Supervisor Christy's Commitment to the CLEPC

Supervisor Christy has added an agenda item to the Board of Supervisor's meeting (April 2nd, 2019), again addressing the controversial Community Law Enforcement Partnership Commission (CLEPC). This time he is calling for

organizational changes, most notably for the Commission to be switched from beneath the Board of Supervisor's purview to answering directly to Sheriff Napier. The Sheriff is also directed to add three appointees of his own, thus balancing out the Democratic/Republican 3:2 split in the Commission to an even 3:3 (nine appointees from the three Democratic Supervisors and nine appointees from the two Republican Supervisors and Republican Sheriff). The motion also calls for training to be supplied to the young Chair of the commission, who had received criticism from the Arizona Daily Independent on her lack of experience.

We want to thank Supervisor Christy for his commitment to working across the aisle with his Democratic colleagues in trying to find a solution for greater transparency and stronger community input into Pima County Sheriff's Department. Following his successful bid to increase access to all county boards and commissions through video recording and streaming services, Christy seems to be taking Pima County to task.

We do not have a definite opinion on whether this proposal would work, as it is unclear if the Board of Supervisors can create commissions for a row officer at all or if they can even vote on a motion detailing how the Sheriff may deal with such a commission. We also have questions about switching this commission solely over to the Sheriff, as it seems there could potentially be a conflict of interest between an advisory board being marginalized or ignored if the recommendations were not favorable to the Sheriff. This does seem like a great starting point for further discussion and problem solving, and we applaud Supervisor Christy for getting the conversation started.