The last time one Pima County official saw Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik work in an official capacity he was wearing shorts and slippers, they knew then that soon he would be announcing his retirement. As expected during his run for office, Dupnik ran only to fill the job long enough to avoid a special election of his replacement.
During the 2012 election, Dupnik denied the suspicions by his staff that he had no intention of completing his term. Today’s announcement shows that they were correct. They also noted that Dupnik was laying the ground for his hand-picked replacement, Chris Nanos. Dupnik denied that claim as well, but in today’s announcement Dupnik said that he hoped the Pima County Supervisors would name Nanos as his replacement.
It is imperative that Nanos or some other Dupnik administration operative fill Dupnik’s slippers in order to ensure that the department’s notorious corruption not be exposed.
For at least the last two years, Dupnik has been spending most of his time at his home in San Diego while Nanos runs the department on a daily basis.
Since January 2014, when Dupnik officially named Nanos as his Chief Deputy, Nanos has been responsible for the overall management of the Department. At the time, Dupnik said, that Nanos’s appointment would “ensure continuity and stability in the organization as we go through this period of leadership transition,” hinting at his retirement.
In his announcement on an obscure Tucson radio show, Dupnik, a Democrat, took a parting shot at cable television and the Arizona Legislature. Dupnik has despised Fox News for years, and his obsession with cable television earned him national attention when he blamed it and the residents of Pima County after the tragic shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. He blamed conservative news for inflammatory rhetoric and called Pima County the “Mecca of hate and bigotry.” He later clarified his statement in stating that “America is the Mecca of hate and bigotry.”
The addled Dupnik said he was going to see if he “could pursue his baseball career.”
Sources in the County say that Nanos may face some competition from Richard Kastigar, a double-dipper, who now heads the Communications Section of the Sheriff’s Department.
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