While it may not be unusual for the company boss to take credit for the work of those that work for him, newly appointed Maricopa County Assessor Eddie Cook appears to have raised the bar considerably when it comes to taking credit for something he had nothing to do with.
Making the claim even more meaningful, Cook is basing his election campaign on this false claim.
As the image of Cook’s website’s large splash screen shows, Cook claims that he won the National Association of Counties 2020 Achievement Award. This award has also featured prominently in presentations that Cook has made via video conference software to numerous legislative districts around the county. People who work in the Assessor’s office believe that these awards are won by the office, not the Assessor himself. But that didn’t stop Cook from doubling down later on his website, where he again claims that he won “a national award for improving efficiencies” as proof that he is “delivering.”
But claiming to have personally won the award is a trivial error compared to Cook failing to reveal that the award was for a 2018 project, called Project Green Line, that was initiated under Cook’s predecessor in the office, Paul Petersen. And the program has been winning awards ever since.
Making matters worse still, Cook was not even in office when the award application was planned. According to a statement from Tim Boncoskey, the former Chief Deputy County Assessor, who retired this past February and now performs a similar role for San Diego County, Cook is taking credit for something he had nothing to do with.
“The 2020 NACo Award was submitted in April of 2020 by Robin St. Germain and Ken Errico of the Assessor’s Office, not the appointed Assessor or Chief Deputy. These staff members, Robin and Ken, were instrumental in developing this initiative for the Petersen Administration in 2018. We received the highest Award for Excellence from the Arizona Association of Counties in November of 2019 for the same program (see attached office Facebook and Twitter posts), the NACo Award was a natural next step in the process and was totally planned by Robin, Ken and I before my departure in February 2020.” wrote Boncoskey, who also provided social media coverage of the awards from the office Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Cook faces Attorney and Air Force Major Rodney Glassman in the August 4th Republican Primary.