The Pinal County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday appointed five people to the newly created Pinal County Law Enforcement Merit Council.
Pinal County has a regular merit council to hear appeals from county employees, but due to population growth, it’s required by state statute to also have a law enforcement merit council. Each supervisor was allowed to pick his or her candidate for the five-member merit board.
Supervisor Pete Rios, D-Dudleyville, chose retired Pinal County Sheriff Frank Reyes of Arizona City; Chairman Steve Miller, R-Casa Grande, chose Tom Ramsdell of San TanValley; Vice Chairman Anthony Smith, R-Maricopa, chose Salt River Police Chief Patrick Melvin of Maricopa; Supervisor Cheryl Chase, R-San Tan Valley, picked Judith Anderson of Florence; and Supervisor Todd House, R-Apache Junction, chose Mark Hawthorne of Apache Junction.
Concerns of the Sheriff’s Office about two appointees were stated by Cathy Boland of the Pinal County Attorney’s Office.
She said the Sheriff’s Office was concerned about the possibility of Reyes being involved in cases that included people he may have hired or family members who work at PCSO.
Rios said it’s unlikely that a large number of employees Reyes hired still work at the Sheriff’s Office because Reyes left the department in 1999. He also said Reyes could simply recuse himself from any merit board case that included a person he hired or a family member.
