It is shocking that the County Supervisors are cutting funding the legislature has specifically designated to go to county law enforcement for illegal immigration enforcement, instead continuing to waste taxpayers’ money on non-necessary pet projects. Turns out many of the people and organizations benefiting from this money contributed to the County Supervisors’ election campaigns, like Chicanos por la Causa. The supervisors have cut Sheriff Arpaio’s budget by 17.5%, forced County Attorney Thomas to cut his budget by 15%, and then in a power grab, took away funding for Thomas’s Civil Division and set up their own new division of civil attorneys. We hear that the Sheriff’s office has had a hard time transporting prisoners to court on time anymore because of the lack of deputies. It is no secret that the the supervisors’ attempts to decimate law enforcement started after Arpaio and Thomas indicted Supervisor Don Stapley on 118 criminal counts including multiple felonies.

A reader has provided us with some of the projects the County Supervisors are spending your money on instead of law enforcement. They’re not just spending it on a $347 million court tower, there’s a lot more they’ve spent tax dollars on over the past couple of years, contributing to the county’s fiscal crisis. While some of these programs may sound good, they are not as important as public safety which should be government’s #1 priority.  If crime is not controlled, a civilized society turns into chaos.

Operation and maintenance of a paintball complex
This needs no description it is so ridiculous.

Supervisor Don Stapley’s free trip to Sweden for a global warming summit
Why is a county level government official spending our tax dollars to attend a foreign global warming summit halfway around the world?

Guadalupe Youthbuild New Housing in Mary Rose Wilcox’s district
$316,922 went to a “HOME Program Subrecipient Agreement” with an organization located in Mary Rose Wilcox’s district. We wonder how many people from that organization contributed to her campaign.

HIV prevention
The supervisors have funneled millions of dollars to organizations like the radical anti-American  Chicanos por la Causa (one of Mary Rose Wilcox’s big donors who also gave her a loan) for “HIV prevention services.” In March and April of 2006, for example, the county gave Chicanos por la Causa $99,000. Some of this money has come in grants from the state and federal government, but they require considerable matching funds from the county.

Sexually transmitted disease research
While the county was suffering financially, the supervisors gave $5000 to an STD clinic to do research on 300 patients with chlamydia. The supervisors spent $10,000 on hepatitis research that was “unrecoverable,” meaning there was no state or federal grant to pay for it.

Diversity promotion
4 county employees were paid to attend a diversity conference in Albuquerque. Other county agencies were told to distribute and display diversity posters and materials, include diversity columns in their newsletters, include a diversity component in their new employee training, hold diversity related celebrations, conduct outreach in Spanish, use the diversity office to assist with recruitment. Since instructed, over 22 county agencies have hired or appointed diversity consultants/coordinators.

Family planning services
$268,000 went to family planning services, which we suspect involved Planned Parenthood.This is not an essential core function of government, particularly during a fiscal crisis.

Childcare research
$65,287 went to research childcare costs around the county.

Bring Back Blue
An environmental campaign the county recently spent millions on, which mostly went for pricey advertising telling the public to think green. There were no results to show for it. Supervisor Max Wilson publicly admitted that most people have never heard of it. At a Board of Supervisors meeting midway through the campaign, it was discussed that county revenues were in the toilet and the county was headed for fiscal trouble. Nevertheless, the supervisors approved Phase II of the project (Phase II  used radio & TV ads again from Phase 1, updated the print ads, produced an educational outreach video aimed at high school students, and a “Film Festival” to challenge kids to create a ad to use in the campaign, a co-promotion with the Phoenix Suns, and a promotion to win a Toyota hybrid Prius) Then, the supervisors increased the amount they were paying the consultants like Riester-Robb from $5,600,000 to $7,600,000. Not surprisingly, if you look through the supervisors’ campaign finance reports, employees from Riester Robb have contributed heavily to them.

Running out of Air
Right after the failed Bring Back Blue campaign ended, the supervisors launched another $1.4 million pricey environmental campaign, Running out of Air, to alert people to the dangers of air particles. It was another waste of money because gas prices had dramatically increased, eliminating any need for a campaign telling the public to drive less.

Genomic Consortium
The supervisors have given this group $5 million so far and recently voted to give it another $5 million. In times of fiscal crisis, government should not be funding things better handled by the private sector.

Tobacco education/prevention
Numerous grants given out to school districts, maybe 50 school districts. Some school districts received as much as $47,000 in one year. $25,900 went to Maricopa Community Colleges. Although some of the money came from grants, the county was required to match it with thousands, maybe millions of dollars. This is really irresponsible spending. By the time a kid is in college, tobacco prevention messages aren’t going to be very effective.

Public Defender advertising
$52,160 was handed out to the Public Defender for production & broadcasting of informational videos about court processes and proceedings. This isn’t really necessary when this kind of information can be found on the internet and at the courthouse.

More on the $347 million court tower
We’ve discovered why the supervisors refuse to cut any funding for their pricey brand-new Taj Mahal court tower. The contractors who were awarded the bids on the tower contributed to the Supervisors’ election campaigns! Goodman Schwartz, which represents DMJM, the interior design company for the court tower, contributed $150 to supervisor Stapley last year.  HDR, the architectural firm on the court tower, contributed $50 to supervisor Wilson last year. Tom Irvine’s law firm, who has been paid over $800,000 over the past three years for his legal help, contributed $390 to Mary Rose Wilcox last year.  We’re told there’s a lot more and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

This is just a small list of some of the programs the County Supervisors have been throwing your money at over the past couple of years.  So when you hear the County Supervisors claiming it’s necessary to cut the budget of law enforcement, this is where your money is going instead.