On July 15, 2015 operatives for Oro Valley Mayor Satish Hiremath, his friend Don Cox, and his neighbor Kelly Anne Villalobos, received a letter from an attorney contracted with the Oro Valley Town advising them that a complaint had been received as to allegedly illegal actions of their political organization, Triple E – Effective, Efficient, Effortless Management Growth Committee.
Cox, the Committee’s chair and Kelly Anne Villalobos, the Committee’s treasurer received a letter from Kelly Schwab in which she advised them that the Town had received a complaint that Committee “has violated Arizona Revised Statute (A.R.S.) Section 16-902(C), which requires that, before a political committee accepts a contribution or makes an expenditure, it shall designate one or more state banks, federally chartered depository institutions or depository institutions, the deposits or accounts of which are insured by the federal deposit insurance corporation or the national credit union administration, as its campaign depository or depositories.”
The Committee should have notified officials as to what financial institution they were using “either at the time of filing the statement of organization pursuant to A.R.S. Section 16-902.01 or within five business days after opening an account.”
According to Schwab’s letter:
“On January 28, 2015, the statement of organization for Triple E was filed with the Oro Valley Clerk’s Office without designating a financial institution. On June 16, 2015, Councilmember Homat filed a campaign finance report with the Clerk’s Office that indicated, on February 12, 2015, his candidate committee had transferred $500 to Triple E and, on February 2, 2015, made a $231.15 in-kind expenditure to Triple E. On June 18, 2015, Vice Mayor Waters filed a campaign finance report with the Clerk’s office that indicated, on February 9, 2015, his candidate committee had transferred $500 to Triple E.
Pursuant to A.R.S. 16-924(A), the committee has twenty days from the date of this notice to comply with the statutory requirements to designate a financial institution for the committee. You may do so by completing and filing an amended statement of organization with the Clerk’s Office that includes the required information. A blank statement is enclosed for your convenience. If you have any questions or if there is additional information that you wish to provide, please don’t hesitate to contact our office.
Cox was a vocal critic of the group that had sought, but failed to place the purchase of the El Conquistador before the voters through the referendum process. In that case, organizers’ petitions were disallowed by the Town Clerk because the petitions did not include a Town-generated serial number. The hyper-officious decision to disregard the wishes of the over three thousand Oro Valley residents, who had signed the referendum petitions, led to the success recall effort against Hiremath, Vice-Mayor Lou Waters, and Council members Mary Snider, and Hornat. The 4 will now face a recall election in November.
Cox, Hornat, and Waters tried their own recall effort against Oro Valley Councilman Mike Zinkin. That effort failed due to Zinkin’s popularity which has grown due to his advocacy for the residents; not big business.
Questions remain as to how the Triple E – Effective, Efficient, Effortless Management Growth Committee’s money went or how it was spent. If in fact as the documents show, there was no bank account, how was the money transferred?
One Oro Valley resident, who asked not to be identified stated, “Cox has gone on and on about how the referendum organizers violated the law when they put the wrong number on the petitions. He alleges that they had the Secretary of State handbook and did not follow it. ‘The Organization Statement papers are VERY clear as to what your responsibilities are prior to accepting or spending money’ he said. Cox violated the law.”
Ironically, just as the Secretary of State Handbook has explicit directions for assigning the referendum serial number, so does the Organization Statement papers explain that a bank must be shown before donations can be accepted.