To the Editor of the Arizona Daily Star:
I am troubled and saddened that
this publication wrote a story about the good efforts of a volunteer-driven
organization, who works to better the lives of the children of Southern Arizona by trying to taint these efforts and
harm both the organization and the children they try to help.
The writer failed to mention the
intent and purpose of the dinner in question, that other groups and
organizations received similar deals, as well as inferring I personally
benefited from a special deal, this from a claim from a former employee fired
for misusing funds, double booking events and questionable record keeping, as
this reporter had reported previous but failed to mention in this article.
The timing of this story is also
questionable since the investigation took place last year. The LULAC Youth Leadership Conference has
started and that I had announced my intentions to seek a second term as the
Ward 5 Councilmember.
There were no special deals and as
I said previously, I had asked to have my name removed from the contract when I
had been elected to the Tucson City Council in 2009, something that both
ARAMARK and Obermaier failed to do. This
was one of several instances, previously reported by this writer, of
Obermaier’s failure to keep records concerning events held at the TCC.
LULAC is one of the largest and
oldest civil rights and educational organizations in the United States ,
operating at more than 900 LULAC councils nationwide. LULAC is a non-profit, volunteer driven
organization so to say that one person benefited was not true.
LULAC Council 1057 has worked in Southern Arizona to improve the graduation rates in
schools by hosting the annual Youth Leadership Conference, to motivate students,
between the 8th and 12th grades, to show that education is the key to success
and that they needed to graduate. LULAC
has worked well with many of the educational institutions, as well as the
Metropolitan Education Commission.
Every year the Educator’s Banquet
is held, where students are recognized for their achievements, as well as
community leaders and educators for their work.
The Banquet is organized by members of LULAC Council 1057, as well as
members of the community with a passion and commitment to education and our
youth.
Proceeds raised by the annual
Educator’s Banquet, allows LULAC to sponsor students to attend the Annual LNESC
Washington Youth Leadership Seminar and provide scholarships in coordination
with LULAC's National Scholarship Foundation. Additionally, monies are raised
to support the Manuel de Jesus Alvarado Scholarship Fund for local
students.
In addition, Food Boxes are also
provided to the most needy by LULAC, the organization has supported the annual
Rosa Park’s event, the FBI Community Service Awards and several Knight's of Columbus events.
Other monies raised from the
Banquet also help to support the annual LULAC Youth Leadership Conference held
in March of each year. Both the
Conference and Banquet were created in 1988.
To date, the conference has hosted
more than 100,000 participants, sending students to Washington D.C.
The City of Tucson and ARAMARK were both sponsors of the
Banquet. These sponsorships allowed
underprivileged youths and their families to attend the Banquet. At past
Banquets, both were recognized for this.
In addition, they were also recognized at the Youth Leadership
Conference as well at the LULAC FBI Community Service Awards Luncheon.
It is unfortunate for Obermaier
that his career with the City of Tucson ended as it was reported by this writer
but it is more unfortunate that the writer, who claimed his spouse is a member
of LULAC, wrote such an article, tainting the efforts of a group of committed
community volunteers working to better the lives of our children in Southern
Arizona by referring to such claims as fact, when the person who made them,
admitted he couldn’t back them up in the testimony the writer referred to.
This effort is not about one
individual, but a group of committed volunteers who work to help better the
lives of children through educational attainment. It would be unfortunate that the article
would damage this effort of this organization and in turn, hurt the lives of
children it is trying to help.
Other non-profit organizations,
such as the League of Mexican American Women, the Metropolitan Education
Commission, the Tucson Mariachi Conference and Chicanos Por La Causa, to name
just a few, work to better the lives of children and hold fund raising events
to promote these efforts. All these
organizations use to hold their fund raising events at the Tucson Convention Center Southern Arizona .
Richard G. Fimbres
Councilmember
