| NEWS | Home Alone Where does this Phoenix City Council candidate really live? BY ELIAS WEISS F ive months ago, Denise Ceballos-Viner filed her notice of candidacy for the Phoenix City Council. In black ink, she penned her pertinent details: name, date, phone number, mailing address. But the address on the form, filed with the city clerk, is to a home she doesn’t own in South Phoenix. The home she does own, a Spanish colonial house valued at $800,000 with a well-manicured yard located north of Carefree Highway, is one of three she’s purchased with her husband since 2008 in the upscale Anthem planned community. The ranch house in South Phoenix, with a market value of $23,000, has metal bars covering the windows and heaps of debris littering the front yard. It’s owned by the parents of a candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives. The house in Anthem sits in District 2 in the upper reaches of North Phoenix. The one in South Phoenix? It’s in District 8, one of the southernmost in the city. It’s also where Ceballos-Viner is running to unseat incumbent City Councilmember Carlos Garcia. Where Ceballos-Viner actually lives is critical to her campaign. City council hope- fuls “must maintain permanent residence within the district from which the candi- date is nominated,” according to the city clerk’s office. It’s a 45-mile drive across several council districts between the two homes. For Ceballos-Viner to call District 8 home, she’d be living off Baseline Road in a friend’s house, while her children and her husband — Phoenix Police Department Commander Darren Viner, who runs the Black Mountain Precinct in North Phoenix — live in the home in Anthem. In the Friend Zone At the South Phoenix home, where the 55-year-old city council candidate insists she lives, the name affixed to the mailbox is Peña. Tatiana Peña has ties to the controver- sial Latinos for Trump movement, is a Republican like Ceballos-Viner, and is gunning for a seat in the state House. Her parents, Ana and Manuel Peña, own the house that Ceballos-Viner claims to live in. Peña once lived there, too. She and Ceballos-Viner have endorsed each other’s campaigns on social media and campaigned together. After a couple of minutes of congenial Elias Weiss small talk, Peña hung up the phone mid- question during an interview with Phoenix New Times and seems to have blocked our phone number. Ceballos-Viner did not respond to numerous interview requests. She quipped in a recent Facebook post that “the media only loves to share negativity and fear.” City officials told New Times they compared Ceballos-Viner’s South Phoenix address to her voter registration, and it was a match. “The Phoenix City Charter requires council district candidates to, at the time of nomination and during their tenure, main- tain permanent residence within the district from which they are nominated,” said Spencer Blake, spokesperson for the clerk’s office. “At the time of filing, the City Clerk’s Office verifies the candidate’s voter registration information on file with Maricopa County and confirms that the candidate’s registered residential address matches the address on the acceptance of nomination form.” But in July, when Ceballos-Viner filed a financial disclosure statement as part of her campaign, she was required to list property ownership unless it was her primary residence. The Anthem property — which she and her husband own, according to real estate records — is not listed on the disclosure form. ‘I See Her Sleep Here Every Single Night’ Neighbors of either home don’t clear up the question of Ceballos-Viner’s residency. “I don’t think [Ceballos-Viner] lives here,” said Barbara Blackman, who lives across the street from the Peñas in South Phoenix. “I’ve never seen her. It appalls me that there are so many versions of the truth.” Viner for Phoenix But Alberto Rodriguez, who lives next door, has seen Ceballos-Viner around the neighborhood. Earlier this year, she asked him to sign her petition to run for office. She rents a bedroom from the Peñas, he said. Rodriguez reported seeing Ceballos- Viner’s white Mercedes parked outside the Peñas’ house on several occasions, but only “in the past few months” and after she filed to run. In Anthem, a neighbor of Ceballos- Viner said he regularly sees the city council candidate at the home. “I see her sleep here every single night,” he told New Times. He asked not to be named, citing a fear of retaliation by police or Viner, who has commanded the Black Mountain Precinct for nearly three years, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2004, Viner was placed on the Brady List, a registry of disgraced cops used by prosecutors to track officers with a history of dishonesty, criminal activity, and other integrity concerns. Those on the Brady List are barred from testifying in court. According to a disciplinary notice in 1999 from the city of Phoenix’s personnel Denise Ceballos-Viner (left) owns this home with an $800,000 market value in north Phoenix with her husband, but claims she doesn’t live there. department, Viner in 1997 “improperly accessed the police computer system” to unlawfully release his ex-girlfriend’s crim- inal record to his “current girlfriend” at the time. The incident was shortly before he and Ceballos-Viner married. He also “failed to take proper action” serving a warrant and later lied to his supervisors about an incident with his ex-girlfriend in 1998, according to personnel records. He was suspended for a week without pay. Ceballos-Viner is running on a hard-line “Back the Blue” agenda. On her campaign website, she says, “Our law enforcement are overworked, understaffed, and attacked by our current councilmember.” The city council provides oversight of the Phoenix Police Department and approves its nearly $850 million annual budget. One of the Viners’ three children is also a police officer. Ceballos-Viner does have a connection to the South Phoenix address. Arizona Corporation Commission records show she registered a limited liability company, Viner for Phoenix, there on the very same day she filed to run for city council: March 2. It’s far from the first corporation she has set up in Phoenix. Over the past two decades, Ceballos- Viner has founded a slew of mostly short- lived companies and nonprofit organizations out of her home, including dance studios, parental rights groups, Christian ministries, and pro-police organi- zations. None provide her any compensa- tion, according to a financial >> p 13 11 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES AUG 18TH–AUG 24TH, 2022
