Not making many friends

Nanos is stirring the political pot ... In more ways than one ... Ballots delayed.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos says the right time to discuss his department’s handling of a sexual assault allegation is the day after the election.

In an email Friday afternoon, Nanos declined an invitation from the Board of Supervisors to answer questions about why his department paused an internal investigation of a sergeant accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious female deputy at a holiday party two years ago.

“Unlike certain members of the board, I will not re-victimize this young lady and allow politics to further their agenda,” Nanos wrote in an email Friday.

“Mr. Christy’s timing is rather suspicious. I will answer any and ALL questions after November 6 in Executive Session,” Nanos wrote.

Supervisor Steve Christy, the lone Republican on the board, wanted to give Nanos, a Democrat, the chance to “clear the air” about why this “whole process seems to be taking an inordinate amount of time.” He found some support at the board’s September 17 meeting from Supervisor Matt Heinz, a Democrat, who said the delay in the internal investigation was “unconscionable,” and Supervisor Sylvia Lee.¹

Christy wanted to discuss a finding by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office that although there did not appear to be any criminal wrongdoing by Nanos and his department, command staff may have violated four department policies as they handled the sexual assault allegation.

Christy put the issue back on the agenda for today’s board meeting.

As for “rather suspicious” timing, Nanos has maintained for the past few months that the department doesn’t conduct internal investigations until all criminal investigations are completed. He has waved away any criticism of the decision to wait as politically motivated.

Now he’s saying he won’t answer questions until after the November 5 election, where he is on the ballot, along with Christy and the four Democratic supervisors.²

Nanos wasn’t done stirring the political pot during the long weekend.

On Monday evening, he put his Republican opponent Lt. Heather Lappin on paid administrative leave, the Green Valley News’ Dan Shearer reports.

Lappin is a 19-year veteran of the department who works in the county jail and vocally criticizes what she sees as “corruption” under Nanos’ leadership, including his handling of the sexual assault allegation.

Nanos claims that a longtime thorn in his side, Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputy’s Organization, may have committed election interference by wearing law enforcement tactical gear while carrying a sign that read “Deputies Don’t Want Nanos,” Shearer reported.

Lappin posted a photo of the sign on her campaign Facebook page.

A source told Shearer that Lappin wasn’t told why she was put on leave, but it could be that she didn’t intervene to stop the deputies who held up the sign, or it’s an example of Nanos retaliating against Lappin “for having the audacity to run for sheriff against him.”

“I know what they’re going to say. But here’s the bottom line—holding you accountable is not retaliation, it just isn’t,” Nanos told Shearer Monday evening.

Nanos is known for his temper and the word “retaliation” has come up more than once during his tenure.

Last year, Nanos threatened to pull deputies from the supervisors’ meetings after they voted to ask the AG’s Office to review how his department handled the sexual assault allegation.

The move would have left the supervisors without deputies maintaining security, just months after Heinz was regularly harassed at call to the public.

Former Supervisor Sharon Bronson, also a Democrat, said Nanos’ decision felt “retaliatory,” and noted “especially in this divisive climate we’re in, security is important both for the public and for us,” the Arizona Luminaria reported at the time. Nanos eventually relented.

Prominent Democrats appear to be losing patience with Nanos. So far in his re-election bid, he hasn’t picked up much support from them. That support would come in handy as he tries to hold onto an office that has bounced between a Democrat and a Republican since longtime Democratic Sheriff Clarence Dupnik retired in 2015.

Last week, Heinz endorsed Lappin in an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star. Heinz pointed to Nanos’ “disturbing failure” to investigate the sexual assault allegation, along with the “shocking and tragic number of in-custody deaths” during his term.

We checked in with Nanos last week about Heinz’s op-ed, but he wouldn’t answer any specific questions. He sent over a statement instead, saying “political season always attracts opinions, and it seems inevitable that some will be negative.”

Supervisor Rex Scott supports Nanos’ re-election, but he’s the only one on the board who does, according to reporting in the Arizona Daily Star. Supervisors Adelita Grijalva and Lee haven’t endorsed either Nanos or Lappin.

But Dupnik, a Democrat who handpicked Nanos to succeed him, is sticking with him. Dupnik outlined his reasons in an op-ed in the Tucson Sentinel, saying Lappin "uses the word corruption when there is no evidence of it" and that this should concern voters.

“The reality is, leading a large, complex law enforcement agency requires making difficult decisions that include waiting to take action on administrative complaints and balancing transparency with operational discretion, particularly when legal processes are ongoing and could interfere with a complex criminal case,” Dupnik wrote.

You can watch today’s Board of Supervisors meeting on the county’s YouTube channel. It starts at 9:00 a.m.

Zoning and re-zoning: Oro Valley is eyeing zoning changes to put the town in line with new state laws on casitas, Tucson Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock writes in his rundown of local government meetings. Over in Marana, they’re revisiting a 34-year-old rezoning of a 249-acre project, while the Tucson Unified School District is getting ambitious with how they present budgets to the public.

Delayed ballots: About 267,000 early ballots were sent out late due to an address error that led Pima County officials to halt printing ballots, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. The delayed ballots will start to land in mailboxes tomorrow and all of them should arrive by the end of the week. The problem with the addresses involved about 500 voters in the Continental School District.

Tough problem: Star columnist Tim Steller spent time with people living on the streets of Tucson to see what obstacles stood in the way of getting the substance abuse treatment they need. One big one: The tightened rules from the state that followed the massive sober-living fraud scandal.

Budget numbers: New projections show the state government won’t see another $2 billion budget deficit next year, but all the cuts lawmakers and Gov. Katie Hobbs made to deal with that deficit aren’t going anywhere, Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie reports.

Back in business: The Whipple observatory is back open after being closed for four years during the pandemic, and then to allow for an overhaul of the Science Center, the Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña reports. The observatory at the base of Mount Hopkins, founded in 1890, now has a touch table that lets you design your own solar system and see what happens when celestial objects collide.

Good news for chicken lovers: A new state law says people living in residential areas can raise six chickens, the Herald/Review’s Lyda Longa reports. In Douglas, where residents already were allowed to raise four chickens at a time, the new law rubbed some city council members the wrong way. Mayor Don Huish said he loves chickens, but the state government should stay out of local rules.

3,046: The total ballots returned in Pima County as of October 12, according to Uplift Campaigns.

1. The supervisors spent a chunk of time discussing whether they had the right to demand a fellow elected official come before them to answer questions. In the end, they voted 3-2 to “invite” Nanos, with Supervisors Adelita Grijalva and Rex Scott voting “no.”

2. That’s about a month before the criminal case is scheduled to go to trial in December.