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Former:
City of Tucson, Arizona
Manpower Specialist (Planner I), Department of Community Development
Economic Development Specialist (Planner II, III), Department of Community
Development
Economic Development Coordinator, City Manager's Office
Federal Public Works Coordinator, City Manager's Office
City of El Paso, Texas
Executive Director of Economic Development, City of El Paso, Texas
Director, City of El Paso Industrial Development Authority (Industrial
Development Bonds)
Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Owner and CEO, Jon Garrido Gonzales Manufacturing Company
Scottsdale, Arizona
Director of Community Development, Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian
Community
Scottsdale, Arizona
Vice President for Planning and Development, Valgroup
Managing Partner, Valgroup Wal-Mart
Scottsdale, Arizona
Owner and CEO, Real Estate Development Planning Consultant
Present:
Phoenix, Arizona
The Jon Garrido Companies LLC
Chairman and Managing Member
Chairman and CEO of Jon Garrido Development Corporation
Owner and CEO of Jon Garrido Homes
Founder and President, Arizona Law and Education Center (ALEC)
Founder, Chairman and CEO, Ayuda
Chairman and CEO, Hispanic News Political Action Committee
Founder, President and CEO, The Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party
Founder, President and CEO, Americause
Owner and CEO, Jon Garrido News
Owner and CEO, The Jon Garrido Network
Owner, Managing Editor, Publisher of:
Jon Garrido News, The Jon Garrido Network, JGUno, JGNet, Hispanic News, Arizona News, The US Times, Latin
American News, World News, Amermart, 51 Plus, Mujer, Chica, Latina, Subete,
For Sale By Owner USA,
Act Arizona, Go Democrats, Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party and
Americause.
History:
Jon Garrido is a 4th generation American
Hispanic born and raised in Superior, Arizona moving to Globe to attend and
graduate from Globe High School. After three and half years serving in the U.S.
Army outside of Paris, France during the Vietnam era, Jon Garrido returned to
Superior, Arizona to work underground at the Magma Copper Mine in Superior,
Arizona for one year and three subsequent summers as he attended and graduated
from Eastern Arizona College and then moved on to the University of Arizona and
eventually, the University of Texas majoring in real estate development.
After the University of Arizona, Jon Garrido went to work for the City of Tucson
as the Manpower Specialist (Planner I) then Economic Development Specialist
(Planner II, and III) in the Department of Community Development. Jon was assigned to work with the inner target population in a task
force structure to identify manpower, jobs and economic development need
assessments then planning and developing programs and projects to address said
assessments. Tucson was one of the first Model Cities and Planned Variation HUD
programs in the United States. A primary component was working with residents
from the redevelopment/revitalization area.
To prepare for economic development, Jon Garrido was awarded a
fellowship to study economic development at the University of California,
Berkeley, California, sponsored by the U.S. Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where a
curriculum of business loan packaging including financial statements, cash flow
analysis, proformas, market and feasibility studies, and development of a
business park, industrial park, commercial downtown and residential development
was taught. A major component was working with private lenders, the U.S. Small
Business Administration's loan programs and federal procurement programs.
After returning to Tucson, Jon Garrido was appointed Economic
Development Coordinator for the City of Tucson and assigned to the City
Manager’s Office.
As Economic Development Coordinator, Jon Garrido prepared
grant applications and received Federal approval for 12 public works projects.
The City Manager assigned Jon Garrido as Public Works Coordinator to oversee the
operation and administration of these projects. The 12 construction projects
were street paving, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, sewer and water lines, park
development and construction of the 22nd Street Bridge over the Santa Cruz
River.
Jon Garrido took first in the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic
Development Administration national grant competition of states, counties, cities,
school districts and
Indian tribes to secure public works grants. Competitors around the country called the Tucson
City Manager to find out how Tucson had succeeded in
securing grants from the federal government. The Manager asked Jon Garrido to
return calls. One call went back to the City of El Paso. Jon Garrido was
offered the job of heading up economic development for the City of El Paso.
While heading up economic development for the City of El Paso,
Jon Garrido as a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Washington D.C.,
developed an urban design team within the department to plan revitalization of
the central business district. As a member of ULI, Jon Garrido visited New York
City and was briefed on the development of all major buildings including the
former World Trade Center.
Jon Garrido also prepared the application and obtained
approval from the United States Department of Commerce for the El Paso Foreign
Trade Zone. Two years later, Jon Garrido moved to Mexico and become Jon Garrido
Gonzales in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico where he established, owned and
operated a Maquilidora with 80 Mexican and 20 American employees producing
automotive parts for import into the USA.
Upon return to Arizona from Mexico, Jon Garrido became
Director of Community Development for the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian
Community and negotiated development of the Scottsdale Pavilions and the Pima
Freeway including design with the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Then back to the private sector as Vice President for Planning
and Development for Valgroup, then the largest real estate development company
in Arizona, responsible for planning, entitlements and development of 5,550
acres of land adjacent to Surprise, Arizona. Jon Garrido spearheaded a major concept
of a three
runway airport capable of accommodating air cargo and Luke Air Force F15 and F16
operations. Buffered by a business park, commercial and green belt was a 1000
acre master planned residential community west and adjacent to Sun City West.
The first phase of development was annexation of 215 acres of
land into the Town of Surprise. This included responsibility for all
entitlements and subdivision master planning.
In addition to the Surprise master planned community was Tonto
Verde, a 614 acre master planned community in northeast Scottsdale, Arizona,
north of Rio Verde. Two champion golf courses were planned with residential lots
along both sides of golf fairways.
As managing partner with the founder of Valgroup, Jon Garrido
developed a Wal-Mart in Scottsdale and continued on as a real estate planning
consultant developing plans for Main Street Revitalization of Main Street,
Payson, Arizona; Superior, Arizona; Gilbert Downtown, Gilbert, Arizona; and
numerous other real estate commercial developments including in 2003-2004
serving as a consultant for a Texas pharmaceutical research company on
developing a research facility near Austin, Texas.
In addition to a professional career, beginning in Tucson
where Jon Garrido founded and was elected president of the Tucson Hispanic
government employees organization that became the largest Tucson Hispanic
advocacy organization began a journey of Hispanic involvement in affirmative
action, social, political and religious issues. In addition to serving as
president of the Tucson Hispanic government employee organization, Jon Garrido
was also elected Chairman of the Spanish Speaking Council for the Diocese of
Tucson spearheading change within the Catholic Church to accommodate needs of
Hispanics in southern and eastern Arizona.
Involvement in Hispanic affairs led to the acquaintance of
Patrick Apodaca, Associate Legal Counsel to Jimmy Carter,
President of the United States. Mr. Apodaca visited El Paso at the invitation of Jon Garrido to be
the guest speaker at the LULAC district annual convention. Patrick Apodaca
subsequently invited Jon Garrido to the White House and Treasury Department for
interviews for the position of Director of the Office of Federal Revenue
Sharing.
The highlight of working in Texas political campaigns was
attending the White House Rose Garden ceremony at the invitation of President
Reagan to announce the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. On a subsequent
trip to Washington at the invitation of an Assistant Secretary at Interior, Jon
Garrido was offered a deputy assistant secretary position at HUD.
The most remembered event in Washington was a private
breakfast at the Washington Press Club with Vice President George Herbert Walker
Bush who requested and received a campaign pledge to obtain support from the
Hispanic community on becoming President of the United States.
The first stage of Jon Garrido's life was heading up economic development for
two medium size cities and an Indian reservation.
The second stage was development chief of major real estate commercial,
industrial, housing and airport real estate developments.
The third stage — self taught was learning to do one website growing into a
network of 45 websites under the auspices of the Jon Garrido Network with a
market niche being Hispanic/Latino. Of the 45 websites, 5 are now ranked number
1 on Google searches. The next level being developed is daily news video
broadcasts of national and local news to be offered at Jon Garrido News, Hispanic News,
Arizona News and The US Times.
On April 20, 2003, Hispanic News, a national Hispanic news
venture targeted to English speaking American Hispanics, had its initial
publication. Hispanic News is now the largest website in the United States
publishing daily. Google ranks Hispanic News number 1 of some 65 million
websites. Yahoo now also ranks Hispanic News number
1 in the category "Hispanic News."
On June 24, 2005, Jon Garrido founded the Arizona Law and
Education Center (ALEC).
On September 28, 2005, Arizona News,
ranked 4 by MSN of 5,700,000 websites, and The US Times ranked 1 by MSN of
37,000,000 websites, had their initial publications.
On November 20, 2005, 51 Plus, ranked 1 by Google of
212,000,000 websites, and Latin American News, ranked 1 by MSN of 5,000,000
websites, had their initial publications.
On December 24, 2005, JonGarrido.com had its initial
publication.
On January 7, 2006, For Sale By Owner USA was published on the
Internet.
On March 4, 2006, Subete, Latina and Act Arizona were
published on the Internet.
On March 10, 2006, Mujer and ALEC were published on the
Internet.
On March 12, 2006, Amermart,
World News, Aqaba, and Chica were published on the Internet.
On July 7, 2006, JGNet.net was acquired.
On August 26, 2006, Hispanic News was ranked number
1 by Google of 65,000,000 websites.
On October 10, 2006,
VPort.us was published to become the first virtual
reality transport to your 3D imagination.
On December 10, 2006, Americause and the Blue Dogs
of the Democratic Party were published on the
Internet. Jon Garrido is president of each national
organization now being established preparing for the
2008 national elections.
On December 12, 2007, JGUno.com was published
and will become the myspace type website for
Hispanic and Latino young people.
In mid 2007, Jon Garrido News
at JonGarrido.com will each
day publish the national evening news broadcast and
editorial videos. Jon Garrido will anchor the evening news and provide editorial comments
on issues that impact the national Hispanic and Latino community and issues
in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Jon Garrido News broadcast
video will also be published at Hispanic News.
Broadcast news and editorial
videos covering the Phoenix area will be aired at Arizona News. (AZNews.us).
Jon Garrido with his
background in successful grant applications, has prepared grant applications to
establish Ayuda, the Arizona Law and Education Center
(ALEC), Aqaba, and Action Arizona. Grant
approvals are pending.
The 4th stage of Jon Garrido's life is to run for political office.
In 1985, Jon Garrido returned to Arizona from Texas
and moved into the Town of Paradise Valley, Arizona
Congressional District 3. Jon Garrido continued to
reside in Arizona Congressional District 3 until
October 2007 and then moved to Arizona Congressional District 4. With
support from the Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party,
Jon Garrido is planning on running for congress from
this district in 2008.
The 5th stage will be to retire to Pinetop, Arizona
and a ranch outside of Superior, Arizona.
The last stage will be to be interred
in
Superior, Arizona.
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