Thread: Arpaio Sets Record Straight on Spending

Arpaio Sets Record Straight on Spending

Setting record straight after the false claims of misspending


No criminal intent behind budget problem of County Sheriff’s Office

by Joe Arpaio
Special for the Republic

Recently much has been reported in the media regarding claims by Maricopa County’s Office of Management and Budget that this Sheriff’s Office has misspent tens of millions of dollars from the jail fund.

Their claims have been wildly accusatory and flamboyant. They even encouraged the media to report that some of my employees used taxpayer dollars to take personal trips to lavish resorts with fancy swimming pools. County officials led the media to believe that was the truth when, in fact, it was not.

Some of the local media have also been complicit in the board’s efforts to paint me as one who has personally benefited from this alleged misspending of taxpayers’ money.

These ridiculous claims were false and done simply for the purpose of stirring up public outrage.


The financial portrait of any organization this size is intensely complicated. My job as the elected sheriff is to provide law-enforcement services to a county that is 9,200 square miles and has a population of more than 4 million.

This office employs 3,450 people, we book more than 130,000 arrestees per year and we have a 3,000-member volunteer posse – all executed with an annual budget of $260 million.

This budget falls into two main funds: the detention fund, which goes to my jail operations, and the general fund, which covers the enforcement side of the office. And every day, those functions intersect. Every day my deputies arrest people on the street, then bring them to jail.

Our duties as a sheriff’s office cross over all the time. Deputies even respond to crimes committed inside the jails.

That we may have blended the detention and general funds to get the job done, while technically inappropriate, is hardly, to my mind, the serious infraction the board wants you to think it is. At the risk of sounding like I am minimizing the issue but to demonstrate the point: How serious a problem is it if a deputy who writes a report uses a pen that was purchased by jail-fund money?

The Board of Supervisors is now calling for a criminal investigation of my office for allegedly mixing these two funds – funds used in good faith and solely for one purpose: to protect the public. My office has always operated well within its budget and on many occasions, we have given millions of dollars back to the board at the end of each fiscal year.

I am going to admit something here: I have devoted over 50 years of my life to locking up bad guys. I’m a cop at heart. Give me the money and I’ll go arrest the bad guys and keep them in jail. I admit that running a law-enforcement agency of this size and scope is complicated. Always, in the 18 years I have been your sheriff, running the jails and patrolling the streets have gone hand in hand and I’ve done it as inexpensively to the taxpayer as possible.

When there is the demand from the public to solve problems involving criminal activity, illegal immigration or incarcerating criminals, I address those demands with everything I have been given by the voters in this county.

The most important point I want to make to you is this: Not one person in my organization personally benefited financially because of the alleged cross-funding discrepancies.

We are diligently trying to reconcile this budget problem with county government, and I intend to work with officials to correct what I see as administrative accounting problems.

But as a final word, let me be clear: I will not stand back and watch silently while these county officials lead you, the public, to believe that this issue rises to the level of criminal intent.

Joe Arpaio is sheriff of Maricopa County.

http://oneoldvet.com/?p=24309#more-24309

You go Sheriff Joe! No one cares if some funds in the jail fund were used to buy pencils for Sheriffs Deputies to write down all the complaints of the incarcerated or anything else related to the imprisoned. Keeping records is usually an accounting issue. Has the board investigated other functions of the county for "cross-overs"? How about those schools in Maricopa County? How well as they doing with cross-over spending in their budgets? I'll bet they're cross-over spending money paid by American Taxpayers and allocated to educate American Kids on Illegal Alien Kids?

Anyone what to put up a wager on that one?

YOU GO SHERIFF JOE! And voters in Maricopa County, get you a new "board" of people with 2 live brain cells still connected who want to stop illegal immigration and cross-back the taxes you paid in good faith to educate American Kids that's been wasted educating Illegal Alien Kids.

Each of you and every other taxpayer in America deserves a huge refund for that one.

These ridiculous claims were false and done simply for the purpose of stirring up public outrage.


The financial portrait of any organization this size is intensely complicated. My job as the elected sheriff is to provide law-enforcement services to a county that is 9,200 square miles and has a population of more than 4 million.

This office employs 3,450 people, we book more than 130,000 arrestees per year and we have a 3,000-member volunteer posse – all executed with an annual budget of $260 million.

This budget falls into two main funds: the detention fund, which goes to my jail operations, and the general fund, which covers the enforcement side of the office. And every day, those functions intersect. Every day my deputies arrest people on the street, then bring them to jail.

What a fantastic leader this man is! It kills the open border activists and the la raza racists to have a man like Sheriff Joe caring for Americans, by enforcing the rule of law and protecting Americans from the dangers of illegal invaders. His detractors will lie and say anything they can in an to disparage this man in an effort to remove him from office.

This great American needs to be left alone so he can continue with his wonderful work! Every penny spent fighting illegal invaders is a penny well spent!

If anyone ever doubts what he says they should know that he is under such scrutiny that there is no way he would get away with such a thing. He, of all people, is investigated the most and they haven't found anything on him yet. He would be a fooooooool to do something that could bring him down and embarass himslef and the people that support him.

Originally Posted by Judy

You go Sheriff Joe! No one cares if some funds in the jail fund were used to buy pencils for Sheriffs Deputies to write down all the complaints of the incarcerated or anything else related to the imprisoned. Keeping records is usually an accounting issue. Has the board investigated other functions of the county for "cross-overs"? How about those schools in Maricopa County? How well as they doing with cross-over spending in their budgets? I'll bet they're cross-over spending money paid by American Taxpayers and allocated to educate American Kids on Illegal Alien Kids?

Anyone what to put up a wager on that one?

YOU GO SHERIFF JOE! And voters in Maricopa County, get you a new "board" of people with 2 live brain cells still connected who want to stop illegal immigration and cross-back the taxes you paid in good faith to educate American Kids that's been wasted educating Illegal Alien Kids.

You and every other taxpayer in America deserve a huge refund on that one.

judy.
I with you on every thing you said ,

After a six month job up North I am home, back in Maricopa country little Mexico.
Right smack in the middle of Illegal alien jack pot baby heaven.
Home sweet home.
Next week I take a job Americans wont do for a wage we can't afford to
live on away from a poor hard working illegal alien.
AGAIN I am a pesky American working man. "Migrant American".
I love my Sheriff Joe Arpaio