Thread: Arpaio cut out of state funding

Arpaio cut out of state funding

Sheriff loses $1.6 mil; money shifted to DPS

990 commentsby Lindsey Collom - May. 14, 2008 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

An executive order signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano has prompted state police to cancel a $1.6 million agreement with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and, instead, use the money to create a fugitive task force.

The move effectively stripped two squads of Sheriff's Office deputies from a statewide multiagency team designed to go after crimes dealing with human smuggling. It also took away Arpaio's ability to tap some of the squad members to supplement immigration sweeps at the state's expense.

In response, Sheriff Joe Arpaio accused the governor of orchestrating with others to pull the money from his department as political payback. House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, meanwhile, called for an audit of the Department of Public Safety.
"What happened today is a ruse; it is an effort to fool the public," Arpaio said Tuesday. "A felony-warrant task force . . . is a cover-up for taking away grant money, my money given to me by the Legislature, to fight illegal immigration."

It's the latest development in an escalating feud between Arpaio and critics, including Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, who have railed against him for concentrating what Arpaio calls "crime-suppression efforts" in neighborhoods with a high percentage of Hispanic and Latino residents.

In March 2007, the Sheriff's Office entered an agreement with the DPS to provide 15 personnel to the state gang task force's Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension CO-OP Team, or IIMPACT. State police agreed to reimburse the Sheriff's Office for 85 percent of the deputies' salaries and other associated costs, including overtime.

The DPS approved more than $11,000 in overtime in February, according to a note from DPS Chief Pennie Gillette-Stroud to an Sheriff's Office commander.

In the letter, Gillette commended the sheriff's lieutenant, two sergeants and 12 deputies assigned to IIMPACT, saying their performance was "impressive" and that she looked forward to their continued partnership.

About that time, Arpaio said he received notice from the DPS that the intergovernmental agreement, which was set to expire in mid-May, would be renewed.

All signs were go as of last Wednesday, when the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted to accept IIMPACT money to be given to the Sheriff's Office as part of the continued contract.

But that changed by the next day. A letter dated May 8 from DPS Director Roger Vanderpool told Arpaio about the new fugitive task force and invited the Sheriff's Office to take part in the operation. In the last paragraph, Vanderpool said that "limited resources" precluded the DPS from continuing its agreement with the Sheriff's Office and that "we intend to use these monies to fund needed implementation of the executive order."

The executive order directs the DPS to immediately deploy a squad to address the backlog of nearly 60,000 open felony warrants statewide, with priority on gang-related felonies and fugitives who are undocumented immigrants.

The Governor's Office on Tuesday referenced DPS concerns about documentation problems in terms of how the Sheriff's Office was spending the state funds.

With Arpaio's recent immigration sweeps - and his citing of the state funds as some sort of tacit approval for the operations - the decision was recently made to cut off and redirect the money.

Dennis Burke, Napolitano's chief of staff, said that it was the DPS' choice and that the governor supported it.

"The director believes this is a more effective crime-fighting use for these funds," Burke said.

Gillette-Stroud, chief of the DPS' criminal investigations division, said she hopes the Sheriff's Office will continue to be part of the human-smuggling task force.

"We would love to have the sheriff's department just rejoin IIMPACT in a different format . . . and help us with this new executive order," Gillette-Stroud said. She added that there are other potential funding sources for the Sheriff's Office should it decide to remain on the IIMPACT squad.

If Arpaio declines to participate, it would leave the multiagency team with two-thirds of the personnel.

Violence linked to human-smuggling rings have become a major concern, and IIMPACT just made news last week by helping in a bust of seven people in the kidnapping and killing of a suspected coyote. Its focus is to dismantle organizations that profit from illegal immigration.

But Gillette-Stroud argues that many of the people committing these immigration-related crimes are warrant holders. No supporting data was immediately available.

"Does this mean that serving felony warrants is more or less important than illegal-immigration enforcement?" said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, a Governor's Office spokeswoman. "I can't make that comparison. The net result is the same."

Arpaio said he is not deterred by the loss of funding.

"Nothing changes," he said. "Watch out. They're not going to stop me from enforcing the laws."


Staff writer Matt Benson contributed to this article.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... d0514.html

What happened today is a ruse; it is an effort to fool the public," Arpaio said Tuesday. "A felony-warrant task force . . . is a cover-up for taking away grant money, my money given to me by the Legislature, to fight illegal immigration."

Sheriff Joe is a success and popular--something the other politicians can't stand.

See my signature for a reply to this one!