My Friends,

It has been more than four years since we first met on the campaign trail.  In that time we’ve experienced a lifetime of adventure, success, failure, passion, compromise, satisfaction and disappointment.  To you all, I say “Thank you.”  Thank you for giving me the honor of serving as your representative in the democratic process.  

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors met this morning to discuss the process they will use to select a candidate to represent District 2 through the end of the year.  Supervisor Bryan Martyn resigned his seat, effective April 30, to accept the position of Arizona State Parks Director.

Arizona Revised Statutes 11-211.A and 16-230.A require that the person selected be a qualified elector in District 2 and be registered to vote as a Republican – the same party as the individual voters originally elected to the Board.

In today’s world, spending thirty?six years in any profession is considered a noble feat; spending that amount of time in public safety is a rarity.

Gussie Taylor, 66, began her career at the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in 1973 fielding emergency calls as a dispatcher. For several years she made sure the county was covered with first responders, but admitted she needed a more hands?on challenge.

This afternoon at 4:55 p.m., PCSO deputies were called to a home in the 17000 block of Paseo Del Canto, Gold Canyon, on a report of a child drowning.  A PCSO deputy who arrived first on scene found a 27-year-old father performing CRP on his 3-year-old son.

The deputy immediately took over and resumed life saving measures.

Monday, June 11 marked a national effort to reduce or eliminate animal euthanasia.  Pinal County Animal Care & Control signed on to support the event with multiple events during a 12-hour Open House event.   

June 11 marks a national effort to reduce or eliminate animal euthanasia.  Pinal County Animal Care & Control has signed on with the Just One Day initiative and will not euthanize any animals.  To call attention to the work that Animal Care & Control does for the community, the department will be hosting an Open House at the shelter and extending shelter hours on June 11 from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. 

Thousands of animals euthanized each year in Pinal County

Shelters in Pinal County par­ticipated in the national “Just One Day” event in an effort to reduce or eliminate euthanasia with an adoption-geared event and a promise not to euthanize any animals on that day, officials said.

This morning, a 65-year-old woman fell 50 feet to her death while hiking in the Superstition Mountains.

She was hiking up the Massacre Grounds Trail near Lost Dutchman State Park with her husband.  Her husband was with her and call 911.  

The "Borrow an AED Program", a part of the AEDPetitionNOW organization is being implemented by Pinal Rural Fire Rescue! A representative from Cardiac Science, John Rittenburg, will be donating a free AED and equipment to PRFR on May 2, 2012 at 1:00 P.M. The presentation will be held at PRFR Station 625 at 15062 Hwy 77 in Mammoth. We will be able to loan the AED out to community or school events so our youth and public will be protected in case of sudden cardiac arrest.

Patiently and repeatedly, a local area property and development company has been cleaning up other peoples’ messes.  The costs incurred to clean up someone else’s trash has totaled well into the thousands.  Pinal County’s Environmental Investigators are looking for evidence or tips from the public that will bring the random dumping to an end. 

In compliance with PCSO policy to alert the media and members of the public when a registered sex offender moves into the county, or changes address - here is the latest update.

Bryan C Pilcher - Level 3 Sex Offender
Convicted in 1989 for indecent exposure, had over 200 female victims.  Convicted in 1999 for failure to register.

A group of demonstrators, led by the Immigrant Advocacy Foundation, picketed the Pinal County Sheriff’s office on June 6 protesting Sheriff Paul Babeu’s using “scare tactics to promote anti-immigrant sentiment.”

The group made the charges in the wake of Babeu’s stateMany of the people demonstrating in front of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office last week carried signs critical of what the group’s spokesperson Carlos Galindo called “the politicizing of his (sheriff’s) position.”

Below are the stats from this past weekend's Holiday DUI enforcement conducted by the Pinal County Regional DUI Task Force.

For the 16th straight year, Pinal County’s Finance Department has been nationally recognized for its work in financial reporting.

The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada has once again bestowed Pinal County with a prestigious Certificate of Achievement in Financial Reporting.  The honor is for the work accomplished on the county’s comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2011.

On Wednesday, Kelvin “Lee Lee” Barnett received a 39 year prison sentence after being found guilty on four felony counts, including dangerous drug possession and sale and tampering with a witness, in May.

During the presentencing and imposition of sentence hearing, Honorable Judge Boyd Johnson heard arguments from the Pinal County Attorney’s Office and Barnett’s defense counsel, where the County Attorney’s Office presented aggravating factors. 

On Wednesday, Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles attained the approval for three full-time positions that will staff a new Family Advocacy Center to be located in San Tan Valley.

The funding for these positions was included in the fiscal 2013-14 budget approved by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors on June 19, 2013. 

Senator Barbara McGuire, who represents a wide swath of Pinal County as District 8 Senator, was instrumental in ensuring that Pinal County would again receive an appropriation from Arizona Lottery revenues.  The $550,000 that McGuire secured for Pinal County will be used to provide vital county services from road construction and emergency management to public health and safety.

Counties have historically received lottery revenues since 1986.  In the most recent year for which distributions were made, $7.65 million went to counties – $550,000 for each of the 13 rural counties and $250,000 each for Pima and Maricopa counties.  In 2011, lottery revenue sharing was eliminated to assist the state in resolving its budget crisis.  

On Wednesday, the Pinal County Attorney’s Office successfully argued before Honorable Judge Neal to deny setting bond for Danny Davis, a Florence man arrested on Monday for shooting at construction workers and a PCSO deputy.

Steven W. Kerber, Founder and Fire Chief/Paramedic of Regional Fire & Rescue Department, was recently recognized by the Board of Directors of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) for achieving 20 consecutive years as a Nationally Registered Paramedic as of March 2013.  This distinction is an honor held by few EMTs, or Paramedics.

To maintain his status as a Nationally Registered Paramedic, Kerber completed, on a biennial basis, the most comprehensive recertification program for Emergency Medical Technicians in America. He not only completed courses to refresh his fundamental knowledge and skills but also attended a minimum number of two hours per month of additional continuing education courses to advance his knowledge on new lifesaving skills.

An instance of a properly sealed document being viewed by the County Attorney’s office has functioned as a catalyst to broadly reexamine electronic document security within the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court (COSC) in Pinal County.

“The security of court records is an absolute non-negotiable,” said Chad A. Roche. “And to be clear, at no time could a member of the general public access a sealed document – this was an issue of a department seeing something they should not have been able to see, and we’re fixing it,” he stated. The County Attorney has filed a motion to review the decision to seal the document in question; it is currently pending review by the judge on the case.