County administrator contract MIA
What's the big secret? … The Top 5 local stories you missed … And please tell us it’s a Batcave.
Have you seen Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher’s new contract? Neither have we.
With just one day to go before the Pima County Board of Supervisors is set to discuss a new contract for Lesher, something seems to be missing: her contract.
The agenda for the upcoming meeting does list the contract as an action item, but it only contains her current contract – which expires on Tuesday.
While the omission could be a simple oversight, the county’s own policies are clear: “The Clerk of the Board will post addendums on Friday, (4) calendar days prior to the scheduled Board Meeting.” In other words, three days ago.
State statute says agencies should make their agendas available no less than 24 hours prior to a public vote, but her contract was MIA early Monday morning.
How much will she get paid if offered a new contract? No one knows.
Lesher has served as the county’s top bureaucrat since October 2021, when she was appointed to be interim administrator after longtime Administrator Chuck Huckelberry was severely injured in a bicycle accident.
The Board of Supervisors made her appointment semi-permanent with a two-year contract in April 2022, which includes a number of perks and an annual salary of $260,000. That’s not far from Maricopa County Manager Jen Pokorski, who makes $290,000 a year to oversee a much larger county.
Early last year, County Supervisor Matt Heinz suggested giving Lesher a raise before her contract expired. He argued that her compensation should be more competitive and reflect her years of service to the county.
However, that discussion was tabled as officials wanted to wait until after a classification and compensation study for the county’s roughly 7,000 employees was finished.
For years, Huckelberry was the highest-paid county administrator in the state, with a base salary of $302,000, although his last contract reduced his salary to $292,000.
The Board of Supervisors again discussed Lesher’s employment contract in executive session back in November.
Given the fact that the public has not had the opportunity to review the contract yet, does the County need to reschedule a vote on Lesher’s contract? It’s unclear. But they’ve done it in the past. In 2021, the Board of Supervisors delayed a decision on Huckelberry’s four-year contract by two weeks.
Voters sent a bunch of new requirements to counties when they approved ballot measures in November. That caused some confusion for Supervisors Adelita Grijalva and Rex Scott, who asked for clarification about how much those measures would cost the county.
The short answer is county officials don’t really know yet.
Lesher says the county will have “significant protection” from having to refund property taxes under Prop 312, which allows taxpayers to ask for a refund if local officials show a “policy, pattern or practice” of refusing to deal with public nuisances like panhandling or camping in public spaces.
The county can show a “long history” of taking actions to mitigate public nuisances, Lesher wrote. Still, county officials said costs related to Prop 312 “cannot be estimated at this time.”
County officials looked at five propositions and the only other one that could cost the county is Prop 314, which makes crossing the border illegally a state crime (not just a federal one) and requires counties to verify a person’s eligibility for public benefits.
The sheriff and county attorney “may see significant impacts on costs” related to arresting people for crossing the border illegally, along with an estimated $540,000 every year to verify eligibility for public benefits, mostly to pay a verification system fee and hire people to do the verifying.
Tomorrow’s meeting will be the last one for Supervisor Sylvia Lee, who stepped up to fill out the rest of longtime Supervisor Sharon Bronson’s term after Bronson resigned in late 2023 due to an injury. The county has an oath of office ceremony planned for Tuesday’s meeting and Lee’s replacement in District 3 will be Jennifer Allen, a Democrat who beat out three rivals in last year’s primary and then topped Republican Janet Wittenbraker in the November election.
You can watch the Board of Supervisors meeting on the county’s YouTube channel. The meeting starts at 9:00 a.m.
As the new year starts, let’s get caught up on where last year left us, with the Top 5 local political stories from the holiday break.
#1: Fimbres isn’t running
As Tucson voters get ready to pick three city council members this year, the ballot is going to be without a familiar face. Councilman Richard Fimbres isn’t running for a fifth term on the council, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports.
Fimbres didn’t get into details about why he wasn’t going to run, but he’s had health problems and hasn’t attended a council meeting in person since the outbreak of Covid. So far, the Ward 5 seat that Fimbres has occupied since 2009 has one candidate, “political gadfly” Richard Hernandez, Nintzel reported.
#2: Wadsack settles
When state Sen. Justine Wadsack was pulled over last March while driving twice the speed limit on Speedway, she started hurling wild accusations of “lawfare” and “political persecution.” After a city magistrate rejected Wadsack’s argument that as a legislator she should be immune from prosecution, she decided to take a defensive driving class to settle the criminal speeding charge.
#3: Crosby still on the hook
An appeals court put the kibosh on Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby’s attempt to wriggle out of felony charges. The state Attorney General’s Office says he interfered with an election when he refused to certify the 2022 election results, but Crosby claimed he had legislative immunity and couldn’t be prosecuted.
The Arizona Court of Appeals disagreed with him. They said officials like Crosby do have some immunity, but canvassing election results is a ministerial role and supervisors don’t get immunity for that. Crosby’s lawyers want the Arizona Supreme Court to take a look at the case. If they don’t side with him, then he’s going to trial in a few weeks.
Crosby’s colleague, Supervisor Peggy Judd, pleaded guilty in October for refusing to certify the 2022 election results. She got 90 days unsupervised probation and a $500 fine.
For $500, you can attempt to overturn an election. Or you can become a “founding member” subscriber to the Tucson Agenda and ensure that when politicians attempt to overturn your elections, a local journalist is watching.
#4: A win for Winn
They aren’t elected officials, but local political party officials wield a lot of power. The Pima County Republican Party picked Kathleen Winn as their chairperson in December. Winn is a radio talk show host who lost last year’s Republican primary to incumbent U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, along with a similar loss in 2022. Recent guests on her show include high-profile Republicans like state Rep. Alex Kolodin and local political candidate Wittenbraker. She told the Tucson Sentinel her top priority is opposing the half-cent sales tax that will be on the ballot for Tucson voters in March.
#5: Border background
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take the reins of immigration policy later this month, you can bet the U.S.- Mexico border near Tucson will play a big role. The area was one of the busiest along the entire border for a good bit of Biden’s term. But recent numbers from Customs and Border Protection show arrests for crossing the border illegally near Tucson hit a four-year low in November, Arizona Public Media’s Danyelle Khmara reports.
Get caught up on the big statewide news you missed with our sister newsletter.
The Pima County board will be asked to extend a lease this week with “Bruce Wayne LLC.” We aren’t saying that the County is planning to buy crime-fighting tech from Wayne Industries or they’re getting a Batmobile with the $96,000 contract. The six-month contract extension gives the county health department more time in the leased space on North First Avenue to move into the Northwest Service Center this summer.
No word on what will happen to the old county offices after they officially leave the space this summer, but the Tucson Police Department can’t go wrong with a Batcave.
I was not aware that verifying someone's right to public benefits wasn't being done. Previously, did you just go to the appropriate public agency and claim benefits? It seems to me that the new law shouldn't cause an additional workload for verifying someone's right to public benefits. What's up?
Paul Smith
Hopefully we have heard the last of Whiner Wadsack. Sorry, Bangles...no immunity. Likewise for psycho Tom Crosby. Do your job...or, lose your job. Two down...many to go.