Supervisors spending more money on ads, $15 million payroll system that still doesn't work

Publius azstatesmen@gmail.com via auth.ccsend.com to me

show details 3/14/11

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A m e r i c a n P o s t - G a z e t t e

Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona

Monday, March 14, 2011

Supervisors still wasting millions of our tax dollars
But won't spend ten dollars to register Sheriff Arpaio's bus!

Nickname is catching on: "Worst-run County in America"

It is astounding that the Maricopa County Supervisors continue to spend millions of dollars right under our noses, arrogantly increasing deficits at a time when governments all across the country are going bankrupt. We spotted ads for one of the county agencies under their authority on the ABC-15 website. There were two ads on one page! There is a video ad running before ABC-15's videos, as well as a banner ad on the other side of the webpage (you may have to hit refresh a couple of times to see the video ad, since it rotates with a couple other ads for Hastings & Hastings and a jewelry store). This is a complete abuse of our taxpayer dollars at a time when the Supervisors are trying to lobby the state legislature for even MORE money. What, more money to spend on advertising the county agencies they head?

Inside sources tell us the Supervisors are buying all the ads on ABC-15 as payback for ABC-15 getting rid of ace investigative reporter Josh Bernstein, who was one of the only reporters in town who dared look into the Supervisors' corruption. We have been told that the Supervisors complained to ABC-15 management about his coverage, and management told him to lay off the coverage or he would be out. He didn't back off and sure enough, his contract was not renewed. Bernstein, who is very liberal, had no agenda, he simply sought out corruption wherever it occurred, on the left or right. Too bad the Supervisors were able to hurt the career of yet another honest person who dared to expose their dishonesty. The Phoenix New Times has more on what happened here.

Another incredibly irresponsible expenditure by the Supervisors is $15 million for a payroll service that still isn't up and running after four years of paying the company to set it up! ADP is one of the top payroll providers in the business, and has successfully set up payrolls for other government agencies all around the U.S., so you know it is not due to their incompetence. Someone like the Goldwater Institute needs to do an investigation and find out where the incompetence is. We know the Arizona Republic won't bother because they're in bed with the Supervisors (remember the Supervisors have ensured favorable coverage from the Republic by hiring away the Republic's editorial writer Richard DeUriarte a couple of years ago as their Public Information Officer. They also ensured positive treatment from the courts by hiring away the court's prior spokeswoman Cari Gerchick as a second PIO)

The Supervisors refuse to approve the registration of Sheriff Arpaio's bus - even though they lost their lawsuit against him for buying the bus! Meanwhile, they operate top of the line Prevost buses to shuttle their employees back and forth from parking lots to the county building. The buses are frequently empty, and when they aren't empty there are usually only 1-2 employees in them. There is no reason for these extravagant buses. They could easily shuttle the employees back and forth with small shuttles like Dial-a-Ride. But the Supervisors don't care about being financially responsible with our tax dollars. They spend all their time trying to punish other county agencies and get their electeds in trouble, time that would be better spent reviewing their own bloated excesses.

Please send this to everyone you know and contact the Supervisors and tell them to STOP WASTING OUR MONEY! There is a slate of candidates being formed to run against the Supervisors in 2012, if we can't stop them now, we will shut them down in 2012. We should not have to live in the worst-run county in the U.S.! Contact information for the Supervisors can be found here.