While Pima County drags its feet in filling a Request for Information about county staff, they are quickly filling requests for information from the Arizona Daily Star regarding Supervisor Ally Miller. According to multiple sources within the County, Star reporter Joe Ferguson is following up on such questionable expenditures as floral arrangements and zip drives purchased by Miller’s office.
Miller, a fiscal conservative, has become the bane of County Manager Chuck Huckelberry’s existence for her insistence on transparency. The Arizona Daily Star, who long ago abandoned its checks-and-balance role in local government, and instead has become a cudgel to beat back anyone who might raise questions about the County’s operations or stand in the way of securing more and more bond money.
Pima County, the home of the 8th poorest metropolitan area in the country, has the highest property taxes in the state of Arizona.
Ferguson is expected to release a hit piece in the near future which will reveal that Miller bought two floral pieces for her county office, and jump drive discs for her staff. The small purchases will be painted as frivolous or otherwise scandalous by Ferguson.
Meanwhile, the Arizona Daily Independent is preparing Requests for Information on requests by County supervisors for contingency fund monies. In the past, when supervisors did not want to use funds from their own budgets, they would essentially hide their expenses for travel, etc. through the County’s multiple contingency funds.
From trips to Las Vegas to theater groups, the supervisors have used the contingency funds to prop up their own careers or those of others.