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Arizona State Senate Vote Detail on SB 1322

March 14, 2011 By 42 Comments

Here is today’s vote detail on State Senate Bill 1322:

Here is the bill summary:

Purpose: Requires a city with a population of over 200,000 persons to furnish all municipal services with an anticipated cost of greater than $50,000 via a service contract that has been entered into through open and competitive bidding.

Background: The governing body of a city or town, may, by ordinance, create the office of city or town manager, and appoint a person to fill that office.

Cities are responsible for providing services for the benefit of the public or its residents, including all related internal management services, support services, enterprise and fee-funded services and administrative services including municipal judges, police services, municipal firefighters, 911 operators, tax collection and audit enforcement services.

There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.

My guess is that several Republican Senators just invited a Primary challenge in 2012. Republicans Rich Crandall, John McComish and John Nelson voted with the Democrats AGAINST the bill.

 

 

 

Filed Under: City Government, Government Reform, Legislation, State Government Tagged With: , ,

Criminal Allegations Against Chairman Pete Rios Sent to the Arizona AG to Investigate

March 14, 2011 By 3 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2011
CONTACT: Tim Gaffney

On January 27th, 2011 the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office received the attached letter from a “Concerned Citizen.” The Pinal County Attorney’s Office received the same letter. According to the letter, it was also sent to numerous media entities. The individual has raised issues regarding the residency and reimbursement requests for travel by Pinal County Board of Supervisor Chairman Pete Rios. If the allegations are true, they would be Theft and Fraudulent Schemes both of which are felony offenses.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and County Attorney’s Office agreed the investigation would best be handled by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. On February 9th, 2011 Chief Deputy Steve Henry forwarded the investigation to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office has received media inquiries regarding this case as well as calls from citizens with information pertaining to this case. I am asking that all media inquiries and individuals wanting to forward information related to this investigation to please contact the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “These are serious allegations against a well known political leader and Chairman of our Board of Supervisors. The allegations are best investigated by a neutral outside authority. Transparency will prove to be the best manner in which to overcome the past reputation of corruption in Pinal County.”

=============================

February 9, 2011

Arizona Attorney General
Attn: Mr. Tom Horne
1275 West Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Dear Mr. Horne,

Attached is a citizen complaint letter which was submitted to Sheriff Babeu and Pinal County Attorney James Walsh by a citizen requesting an investigation into Pinal County Board of Supervisor Chairman Pete Rios. The Letter alleges Mr. Rios does not reside within the boundaries of his supervisory district. It also alleges Mr. Rios has submitted fraudulent travel vouchers and received payments from the county and also the state.

As you may be aware, Mr. Rios is currently the Chairman of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors and has also served in both the house and state Senate, where he served as Senate President. If the allegations are true, this will certainly prove to be a high-profile public corruption case, due to the significance of the criminal allegations and the political standing of Mr. Rios.

Attached are photos which have been forwarded to my office of these properties in question and some of his past reimbursements. Also attached are letters that have been submitted in the past to the media regarding this same issue by concerned citizens.

To avoid any possible conflict, I am requesting your assistance in investigating this matter to determine if it is credible. If the investigation supports the claims by this citizen, I ask that appropriate charges be filed

Regards,

Steve Henry, Chief Deputy
Pinal County

===================================

January 24th, 2011

Pinal County Sheriff’s Office
Attn: Sheriff Paul Babeu
971 Jason Lopez Circle
Florence, Arizona 85132

Pinal County Attorney’s Office
Attn: James Walsh
30 North Florence Street
Florence, Arizona 85132

Re: Chairman Peter Rios

Sirs,

During the past two decades, Peter Rios has committed theft and fraud from Arizona taxpayers and it is time he be held accountable. Peter Rios lives at [redacted] East Mesquite, Apache Junction. I know this because neighbors who live next to him have confirmed he has lived there full time for many years. On the Pinal County website Mr. Rios says he lives in Dudleyville and has a temporary residence in Superior. Although Apache Junction is in Pinal County it is not in District One which he was elected to represent.

Mr. Rios commits theft and fraud each and every month when he submits paperwork to Pinal County for reimbursement. He lists his travel from the residence in Dudleyville ( [redacted] Malpais Road) or Superior ([redacted] West Palo Verde Drive). Both Dudleyville and Superior are within District One which he represents.

  • The miles according to Mapquest from his home in Dudleyville to Florence is 83 miles.
  • The miles according to Mapquest from his home in Superior to Florence is 30 miles.
  • The miles according to Mapquest from his home in Apache Junction to Florence is 32 miles.

Although living in Apache Junction Mr. Rios has claimed mileage reimbursement from Dudleyville during his time in the State Legislature and now for the past several years with Pinal County. Not only does Mr. Rios not live in the district he was elected to represent but he has stolen tax payer money with his fraudulent mileage reimbursement. This fraudulent practice has cost the state of Arizona taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars.

If there is any doubts as to his residency, just ask the neighbors who live in his Apache Junction neighborhood and they will confirm he lives there full time.

As a Pinal County taxpayer, I demand an investigation into this manner. Pinal County is hurting for money just as every other county across our state. Why should an elected member sworn to represent us be allowed to steal from us.

Sincerely,

Fed Up With Pinal County Corruption

Cc:

Channel 3 News – 5555 North 7th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85013
Channel 5 News – 4016 North Black Canyon Road, Phoenix, AZ 85017
Channel 10 News – 511 West Adams Street, Phoenix, AZ 85017
Channel 12 News – 200 East Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ 85004
Channel 15 News – 515 North 44th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85008
Arizona Republic – 200 East Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ 85004
Apache Junction News – 115 North Apache Trail, Apache Junction, AZ 85220
KTAR – 7740 North 16th Street, Suite 200, Phoenix, AZ 85020
KFYI – 4686 East Van Buren Street, Suite 300, Phoenix, AZ 85034
Channel 4 News – 7280 East Rosewood St, Tucson, AZ 85710
Casa Grande Newspapers – 200 West 2nd Street, Casa Grande, AZ 85122
Coolidge Examiner – 353 West Central Avenue, Coolidge, AZ 85128
Eloy Enterprise – 710 North Main Street, Eloy, AZ 85131
Maricopa Monitor – 19756 North John Wayne Parkway, Suite 106 Maricopa, AZ 85139
San Tan Valley – 270 East Hunt Highway, Suite #16 San Tan Valley, AZ 85143

Filed Under: County Government, Crime and Punishment, Government Reform, Media Tagged With: , ,

Supervisors spending more money on ads, $15 million payroll system that still doesn’t work

March 14, 2011 By 8 Comments

A m e r i c a n  P o s t – G a z e t t e

Distributed by C O M M O N  S E N S E , in Arizona

Monday, March 14, 2011

Supervisors still wasting millions of our tax dollars
But won’t spend ten dollars to register Sheriff Arpaio’s bus!  

Nickname is catching on: “Worst-run County in America”

 

It is astounding that the Maricopa County Supervisors continue to spend millions of dollars right under our noses, arrogantly increasing deficits at a time when governments all across the country are going bankrupt. We spotted ads for one of the county agencies under their authority on the ABC-15 website. There were two ads on one page! There is a video ad running before ABC-15′s videos, as well as a banner ad on the other side of the webpage (you may have to hit refresh a couple of times to see the video ad, since it rotates with a couple other ads for Hastings & Hastings and a jewelry store). This is a complete abuse of our taxpayer dollars at a time when the Supervisors are trying to lobby the state legislature for even MORE money. What, more money to spend on advertising the county agencies they head?

Inside sources tell us the Supervisors are buying all the ads on ABC-15 as payback for ABC-15 getting rid of ace investigative reporter Josh Bernstein, who was one of the only reporters in town who dared look into the Supervisors’ corruption. We have been told that the Supervisors complained to ABC-15 management about his coverage, and management told him to lay off the coverage or he would be out. He didn’t back off and sure enough, his contract was not renewed. Bernstein, who is very liberal, had no agenda, he simply sought out corruption wherever it occurred, on the left or right. Too bad the Supervisors were able to hurt the career of yet another honest person who dared to expose their dishonesty. The Phoenix New Times has more on what happened here. 

Another incredibly irresponsible expenditure by the Supervisors is $15 million for a payroll service that still isn’t up and running after four years of paying the company to set it up!  ADP is one of the top payroll providers in the business, and has successfully set up payrolls for other government agencies all around the U.S., so you know it is not due to their incompetence. Someone like the Goldwater Institute needs to do an investigation and find out where the incompetence is. We know the Arizona Republic won’t bother because they’re in bed with the Supervisors (remember the Supervisors have ensured favorable coverage from the Republic by hiring away the Republic’s editorial writer Richard DeUriarte a couple of years ago as their Public Information Officer. They also ensured positive treatment from the courts by hiring away the court’s prior spokeswoman Cari Gerchick as a second PIO)

The Supervisors refuse to approve the registration of Sheriff Arpaio’s bus – even though they lost their lawsuit against him for buying the bus! Meanwhile, they operate top of the line Prevost buses to shuttle their employees back and forth from parking lots to the county building. The buses are frequently empty, and when they aren’t empty there are usually only 1-2 employees in them. There is no reason for these extravagant buses. They could easily shuttle the employees back and forth with small shuttles like Dial-a-Ride. But the Supervisors don’t care about being financially responsible with our tax dollars. They spend all their time trying to punish other county agencies and get their electeds in trouble, time that would be better spent reviewing their own bloated excesses.

Please send this to everyone you know and contact the Supervisors and tell them to STOP WASTING OUR MONEY! There is a slate of candidates being formed to run against the Supervisors in 2012, if we can’t stop them now, we will shut them down in 2012. We should not have to live in the worst-run county in the U.S.! Contact information for the Supervisors can be found here.

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Filed Under: County Government, Crime and Punishment, Elected Officials, Ethics