MAIG Coordinators Paid as City Employees, Saves Gun-Hater’s Money
Editor's Note - Last Friday, Buckeye Firearms Association broke the news that anti-gun Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman is mailing invitations to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns on official letterhead. The rabbit hole, it appears, goes far, far deeper. The following op-ed originally appeared on the author's blog, AllNineYards.com. Republished with permission.
by Sean Caranna
Here's a great way to reduce overhead and be effective at running a national organization dedicated to infringing on the gun rights of everyday people all at the same time... Have cities hire your people for you so that tax payers cover 1/4 of your people's salary and benefits, pay for most of their operational costs, and finance all of their other resources! It also embeds your people as leaders in city government so that you don't have to lobby there!
Sounds like another conspiracy theory from the tinfoil hat brigade... Right?
Back in March, while researching the repeal of some anti-gun ordinances, I stumbled across an Orlando City Council agenda item that grabbed my attention. It was, on its surface, just a mundane action item for the annual contract renewal of a city employee. But this city employee's job title was, well, unique...
"Approving Employment Contract for the Grant-Funded Position of Mayors Against Illegal Guns Regional Coordinator." City of Orlando Website
The agenda included a budgetary breakdown for how a $75,000 grant from the "United Against Illegal Guns Support Fund" was to be spent.
$60,000 in salary and benefits for the "MAIG Regional Coordinator"
$2,000 for Supplies
$3,000 for Contractual Services
$10,000 for Travel
Also attached was the Fiscal Impact statement. It showed that this employee's salary and benefits were expected to cost the city $84,000 for the year. It allocated $24,000 from the city's "General Fund" to cover the grant's shortfall.
The employee's resume was also attached.
- Southeast U. S. Regional Director (thirteen states) for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
- Florida Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence
- Lobbyist for Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Florida Retail Federation, Early Childhood Association
- She "organized and activated the Floridians Against Workplace Violence Coalition for the sole purpose of defeating" the bill that protects parking lot storage of lawful guns in private vehicles.
- Mayors Against Illegal Guns – Lobbying to close the "gun show loophole" (prohibiting private sales of firearms) and to close the "terror gap" (depriving people of their right to keep and bear arms without due-process by putting them on the no-fly list).
This is also the same Linda S. Vaughn who was busted trying to bait people into illegal gun transfers in 2004.
She is a long time anti-gun lobbyist in Florida who lives in Tallahassee.
So, Linda S. Vaughn is paid a salary of at least $60,000 per year by the City of Orlando using grant funds provided by the Chicago based Joyce Foundation in collusion with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns. She also receives city medical, dental and leave accrual benefits at taxpayer expense. Her authorized pay range tops out at $228,113.60 for this job annually.
Once I put these facts all together, I went in to my closet and put on my wookie suit. Then I took the red pill, locked and loaded, and dove in to the rabbit hole trying to see how far it goes. On Friday I came screaming out of the other end flying at mach 3, pissed off, pissed on, and with my wookie suit in flames.
The tinfoil hat wearing "the government is in bed with the gun-haters and using my tax dollars to take away my guns," conspiracy theorists were right. These gun ban lobbyists are being paid with tax money and are operating in government positions all over the country to do the work of the anti-gun groups.
The Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Brady Campaign's operatives' work to further gun control is financed on the public dime.
The number of regulatory, enforcement, policy, legislative, and other types of gun ban schemes that these people are involved with is utterly mind-blowing. They're attempting to use USDOJ operation "Weed and Feed" grant money to do gun buybacks; they're pushing everything from registration to micro-stamping, outright bans on lawful firearm possession to zero tolerance rules to arrest kids who have toy guns. You name it; they're doing it to attempt to make all guns illegal; and they're working for MAIG out of city offices with the authority of city officials on the public dime.
The City of Orlando's job description for their resident gun ban operative is a sobering look at the anti-gun agenda and lobbying strategy of MAIG.
Some cities have used abbreviated titles and even blatantly deceptive names for these positions which are filled by Bloomberg's anti-gun rights political operatives. Dept of Health, Injury and Prevention Program, Program Manager; MAIG Coordinator; MAIGC Regional Coordinator; these are just the ones I have found so far. It's going to take a lot more research to find them all but there is one system that always provides fast results, follow the money. When a city takes the grant money it gets directed to a department and often an individual employment contract.
Complicating matters more is that some of the appointments use nothing but tax dollars. William Morales is a Milwaukee, WI Police officer who was taken off the street and put on a one-year leave of absence so he could be Mayor Barrett's representative to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns as Regional Coordinator. Paulina DeHaan now holds the job.
These gun control lobbyists have been drawing government paychecks and operating city departments at tax payer expense to take away your right to bear arms for almost a decade. The Joyce Foundation and Bloomberg's groups have provided millions in funding to the cities that put Bloomberg's people in place, but they do not pay anything close to the entire bill.
Public statements and press releases about these "MAIG RCs" are noticeably scarce. The one that I did find from a Mayor employing activists on behalf of MAIG is highly deceptive. It completely ignores that fact that the grants only cover about 3/4 of the employee's direct expense to the city and none of the direct or indirect expenses of other city resources used by Bloomberg's private anti-gun lobbying group.
"Funded by the grant, the regional coordinator who will work out of Mayor Coleman's office with the full support of the mayor, his staff and the Columbus Department of Public Safety. The coordinator will be charged with advancing common-sense state and local policies to address gun violence in Ohio, facilitate the enforcement of existing gun laws and engage partners among additional mayors, law enforcement, the firearms industry and the faith community."
...
"I am thrilled that Mayor Coleman and the City of Columbus will host the new Ohio regional coordinator for Mayors Against Illegal Guns," said New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, coalition co-chair."
Even if the Illegal Mayors and the Brady Bunch provided 100% of the funds it would still be private/public collusion of the worst kind. Could you imagine the scathing editorials, cries of corruption, and the lawsuits that would be filed if the City of Orlando were to put Marion Hammer on staff as their NRA Regional Coordinator? How about if they made me the City Coordinator of Florida Carry, Inc. Interoperation?
Florida Carry will be looking closely at everything MAIG's Linda Vaughn is doing in her position with the City of Orlando. Her work products and materials are subject to Florida Sunshine Laws. We are demanding the disclosure of all documents, emails, records, and other materials related to her work with the City, State, and MAIG. Florida has some of the best firearms preemption laws in the country, any violations of that law by government employees will result in Florida Carry taking appropriate legal action. We also want to determine what work she is doing for private lobbying groups while collecting a city paycheck.
There will be an official release from Florida Carry about this situation next week.
Here's a list of the Brady Bunch/MAIG shills I’ve found working for cities across the US thus far.
Leslie Manning
Coordinator, Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Augusta, ME
Paulina DeHaan
Regional Coordinator Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Milwaukee, WI
Angelo Roefaro
Former MAIG Coordinator
Utica, NY
Left to work for Sen. Schumer
Title Unknown
Minneapolis, MN
Lee Roberts
MAIG Regional Coordinator
Columbus, OH
Title Unknown
Lewiston, ME
Office of Intergovernmental Relations
Seattle, WA
MAIG Regional Coordinator
Reading, PA
Daniel Cronrath
Former MAIG Coordinator
Jacksonville, FL
2003 to 2010 Served under Mayor Peyton (R). Fired when Mayor Brown (D) was elected 2010.
Linda S. Vaughn
MAIG Regional Coordinator
Orlando, FL
Sean Caranna is the founder and Executive Director of Florida Carry, Inc. He spent eight years in the U.S. Army as an Infantry NCO, including active duty service in Europe, Bosnia, and South America; he also served in the Florida Army National Guard. Since leaving the military he has worked in the computer imaging, simulation, and advanced information-technology fields.
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