On Monday, the City of Phoenix administration decided to apply the recent court ruling on release time to all City of Phoenix unions. Last week, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that the City of Phoenix will be forced to stop funding Phoenix Law Enforcement Association’s (PLEA) union activities.
“This is big news for the taxpayers of Phoenix. Instead of using taxpayers’ money to fund union activities, we can use this money on vital City services. This money should be used to end domestic violence, end human trafficking, and put more police on the street,” said Councilman Sal DiCiccio.
The Court found that the evidence presented “supports the conclusion that the City Council abused their discretion in approving the release time at issue.” This was approved on a 5-4 vote with Mayor Stanton being the swing vote.
Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio said in a statement released Monday, that it was “disappointing that the Mayor and Council were complicit in funding union activities which in turn supported their candidates and then, once those candidates were elected, continued to give millions of taxpayer dollars back to the unions. It was a vicious circle which has caused the large budget deficit we have seen this year.”
Mayor Stanton was the swing vote to use taxpayer monies to fund union activity. Stanton was also the swing vote to keep pension spiking, while presenting a budget supporting the food tax.
“It’s time for the Mayor and those council members to protect taxpayers and not the government unions,” said DiCiccio.