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

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. 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 v ...

. 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 the council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are referred to as the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief administ ...

. 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 agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI),

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

and

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

. 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 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 Weapons Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for various civilian, law enforcement, and military p ...

. 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 U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

requested that the investigation continue.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wardy, Joe 1953 births Living people 21st-century mayors of places in Texas Mayors of El Paso, Texas

See also

References