Nanos faces censure vote today
Tensions boiling over with the Pima County supervisors ... Christy pulls ahead.
The elections are over (most of them, anyway), but at least one campaign-related issue is going to linger long after Election Day.
The Pima County supervisors will consider whether to censure Sheriff Chris Nanos at their meeting today, and both sides in the argument are calling for investigations that could take months.
Supervisor Matt Heinz is leading the charge on this one, saying Nanos violated the First Amendment rights of Lt. Heather Lappin, a Republican who works at the sheriff’s department and ran against Nanos in the election, when he suspended her in the final days of the campaign.
Nanos also suspended Sgt. Aaron Cross, the head of a deputies organization who criticized Nanos’ leadership and protested with a sign saying deputies didn’t want Nanos.1
At today’s supervisors’ meeting, Heinz wants to get his colleagues on board not only with formally censuring Nanos, but also asking federal prosecutors and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to see whether Nanos violated laws regarding free speech and election interference.
Nanos “put his chief political rival on paid administrative leave during an active general election for dubious and shifting reasons, prohibiting her from speaking to the public about the alleged reasons for the leave, and even prohibiting her from leaving her home during regular business hours, thus impeding her ability to campaign freely for the position of Sheriff,” Heinz wrote in a memo.
Not to be outdone, Nanos said he wants the Attorney General and the FBI to investigate Lappin’s campaign tactics.
When Nanos fired back at Heinz in an October 23 letter to the board, he said the board messed up by allowing an employee of a department to run for a position within that department without taking a leave of absence.
“That decision has tested the limitations of good sense in every aspect and created a burdensome responsibility for leaders to try to manage successfully. That said, we have proceeded with the best intentions in good faith to get through the campaign cycle as painlessly as possible. Unfortunately, that has not been the reality,” Nanos wrote.
Ongoing tensions
Even though Nanos and most of the supervisors are Democrats, they’ve had an uneasy relationship for quite some time.
Much of the tension came from a separate investigation into an alleged sexual assault of a female deputy by her supervisor at a holiday party in 2022.
When the board voted to ask the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to look into it last year, Nanos said his department would no longer provide deputies as security at supervisors’ meetings. After some back-and-forth with the supervisors, he agreed to keep providing security.
The AG’s Office released their report in September, which cleared Nanos of criminal wrongdoing, but also pointed to several ways Nanos and his command staff may have violated department policy in the aftermath of the sexual assault allegation.
The supervisors invited Nanos to come to a meeting to clear the air last month, but he declined their invitation, saying he would “answer any and ALL questions after November 6 in Executive Session.” It’s not clear what the timeline is for that conversation.
Nanos’ decision to suspend Lappin and Cross last month brought a wave of condemnation from local politicians and columnists.
Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller pointed out that this wasn’t the first time Nanos suspended a political opponent. He made a similar move in 2016 when he suspended Sgt. Terry Staten shortly after Staten formally entered the race against Nanos.
Supervisor Rex Scott told the Arizona Luminaria he had grave concerns about the suspension and said he thought Lappin should be reinstated.
Former Sheriff Mark Napier, a Republican, called the suspension “painfully transparent as a politically vindictive action designed to denigrate a political opponent."
Tucson Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock said Nanos “crossed a fat ethical line” when he called for a state and federal investigation of Lappin.
“The ‘ask’ of the state and feds is sufficient to tar his opponent with allegations she can't respond to, while she's being publicly trashed by her opponent-slash-boss,” Morlock wrote.
Voters don’t appear to have been swayed. Nanos is leading Lappin in the race by 4,000 votes.
In other business at today’s meeting, the supervisors are getting their first annual update on the Transition Center the county set up a year ago to help people avoid ending up back in jail. Among the center’s accomplishments is reducing the number of people who return to the county jail to 10%, compared to 27% for those who don’t use the center. That netted the county a savings of $940,000 annually.
The supervisors also are chugging right along with the proposal to convert some of the Santa Cruz River into a national wildlife refuge. The items on today’s agenda are mostly about filling out paperwork, like signing a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Now that the A-10s at Davis-Monthan are being retired over the next few years, the Air Force is holding public meetings to talk about the new mission at the base and the environmental impact of the 492nd Special Operations Wing coming to Davis-Monthan.
Ever wonder how your favorite detective stories make it to the local library? The supervisors are going to consider a $500,000 contract with Baker and Taylor, out of North Carolina, to provide copies of bestsellers to Pima County libraries. The memo accompanying the contract has all sorts of details about which books are selected and how they rotate in and out of the library.
You can watch the supervisors’ meeting on the county’s YouTube channel. The meeting starts at 9 a.m.
Christy pulls ahead: Republican Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy is leading Democratic challenger Vanessa Bechtol by 4,400 votes as of Monday evening. The other four incumbent supervisors, all Democrats, have comfortable leads.
Tight races: GOP candidates also are leading in close races for a local legislative seat and a congressional seat. In the race for the state Senate seat in Legislative District 17, Republican Vince Leach is leading Democrat John McLean by about 1,600 votes. Over in Congressional District 6, Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani is ahead by about 4,900 votes as he fends off a challenge from Democrat Kirsten Engel.
Counting snafu: Pima County officials say a clerical error caused them to report an incorrect number of uncounted ballots on Friday, Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer reports. The Kari Lake campaign complained after the number of uncounted ballots appeared to go up. County officials said there were so many items on the ballot this year that they had to use two cards for each ballot, but not every voter returned both cards. When county officials reported their tally of uncounted ballots, they inadvertently read the line for how many cards they’d counted, not how many ballots.
Permit changes incoming: The Tucson City Council took a look last week at changing the rules for providing food to unhoused people in city parks, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports. The issue is whether the council would allow permits for parks that are less than 1.5 miles from a soup kitchen or shelter that serves food. The council is going to take the next two months to talk with city residents before they make a decision.
Different strategy: The Star’s Tim Steller says Tucson and Pima County, which are almost completely led by Democrats, should focus on excelling at governance, rather than trying to form another resistance against the incoming Trump administration.
Tariff concerns: Economists and a local produce association are worried about President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to put tariffs on goods from Mexico, unless the Mexican government cracks down on undocumented immigration and drug smuggling, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. Jaime Chamberlain, a produce distributor in Nogales, said he though the tariff threat was a tactic by Trump to get “leverage to negotiate what you’re looking for.” Lance Jungmeyer of the Nogales-based Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, says tariffs would “send prices through the roof.” He doubted big tariffs would be put on goods from Mexico, but he worried the political environment might not be welcoming to pro-free trade voices.
63,000: Ballots left to count in Pima County as of Monday evening.
Cross filed a federal lawsuit against Nanos accusing him of violating Cross’ civil rights.