KQSS has finally received some of the information from the public records request we submitted with Gila County over a month ago. While the Verizon statement list 351 phones, the county had previously reported that the county provided 364 of it’s employees with cell phones.

The IT Director Daryl Griffin told us that the county was not charged for employee’s personal calls, but taxpayers did pay an addition $570 in February for additional usage charges. The Verizon statement also shows that the taxpayers paid an additional $1,760 in Equipment charges for the month of February. No details were provided on the equipment purchased.

The following county employees had costly unexplained equipment charges in February; IT Director Daryl Griffin $203, Supervisor's Staff Specialist Pam Fisher $419, Asst County Mgr /County Librarian Jacque Griffin $238, and a phone that is listed only as "Medical Spare" ran up $167 in Equipment charges. 3 Deputy Sheriff phones also showed equipment charges of $183 each, however KQSS is not questioning cell phone expenditures for Deputies or Instigators.

The Verizon statement also shows an additional $1,380 in Surcharges and "Other" charges.

65 of the active cell phones listed were not assigned to anyone, however taxpayers’ pay anywhere from $36 to $112 per month in monthly access charges. Only 11 of those phones show no use at all, but it cost the taxpayers approximately $450 a month for those unused phones. KQSS questions who is using the other 54 phones, some of which have gone over their minutes incurring additional charges. One phone listed only as "Spare" has a monthly access charge of $112, and is used regularly. Another phone listed as only "Medical Spare" had a $202 charge in February, $167 of that was for equipment.

Sam Brewer has 2 cell phones, Linda Hedges also has 2 cell phones, neither Brewer or Hedges were on the list the county provided of employee’s with cell phones, we couldn’t find them listed anywhere on the employee wage list either. (We have requested the intire 470 page Verizon statement so that we can provide you more info.)

We also received the receipts regarding the cost of the 3 new flat screens in the new Public Works Building, the TV in the conference room cost taxpayers $2,000, the TV in Steve Stratton’s office cost $550 and the TV in the spare office cost $880.
The total cost to the taxpayers for the 3 flat screen TV’s and additional hardware just over $4,000.

We received the letter below from Jacque Griffin regarding the TV’s

April 20, 2011

Dear Susan,

This letter is in response to your public records request dated April 15, 2011, requesting information regarding the three flat screen TV’s in the new Public Works building.

Attached you will find a copy of the invoice from Dell. These were purchased through the regular purchase order process, and not on a County credit card.

The 60" monitor is located in the large conference room, and will be used for video conferencing. The 46" monitor is located in the back small conference area, and will be used for internet-based video conferencing as well as staff training. The 32" monitor is located in Mr. Stratton’s office and will be used for internet-based video conferencing, as well as a second monitor for staff meetings, and disaster preparedness.

These were purchased as monitors for the purpose of video conferencing, staff training, staff meetings and
disaster preparedness  (<------) and are not connected as televisions.

Sincerely,

Jacque Griffin

Jacque Griffin

Assistant County Manager for

Information