Politics blot adding police to Glendale schools

Glendale City Councilman Jamie Aldama this week hammered the city’s quick decision to add police officers to all of its traditional public high schools.

Four high schools in Glendale already had school resource officers, but city leaders held a news conference last week to announce that officers would be in place at the five other high schools by this week.

“Clearly this was an insensitive headline-grabbing political response to a larger problem than just having an officer in each high school,” Aldama said in a written statement.

The councilman said he supports officers in schools, but the decision lacked transparency. City leaders should have consulted with schools leaders, including elementary and charter schools, and city employees, including police and fire unions.

“The police and fire associations were told of the adverse impact on their memberships, but not consulted with,” Aldama said.

Aldama said two union positions were eliminated as a result of the decision to add school resource officers.

Councilwoman Joyce Clark responded on her personal blog. She accused Aldama of opposing the decision to score political points with police and fire unions, which donate to and endorse council candidates, as he faces a re-election campaign this year.

“How politically transparent and crass can a person get?” Clark said.

Aldama denied the claim, and ac-

cused Clark of printing false information on her blog.

City Manager Kevin Phelps told The

Arizona Republic he personally discussed the plan with three of the four high school superintendents and they were “highly supportive.”

The districts include Deer Valley and Peoria unified and Glendale and Tolleson union districts. All four district superintendents attended the news conference to show their support, Phelps said.

Kim Mesquita, a Glendale Union High School District spokeswoman, said she and others were thrilled by the city’s decision.

Phelps said funding the five new school resource officers at an additional cost of about $1.2 million was already a major challenge, and adding officers to the 50-plus campuses in the city wasn’t tenable.

“To delay action on immediately getting our high schools better protected would be irresponsible, in my opinion, if we had to wait for this broader discussion,” Phelps said.

Aldama said the decision should’ve been made with more transparency.

“We put the carriage in front of the horse,” Aldama said. “I think at the end of the day, our schools are safer with police officers there, but we have to be transparent and let our community know and (give) them a chance at having a seat at the table.”

Phelps said he shared his plan with the council over the past several weeks in two closed-door meetings. Phelps said Mayor Jerry Weiers asked the council if there was consensus to move forward, to which everyone — including Aldama — nodded.

The city moved five current police officers into the new roles and will hire five more officers to fill the positions behind them, Phelps said. The council vote on that will occur during the budgeting process later this spring.

Phelps said he later received an email from Aldama saying he no longer supported the decision. But by that point it was too late to change anything, the city manager said.

Aldama had every right to change his mind, but it was unfair to say the process wasn’t transparent, Phelps said.

Aldama said he changed his initial position after having more time to mull things over.

Reach the reporter at 602-4442474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. On Twitter, @PerryVandell.

“I think ... our schools are safer with police officers there, but we have to be transparent and let our community know and (give) them a chance at having a seat at the table.” Jamie Aldama Glendale City Councilman