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Hmmm ... if my books were out of wack by $34 to $90 million they would put me in jail for fraud!
But he who are you going to call when the cops are the criminals? Officials: Extent of jail-funds misspending to be revealed by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and JJ Hensley - Apr. 12, 2011 01:25 PM The Arizona Republic Members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors are scheduled to be briefed by budget officials Tuesday about the potential extent of widespread misspending and mismanagement of jail funds by Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office. An agenda item on Wednesday's formal board meeting indicates Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson and Deputy Budget Director Lee Ann Bohn will publicly brief the supervisors on the "methodology and results of MCSO payroll analysis." It is unclear exactly how much budget officials estimate the misspending to be, although one top county official pegged the number at $90 million - far worse than budget officials initially estimated. In a meeting with the The Arizona Republic's Editorial Board last December, Arpaio pinpointed the misspending at about $34 million. However, on Tuesday morning, interim Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan acknowledged that the extent of misspending was more than $80 million, partly because budget officials reviewed eight years' worth of records instead of five years as originally planned. The Republic asked for budget officials' current estimate of misspending and specifics about Wednesday's presentation. Spokeswoman Cari Gerchick responded, "I don't have any answers to your questions." Sheridan said the Sheriff's Office and Office of Management and Budget officials agreed on the total that budget officials will share publicly on Wednesday. "The only thing we wanted to make sure was that we were involved in the procedure from the start, and we were," Sheridan said. Six months ago, budget officials and the supervisors accused sheriff's staff of misusing upwards of $80 million in detention funds to pay for functions not allowed by jail-fund rules, such as salaries for deputies who worked on patrol units and human-smuggling operations as well as public-corruption investigations into county supervisors, judges and others. County officials alleged the Sheriff's Office intentionally misappropriated the funds and said the agency tried to maintain staffing levels by using money that was legally inaccessible. County officials also said the money must be paid back, likely over the next several years. They brought in state auditors to help calculate the extent of the problem. The Sheriff's Office has disputed that it intentionally hid the information and have said county administrators should have been aware of an internal sheriff's bookkeeping system because they had warned that the county payroll system was not adequate for the rapidly-growing agency. The supervisors, budget officials and their legal counsel blasted the Sheriff's Office in public meetings, released public reams of documents they believed documented the misspending and asked U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke and then-interim County Attorney Rick Romley to review them for "possible evidence of criminal behavior." Romley declined to review the allegations because of conflicts of interest. In November, the supervisors deputized six federal prosecutors to aid in reviewing the allegations. Over the last six months, as county management, sheriff's officials and the Board of Supervisors have at least publicly tried to put on a good face, they have been largely mum on the extent of the misspending. Wednesday's meeting will be the first public briefing on the matter. |