By Adam Gaub | Casa Grande Dispatch
With the transition of the child support division in the Pinal County Attorney’s Office to state control set to occur at the end of June, long-standing employees within that department say the move has been anything but smooth.
Two employees who are making the transition to become state employees said Republican County Attorney Lando Voyles has been less than forthcoming about the ramifications of the move. Seventeen of the 30 county employees have been hired by the state to perform the same work.
Voyles has trumpeted the move as one of cost savings, moving a department over to state control that doesn’t fit with his mantra for increased criminal prosecutions, while leasing the space where those employees currently work to the state at a rate of $89,000 per year.
The identities of the employees are not being revealed by Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. due to the sensitivity of the situation. Rather, they are referred to as Employee A and Employee B.
They both said Voyles decided to get rid of the department with hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money still sitting on the table.
“Everybody was a little bewildered,” Employee B said. “We’re just getting kicked to the curb, plain and simple.”
Attorney’s Office spokesman Jim Knupp said that amount — which will be transferred to the state — was nearly $900,000 before the Board of Supervisors Wednesday approved payouts for “employees who accrued an excess of 360 hours of vacation time to be fully compensated for their hours.”
If you’d like to discuss family law, contact with Kaine Fisher, director of Rose Law Group Family Law Department, kfisher@roselawgroup.com.
