Last year I wrote some commentaries about a local politician out in San Bernardino County – Mark Nuaimi. Nuaimi, to whom I have referred to as the “Conflict King” is simultaneously the Assistant City Manager of Colton for his day job, and he is also the elected Mayor of the nearby city of Fontana. Nuaimi’s reputation for being a pretty arrogant guy reaches all of the way up to Sacramento, where one well placed politico in the State Capitol, when I reference him, said, “Oh, you mean Mayor Big Head.”
I penned one commentary that referenced a story in his local newspaper about a controversy of Nuaimi name-calling residents of Colton using his city e-mail, and another talking about how Nuaimi sees his role as Mayor as being at the keyboard for a single-player game of “SimFontana” – which is to say that in a country where the citizens, and not the government (at any level) are supposed to be in charge, Nuaimi has his idea for what he wants where in the city – and you don’t want to cross him.
Anyways, the reason I bring all of this back up is because in the last few weeks, “Mayor Big Head” has been in the papers twice – both worth mentioning. First, a few weeks ago, it was announced that his boss in his day job – the City Manager of Colton – was leaving to take a job elsewhere. Despite getting his photo in the paper, Nuaimi did not get named interim City Manager which is, frankly, commonplace in those types of situation. Because of his conflicts of interest, The City Council in Colton actually reached out and made his buddy, the Chief of Police (seriously), the Acting City Manager. If I had to hazard a guess, how about the inherant conflicts of interest that arise when you are a staffer (let alone the top dog) of one city, and the Mayor of another city just a few miles away… Oh, then there’s the fact that no one wants to have a ego-consumed individual as their City Manager – even temporarily!
The second article that ran just this last week really typified a, “the rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to me,” attitude that we expect from arrogant people – it was an article about how Nuaimi failed to file necessary reports for his campaign committee — failing to file not once, not twice, but three times.
The Fair Political Practices Commission weighed in after a local citizens group was forced to file a complaint against Nuaimi, since he had been, in essence, hiding his political financial activities for over a year. But that does fit a pattern – why should the rules of “normal people” apply to “Mayor Big Head” – he’s above the rest of us?
This issue about lack of filing really becomes problematic for Nuaimi should he ever decide to seek higher office. The people have an expectation that the people they elect to offices of public trust be open about their finanes, and follow the adopted rules for disclosure…
P.S. Let’s not forget that Nuaimi is a star of You Tube — have you seen this, this or this?
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