Dana Saar for Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board

The District 2 (most of Mesa, Scottsdale, and Fountain Hills) seat on the MCCCD Governing Board currently held by Jerry Walker (R-embarrassment) in on this year's ballot.  It's not my district (I live in SD-1), so I haven't commented on it much before now.

There is a challenger for the job, Dana Saar.  He is a long-time school board member in Fountain Hills and has been a teacher and technical trainer.  He has the intelligence, education, and temperment to be an outstanding member of the MCCCD Governing Board.  Given the recent tribulations of the Board, he may be exactly what it (and the faculty, staff, and over 100K students of the District) need.

Of course, even if Saar was a moss-covered tree stump, he would be an improvement over the current officeholder, Walker. 

Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic has a great summary of some of Mr. Walker's more "colorful" activities here.

From the column -

While Walker may not have violated any policies, the investigations paint a picture of a public official who demonstrates an astonishing lack of restraint in the things he says and a willingness – maybe even an eagerness -- to throw his weight around, all while standing on the broad shoulders of the First Amendment.


A few examples:

In 2006, he forwarded an e-mail to an aide, mocking the accent and intelligence of Mexicans. When Chancellor Rufus Glasper mentioned that the aide worried she might be targeted for dismissal because she complained, Walker's reported response was to say that she should feel that her job is threatened, as should Glasper, for bringing it up. He then told staffers that Glasper was going to be fired.

In 2009, he was expounding on his views about Democrats to a contract security guard when a second guard asked him to stop, calling his remarks offensive. Walker then turned on that 21-year-old guard, saying she was just like other Democrats, “ignorant and dumb.” The next day, he asked that she be fired.

That same year, he accompanied students to Washington, where they lobbied Congress on education issues. As one student spoke about the DREAM Act, Walker repeatedly interrupted her and later berated her as she walked down a hallway. “He saw fit to belittle and demean the student in a most public, inappropriate and embarrassing manner,” the investigator wrote.

Walker contends he did nothing wrong.

Note: An AZRep article on the "investigation" mentioned by Roberts is here.  Saar's endorsement by the Arizona Republic (predating both the investigation article and the Roberts column) here.

Roberts describes Walker's behavior as that of a "boob."  While the rest of her column was dead on (it was actually a discussion of how supporting the First Amendment and free speech can be inconvenient sometimes, when folks like Walker misuse that right so egregiously), she used the wrong body part to describe Walker and his behavior. 

He's an ass.

And it is time to kick the resident ass of the MCCCD Governing Board to the electoral curb.

Vote for Dana Saar.