On Friday, the Goldwater Institute sent the following letter to Pima County Supervisors stating that gifting portions of their office budget to nonprofit groups as has been common practice in the County is against the law.
Supervisor Ally Miller brought this to the County Supervisors attention and asked for the practice to cease. The Goldwater Institute agrees with Supervisor Miller and respectfully requests with this letter that the Pima County Board of Supervisors adopt a policy ending these illegal gifts.
The Goldwater attorneys make a simple point, the funds do not belong to the Supervisors; they belong to the taxpayers and should follow the gifting procedures by resolution of the Board of Supervisors if they are to being donated.
Many would like to see these funds reimbursed to the taxpayers and since being notified any future gifts could be subject to legal recourse.
The text of this letter follows:
October 10, 2014
Sharon Bronson, Chair, Supervisor District 3
Pima County Board of Supervisors
130 W. Congress Street, 11th Floor
Tucson, AZ 8570 I
Fax: (520) 884-1152
SENT VIA US MAIL AND FAX
Re: Pima County Board of Supervisors' gifts to nonprofit groups
Dear Chairperson Bronson:
It has come to the Goldwater lnstitute's attention that members of the Pima County Board
of Supervisors have gifted portions of their office budgets to nonprofit groups. For instance, Tim Steller recently reported in the Arizona Daily Star that Supervisor Richard Elias unilaterally gifted more than $13,299 of taxpayer funds over the last two years to a single nonprofit group. It is our understanding that this is not an isolated incident but a common practice among many members of the Board.
If our understanding is correct, this practice very clearly violates the Arizona
Constitution. Specifically, the Arizona Constitution mandates: "Neither the state, nor any county, city, town, municipality, or other subdivision of the state shall ever give or loan its credit in the aid to: or make any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise, to any individual association, or corporation . . . "ARIZ. CONST. ART. IX,§ 7 (emphasis added). The Arizona Supreme Court has held that this provision prohibits governments from making public expenditures without receiving adequate consideration in return. Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that "indirect benefits" are not consideration under the Gift Clause. See Turken v. Gordon, 223 Ariz. 342, 349 (20 I 0). Pima County does not receive adequate consideration indeed it apparently receives no consideration, when supervisors donate public funds to the charities of their choice. As a result, these office budget gifts are unconstitutional.
Under our state constitution, Arizonans are guaranteed that local special interests will not
receive preferential treatment under the law. Taxpayers likewise are guaranteed that public money will be spent only for public purposes and that adequate consideration will be received for the expenditure of any public funds. Supervisors unilaterally gifting taxpayer funds from their individual office budgets contravenes these basic constitutional principles.
Moreover, please note that under certain circumstances public officials who make
unlawful expenditures of public funds may be civilly liable for those expenditures. See ARIZ. REV. STAT.§§ 35-154, 35-196 (2012).
The Goldwater Institute respectfully requests that the Pima County Board of Supervisors adopt a policy ending these illegal gifts. lf we do not receive confirmation within the next thirty days that the Board intends to adopt such a policy, we will avail ourselves of other legal remedies available to us. We have concurrently submitted a public records request pursuant to ARIZ. REV. STAT.§§ 39-121to39-128, so that we will be able to assess the full extent of the constitutional violations committed thus far.
We appreciate your thoughtful consideration of these matters and look forward to hearing
from you.
Sincerely,
Attorney Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation
at the Goldwater Institute
cc. Barbara La Wall (Pima County Attorney)
Ally Miller (Supervisor District 1)
Ramon Valadez (Supervisor District 2)
Ray Carroll (Supervisor District 4)
Richard Elias (Supervisor District 5)
Robin Brigode (Clerk of the Board)
Arizona Attorney General 's Office