Thread: Hispanic leader leaves Cobb (GA) board over ordinances

Hispanic leader leaves Cobb board over ordinances
by The Associated Press
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/ ... ?ID=116152

MARIETTA, GA - The leader of one of Georgia's most high-profile Hispanic groups has quit a Cobb County initiative designed to reach out to the Hispanic community saying the county government has shown a ``consistent lack of open, honest and transparent dialogue.''

Jerry Gonzalez, head of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, resigned from the Cobb Latino Initiative after the county commission passed an ordinance last week that limits the number of adults who can live in a house.

Gonzalez said he was angry that the advisory group met July 23, the day before the vote, and neither Olens nor Annette Kesting the two county commissioners present mentioned the pending vote.

He said they also failed to mention a proposed ordinance that would prohibit day laborers from gathering on public property or in parking lots to solicit work.

Both ordinances target the Latino community in Cobb, Gonzalez said.

``I will no longer serve in a faux advisory role to government officials intent on using the Cobb Latino Initiative as insulation from their apparent and real anti-immigrant policies,'' Gonzalez wrote in his resignation letter July 25.

County Commission Chairman Sam Olens responded that advocates for the Hispanic community are making the county's actions a ``racial'' issue by implying that new rules are targeted at Hispanics.

``It's not a Hispanic issue,'' Olens said of the ordinance. ``It's a people issue. We're going to cite a boarding house whether the people are white, black or Hispanic.''

Cobb has 68,830 Hispanic residents, about 10.5 percent of the county population, according to 2005 census estimates.

The initiative is a group of business, nonprofit and community leaders that meets monthly to discuss issues important to the Latino community in Cobb.

Gonzalez's resignation comes at a time when Cobb has started to enforce several initiatives that affect illegal immigrants.

In late June, Cobb's jail started to check the legal status of every foreign inmate and has been trained to start deportation proceedings against those here illegally.

In January, Cobb started to enforce a rule requiring contractors on county projects to run new hires through a federal database to make sure they are legal workers.

Gonzalez said adding the housing and day labor ordinances and the way they came about were the final straw for him.

``Here we have another ordinance that clearly impacts Latinos and we're learning about it the day it's being considered before the commission,'' he said. ``They were doing everything in their power to make sure the issue did not come up before they voted on it.''

Olens said he gave Gonzalez a heads-up about the housing ordinance on April 30. Olens tried to send the group a draft of the ordinance June 30, but the e-mail got stuck in a spam filter, according to an e-mail from the county's spokesman.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

It is sad to see so many hispanic leaders going to bat for illegals simply because a large majority of illegals are from latin countries.

I feel they are hurting their chances of being elected in 2008 because of their unreasonable stance by calling it racial profiling regarding illegal immigration.

Darn shame they just don't get that the citizens have already been used to these ordinances and they aren't anything NEW....it's just come back in the forefront because too many latinos aren't abiding by them.

Every town I've lived in HAS a day labor center. But they do check to make sure you give information like SS#'s and such. It was always first come first serve once you passed their check. They had a building...people sat inside and waited.....if there wasn't work by noon....they went home. I always see NO LOITERING signs. At first it was for too many kids hanging out in a certain area as a general meeting point. Could have been the parking lot at McDonalds or 7-11 but when there's mobs gathered around a business it deters business because people don't feel comfortable moving through a group of people to get access to a business. I don't care if it's high-school kids just sitting around in their cars blasting music and hanging out...or if it's a group of men looking for a job. I don't want my kids seeing kids making out or some guy whizzing in the street. For sheer safety sake in todays world....mob meeting anywhere they can hang out is a place I'm going to avoid. I don't want to subject myself or my kids to lewd talk and behavior. I mean as a teenager we used to meet at this burger joint called the Launching Pad because they had picnic tables in back that no-one ever used because they added indoor seating. I mean it was way in the back of the lot by the dumpsters. They let us hang out at first because we did get stuff to eat and drink. Our downfall was playing the tape of the 5 words you can't say on TV with George Carlin and a few Richard Prior stints. People objected since we did have it pretty loud and it was a "family" place and our group was getting bigger and bigger as time went on. They limited us to 1 hr. after that and no loud car steroes. So to act like this action is NEW just isn't true. Or else they must have been unfairley "targeting" white teens back then and I had my rights stomped on. Not to mention one guy in our group was caught whizzing behind the dumpster and did get arrested for indecent exposure. He told the cop he thought it looked decent enough....but that didn't fly well. We weren't doing anything "illegal"....there wasn't really anywhere else to go.....but it was done to us.

People have all sorts of limits placed on them. Can't smoke, can't have dogs, singles only, retirees only, can't park your travel trailer here, one parking spot per apartment, odd even parking days, no junk cars in your yard, what days and what hours you can have your sprinkler on......they just don't want any limits placed on what they feel like doing and keep saying it's just because they are hispanic when we have the same exact rules to abide by.

Jerry Gonzalez, head of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, resigned from the Cobb Latino Initiative after the county commission passed an ordinance last week that limits the number of adults who can live in a house.

Another case of 'by the latin, for latin, nothing but the latin'. Obviously Jerry is lating before being American. Let him quit. The initiative goes a long way in ensuring that our standard of living is maintained. This is America where we limit the number of people living in a single dwelling, not some slum-ridden country where there are 25 people living in the same house.

County Commission Chairman Sam Olens responded that advocates for the Hispanic community are making the county's actions a `racial'' issue by implying that new rules are targeted at Hispanics.

The Commission Chairperson could not be more correct.

One hispander down and thousands to go!!!!

Goodby...don't let the door hit you in the rear as you leave....

Even their representatives will leave if made uncomfortable.Good to know.


Head 'em up,move 'em out Rawhide!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I'm laughing on the outside, but I'm crying on the inside.

Head 'em up,move 'em out Rawhide!

http://www.kfcplainfield.com/sound/rawhide.wav