By Brian Wright
Casa Grande Dispatch
With a 3-2 vote on Wednesday, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors approved Sheriff Paul Babeu’s request to change 16 of his command staff employees to at-will status, without the normal job security that county personnel have.
Republican chairman of the board Steve Miller said it was really a two-pronged issue. One part was the change to at-will status; the other part was increased salaries for those employees totaling $32,000 for the current fiscal year.
Miller said he was OK with the change in status but not with paying an extra $32,000.
“I’ve been sent here with a mandate to lower property taxes,” he said. “I can’t do that if every time I turn around, somebody’s asking for more money.”
After Babeu dropped his request for the additional salary, the board approved the change in status to at- will for 16 Pinal County Sheriff’s Office employees, including lieutenants, captains and key managers within the department. Miller and fellow Republicans Anthony Smith and Cheryl Chase voted yes, while Republican Todd House and Democrat Pete Rios voted no.
Babeu argued he needed the change in status to improve factors including performance, account- ability and efficiency. He said these employees report directly to him and said with heightened responsibility of their positions, it was “far more important” for command staff to be at-will than other positions within the Sheriff’s Office.
Even after Babeu said he was no longer requesting the extra $32,000, Rios said he was still concerned about how this change would affect the county’s bud- get moving forward.
“Clearly, all we’re doing is delaying (the hit to our budget),” he said. “If we’re basically trying to be
