Most of us have been working all our lives. Our financial decisions are based on common sense and good judgment. That’s what we expect from our elected officials as well. We get pissed when our tax money is wasted. We get angry when the electoral process is interfered with.
This is why I’m mad about the costly battles associated with the election in Cochise County. A lawsuit filed by two supervisors for violating the Open Conference Act to force election officials to break the law. Deliberately delaying the investigation of election results and transferring election affairs to partisan Electoral Skeptic Recorders. These ill-conceived efforts cost him well over $300,000 in taxpayer dollars to pay for attorneys’ fees, increased security, and staff time to handle her six cases in six months. Money wasted.
It is clear that counting all ballots by hand is irrational. It’s expensive, time consuming and inaccurate. In Cochise County, supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy, undaunted by a court order to stay, filed a lawsuit against elections official Lisa Mara to achieve their goals, only to file the lawsuit two days later. withdrew. Then came the resignation and costly replacement of Director Mara, which also upset us.
Registrar/Interim Elections Director David Stevens was solely responsible for hiring new elections directors. He put money into the taxpayer’s piggy bank and offered Bob Bartelsmeyer a salary of $95,000 a year, $4,000 more than the highest salary advertised in the job ad. The offer included an additional (rare) $10,000 relocation allowance, which was not mentioned in the post.
Stevens apparently didn’t bother to check the most basic element of a job application: the date a candidate was listed. Bartelsmeyer said he was employed in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, from August 2009 to June 2010, but actually retired in late April (not June, as he said). ). That itself may have been an oversight or a memory problem, but he resigned shortly before his June 2010 New Mexico primary. It should have been his responsibility to administer the election. Why the sudden departure?
Other warning signs Stevens ignored:
• Bartelsmeier did not want Cochise County to contact his former employer for the past 19 years.
• His last 20 years of election-related experience have been short-term positions in 4 different counties in 3 different states, less than 2 years in each position.
• He has an unexplained gap in his 12-year employment history
(2010-2022) and 3 years (2004-2007).
• He attended two colleges for eight years (1975-1983) but never graduated. Historically, election administrator positions required a bachelor’s degree.
• He does not hold an Arizona Elections Officer license (required by the state).
• His last Arizona election officer training certificate expired in December 2005.
In an effort to clarify the recruitment process and assuage our concerns, we have contacted county officials and filed a public records request seeking information and/or investigation regarding Mr. Bartelsmeyer’s recruitment process. These investigations yielded nothing. Recorder David Stevens, County Administrator Richard Karwatska, County Attorney Brian McIntyre, and former Personnel Director Elda Orduño (now retired) were all contacted, but received virtually no response. .
is this a cover up? Incompetent? Who gave Mr. Stevens permission to donate our money—more money than the county advertised? Was Mr. Stevens prioritizing himself over process?
Free, fair and safe elections are the foundation of democracy. Anyone caught tampering with the process should at least be investigated, if not dismissed and prosecuted for wrongdoing. Several of the aforementioned individuals are running for election in 2024, but clearly Cochise County doesn’t need elected officials to commit election malpractices or US dollar grabs.
Fred Miller is a Bisbee resident, former businessman and editor of the electronic newsletter The Bisbee Wire. Ali Morse is a resident of his Portal.
s
