Sunnyside incumbents lose in recall to Quintero, Giffin
With 4,076 ballots cast both Sunnyside Board members Bobby Garcia and Louie Gonzales lost, making way for Eric Giffin with 75 percent of the vote and Beki Quintero with over 58 percent.
Mike Polak also ran for Bobby Garcia’s seat, but in a three-way-race only garnered 19% of the vote.
The unsung heroes in this election were Richard Hernandez of the Sunnyside Recall Committee and John Brakey of AuditAz who both poured their time into securing a fair and honest election. With the help of Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller, they made sure all ballots were counted yesterday on May 20th and influenced the Pima County Recorder’s office to send Christopher J. Roads the Chief Deputy Recorder to attend the drop off location at Apollo middle school.
After the results came in Hernandez said, “This is going to prove not only to the Sunnyside School Board, but all local officials that they serve us the people. They are public servants, and I think that is probably where this current Board got mislead; they forgot they had accountability to the voters. Those of us who pay taxes.”
When we asked Hernandez how the recall succeeded he said, “Countless volunteers, peoples’ love, and commitment. I know the people I work with and it’s just about kids.”
Eric Giffin and Beki Quintero joined their supporters at the China Bay Horse on Valencia from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in a campaign celebration.
The Sunnyside saga began last year when the Sunnyside Unified School District Governing Board voted 3-2 to extend Manuel Isquierdo’s contract causing angst within the public. Isquierdo who has been charged with tax dodging, parking tickets, and had his license suspended told the Board recently that criticism of his performance was a result of racism. He claimed he could not work with a new Board with a new makeup.
“This is kind of vindication for me because I was on the board when Dr. Isqueirdo was hired back in 2007,” said Giffin. “It was a 4 to 1 vote. I voted not to hire him at the time that we did hire him, but I went along and tried to work with the other Board members and Dr. Isquierdo and every time he would do some of his ridiculous nonsense well I would go to the Board no less than 12 times in the 3 and half years I worked there and say please this man isn’t right for our district. We need to bite the bullet and get rid of him, but they would say no and I would buckle down and try to work with him till his next thing he did.”
Giffin continued, “We have let teachers go. We have had people come into the district that are not for the kids. His own people who would work with him and do what he wanted to do and they are not always the honest right people and it was not always right for the kids.”
“Right now we don’t have any intention of going in and summarily firing him and hit the road jack. We will neutralize some of the things he’s doing and make sure that doesn’t continue, but we will start rebuilding because right now there is no trust factor. No employee will talk to any other employee in the district because either you are with Isquierdo, and if you’re not your job isn’t secure,” Giffin commented.
This is Beki Quintero’s first experience running for office and the jubilance was showing once the results had come in. Quintero says, “I’m going to listen to parents. I’m going to talk to kids, I’m going to talk to teachers and I want to know where the problems are. I want to know how we can help the teachers teach better in the classroom what they need. What their needs are and actually I want to hear the kids.”
On the subject of Isquierdo Quintero says, “He said at the last board meeting he told everybody he would not work with the new Board… We want him to answer to us. We want him to answer some really tough questions and we want to know what’s up. So we are not going to let him off that easy.”
Once the Pima County Board of Supervisors certifies the results on June 3 both Giffin and Quintero will be sworn in and serve out the remainder of the term through December 2016.
Related articles:
Voters Oust Sunnyside Incumbents in Recall Election
Isquierdo wants contract buyout, accuses Board member of racism
Sunnyside administration, recall election process challenged
Gonzales, Garcia supporters send hate mail to Sunnyside voters
Sunnyside recall election dirty tricks raise legal concerns
Sunnyside Board, administration travel outrages candidates, community