Price of Criticizing
Pushing A Constituent to Suicide
By Daniel Muniz

Can criticizing an elected official go too far?

That is what happened when a private citizen heatedly complained to a San Antonio city councilwoman about the raucous lewd behavior of partygoers who carouse at the Graham Central Station nightclub across the street from his residence. Unfortunately, this city resident used his company email address to send out his grievance. The councilwoman promptly complained to his politically powerful employer, which resulted in his immediate termination of employment even though he had worked there for 27 years. Shortly afterwards, he shot himself in the head.

The suicide occurred when the only major newspaper in town published an article detailing the complaint and the subsequent firing as well as the claim from the councilwoman that he was also a racist.

The employee, George Dickerson, had a very legitimate complaint.

Although there are plenty of people who are only interested in having a good time and not making problems, a large nightclub always attracts the undesirable elements of society. When drunk, these sorts of people don’t care about anything and their crude actions are often nothing more than just another portion of their partying.

Residents of the immediate vicinity of that nightclub where Dickerson lived often complained about the loud and bawdy behavior from the partygoers occurring at all hours of the night, like ear-splitting music and roaring car engines. Beer bottles strewn across the street along with plenty of garbage is a nightly occurrence. And so is the lascivious and drunken behavior like people relieving themselves on the street or on a front yard or engaging in actions that belong in a bedroom.

George Dickerson had also complained to his local neighborhood association before sending his fateful email to city councilwoman Elena Guajardo.

Dickerson’s big mistake was using his company email account to send his passionate criticism. And also, his place of employment for 27 years, Zachry Construction, happens to be one of the biggest and most powerful construction companies in town. They build big-ticket multimillion dollar infrastructure, like freeways, for the city. This corporation exerts enormous political influence in town and they can make or break local politicians, especially when there are millions of dollars of construction projects on the table.

The Zachry Corporation said:

To the bigwigs at such a powerhouse, it was a no-brainer for them. They have a complaint from someone sitting on city council about one of their own employees. The infraction is minor particularly when it is from an employee who has worked there for almost three decades. These days, that is longer than most marriages. But for corporate executives who don’t want to needlessly make an enemy on city council, the decision to fire the employee was easy especially when multimillion dollar contracts and juvenile politicians are involved.

As for Councilwoman Elena Guajardo, it was also easy for her to push the race button. Myself as Hispanic and spending my childhood in the barrio, I know that it is way too easy to accuse anyone of racism regardless of what the issue is.

Guajardo also saw it as an easy but adolescent way to extract retribution. After the media firestorm, the councilwoman’s assistant now makes this asinine claim:

Let me get this straight.

Is Guajardo offering this recommendation to the employer of “every” person who sends her a harsh email? Is she now a counselor or a therapist in addition to being a councilwoman?

And what business does an elected official have in contacting your employer about a city dispute?

And now that Guajardo is changing her story, what did she expect to happen after contacting a big construction company that competes for multimillion dollar city contracts? Did she really expect them to tell Dickerson that he needs to volunteer at a low-income district in order to keep his job?

As for passionate complaints, take a look at the Bush/Kerry election. Do all the people who compare Bush to Hitler or call him a murderer need to be sent to sensitivity training? I personally think that they do but do their employers need to know how passionate the politics of their employees are?

Former city councilman Carroll Schubert explained his disgust over the incident.

No joke! Complain to your local elected official and then they end up calling your employer.

It is scary to think of the ramifications. And it doesn’t matter if you are Republican, Democrat, Liberal, or Conservative. When contacting your public officials, there is some sort of expectation of privacy or at the very least, not having them contact your employer.

Overall, what city councilwoman Elena Guajardo did was wrong!

It was childish and petty and it had tragic consequences. But by pushing the race button, it is doubtful that she ever thought that she was doing anything wrong. Perhaps this is something that will tug at her conscience for a lifetime.

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