Yuri Cunza is the President of the Nashville Hispanic Chamber of commerce. The mayor recently tried to appoint him to his staff to diversify it. Well, Yuri is the local yahoo around here who keeps crying racism and the news media is eating it up. Well, come to find out, he is an illegal, is operating a business illegally (because he is illegal), and has a criminial background.

Please email the Mayor of Nashville and give him a piece of your mind
Mayor Bill Purcell's office
http://www.nashville.gov/mayor/

Gotta give kudos to the reporter..
http://www.wsmv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3921288

Mayor appointee has lengthy criminal background

March 15, 2006 03:30 PM CST


Yuri Cunza





Reported by Larry Brinton

E-mail: lbrinton@wsmv.com

This one is hard to believe. How could it slip by Mayor Bill Purcell? It has to be an embarrassment.

It also has to be an embarrassment to Yuri Cunza, who operates a local Spanish-language newspaper and is the president of the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Purcell appointed Cunza to Metro's Charter Revision Commission, apparently wanting to diversify the commission.

That seven-member unpaid commission considers possibly changes in the Metro Charter. But the mayor had barely made the nomination public when questions were raised about Cunza's immigration status.

But Cunza is not a citizen, and can't vote. That caused a problem since the only way to revise the Metro charter is by vote, which Cunza can't do.

So, Cunza withdrew from consideration by the Metro Council.

But there's more, a lot more to the story.

Cunza has a police record that was never even checked by the mayor before he nominated him. Cunza's arrests date back to 1993 and the last one was in 1996. Those charges include assault, offensive conduct, trespassing, reckless endangerment, contempt, and driving under the influence.

A spokeswoman for the mayor did not have Cunza's police record checked before the appointment.

There are many, many Hispanics who would be an excellent choice and would have passed a background check with flying colors.

None of the mayor's committee or commisson appointees have been subject to a check of police records That's strange because every new employee hired by Metro is given a total background check including their police record, if they have one.

The mayor's spokesperson says because of this incident, all of the mayor's potential appointees will be checked for police records.