Huckelberry Memo Instructs Staff To Stalk Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry’s emails that have revealed a concerted effort to attack Supervisor Ally Miller, included instructions to staff to stalk her. In apparent violation of the law, Huckelberry was using considerable County resources in an ongoing effort to undermine Miller’s relationship with her constituents.

Seen as the “Tea Party” candidate, Miller was a target of Huckelberry and his cadre since before she ever took office. Once she made it out of a contentious Republican Primary, she was at first courted by Huckleberry’s team and then when it was clear she would not support the corrupt status quo, she was marked for destruction.

On Friday, in an appearance on the James T. Harris radio show, Miller discussed recently obtained emails and a memo to and from Huckelberry and County staff which included examples of the campaign against her. Previously the Arizona Daily Independent (ADI) reported on the fact that Huckelberry and Supervisor Ray Carroll had staff record and transcribe her appearances on Harris’s show. [Listen to the interview here]

There is little doubt that Huckelberry or his staff was listening on Friday when Miller dropped the bombshell memo from Huckelberry to Nicole Fyffe. It reads:

Date: October 28, 2015
To: Nicole Fyffe
Executive Assistant to the
County Administrator
Diana Durazo, Special Staff Assistant to the County Administrator
Re: Attendance at Supervisor Ally Miller’s Town Halls

Please attend all of Supervisor Ally Miller’s future town halls to obtain copies of the information she is presenting to the public. Also, please video record these meetings similar to how Supervisor Miller records Board of Supervisors meetings.

I understand some of her comments and positions may not accurately reflect County views, policies and/or projects. We need to ensure the public is afforded an accurate representation of Pima County.

CHH/Iab

“It was clear that this has been going on and now we finally have it confirmed,” Miller told Harris, referring to the memo. “The taxpayers in District 1 and all over the County should be outraged. He is subverting the right of the taxpayers to elect someone to represent them; someone of their own choosing. He has been working against me, and I think taxpayers deserve an apology. I do hope the Attorney General investigates this.”

Pima County officials ignore the term “timely”

Miller received the Fyffe memo and emails just last week as part of a records request she filed months ago. The County has been stalling delivery of those records to Miller as well as records requested by both a Sheriff’s Department employee and the ADI. Last week, the ADI reminded Huckelberry, in an attempt to get records from the County Administrator’s office and the Sheriff’s Department, that a refusal to turn over records in a timely manner is an element when officials consider public corruption charges.

Huckelberry has complained bitterly about Miller’s request; claiming that her request has slowed delivery of responses to other records requests.  Huckelberry’s complaints were covered by the Arizona Daily Star on September 23, by Murphy Woodhouse, who replaced Patrick McNamara, who went to work for Pima County and Jim Nintzel on October 20 in the Tucson Weekly tabloid.

Harris asked Miller, “Do you think Huckleberry knew how damaging these emails would be and that is why he complained so much when you filed for a records request?” She responded, “They have been complaining; publishing articles in the paper where ‘Ally Miller is costing taxpayers lots of money.’ They are electronic. The IT department just does a search, grabs them and boom. I don’t know if you remember when they were after my emails, they were complaining that they didn’t happen within a one week period. So it is kind of interesting when the shoe is on the other foot. I still haven’t gotten all I asked for. This was one release.”

“This release has been very damning,” said Harris, who then asked Miller to explain the Fyffe memo.

“On October 28th of 2015 he (Huckelberry) ordered two of his executive assistants to attend all of ‘Supervisor Ally Miller’s town halls to obtain the copies of the information she is presenting to the public, and to please video record these meetings similar to how she records the Board of Supervisors meetings,’” stated Miller reading from the memo. “’I understand some of her comments and positions may not accurately reflect County views.’ You mean Chuck Huckleberry views,” said Miller.

“The voters elected me to represent them. This is not a one view world. I was wondering why these people were showing up at my town halls. Now we know. For your information, I record the Board of Supervisors’ meetings so that I can put up the videos for the public to be able to view if they can’t make it to the meetings,” said Miller referring to the Fyffe memo. “Those are public meetings where County business is being conducted. These were town halls where I went out to inform the public what was going on in the County.”

Miller believes that sending his staff members, during County work hours, to follow around video tape her presentations was part of an effort by Huckelberry to “suppress any voice that deviates” from his. “He wants to ensure the public is afforded an accurate representation of Pima County,” said Miller. “He means Chuck Huckleberry’s views and his cronies’ such as, you just mentioned, Don Diamond who has now invested $60,000 to attack myself and Kim DeMarco (DeMarco is challenging sitting Supervisor Sharon Bronson).” Miller explained that Huckelberry wants to control the message in order to control voters. “He doesn’t want a change in Pima County,” she continued. “Things have been pretty darn good for him and his special interest for a lot of years. These backroom deals that have been going on and our shining the light on those has some people pretty upset.”

“I have to tell you beyond the fact that this is a misuse of County resources, there is a creep factor here,” said Harris. “It is creepy that Huckleberry is ordering people to follow you around. He is ordering County employees and he is ordering the media to follow you around. That is stalking. You wonder why you would see these people there and these are the same people who call you paranoid. They made a big deal about you being paranoid. If Huckleberry had people stalking you, you should have been paranoid.”

“I think we figured out who the paranoid individual is. It is Chuck Huckleberry,” responded Miller. “These emails – and there are a lot more – just reading these makes your skin crawl. The fact that they have been stalking me on Facebook constantly and Mark Evans spends an inordinate amount of time over on my Facebook page.”

The “creep factor”

Evans, who flitted from one failing news outlet to another before landing a cushy job with Huckelberry, appears to take delight in harassing Miller. One progressive female blogger at the now defunct Tucson Citizen described Evans, who served as editor of the Citizen in its waning days, as an “arrogant misogynist.” His emails appear to confirm that description.

In one email, reported on by the ADI last week, Evans talks of his plans for Miller. The email reads in part: “I’ve held off posting replies on Miller’s Facebook page until this page was ready to go. Want to hit her with both at same time since it’s sure to cause a reaction. (BTW, I told McNamara what we’re up to and he thinks it’s a story. So does Nintzel. I haven’t said anything to Dan Shearer because he’s sure to react negatively to it. Prepare for a backlash on talk radio and inquiries from ADI about how much this is costing).”

Tim Steller, a thinned skinned columnist at the Star, advised a staff member with the ADI that the Star did not publish any articles by McNamara in response this Evans’ scheme. In fact, it was Arizona Daily Star reporter Joe Ferguson who penned a piece on December 9, entitled Huckelberry defends county purchase of church’s land. “County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has released a detailed defense to a supervisor’s criticism last week that the county paid too much for property owned by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church,” began the article by Ferguson. According to Ferguson, Miller “did not respond to a request for comment.”

Because of the biased portrayal of Miller by many of Star reporters, Miller now refuses to respond to their inquiries, preferring instead to talk to her constituents directly.

Harris asked Miller about the Star’s coverage. “It appears very clear that the more hit pieces that you do on Ally Miller you can get a job working for the Pima County Communications Department. It is the transition for these reporters at the Arizona Star and the Tucson Weekly, they transition into Pima County after they have done all of these attacks. We did see that the budget for the Communications Department is quite bloated and adding these employees in every year and this one was just unbelievable. When you read these emails it makes me go, wow I didn’t realize I was such a project for Huckleberry.”

Huckelberry’s project

Harris compared Pima County under Huckelberry’s leadership to the fictional Hazzard County, run by a character named Boss Hogg, featured in the television show Dukes of Hazzard.” Miller responded with a laugh in her voice, “He does think he is Boss Hog and he is in complete control. The way he wrote this memo, ‘I understand some of her comments and her positions may not accurately reflect county views.’ This is like Boss Hogg, Hazzard County. It is like communism. We don’t want any divergent voices here. We only want the voice of Chuck Huckleberry out here. That is the fact. That is the reality. We cannot deviate. I have been trying to figure out why they didn’t want any diversity. It is kind of a good thing to sit around the table and have a discussion and have one person in the room say why don’t we do things this way. We can do things less costly. No, they didn’t want that. Now we are seeing why – because Huckleberry will not allow any opinion that deviates from what he wants out there – in the public square.”

“Unfortunately for Chuck I recognize that the voters elected me to be their voice and to do the due diligence on their behalf,” said Miller. “I refuse to allow him to silence my voice and I think that this is what has angered him to the point where he has all these people following me around, trying to silence me, and we see every time I put something on Facebook they respond to it. I knew that was going on but I had no idea how much I live in their heads.”

“I’m sorry. But all kidding aside, this should be the script about a third world country, but it is about here and it is supposed to be okie dokie,”said an uncharacteristically solemn Harris. “It is,” responded Miller, “and you think about the implications of this. The voters of District 1, who elected me, their voice is being silenced. They are violating their right to have their own representative and circumventing everything I try to do.”

The end game and special interests

Harris asked Miller about the independent expenditure formed recently by Diamond, a large landowner in the County, against her and DeMarco. “I think most people recognize that Huckleberry and Diamond are long-time friends and cronies and the special interests have gotten favorable treatment and they have benefited greatly off the back of the taxpayers,” explained Miller. “As a result of that relationship, and what they have done over the years, the taxpayers have to drive on crappy roads that look like a third world country because they have been neglecting the priorities that they should have been focusing on and they have been doing these backroom deals to benefit the special interests. Now Don Diamond has put up at least $60,000 – based on what he has reported so far. He has formed a corporation using dark money to come after me and Kim DeMarco who want to business right in Pima County. At the end of the day they want to have things their way and not help the community rise up.”

Harris asked Miller, “How does the pecking order work? Does Don Diamond control Huckleberry and he controls the Board? What is the pecking order here?” Miller responded, “If you had a chart, you would have Don Diamond and the special interests at the top, then to Huckleberry and then the Board.”

“He is very powerful,” said Miller about Huckelberry, “and Chuck is the puppet of Don Diamond and the special interests. The Board of Supervisors have allowed Diamond and Huckleberry to usurp their power and now they are using dark money – no one knows where this money is coming from because it is a corporation – except we can see that Diamond is in complete control of it and they have the County lobbyists campaigning against me finding a candidate against me. This is utter lawlessness. They are using County resources and employees. They are posting memos on the County website to influence the outcome of an election. It is just outrageous and I hope to God that the Attorney General or someone comes in here to investigate and take these emails and start doing an investigation. This lawlessness has to stop.”

At least one County resident did attempt to file a complaint with Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall. Tom Weaver, Chief of the Civil Division responded: “Because the Pima County Attorney’s Office is the civil attorney for Pima County, and because our client representatives include both the Board of Supervisors and the County Administrator, we would not be the appropriate law office to conduct an investigation of the County Administrator for alleged wrongdoing against a member of the Board. Such would present conflicts of interest. Accordingly, if a complaint were presented to our office for investigation of the County Administrator, we would refer that matter to the Attorney General’s Office.”

That resident, who represents a large rural community, then confronted LaWall directly by email: “Given the prima facie evidence of wrongdoing, and with election decisions still to be made, our folks want to know what, if anything, the County Attorney is going to do about Mr. Huckelberry and Mr. Evans.” LaWall has yet to respond.

“I find Mr. Weaver’s comments interesting especially given his clear bias to the Board majority when I was under attack at several Pima County Board of Supervisor meetings related to public records. Mr. Weaver certainly does have a responsibility to the entire Board of Supervisors. Videos of those Board meetings are under review because Mr. Weaver did nothing to intervene and stop a trumped up political attack that urged lawsuits against Pima County related to public records requests. I certainly did not feel that Mr. Weaver provided adequate representation at these meetings,” stated Miller.

If history is a predictor of future actions, it is unlikely that LaWall will do anything to protect the interests of the average citizen in the eighth poorest metropolitan area in the country.

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