by Staff Reporter | Jun 15, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Governor Katie Hobbs is under investigation for an alleged “pay-to-play” scheme with a group home that donated to her inaugural fund and the Arizona Democratic Party.
Last May, following the donations, the Arizona Department of Child Services (DCS) drastically increased the rates for the for-profit, state-contracted group home operator and major Democratic Party contributor, Sunshine Residential Homes (formerly Sunshine Group Homes). The nearly-60 percent rate increase was approved several months after the company gave $100,000 to Hobbs’ “dark money” inaugural fund. That $100,000 rendered to them by the second-largest donor after Arizona Public Service (APS). The governor raised nearly $2 million.
As the Arizona Republic reported, that $100,000 to the fund came several days after the group home operator was denied a rate increase in December 2022. No other group homes have been awarded rate increases under Hobbs, and none came close to the rate granted to Sunshine Residential Homes: over $230 a day, where the average was about $170.
The governor’s fund earned the unofficial “dark money” pejorative following reports that Hobbs pushed for $250,000 donations to her inaugural event, though the event itself only cost around $200,000.
Sunshine Residential Homes also donated $200,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party in September and October of 2022, and another $100,000 to the party in August 2023.
The group home operator’s CEO and founder, Simon Kottoor, and his wife, Elizabeth, also donated $10,000 collectively to Hobbs’ campaign.
Hobbs appointed the Kottoors to her inaugural committee.
Last year, the group home operator received a nearly 60 percent increase in rates: much higher than the rates awarded to other group homes, and unique given DCS choosing to cut contracts with dozens other group homes: 16, to be exact.
DCS blamed budget constraints coupled with a desire to scale back on the reliance of group homes for the contract denials.
Hobbs’ spokesman, Christian Slater, claimed the allegations came from a place of unsubstantiated scrutiny similar to other attacks by “radical and partisan legislators.”
“Governor Hobbs is a social worker who has been a champion for Arizona families and kids,” said Slater “It is outrageous to suggest her administration would not do what’s right for children in foster care.”
Some have questioned whether Sunshine Residential Homes wired additional funds to Hobbs’ inaugural fund after their $100,000 donation cleared in February 2023, or whether the group home operator or its executives issued donations to other groups operated by Hobbs, like the “An Arizona For Everyone” entity.
An Arizona For Everyone, a nonprofit, was activated in December 2022 and voluntarily dissolved in September 2023. No tax filings exist for the nonprofit on the IRS public search portal of tax-exempt entities.
Last Thursday, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced an investigation into the matter. On Friday, Mayes also ordered Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to back off her investigation and for Auditor General Lindsey Perry to stay away.
“It would not be appropriate or in the best interest of the state to conduct parallel investigations into the same matter. Furthermore, a separate process conducted by the MCAO could jeopardize the integrity of the criminal investigation that my office will now proceed with,” wrote Mayes.
However, Treasurer Kimberly Yee urged Mitchell to continue her own investigation into Hobbs to complement Mayes’ investigation. In a press release on Monday, Yee announced request letters to both Mitchell and Mayes.
“Arizona taxpayers deserve financial accountability. Giving state dollars to political donors is a grave misuse of public funds,” posted Yee on X.
In her letter to Mitchell, Yee advised that Mitchell continue her investigation over Mayes’ conflict of interest.
“Pursuant to these legal authorities and due to concerns related to Attorney General Mayes’ ethical conflict of interests because her office is required to provide legal services to the agencies at issue and the fact that her representatives have personal and professional relationships with those individuals potentially involved in any alleged wrong-doing, I respectfully request that you investigate the allegations that have occurred in your jurisdiction, Maricopa County,” wrote Yee.
In Yee’s letter to Mayes, the treasurer advised the attorney general that her assertion of singular control over any investigation — especially one involving the state agencies she represents — was inappropriate and unlawful. Yee suggested that Mayes transfer the investigation wholly to Mitchell or another independent county attorney.
“[T]hat is the only action that will ensure the integrity of the investigation and avoid the duplication of efforts you raise as a concern in asserting sole jurisdiction,” wrote Yee.
Sunshine Group Homes was recognized as a nonprofit by the IRS until 2022, when they were placed on the auto-revocation list that August (EIN: 86-0815254).
According to the latest publicized tax filings from a decade ago, the Kottoors received a collective $623,500 annually in reportable compensation from related organizations.
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by Staff Reporter | Jun 12, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Over the last three years, the city of Phoenix spent over $180 million in its attempts to address its growing homeless population.
New research from The Goldwater Institute suggests that the millions had little impact, if any, in reducing the rates of homelessness. The population grew 92 percent in Phoenix from 2018 to 2023, and 72 percent in Maricopa County from 2017 to 2023. Homeless population totals for 2021 weren’t collected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The growth became evident in certain areas, such as the downtown area unofficially ignored by police for most response calls known as “The Zone.”
The $180 million constitutes a low estimate of total expenditures; when adding in funds from the state, federal government, and private entities considered to be budget line items, that number grows to over $250 million, per their research.
About one-sixth of those city funds went to the Community Bridges organization — $30 million — which provided property and housing services as well as outreach for shelter support services.
The other major contracts put up by the city to address homelessness were $16 million for BRYCON, which provided shelter space and general contracting; $13 million for St. Vincent de Paul, which provided emergency shelter, transitional housing, and hotel operations; $9.4 million for Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS), which provided housing, shelter, and homeless support services; $9 million for Mercy Care, which provided behavioral health and mental health services; $7 million for Human Services Campus, which provided relief sprung structure for shelter; $6.2 million for Salvation Army, which provided shelter and street outreach; $4.6 million for A New Leaf, which provided rapid rehousing and homeless youth reunification; $4.5 million for UMOM Day Centers, which provided shelter and street outreach; $2.6 million for Steel & Spark, the provider of the X-Wing Shelter Units; $2.3 million for Homeward Bound, which provided homeless prevention efforts such as GED and job training; $2 million for St. Joseph the Worker, which provided workforce villages and paying housing costs; $1.2 million for Child Crisis Arizona, which provided shelter for homeless minors; and $1 million for Southwest Behavioral Health Services, which provided criminal justice for the homeless and outreach.
Four of the city’s contractors for homeless services — Southwest Behavioral Health, Chicanos Por La Causa, CASS, and Mercy Care — have seats on the city’s task force to address homelessness.
Per the Goldwater Institute, the city has yet to disburse $63 million for city-owned shelters, emergency rental assistance, property acquisition, hotel conversion, and affordable housing.
The city’s Office of Homeless Solutions (OHS) reports that it has committed $140 million since 2021 through the end of this year to address homelessness through shelter and heat relief, outreach, supportive and behavioral health services, homelessness prevention, and supportive housing.
According to the Goldwater Institute, OHS has only provided public accounting for 34 percent of that $140 million. Additionally, that 34 percent consisted of vague reporting, such as the absence of program start and end dates.
The unrelenting growth in the homeless population, despite expensive efforts to stymie, it has prompted alternative actions from city leaders. Earlier this month, the city council enacted an ordinance banning homeless encampments near parks and schools.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jun 10, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
A majority of Arizona sheriffs have chosen to side with their fellow Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Senate race over Trump-endorsed Kari Lake, due to the implications of her recently calling Lamb a “coward” for not helping overturn the 2022 election.
Lake shifted some of the blame for her gubernatorial loss onto Lamb during an online forum last month with the Arizona chapter of the Association of Mature American Citizens. In a press release from Lamb’s campaign, the sheriffs of nine counties signed onto a letter condemning Lake’s attack.
“Kari Lake’s recent comment calling Sheriff Mark Lamb a ‘coward’ is both unfounded and disrespectful,” said the statement. “We want to make it clear: neither Sheriff Mark Lamb nor any law enforcement officer who wears a badge and uniform, putting their life on the line every day to protect and serve our communities, is a coward. Arizona voters expect better from a political candidate, especially when they are running for the U.S. Senate.”
Sheriffs Adam Shepard, Gila; David Clouse, Navajo; David Rhodes, Yavapai; Doug Schuster, Mohave; Leon Wilmot, Yuma; Mark Dannels, Cochise; PJ Allred, Graham; Russ Skinner, Maricopa; and William Ponce, La Paz signed onto the letter. Sheriff candidates Jerry Sheridan, Maricopa; Mike Crawford, Maricopa; and Ross Teeple, Pinal also signed onto the letter.
The panel in which Lake criticized Lamb wasn’t designed as a debate, but in some respects it became one. Lake accused Lamb of cowardice for not using law enforcement authority to facilitate change in the 2022 election’s outcome.
“I took every hit fighting for security in our elections. Sheriffs had the ability to fight, and the sheriff in Pinal County cowered, and he’s a total coward when it comes to election integrity,” said Lake.
Lamb responded with accusations that Lake’s assessment about his involvement in scrutinizing the 2022 election wasn’t entirely truthful. Lamb said that Pinal County fired those responsible for underprinting ballots, as well as established cameras and citizen monitors for drop boxes.
“Yes, we didn’t print enough ballots [in 2022] in Pinal County, and guess who didn’t complain about it because she won the primary? Kari didn’t. It didn’t matter to her until the general election,” said Lamb. “I live in a world of evidence, what you can prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt. […] Any one of these people, including Kari, could’ve brought me the evidence that was actionable for me in court to do something about it.”
Outside of the scuffle in the panel, Lake has aimed her attacks on Democratic opponent Ruben Gallego.
Lake criticized Gallego for not debating, though she has refused to debate Lamb. The GOP debate for Senate candidates is scheduled for June 26, about a week before early voting, and Lamb will be there.
Should Lake not show up for the debate, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission will pivot to host a 30-minute Q&A with Lamb rather than a 60-minute debate.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jun 9, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
The University of Arizona (UArizona) has gone back to the basics — way back, in fact: one course fulfilling the university’s mandatory diversity & equity (D&E) curriculum requires students to play pretend as bugs.
The Goldwater Institute, a libertarian public policy think tank in Phoenix, discovered that a UArizona course fulfilling the diversity and equity requirement directs students to experiment with “living like a bug” by wearing tissue paper “wings” as they walk around, an exercise meant to provide symbolic understanding of the experience of others from different races, social classes, or physical or intellectual abilities.
Additionally, students engaging in this play pretend of bug life must submit a written reflection on the “assumptions that inform popular attitudes toward insects” and then identify “ways that attitudes of othering interfere with self-identity and foster systems of privilege or oppression/marginalization.”
The course, Entomology 106D1, is marketed as assessing the impact of insects on human history, including human inequities, cultural diversity, and new ways of understanding sexuality.
“Bugs have built and destroyed human empires, aided our advances, propelled our catastrophes, and exacerbated our inequities. We learn how arthropods have shaped human history and cultural diversity, improved our health, wealth, and art, and continue to teach us new ways to understand human nature, sexuality, intelligence, and even how to approach \”alien\” ideas,” reads the course description.
The course is part of a track to earning an undergraduate certificate in entomology and insect science.
Insect play pretend isn’t the only option for UArizona students to fulfill their required D&E credits. As Goldwater Institute noted in their vast report, other courses offer different learning opportunities to fulfill diversity and equity requirements.
An anthropology course on race, ethnicity, and the American Dream instructs students to learn how the U.S. is deeply embedded with racism — systemic — through its history, society, and institutions. The course declares that only white people can attain the American Dream because they “hold unearned privilege,” unlike people of color.
In order to remedy the proposed inequities, the course then directs students to learn about different reparations plans.
Another course, “Constructions of Gender,” offered students extra credit to undergo training at an LGBTQ center on campus, or to attend an allyship development training.
UArizona quantified valid D&E courses as those which center on one or more marginalized populations in the course content, such as racial or ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQIA+ people, economically marginalized communities, and disabled people; explore historical developments, causes, and consequences of structured inequality; and examine how power, privilege, and positionality shape systems related to the discipline of the course and how knowledge is constructed.
Valid D&E courses, according to the university, shape the student to understand which historical and contemporary populations have experienced inequality — specifically, racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, the marginalized, the socioeconomically disadvantaged, and those from colonized societies — and how various communities experience privilege and/or oppression or marginalization.
At the end of their D&E courses, students must be able to theorize the means to creating a more equitable society.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jun 8, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Low-income Arizona families can get some relief this summer on their grocery bill, thanks to a federal program organized by the state.
The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and Department of Economic Security (DES) are offering a federal summer grocery benefits program, “SUN Bucks,” to provide grocery money to low-income households.
These households may receive $120 per eligible child to purchase groceries.
DES began distributing funds earlier this week to nearly 288,000 children according to a press release. These children were receiving Nutrition and/or Cash Assistance benefits.
The agencies estimate about 600,000 children will benefit from SUN Bucks this summer. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said that the department wanted to ensure continued health and development of students over the summer.
“We are working with the USDA and DES to bring this federal grocery benefits program to Arizona, which is projected to provide additional assistance to over 600,000 students who might not otherwise have the meals they need this summer,” said Horne.
SUN Bucks may be used at an in-person or online store that accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. These funds must be used within 122 days from the day the benefits are added to the account. Lost or stolen benefits can’t be replaced.
SUN Bucks may be used for fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry, and fish; dairy products; breads and cereals; snack foods and non-alcoholic drinks. They may not be used for hot foods, pet foods, cleaning or household supplies, personal hygiene items, or medicine.
Eligible families include those participating in the National School Lunch, Breakfast, or Head Start Programs; those who are eligible to receive free or reduced lunches; and those who have received Nutrition, Cash and/or Medical Assistance from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, may receive SUN Bucks assistance. Medical Assistance recipients must be below 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
Illegal immigrants may receive SUN Bucks.
Those children not enrolled in a National School Lunch Program participating school must be 6 to 16 years of age between last July and the end of this June, and have participated in one of the following: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid assistance with a reported household income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, Migrant Education Program, and foster child.
SUN Bucks go onto the same Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards where families normally receive their other benefits. Those families without an EBT card will receive a new one next month.
ADE also plans to launch a new application for families to submit a free or reduced-price meal application or alternative income form with their child’s eligible school, which must be on the National School Lunch Program roster.
For further questions, the SUN Bucks hotline is 833-648-4406.
SUN Bucks, through the USDA’s Summer Nutrition Programs for Kids, are also offered in conjunction with SUN Meals from local meal sites or SUN Meals To-Go. SUN Meals are available to children aged 18 and under with no application or other information needed.
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