Arizona AG sues Buckeye school district for allegedly overpaying superintendent

PHOENIX — A West Valley school district said it received no warning before Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Wednesday he was suing it over allegedly overpaying its superintendent in recent years.

The lawsuit filed against Buckeye Elementary School District and Superintendent Kristi Wilson claims Wilson was paid about $570,000 more than she was entitled to over a 5 1/2-year period, the Attorney General’s Office said in a press release.

“It is surprising and disappointing that the Arizona Attorney General chose to issue a news release to publicize the lawsuit filed against our school district and superintendent with no notice or alert to the school district’s governing board or leadership,” BESD said in a statement Thursday.

“We are reviewing all this material now and it would be premature to issue any statements before we fully understand the attorney general’s actions.”

According to the lawsuit, the overpayment was part of $1.7 million in what is known as “additional compensation” between July 2016 and December 2021, bringing Wilson’s total earnings during that time to about $3.3 million.

A report by the Arizona Auditor General’s Office found that about one third of the $1.7 million was “incorrectly paid to or on behalf of Wilson after BESD misapplied or miscalculated certain tax withholdings,” the complaint says.

Brnovich, whose term in office ends next week, alleges that the overpayment violates the gift clause in the Arizona Constitution.

“Transparency and accountability are not electives in our public school districts,” he said in a press release. “Hardworking taxpayers expect these public funds to be expended in accordance with the law and the best interest of students.”

BESD disagreed with the auditor general findings that Brnovich used as the basis of his lawsuit.

The district said its governing board “did not gift public monies in approving a contractual benefit of employment for the superintendent – particularly in light of the fact the district’s administrative expenses, which include the superintendent’s compensation, have been consistently lower than peer districts.”

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