Garden Grove Mayor Bruce Broadwater, on a fire truck of course
Last August, Garden Grove Mayor Bruce Broadwater told a Voice of OC reporter that he disapproved of nepotism at City Hall and that he was working to bring back the city’s anti-nepotism policy by the end of 2013, but a month after Broadwater made those remarks, his son, Jeremy Broadwater, was selected for hiring by the city’s fire department despite failing a crucial interview with battalion chiefs, according to the Voice of OC.
To make a bad story even worse, Broadwater’s son is so inept as a firefighter that he has posed a threat to the public. Broadwater the firefighter has made a number of “potentially life-threatening mistakes on medical calls,” drawing concern from his superiors and prompting one captain to call for his termination, The Orange County Register reported last week.
Mayor Broadwater has two challengers in the upcoming November General Election: Albert Ayala, who lists himself as a “retired police commander” and Bao Nguyen, a trustee for the Garden Grove Unified School District, according to the OC Register.
Ayala is a Tea Party candidate who runs for office quite often but never mounts much of a campaign. Both Ayala and Nguyen are Democrats as is Broadwater. Why the local Republican Party failed to get behind one of their own for the Garden Grove Mayor’s office is a good question but the short answer is that the OC GOP machine has happily backed Broadwater for years. Although he is a Democrat he has an anti-minority track record and he is a reliable tool for the developers.
Ordinarily I would never endorse a liberal like Nguyen but in this case he is the better alternative to the crusty Broadwater, who clearly is in this for himself and for the special interests.
Nguyen is Trustee, Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education. According to Nguyen’s Linkedin Page, his work experience also includes:
- Organizer, AFSCME Local 39, 2010 – Present (4 years)
- Community Organizer, Orange County Congregation Community Organization, 2008 – 2010 (2 years)
- Substitute Teacher, Garden Grove Unified School District
Yes, Nguyen is a labor hack but that is preferable to the greedy Broadwater, whose son should be fired by the Garden Grove Fire Depaartment. The voters, in turn, should fire Broadwater this November.