SanTanValley.com

The question being pondered in the media about Pinal County’s perpetual headliner is:  will he or won’t he continue his run for congress; will he or won’t he run for re-election as sheriff?

The real question should be:  will he or won’t he be indicted while running for congress; will he or won’t he be indicted while running for sheriff?

This week’s 30-second Paul Babeu political commercials are one more illustration of Babeu’s dishonesty and brash disregard of the law.  In this latest version of PCSO employees gone wild, we see Sheriff Paul’s hired hands performing political play-acting despite prohibition of politicking by public employees. 

"A lot has been said about me lately, but I want you to hear it from me."

So went the 30-second congressional campaign television ad designed to once more divert the public’s attention from “it”. “It” being the continuing revelations of yet more disgraceful conduct by Pinal County’s Sheriff Paul Babeu.

It’s been four weeks since the public was told that investigations of Sheriff Paul Babeu were being undertaken by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council’s Public Integrity Task Force, and by Arizona Solicitor General Dave Cole.

Because allegations surrounding the Sheriff involve possibly improper use of county equipment and/or public resources, it is to be hoped that the Pinal County Attorney has taken steps to caution Mr. Babeu not to erase or otherwise tamper with contents of his computer or other electronic devices.

This week’s Board of Supervisors agenda included, at the request of Sheriff Paul Babeu, transfer of a Remington shotgun to an apparently cash-strapped police station in the hinterlands of Pennsylvania.

Recent revelations concerning Sheriff Paul Babeu’s sordid involvement with a male Mexican immigrant and internet sex solicitations has brought Pinal County unwelcome attention in a flood of national publicity from which our communities will not soon recover.

Despite proclaiming his affair “private and personal,” Babeu staged a very public press conference with supporters rounded up to express support for the self-described "family values" and "American exceptionalism" congressional candidate.

Last month while the Pinal County Board of Supervisors was learning of Sheriff Paul Babeu’s $3.2 million budget-busting mismanagement, the congressional candidate himself was on the campaign trail talking a very different and incongruent line.

Speaking on talk show radio, appropriately named “All Fired Up,” two days before the county supervisors heard of his scandalous financial mess, Babeu was blatantly proclaiming himself a deficit -fighting leader.

Consideration of ordinary public business under the Board of Supervisors consent agenda is clearly an efficient way to conduct public business.

However, approval of consent items without discussion, can obscure important information and confuse the public.  A case in point is today’s consent item S.

It’s interesting, but costly, to note that the campaigning Sheriff Paul Babeu, who decries federal government expenditures and who bemoans federal stimulus funding, does not hesitate to come, hat in hand, seeking approval for raking in yet another round of federal funds from the U.S. Marshal, from the federal Justice Department and from RICO.