Strip Searches at Maricopa County Jails Are Under Fire, As Is PMT Ambulance; But Phil Gordon's Romance Is in the Clear

The outside lawyer handling this case for the county, Georgia Staton of Jones Skelton Hochuli, declined comment.

Even if you think it's okay to force detainees to stand around naked, as they do at the Fourth Avenue Jail, you simply can't claim that what happens to the women assigned to the Estrella Jail is merely a "dress down." Being forced to expose your most intimate places to a detention officer, being forced to squat while naked, being forced to do all of this not only in front of a strange detention officer, but other naked strangers — the sheriff's policies are the very definition of an unreasonable search.

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• Michelle Miguel
• Phil Gordon
• Joe Arpaio
• U.S. Courts
• Prisons

I know we rarely listen to logic here in Maricopa County. We like to defend our stupid policies for as long as we can — damn the billable hours!

But I can only hope this is that rare case where someone takes a hard look at the county's policies and the relevant case law. And unless Sheriff Arpaio agrees to make changes now, rather than let damages multiply as this suit wends its way through the courts, he should be put on notice: Keep strip-searching everyone in jail, and the county will hold you personally liable, Sheriff.

Now that ought to get his attention.

AMBULANCE!

In November, I told you about the struggling independent union formed to represent workers at Professional Medical Transport, or PMT Ambulance, the Valley's fastest-growing ambulance company.

Following complaints from the union, a labor-relations judge had issued a stinging rebuke of the company, saying that it wrongly — and illegally — tried to stop the union at every turn. The 29-page opinion cited the company for, among other things, failing to negotiate with the union, unilaterally changing benefits, threatening its leaders with reprisal, and creating a hostile environment, down to surveillance cameras in the workplace.

PMT is now appealing that decision. But in the meantime, ambulance workers have gotten a much-needed boost from an unlikely source: local firefighters.

As the judge explained in his opinion, PMT was able to keep "troublesome" workers in check by taking away their shifts. Who got them instead? Moonlighting firefighters.

The relationship between local firefighters and PMT isn't surprising: PMT part-owner Pat Cantelme was president of the Local 493 union for 20 years before he moved into the private sector, representing firefighters in Phoenix, Tempe, Chandler, Peoria, and Glendale. PMT has been able to ink contracts with some of those municipalities simply because the politically powerful Local 493 threw its weight behind its old leader's venture.

But that support may be coming to an end.

Soon after my story was published, two union leaders took a courageous stand for the embattled PMT workers. In letters e-mailed in December, both Bryan Jeffries — a Mesa firefighter and president of the union there — and Tim Hill, president of the state firefighters union, the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, called for firefighters to stop working at PMT.

"I urge you all to consider what our response would be if one of our employers decided to unilaterally replace a person on our trucks with part-time employees from private ambulance companies or Rural/Metro Fire to save money or put pressure on us to destroy our union and our contract," Hill wrote in his letter. "Such activity would call for the strongest possible response . . .

"Therefore, effective immediately, it is the formal position of the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona and the United Phoenix Firefighters Local 493 . . . that members discontinue employment with PMT Ambulance immediately."

Hill and Jeffries say that the firefighters' boycott should continue until PMT signs an "equitable labor agreement" with its union.

"I realize that with some, this may not be a popular position," Jeffries wrote. "However, in my view, it is the right position."

Indeed, it can't be hard for firefighters to side with the lowly "barneys" who work on ambulances, especially when it means standing up to their former leader, Cantelme, who's still popular with membership.

But Jeffries is correct: It is the right thing to do. Until PMT can get its own house in order, the firefighters need to heed Jeffries' courageous call and refrain from accepting shifts from the company.

PHIL GORDON, CLEARED

This one is hardly a shock, but Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has been officially cleared of any illegality in the payments Gordon's campaign made to his girlfriend, Elissa Mullany.

Gordon began dating Mullany, his fundraiser, soon after the 2007 campaign. Both are separated from their spouses, although not yet divorced.

But even though Gordon has had little need for fundraising in the past two years — he's facing term limits and plans to leave for the private sector when his term as mayor is over — he's continued to pay Mullany big bucks. Her two-person company has earned $140,000 from various campaign accounts, or roughly 52 percent of all the money accrued.

Gordon has also used his campaign accounts to pay for Mullany's travel. And he's gotten her more work — and more money — from various initiatives associated with the city, including his much ballyhooed Phoenix Global Trade Initiative, which folded last year after paying Mullany $12,000 and sending her to Dubai.