Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier is calling on the public to call on members of the Board of Supervisors to accept federal money in order to avoid layoffs.
The supervisors have accepted more than $16 million in Stonegarden and HIDTA grant funds over the past 10 years. While these same grants were accepted by the supervisors during the Obama administration, the supervisors suddenly find objectionable since they are now coming from the Trump administration.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday, August 7, and delayed the acceptance of the Stonegarden grant, and two HIDTA grants. During the meeting, when Sheriff Napier explained that layoffs would occur within weeks if the funds were not accepted, Supervisor Richard Elias shrugged his shoulders and forced a vote to delay the matter.
Supervisor Ally Miller called the vote “a blatant display of careless disregard for our community.”
Napier also published a call for action on his Facebook page:
As you know the Pima County Board of Supervisors has once again delayed approval of Operation Stonegarden funding to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. This funding, in the form of a federal grant of more than $1 million, allows me as your Sheriff to deploy personnel and resources in the remote areas of the county, and purchase much needed equipment. This provides us the enhanced ability to interdict drug and human traffickers who pose a clear danger to the people of our county. This is not about the proactive enforcement of immigration laws. That is a federal responsibility. We are deployed to address specific and clear public safety threats to our community.
I am asking for the assistance of the members of our community to write polite and professional letters to the Board requesting they approve the grant. Currently, they are only hearing from a few dozen activists who dominate the Board meetings. I do not believe they represent either the majority of our citizens or the true best interests of our county.
You can send a letter to the Board at the address below. You need not address a specific Board member or your specific supervisor.
Again, I ask that letters be polite and professional.
Help me keep our county safer.
Thank you,
Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier