Miller wins fight to end Pima County supervisors’ spending spree

On Tuesday, Supervisor Ally Miller won her long battle to end the discretionary spending by her fellow board members.

“I am very pleased to announce that the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to end the practice of donating taxpayer monies from their office budget following a lengthy discussion. While I was the only Supervisor who initially voted to discontinue this practice in the Fall, I am happy the other 4 Supervisors chose to agree to finally end using taxpayer monies in this way,” said Supervisor Ally Miller.

Supervisor Ally Miller’s staff discovered that for years, the supervisors have quietly used their office budget funds to fund their pet projects and favored charities. In turn, some of those charities contributed to the supervisors.

Miller attempted to work with the other supervisors to end the apparently illegal practice, but they rebuffed her efforts until Tuesday.

Supervisors Elias, Bronson, Carroll, and Valadez were visibly shaken as proof of the reckless spending was distributed to meeting attendees. They then scrambled to get on the reform bandwagon. Supervisor Ray Carroll, who used his funds to buy equipment for the Animal Control Center, which won him high praise from employees, was quick to say that his good friend Chris Gleeson, a Board member of the Goldwater Institute reassured him that the Institute would not press a lawsuit if the supervisors moved to end the practice of using monies from their office budgets for pet projects and favorite charities.

Supervisor Richard Elias was red faced as he claimed that he believed that his family had given enough to the community over the years that no one should have a problem with his using taxpayer dollars to honor his own father. On August 13, Elias purchased a table for 10 at a party which honored his father. On numerous occasions, in return for his “sponsorships,” Elias received advertising for his office.

In October, attorneys with the Goldwater Institute contacted the members of the Pima County Board of Supervisors with regards to their long time practice of giving away taxpayers’ money to their personally preferred charities and non-profits. Goldwater notified the supervisors that gifting money to groups without receiving adequate consideration in return would be in violation of State law.

In the letter, Goldwater attorney Jared Blanchard noted an article in the Arizona Daily Star in which it was revealed that “Supervisor Richard Elias unilaterally gifted more than $13,299 of taxpayer funds over the last two years to a single nonprofit group. It is our understanding that this is not an isolated incident but a common practice among many members of the Board. If our understanding is correct, this practice very clearly violates the Arizona Constitution.”