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Cloud wants county to postpone vote canvas
Terri Jo Neff/special to the news-Sun
Sheriff candidate Bill Cloud submitted several documents on Monday to the Cochise County Board of Supervisors, including an emergency request to postpone the September 11 canvassing of election results from the Sheriff's primary election.
Noting that there are five campaign-related complaints pending, Cloud asked the Supervisors to stay the canvassing "until all issues relating to the election have been resolved." The complaints describe possible election and campaign improprieties, including alleged intimidation of county employees for the benefit of Sheriff Larry Dever's reelection effort.
Cloud also asked for the Supervisors to take responsibility for reviewing those complaints, which were filed Aug. 25 with Tom Schelling, director of the county's elections department, due to the "non-response" and "non-resolution" of his concerns by election officials.
One complaint concerns the timing of Sheriff Larry Dever's reelection efforts. Cloud contends Dever may have violated election rules by starting campaign activities before he was permitted to do so by state law.
If Cloud's complaint is sustained, some of the signatures Dever relied on for getting his name on the ballot may be invalid.
Cloud noted in his documents that as of Monday he has received no response from the elections department, including his call for an outside investigation of the sheriff's office. He is aware, said Cloud, that Deputy County Attorney Britt Hanson wrote an inter-office memo on Aug. 28 in which he recommends "taking no further action on Mr. Cloud's allegations."
Hanson distributed the memo to local media, but no copy was sent to Cloud or his campaign managers. Cloud says he's not even sure if Hanson's memo is considered to be the final decision of the elections department, as it's addressed to Schelling and County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer.
"We are requesting that the Cochise County Board of Supervisors take action on these requests, since we have waited what we believe to be a reasonable length of time," without any response, Cloud explained.
Because his complaints should be considered pending, Cloud wrote "we further ask that the canvass of the election results for the position of Cochise County sheriff be stayed until these requests, and others, have moved through all available processes."
The supervisors have subpeona power, Cloud noted, so they can investigate his five prior complaints, as well as look into possible Merit System Rules violations, and the involvement of county employees in securing a union endorsement in June from the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police for Dever.
Katie Howard, the Clerk of the Board, was also presented with a Freedom of Information Act request pertaining to county employee's use of the county email system. The request seeks dates and general information about any email sent to or from county employees between February to September 2008, related to the FOP. The union represents several top sheriff's office employees.
Cloud also wants the supervisors to inquire about a letter to the editor which he suspects was created during county work time. The letter was signed by nine top sheriff's office staff members, and was published in three newspapers just two weeks before the primary election.
According to Cloud, the letter advocating Dever's reelection, was presented to employees on county time and some employees may have felt intimidated to sign it.
Dever said he has no reason to believe a member of his staff used county time or equipment to create or distribute the letter to the editor, nor does he believe anyone exerted pressure on the signers of the letter.
If an official inquiry is opened into the matter, Dever promises to instruct his staff members to cooperate fully, and depending on the findings he will take action, if needed, against any staff member as "appropriate under the rules of conduct and the law." A response will be issued by the county later this week to Cloud's filings.
Sheriff candidate Bill Cloud submitted several documents on Monday to the Cochise County Board of Supervisors, including an emergency request to postpone the September 11 canvassing of election results from the Sheriff's primary election.
Noting that there are five campaign-related complaints pending, Cloud asked the Supervisors to stay the canvassing "until all issues relating to the election have been resolved." The complaints describe possible election and campaign improprieties, including alleged intimidation of county employees for the benefit of Sheriff Larry Dever's reelection effort.
Cloud also asked for the Supervisors to take responsibility for reviewing those complaints, which were filed Aug. 25 with Tom Schelling, director of the county's elections department, due to the "non-response" and "non-resolution" of his concerns by election officials.
One complaint concerns the timing of Sheriff Larry Dever's reelection efforts. Cloud contends Dever may have violated election rules by starting campaign activities before he was permitted to do so by state law.
If Cloud's complaint is sustained, some of the signatures Dever relied on for getting his name on the ballot may be invalid.
Cloud noted in his documents that as of Monday he has received no response from the elections department, including his call for an outside investigation of the sheriff's office. He is aware, said Cloud, that Deputy County Attorney Britt Hanson wrote an inter-office memo on Aug. 28 in which he recommends "taking no further action on Mr. Cloud's allegations."
Hanson distributed the memo to local media, but no copy was sent to Cloud or his campaign managers. Cloud says he's not even sure if Hanson's memo is considered to be the final decision of the elections department, as it's addressed to Schelling and County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer.
"We are requesting that the Cochise County Board of Supervisors take action on these requests, since we have waited what we believe to be a reasonable length of time," without any response, Cloud explained.
Because his complaints should be considered pending, Cloud wrote "we further ask that the canvass of the election results for the position of Cochise County sheriff be stayed until these requests, and others, have moved through all available processes."
The supervisors have subpeona power, Cloud noted, so they can investigate his five prior complaints, as well as look into possible Merit System Rules violations, and the involvement of county employees in securing a union endorsement in June from the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police for Dever.
Katie Howard, the Clerk of the Board, was also presented with a Freedom of Information Act request pertaining to county employee's use of the county email system. The request seeks dates and general information about any email sent to or from county employees between February to September 2008, related to the FOP. The union represents several top sheriff's office employees.
Cloud also wants the supervisors to inquire about a letter to the editor which he suspects was created during county work time. The letter was signed by nine top sheriff's office staff members, and was published in three newspapers just two weeks before the primary election.
According to Cloud, the letter advocating Dever's reelection, was presented to employees on county time and some employees may have felt intimidated to sign it.
Dever said he has no reason to believe a member of his staff used county time or equipment to create or distribute the letter to the editor, nor does he believe anyone exerted pressure on the signers of the letter.
If an official inquiry is opened into the matter, Dever promises to instruct his staff members to cooperate fully, and depending on the findings he will take action, if needed, against any staff member as "appropriate under the rules of conduct and the law." A response will be issued by the county later this week to Cloud's filings.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of bensonnews-sun.com.
Disgusted Voter wrote on Sep 11, 2008 11:10 AM:
" This is old news. A similar story already appeared in the SVH. If the author of this "story" would have checked she would have discovered that the County Attorney's office clearly stated that there is no validity to these accusations. Cloud is just a sore loser. You need to ask him why he insists on wasting the taxpayer's time and money on this trash. All of the crying in the world isn't going to change the will of the voters. "
For Disgusted wrote on Sep 12, 2008 4:37 PM:
" The County Attorney should not have said anything because of a conflict of interest, and is just an opinion anyway, which routinely gets nullified every time they loose a case.
If the County Board of Supervisors takes no action, even to acknowledge receipt of documents, then no taxpayer funds are expended/wasted.
This is not about questioning the will of the voters it is about holding government officials accountable to perform according to their responsibilities as set out in law.
This is an early request for having people follow the rules in the next election, giving four years warning. "
If the County Board of Supervisors takes no action, even to acknowledge receipt of documents, then no taxpayer funds are expended/wasted.
This is not about questioning the will of the voters it is about holding government officials accountable to perform according to their responsibilities as set out in law.
This is an early request for having people follow the rules in the next election, giving four years warning. "
David M Morgan wrote on Sep 9, 2008 10:26 PM: