Pima County’s Community Law Enforcement Partnership Commission will convene on Monday to once again attempt to determine how they will perform their duties. The Commission has failed to craft bylaws, and now, even the group’s mission is in question.
The Commission was created on February 20, 2018 as one of five conditions set by the supervisors for the Pima County Sheriff’s Office in order to accept Operation Stonegarden funds for Federal Fiscal Year 2017.
When supervisors Ramon Valadez, Sharon Bronson, and Richard Elias voted to reject the Stonegarden funds as part of the “Resistance Movement,”the Commission lost its original purpose, but was given new life with an expansion of its oversight role.
That expanded role is clearly not enough for Commission member Isabel Garcia. At their December 3, 2018 meeting, Garcia, a former public defender and illegal immigrant advocate, had what some members characterized as a temper tantrum. During a discussion of the group’s bylaws,Garcia questioned the mission of the Commission and demand that it be expanded to include oversight of all grants accepted by the Pima County Sheriff’s Office and what “disproportionate impact they (the grants) would have on people of color.”
Garcia’s tirade spurred a heated discussion among Commission members in which more accusations were made about law enforcement officers:
Despite confusion as to its mission, the Commission’s December 10 meeting agenda includes the following items:
Review and recommendation of the following Grants:
A. (Note: on December 4, 2018, the Pima County Board of Supervisors requested this item be reviewed by the CLEPC) Arizona Department of Public Safety, to provide for the Border Strike Force Bureau Program, $260,000.00/$86,666.66 General Fund match (GTAW 19-54)
B. Department of Justice, to provide for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, $25,000.00 (GTAM 19-22)
C. Department of Justice, to provide for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, $25,000.00 (GTAM 19-24)
D. Department of Justice, to provide for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, $25,000.00 (GTAM 19-25)
Request for Information to the Sheriff’s Department
· DHS Mission for Operation Stonegarden Funds including:
o What model means
o What it entails
o For what purposes is it utilized
· Does PCSD receive any other federal monies designated, or suggested, for collaboration with CBP or ICE?