Arizona Although a number of Arizona citizens decided to fight back against San Diego’s boycott of Arizona, Rick Romley chose to spend a few days at the posh Hotel del Coronado in San Diego for a lawyer’s lovefest from July 14 – 17th last month. Romley is now stonewalling records requests from several media outlets seeking to scrutinize whether Romley attended “CLE by the Sea” on the dime of the Maricopa County taxpayer. If Romley drove, the cost to taxpayers is $360 in travel mileage per diem (720 miles @ .50 per). If he flew, air travel is about $150. The room was anywhere from $885 – $1775 in room rates, and then there’s the $659 program cost. All told, Romley’s high falutin’ ways total up to anywhere from $1694 to $2774 at a time when county officials seem to have a hard time watching how they spend our tax dollars.
What makes the situation worse is that Romley could have attended a training conference hosted by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Council (APAAC) for a fraction of the cost with virtually no expense to Maricopa County taxpayers. The Arizona option was held at the Westin La Paloma resort in Tucson from August 4 – 6. While maybe not as cool or posh as the Hotel Del, Romley would have paid only $60 in the program fee and APAAC would have picked up the rest!
Show us the records Rick. After all: “character matters.”
Equally as bad is the State Bar of Arizona sponsoring a posh event in San Diego. Why not Arizona? I guess Romley need time out with his elitest buddies…
Really. $2,000 in fees for legal education? How about the millions Joe and Andy spent on meritless lawsuits against their political opponents? You must really be getting desperate.
So, you think that Rick Romley MAY HAVE spent something like $1000 – $3000 on a conference, and that qualifies as news? you are getting desperate.
Also, anonymous blogger, what evidence do you have that he is ‘stonewalling?’
nothing shows character like hurling unsubstantiated accusations anonymously.
Lawyer’s lovefest? Clearly you’re not an attorney. “CLE” stands for continuing legal education – courses which the state bar requires ALL lawyers to attend. In addition, you have you register (and pay) year in advance just to go. I’m all for government officials being fiscally conservative, but you don’t have your facts straight.
@Charles
I followed the link for “CLE” – there’s no requirement to register a year ahead. You’re making excuses for Romley. Why won’t he release the travel records? He went to it over a month ago. He has a history of extravagant travel and this is just another chapter in his sordid tale. I’m sick of this nonsense.
First, you don’t even know if Mr. Romley is billing the State. Secondly, you look like you are guessing about eveything. Third, nobody knows how far in advance the reservation was made. Fourth, nobody knows if there was a scheduling conflict…perhaps there weren’t as many “attendance options” available. And lastly, this article, which is based upon total speculation, looks like a sad and opportunistic disguise to play “gotcha Rick Romley”. Where is the intelligent commentary on the efficacy of the MCAO now that Andrew “kill em all” Thomas is gone?
The Sonoran News looks a lot like just another right wing rag with no real purpose except to give some wingnut a platform under the veiled pretext of being a media outlet.
Stevie, Otasan and Charles you are right on.
The Whack-A-Doodles from the WAChiderm Coalition are growing increasingly desperate as their candidates slip into the abyss.
I am encouraged to detect some of the ordinary people among the general population seeing through the charade that has been presented by the Hyphenated Conservatives such as the “Traditionally-Family-Value-Conservative-Republicans”, they are the ones who beat their wives. The “Always-Conservative-Seel-The-Border-Conservative-Republicans” are the ones who pass NSF Checks to pay their Pay-Day Loans, get suit by their own attorneys for non-payment for service, go into foreclosure and bankruptcy where they create “Troubled Assets” that need to be bailed out by TARP, then blame the Government and run for a seat at the AZ Legislature to help the AZ Budget Crises.
As I said there is hope the ordinary voters are taking actions to get rid of this plague and quit listening to the demagogues.
I am shocked that an sane individual could even complain about furthering education for our top prosecutor with the colossal waste of monies spent buy the A&T Team (Arpaio and Thomas)…really? Now THAT’S laughable!
Perhaps you are right; maybe those monies could have been spent MUCH better as Romley is already a damn good lawyer. They should allocate those dollars to further expose the improprieties that continue to happen with the A&T Team. Or spend that towards educating the public how the A&T Team knowingly CHOSE to keep the general public in the dark so they can further their personal agendas!
@Spirit, if your “sick of the nonsense” which I believe we all are, then I encourage you to vote for ROMLEY as he is the ONLY candidate trying to expose the truth and put an end to all the lies and false allegations!
I had a Guest once who I *think* was on his way to California for a vacation. He *may* have worked for the state, and I’m *guessing* that he *could* have *proposed* that *perhaps* the state (that he *might* have worked for, or maybe just lived it?) pickup his bill. I’m under the *suspicion* that he did that *quite a few* summers in a row for what I *think* was five years.
(/red_herring)
I’m just going to ignore the huge disparity between that expense and one of many ungainly messes of expense to the taxpayers created by his predecessor. And also any benefit of that trip, ’cause, you know, it’s not like we’re in the national legal spotlight and could be aided by networking with others to help protect, say, SB1070.
Ha ha, who needs to talk to people from around the country when your country is suing you? ha ha ha
(/sarcasm)
Hey!
Rick shares the sentiments of the San Diego City Council!
Why shouldn’t he vacation there?
Hopefully, we can arrange a permanent retirement for him there!
Hey Carlist, exactly what ‘sentiments’ of the San Diego City Council does Rick share?
Please enlighten me.
Oh, this is beyond ridiculous, especially since those of us who are actually familiar with Thomas and Romley know that Romley paid for his Maricopa County Bar Association dues out of his own pocket while Andy made the county pay the tab.
Uh guys, someone explain to me why Barry Wong’s financial report has a) $20,000 paid to his live-in girlfriend for management fees and b) he eats at places like Modern Steak 3 times a day and lists it ALL as volunteer meals. WTH- THIS IS MY AND YOUR MONEY. I am so sick of this Clean Elections crap, why is it that someone gets $5 donations gets a nice check and then spends it all in a space of 2 months on his own enjoyment?
http://www.azsos.gov/cfs/FilerDetail.aspx?id=201000198
I guess Romley could clear this up by releasing the records. Nothing like trying to hold off until after an election.
Spirit, if he released Thomas’ records too and they showed egregious spending, would you care?
48 hours for now we will have a new County Attorney elect–Bill Montgomery. And Romley can tell us how much money he wasted because it won’t matter. His political career will be over, unless Terry Goddard can pull a huge upset and he can go back to work for him. http://sonoranalliance.com/2010/04/14/rick-romley-resigns-as-terry-goddard%E2%80%99s-lobbyist-and-%E2%80%9Cspecial-adviser%E2%80%9D-eyes-return-as-county-attorney/
Dear Spirit of 1776,
What proof do you have that Romley has been asked to release the records, but has not?
Besides the fact that an anonymous blogger with too much time on their hands and an obvious axe to grind said so?
@otasan – twitter is a beautiful thing. No less than 3 different media outlets asked for them. And @Charles – I’m not a Thomas fan. I just want the truth so we can have an honest read on Romley. The Republic has given him a pass without remembering his past.
Tomorrow will show you hateful tea party alliance idiots that Arizonans can tell when people like Rick are truly trying to make a better society, not a hateful one. I proudly caste my vote for Rick and I am an Independentt.