The Tapes (The Sequel)

Though outside the scope of my blog, these comments on my article yesterday deserve a response:

1. I usually agree with you on all points, however No one owes an apology to Ortiz. Chief Richards and Fire Marshal Mulliner were doing their job. Perhaps you could research his fire after Rita. (Fire Marshal is spelled with one l and Chief is ie not ei.)
   
   
2. I agree with Anon 10:07. Ortiz compounded his initial blunder by making a second phone call.
   
   
3. several points - Ortiz was not the only person tagged that day. His was the only car left in the fire lane with a tag when he left city hall.
   
   As for hoping Ortiz follows thru on his promises - I hope you were kidding. Ortiz has problems with the FM because the FM follows the codes and standards adopted by council to do his job. When Ortiz can't get the FM to "look the other way" for his friends is when Oscar gets mad. Its happened many times while Ortiz was mayor. And several as a "consultant".
   
   Hope you haven't hitched your wagon to him. Thought you were smarter than that...
   
   
4. The only partisanship appears to be your affiliation with Ortiz. He was wrong for parking in the fire lane. He was stupid for making the subsequent phone calls. I think Klein is an idiot but I wonder how sympathetic you would have been had it been Klein that parked in the fire lane and made the calls? I would love to hear your comment.

Regarding my spelling errors: guilty as charged and I've corrected those typos. Regarding my comments on this comedy of errors, let me clarify my opinion.

These conversations should never have been sent to the Jefferson County District Attorney for possible prosecution as a terrorist threat. To me, this was the most egregious mistake made by any of the parties. To do so is overtly political partisanship. This action displays a disregard for the costs of pursuing this spurious charge and poor judgment by both Mulliner and Fitzgibbons.

From the available reports and phone calls, no one returned Ortiz's original phone call, perhaps to offer an explanation that other vehicles were stickered. This shows a lack of professional courtesy. Instead, Chief Richard forwarded the Oscar's call to City Manager Fitzgibbons for possible prosecution based on this alleged terrorist threat on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2009:

"Tell that damn moron the next time he puts a sticker on my car I'm going to come over there and make him lick it off."

After Ortiz apparently heard about this from a third party, he called back two days later on Friday, Jan. 29, 2010, to confront Chief Richard. It was during this phone call that Ortiz compounded his initial poor judgment:

"No, I said I was going to kick his ass if he keeps harassing me...Him and I have never got along because he does such a sloppy job when he does inspections...and that wasn't a threat, it was a promise because I'll kick his ass if he does mess with me."

In my opinion, this is where Oscar Ortiz crossed the line. This is not the behavior one would expect from a mayoral candidate. Regarding his past, I'll not comment on the garage fire, the taco factory, or his character, since this is not relevant to the issue of these phone calls. Furthermore, Oscar is not the front-runner in this race, so I think he has little chance of winning this election.

Regarding my sympathies had this been Philip R. Klein, I'm not sure since I can't imagine this scenario playing identically. As an example, I'm positive that PRK would have accused Tom Maness of corruption in some way, since the Jefferson County District Attorney is peripherally involved. Perhaps this would have been one of those instances where I choose not to comment.