law enforcement." But a snitch, as well?

That's the way it reads in a series of e-mails recently acquired by The Bird from the town of Guadalupe through a public-records request. In one, dated November 18 from interim Town Manager Rosemary Arellano to Montiel, which Arellano cc'd to the entire town council, the manager recaps Montiel's unthinkable request that the MCSO conduct another saturation patrol like the one in April 2008 that turned Guadalupe upside-down and made the square-mile municipality ground zero in Arpaio's war against Hispanics.

In the e-mail, Arellano explains how Montiel handed her a memorandum on November 14, in which Montiel expressed his frustration with the number of day laborers "loitering" within city limits.

"You said that because of the increase in day laborers, possibly undocumented," reads Arellano's e-mail, "you find it necessary to have the sheriff schedule a saturation [patrol]. You said that it was a public safety issue for young women walking to and from their bus stops . . . and also because of the amount of loiterers which will bring down the sales tax revenue."

Arellano then states that Montiel said he wanted her to communicate the saturation patrol request to sheriff's Deputy Loren Gaytan, the MCSO's liaison to the town. She faxed Montiel's memo and instruction to the town's attorney, David Ledyard, who advised her "not to request this action unless all members of council have been notified and given the opportunity to voice their concerns."

Needless to say, the new saturation patrol never took place. One of the many ironies of the Montiel memo (obtained in The Bird's public-records request) is the mayor's concern over the effect all these "loitering" day laborers will have on the local economy.

Thing is, the greatest blow to Guadalupe's tiny economy came as a result of the sheriff's explosive, anti-immigrant sweep of the town. Merchants and townspeople tell The Bird that business has never been the same since scores of MCSO vehicles invaded the burg, pulling over just about every car in sight. Another such sweep could deal Guadalupe's fragile economy a death blow.

And that's not to mention the fear instilled in Guadalupe's citizenry by the MCSO sweep, in which plenty of regular, law-abiding Guadalupanos and passers-through were pulled over and cited for ridiculous violations, such as "improper use of horn," just so the MCSO could hunt for undocumented migrants. MCSO vehicles even menaced a confirmation ceremony for Catholic children presided over by Bishop Thomas Olmsted at Our Lady of Guadalupe on the second day of the sweep.

Just what's going on in Montiel's pea-brain that he'd want to bring more of Arpaio's wrath on the town? A town that protested Arpaio's presence, causing him to wash his hands of it. The sheriff ended the MCSO's $1.2 million law-enforcement contract with Guadalupe, and the county Board of Supervisors rubber-stamped his decision. Unless other arrangements are made, Guadalupe's 5,500 souls will be without law enforcement come March.

After The Bird called Montiel to find out what he was thinking, the mayor ultimately left a phone message denying and then rationalizing his request.

"I did not call for a saturation patrol," insisted Montiel. "I asked that we look into it because of a spike in crime."

Ultimately, his dishonor said, it was determined that this "spike in crime" could be dealt with in other ways. Funny how Montiel's November 14 memo never mentions this so-called crime spike, just the men "loitering in our main streets and business areas." And though Town Manager Arellano declined a request to be interviewed, The Bird's other sources in the local government confirmed the version of events related in Arellano's e-mail.

What Montiel didn't understand is that you can't arrest someone for hanging out. A cop has to have probable cause that something illegal's being done. Standing around, sans any crime or trespass, is hardly a crime.

Could be Montiel's trying to butt-smooch Arpaio so the sheriff will consider renewing the law-enforcement contract. But other e-mails obtained by The Bird made clear that Arpaio would not talk to Guadalupe until the town dropped a lawsuit filed this fall against the sheriff. The suit claimed Arpaio violated former Mayor Rebecca Jimenez's freedom of speech by canceling the contract. This, because Jimenez defied the sheriff during his April dragnet. Arpaio cited her defiance as the reason for ending the arrangement.