Joseph D. Wardy (born 1953) is the former mayor of

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. He was elected mayor in 2003, when he unseated incumbent mayor

Raymond Caballero Raymond Caballero (born February 6, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th mayor of El Paso from 2001 to 2003. He was elected in May 2001, defeating former mayor Larry Francis in a runoff election with 62.5% of the vo ...

. Wardy was defeated by John Cook in the 2005 mayoral election. Wardy, a businessman in the trucking industry, was generally regarded as favorable to business interests, in contrast to his predecessor's more confrontational stand against "big developers" and industries. During his term, El Paso transitioned from a mayor-council form of government to one with a "weak mayor" and appointed

city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a "Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief execu ...

. Wardy is of Lebanese and Mexican descent. On Tuesday, May 9, 2006, the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled (NCED) (renamed Ready One Industries in March 2006), of which Wardy was President and CEO, was raided by over 65 agents with the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI),

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gover ...

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

. The raid, which began at 8:00 am and lasted well into the evening, was part of an ongoing probe into contracts awarded. The company won contracts based on a promise that at least 75 percent of workers filling government orders would be severely disabled. Officers took over two truckloads of documents and several copied hard drives from office computers to aid in the investigation. It was soon thereafter concluded that Wardy was responsible for no wrongdoing. Wardy was detained and questioned by police and the FBI after a screener at the

El Paso International Airport El Paso International Airport (EPIA, , es, Aeropuerto Internacional de El Paso) is four miles (6 km) northeast of downtown El Paso, in El Paso County, Texas, United States. It is the largest civil airport in West Texas. It handled 3,516,91 ...

detected a loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage on Wednesday, March 7, 2007. Wardy was the fifth individual attempting to carry a weapon aboard an aircraft since 2005. According to FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons, Simmons described the gun, which was confiscated by the FBI, as a .22-caliber

Beretta Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapon Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and militar ...

. Wardy was released after being questioned. He was not arrested or charged, but the

U.S. Attorney's Office United States attorneys are officials of the United States Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 United States federal judicial district, U.S. federal judici ...

requested that the investigation continue.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wardy, Joe 1953 births Living people Mayors of El Paso, Texas American politicians of Lebanese descent American politicians of Mexican descent Hispanic and Latino American mayors in Texas

See also

References