Owner faults mayor in immigration rally dispute

A furniture store owner has accused Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon of allowing a day labor advocate to use tax dollars to help fund weekly immigration rallies near the store.

Roger Sensing, owner of Pruitt’s furniture store at Thomas Road and 34th Street, made the accusation in a letter to the mayor Thursday.

Read Roger Sensing’s letter to Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon

Shoving at protest starts with chant of 'Mexico'

SLIDESHOW: View photos from last week's protest

Gordon had asked Sensing and the operator of the day labor center, Salvador Reza, to come to his office this week to attempt to resolve their differences. He asked the men to send “talking points” to his office in advance of that meeting.

But reconciliation didn’t look hopeful Saturday, when the weekly protests outside the furniture store continued for their eighth straight week, and one woman was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.

The debate hinges on whether the store should hire off-duty Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies to patrol its property. Pruitt’s management believes the daily gathering of day laborers near its property has hurt business. Immigration activists view the store’s decision as racist against Hispanics and a violation of people’s rights to public assembly.

Both men have submitted their “talking points” to the mayor, both listing demands they want met. Gordon’s spokesman, Scott Phelps, e-mailed Reza and Sensing on Friday, further urging both sides consent to meet without preconditions, which he said aren’t “particularly useful” or likely to be realized.

If the parties don’t find a way to compromise on their own, the discussion will have to go to arbitration with a judge, Phelps said.

Reza, leader of the demonstrations, could not be reached for comment.

Sensing’s son, Mike Sensing, the company’s vice president, said Pruitt’s is ready to meet — the sooner, the better — but that the mayor must first re-establish trust with them. From Pruitt’s perspective, the solution to the controversy is for Phoenix police to enforce local ordinances in their neighborhood, including those against littering, loitering and solicitation, Mike Sensing said.

“I don’t really know what we have to negotiate with,” he said.

Mike Sensing characterized the recent controversy as a repeat of last year’s events.

He said about 250 day laborers began collecting on their property almost two years ago when the workers were chased away from a nearby Home Depot at 3609 E. Thomas Road. Home Depot’s assistant manager, Bruce Delvillar, said the store began hiring off-duty Phoenix police officers to keep day laborers off the property, a practice that continues today.

“We definitely haven’t had any problems or issues in the last year,” Delvillar said.

Pruitt’s followed suit, hiring off-duty Phoenix police officers for about six months in 2006. They would hire two or three officers for $30 to $40 per hour, four hours per day, seven days a week. Mike Sensing said the number of day laborers in the area dropped from 250 to about 25.

Then, around Thanksgiving last year, the first round of protests began. Demonstrators didn’t like that Pruitt’s had hired off-duty officers. The Sensings agreed to meet with the mayor and Reza, and they brokered a deal: Reza would establish a temporary work center at a nearby church, then a permanent work center, and Pruitt’s would stop hiring off-duty officers.

The plan worked for a while. The protests stopped.

But Reza never established the permanent work center, Mike Sensing said. By early February, the number of day laborers gathering in the area had crept back up to 150.

“We came to the realization that they weren’t going to establish a work center,” Mike Sensing said.

Pruitt’s tried to hire off-duty Phoenix police officers again, but the mayor refused the request. Mike Sensing said Gordon thought the situation at Pruitt’s had become “too political.”

After trying out private security guards, which didn’t help, the Sensings met with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in October.

“I can only stress — we weren’t trying to arrest anybody or questioning immigration status,” Mike Sensing said. “We never once asked that this be treated as an immigration issue. We were just trying to solve a commerce problem.”

He said female customers had become uncomfortable coming to the store alone, and trash was building up on the property.

Roger Sensing’s letter to the mayor asked that Reza receive a financial audit regarding any public funding he receives.

“We have reason to be concerned that citizen taxpayer dollars committed to subsidize Reza’s various operations and activities may have been used to fund his protest activities outside Pruitts,” the letter states.

The letter accuses Gordon of establishing a “de facto” day labor center near Pruitt’s.