Power grab! County Supervisors gut County Attorney’s Civil Division and set up their own attorneys

In an astonishing move, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has taken $6 million out of the $10 million budget County Attorney Andrew Thomas has for his civil division, effectively gutting the budget. FORTY-THREE employees will be ELIMINATED, reducing the civil division from 71 down to 28 employees. Instead, the Supervisors are directing the $6 million to go to a new division of attorneys they have set up under them. The East Valley Tribune is covering the story, here are some excerpts:

The civil division of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office was effectively gutted Monday when the Board of Supervisors stripped $6 million from the agency’s budget to set up its own in-house legal shop.

About $4 million will be redirected to a general litigation office that was created by the board in March, the turning point in a protracted power struggle between Thomas and the board over who has the authority to provide civil legal representation to the county

The move is the latest twist in the bitter battle that erupted last December when Thomas announced the indictment of Supervisor Don Stapley, a Mesa Republican accused of failing to report business and land deals on financial disclosure statements he is required to file as an elected official.

Thomas called the board’s latest action “shocking and disappointing” in a written statement issued Monday.

Barnett Lotstein, special assistant county attorney, said more than 40 people in the agency’s civil litigation division will lose their jobs if the board’s action is not overturned, either in a subsequent vote or by a judge. It also would result in a huge shift of power to the board, which would be free to act unchecked by challenges from other elected county officials, he said.

“It removes all checks and balances,” Lotstein said. “It makes them the final arbiter of whether or not you can challenge what the board of supervisors has done.”

Thomas’ lawsuit contends the board does not have the power to take away his duties as the lawyer for the county. He also has branded the board’s actions retaliation for his indictment of Stapley.