by Matthew Holloway | Nov 29, 2024 | Education, News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Goldwater Institute released a report on Tuesday detailing the shocking expenditures of the Tolleson Union High School District (TUHSD). According to the report, the district has blown a total of $76,969 “on what amounted to luxury vacations for school board members and administrators,” per public records obtained by Goldwater.
In the space of two days, the board reportedly shelled out $42,000 in hotel costs, $22,000 of which was for the catering. And this was all for just thirty people. The math works out to a brutal $700 per person, per day.
Christopher Thomas, Goldwater’s director of legal strategy for education policy, told AZFamily, “Those are monies that could have been spent on teacher salaries and educational programs for students.”
According to Goldwater, despite the public access requirements of the state of Arizona’s Open Meetings Law, these “Board and Administrator Retreats,” which act as long-form working meetings, are essentially hidden from the taxpayer. Furthermore, Goldwater reported that, “As a result of the noted board member absences, many of the meetings held during the $42,000 retreat in 2024 lacked even a board quorum (a majority of the five-member board), meaning that under the law, these were not lawful meetings of the board at all.”
Thomas explained that the retreats, “lacked transparency that’s required by the Open Meeting Law.”
Matters of great public interest were reportedly decided at these retreats, including strategies for improving student participation and graduation rates, student attendance rates and test scores, and budget priorities and academic goals, all away from public and parental oversight.
The costs revealed did not include transportation or the hourly pay of those involved, as many of them were effectively “clocked-in” during these “retreats.”
TUHSD reportedly indulged board members and administrators at two four star resorts in 2023 and 2024: the JW Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson and the Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock. Notably, Goldwater observed that although records pertaining to these expenses were requested in July, they weren’t released until the middle of November… after new bond and a budget overrides were approved by Tolleson Union voters and a member of the governing board was safely re-elected.
At the JW Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson for the board’s two-day 2023 Board/Administrator Retreat, TUHSD reportedly paid $33,969 to the resort, which included $22,061 on catering. In 2024, the three day retreat at Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock ran up a tab of $42,154 for 36 people.
“The leaders in this school district do not fundamentally understand that they are working with public dollars, and that every one of those public dollars has got to be spent in a way that gives the maximum benefit to the taxpayer and accomplishes their educational mission,” Thomas said.
Comparatively, as Goldwater Institute and AZ Free News previously reported, the Creighton Elementary School District’s Governing Board and Administrative Team attended a three-day, $4,000-per-person “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) conference at a Napa Valley wine country resort in July, which also drew heavy criticism of district leaders.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Nov 27, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Former Santa Cruz County Treasurer, Democrat Elizabeth Gutfahr, pleaded guilty last week to charges that she embezzled and laundered approximately $38 million from Arizona taxpayers. Gutfahr, who served as County Treasurer from 2012 to 2024, also failed to pay income tax on over $13 million while serving in a position of public trust.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ), Gutfahr embezzled and laundered the money while in office through a scheme of wiring funds form Santa Cruz County’s account directly to the accounts of various ‘shell companies.’ She had created the companies explicitly for the purposes of defrauding the county and ultimately transferring those funds to her personal bank account.
To say that Gutfahr’s use of the funds was blatant and extravagant may be an understatement. According to the DOJ she used the taxpayers’ millions to purchase real estate, renovate her family’s ranch, pay her company’s operating expenses, and buy at least twenty vehicles.
Court documents reveal that Gutfahr accomplished this feat through an astonishing series of about 187 wire transfers she “completed by subverting the two-step approval process for the wire transfers by using the token of a subordinate Santa Cruz County employee.” This method allowed her to both create and approve the transfers. The prosecution also revealed that to cover her tracks, “Gutfahr falsified accounting records, cash reconciliation records, and reports of the County’s investment accounts to conceal the millions of dollars that she had stolen from Santa Cruz County.”
The head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, said in a statement, “Elizabeth Gutfahr stole $38 million from the people of Santa Cruz County, Arizona, during the 12 years she served as their County Treasurer. We expect public officials to serve as stewards of the government fisc — not to loot it. Today’s plea demonstrates yet again that the Justice Department remains committed to rooting out public corruption at all levels of government.”
“I wire transferred the Santa Cruz County funds from the County’s Savings Account and Checking Account for the purpose and as an essential part of carrying out the scheme to defraud to fraudulently obtain the funds for my personal use, all without authorization,” Gutfahr said, according to court documents cited by CNN. “I agree I owe restitution in the amount of $38,712,100.00.”
“These account names were materially false and fraudulent representations to intentionally conceal the fact that I was wire transferring Santa Cruz County funds to my Wells Fargo and BMO Accounts to embezzle the County’s funds,” Gutfahr stated per the terms of her plea agreement.
In a statement to KGUN9, Gutfahr’s attorney wrote, “Liz Gutfahr wants to take responsibility for the harm she has caused to Santa Cruz County. She knows that by pleading guilty, and accepting the punishment she will face as a result, she is taking a step in the right direction to be accountable for her actions. Today was just a step, albeit a major one, along the road to redemption, and she will work to remain on that path for the rest of her life.”
The disgraced Democrat pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement by a public official, one count of money laundering, and one count of tax evasion. Her sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 6, 2025, and she could face up to ten years in prison for embezzlement, 20 years for money laundering, and another five for tax evasion. All told, she could face 35 years in prison. Gutfahr will also be required to pay restitution to the county as well as tax penalties. However, as reported by KGUN, a court-appointed receiver working to sell off real estate and property reported the courts may only be able to recover about one-third of the loss. She has also been sued in civil court by Santa Cruz County in an attempt by the county to recover the funds.
Gutfahr was released on her own recognizance pending sentencing but is prohibited from leaving the state of Arizona without prior clearance from the court.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jun 15, 2024 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
June has been off to a brutal start for Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs. She kicked off the month by breaking her own hiring freeze to bring in a new press secretary. Then, a few days later, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that Hobbs violated the law when she sidestepped the Senate’s confirmation process for agency directors. And to top it all off, an eye-opening report was released uncovering an alleged pay-to-play scheme between Hobbs and an Arizona group home.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, this is the same Katie Hobbs who broke the law to take credit for the Republican tax rebate. And it’s the same Katie Hobbs who required the nonprofit behind her $30 million medical debt relief program to give her credit. But this latest scandal shows that Hobbs’ corruption has reached a new level.
According to the report, Sunshine Residential Homes has donated approximately $400,000 toward the Arizona Democratic Party, Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign, and her inaugural fund. And what did the group home receive in return? A nearly 60 percent rate increase! And this was at a time when the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) cut loose 16 providers, and no other standard group home provider received a rate increase.
That’s convenient.
Sunshine Residential Homes could potentially receive millions of dollars more at the taxpayers’ expense from their investment (sorry…donation). And that must have their CEO—who also happened to serve on Hobbs’ inaugural committee—excited.
Hmmm…Hobbs’ inauguration fund. Do you remember that?
This entire saga began when Hobbs set up a shady inaugural slush fund to provide donors with a conduit to buy political favor from her administration…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Mar 3, 2024 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
For the past three years, the people of Arizona have been forced to deal with the fallout of a struggling economy, rising prices, and an inflation rate that, at one point, was the highest in the country. With this in mind, Republicans got to work, delivering the largest tax cut in state history and following that up with a budget that included tax rebates for Arizona families.
But Governor Katie Hobbs clearly has much different priorities when it comes to your hard-earned money. True to her 10-year history of pulverizing Arizona taxpayers, Hobbs announced during her State of the State address in January her desire to—you guessed it—massively grow the size of state government. And judging by the executive staff hiring spree that Hobbs is on as governor, it’s clear that this isn’t just empty rhetoric…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jan 14, 2024 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
When you’re hired to do a job, it stands to reason that you should actually do the job you’ve been hired to do. Think about it. If a company hired you to be a writer, and you never did any writing for the company, you probably wouldn’t keep your job too long. That is, of course, unless you work for the government.
For quite some time now, federal, state, and local governments across the country—including right here in Arizona—have been engaging in the practice of “release time.” If you’re unfamiliar with this term, it means that certain people are hired to do a specific job for the government, but instead of doing that job, they are “released” to work full-time for their union. This could be someone like a teacher, for example, who instead of teaching students, spends all his or her time doing work for the teachers’ union. But here’s the thing, even though these employees don’t actually work for the government, they still get a paycheck from the government—all funded by your tax dollars.
Is this practice unfair? Yes. Is it unconstitutional? Absolutely.
That’s why the Goldwater Institute has been challenging this practice in our state in a case that has made its way to the Arizona Supreme Court…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
