Chairman of county board of supervisors calls MCSO federal oversight a waste of money

PHOENIX — Thomas Galvin, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, called the federal oversight the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) is under a waste of money.

The chairman made the assertion to KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Thursday, following a tense meeting Wednesday night where ABC 15 said community members questioned “the efficacy and price tag” of the oversight.

The judicial oversight is due to a 2013 verdict in a racial profiling lawsuit from when Joe Arpaio was in office and has cost the county around $352 million over the last 15 years.

“This lawsuit was filed in 2007, we have now had four different sheriffs in this position under this federal oversight,” Galvin said. “The voters of Maricopa County every four years, they are the ultimate deciders. They have decided who runs the sheriff’s office. It shouldn’t be a federal judge and a monitor who’s making tons of money off of this with a bunch of zeros after it running the sheriff’s office.”

Chairman says monitor has no incentive to end MCSO federal oversight

Galvin emphasized that the monitor who leads the oversight team, Robert Warshaw, has no incentive to tell the judge that the MCSO is doing a good job or that they’ve done everything they can to be responsible to the voters.

The chairman noted that when Warshaw was asked during the meeting how much he makes, he refused to answer and said that he never would, which Galvin called disgusting.

According to Galvin, Warshaw makes $2 million a year from Maricopa County tax dollars and doesn’t live in Arizona. Besides Maricopa County, Warshaw is also the monitor for other police agencies around the country, including in Oakland and Louisville.

Every year the board of supervisors allocates $30 million for the oversight.

“The compliance goalposts keep shifting,” Galvin said. “All of the conditions under the lawsuit that was originally filed, they don’t exist today. The sheriff’s office has made great strides.”

Galvin said besides the money, the other issue is the amount of manpower MCSO has to dedicate to the oversight that aren’t on the streets patrolling.

“They could be doing real police work and instead, they are mired in this oversight paperwork and it never seems like it’s going to end,” Galvin said.

The chairman highlighted the Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan has ideas and changes that he wants to implement in the sheriff’s office but is unable to due to the oversight.

“Let him do his job and let the taxpayers see their money get saved,” Galvin said.

Galvin added that none of the residents he has spoken to within his district think the federal oversight is doing any good.

The chairman noted that Warshaw did make a promise during the meeting that he thinks the oversight will end soon, but Galvin stated he doesn’t believe him.

“He’s just doing that to mollify the crowd, but he has no incentive to stop this money gravy train that he’s benefitting from,” Galvin said. “We’re really just frustrated by seeing how the sheriff’s office is not able to fully do its job to protect and serve the people of Maricopa County, and we’re going to speak on their behalf every chance we get.”

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