(CHANDLER, AZ) — Today Ed Hermes slammed the Board of Supervisors for failing to oversee how county taxpayer dollars are spent on the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office sister-city program with Honduras. A report by KPNX-12 News indicated that new documents from MCSO show that the program was significantly more costly than what they reported to the Board of Supervisors in earlier reported.

“The Board of Supervisors must demand that the County Sheriff account for his department’s spending,” said Hermes. “The Board should have demanded a full budget audit in February, which would have revealed the true cost of this wasteful program.”

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is the five-member board that allocates $2.3 billion tax dollars to 53 county departments and is responsible for making sure that the tax dollars are being spent correctly.

Hermes believes the Supervisors should be demanding answers when a program first reported to cost $34,000 was significantly more expensive, topping at least $285,000.

“It is unfortunate that news agencies know more about how county funds are being spent than the Board of Supervisors,” said Hermes. “When elected, I will make sure we conduct a full budget audit to rein in this kind of wasteful misspending.” 

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