Third party video of a presentation to the Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 16, 2019, which cites the CLEPC's and the Pima County Transparency Project's work in exposing Napier's lies. Note the reactions from Republican Supervisors Ally Miller (left) and Steve Christy (right), who have each previously called the CLEPC dysfunctional.
Transcript
Two weeks ago I suggested that Sheriff Napier’s careful and deceptive wording about staffing in the 2018 Stonegarden grant application ought to be an enormous red flag for this Board to consider, and I urged you to consider the CLEPC recommendation about the grant before casting your vote.
As you know, the CLEPC has recommended rejecting the grant. If you attended the CLEPC meeting, or watched the video, or saw the video clips published on the blog Pima County Transparency Project, you also know much more. You know that Sheriff Napier lied when he denied having captured data requested by the CLEPC as part of doing the business you appointed them to do.
You know me, and you know I choose my words carefully. Believe me, I looked for a kinder, gentler way of characterizing what the sheriff did that would still be accurate. I couldn’t find one. He lied.
In a letter responding to a data request from the commission, the sheriff said that his department had not previously captured data about activities under Stonegarden including vehicle stops and citations, number of people turned over to border patrol, and total arrests on misdemeanor and felony charges. He lied.
As demonstrated by the CLEPC Chair in the meeting, those data were always required and always captured as part of regular Stonegarden operations.
Let me explicitly connect all the dots for you. This board appointed the CLEPC to review the sheriff’s use of grant funds, including those from Operation Stonegarden. In the course of trying to do their job, they asked for information that is exactly about the sheriff’s use of Stonegarden grant funds. The sheriff said those data had not been captured, and that was a lie.
This board, all of you, are charged with oversight over how the sheriff spends money. You appointed the commission to help with that oversight. By thwarting the commission, Sheriff Napier tried to keep you from doing a job that you’re elected to do. And he lied about it.
This is not a dysfunctional commission, as some have alleged. On the contrary. This is a dysfunctional sheriff who’s trying to flout this Board’s authority.
You must view this as proof positive that he can’t be trusted with this grant, and you must vote on May 7 to reject the grant.