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STAN GRIFFIS Former Pinal County Manager PLEADS GUILTY
(could be sentenced to over 50-years)

 Several Stories are Posted on this page - PLEASE SCROLL

Now, how many pre-approved lots are without Development Fees? And Tom Smith (SS spouse) is the well-paid director of the Pinal Partnership.

there's a lot of denial and whining here, but it looks to me like this could be the beginning of the roll over on the supervisors. According to his calculations he must have been in Vietnam for about five seconds because i don't think he's been in the joint for a month yet.  - kb

Griffis unrepentant in interview from Florence prison
Sounding stronger than during sentencing, he's focused on getting out


By ALAN LEVINE, Staff Writer    June 08, 2007

FLORENCE - Former Pinal County Manager Stan Griffis in a telephone interview with the Casa Grande Dispatch Wednesday sounded resentful and stronger than he had at his sentencing last month.
"I wanted to speak out before," he said, "but my lawyer said that if I did, the judge might not accept my plea. I was on trial and was quite ill," Griffis said from the Arizona Department of Corrections North Unit in Florence.
Griffis appeared before Judge Thomas O'Toole for his sentencing hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court on May 10, walking with a cane and the help of his attorney. He struggled to the podium and with a tremulous, barely audible voice read a statement in which he humbly apologized to the people of Pinal County, the Board of Supervisors, county staff members and his family for the financial machinations that resulted in his pleading guilty to six felony counts and a sentence of 3.5 years in prison plus an order to make restitution of more than $600,000.

It was a different Stan Griffis who spoke over the phone Wednesday morning. His voice was strong and steady and filled with anger and resentment, and his conversation was replete with acrimony and invectives aimed at the supervisors and some of his fellow county employees, as well as for special prosecutor Rick Romley, formerly the Maricopa County attorney.

His various health problems were brought out during his sentencing hearing, and Griffis' attorney had attempted to convince the judge that house arrest would be a safer way for Griffis to serve his sentence, but testimony from an Arizona Department of Corrections official convinced O'Toole that Griffis' health needs could be attended to in either Florence or Tucson correctional facilities.

Griffis was taken into custody immediately after sentencing, and he was sent to a Maricopa County medical facility before eventually being transferred to the North Unit in Florence, where he has spent his time in that facility's tent city.

"I was up in the hospital in Maricopa County for five or six days waiting to be transferred. I arrived in Florence a week ago Monday (May 28, Memorial Day) after spending the rest of the time in (Sheriff) Joe Arpaio's jail. Then they moved me to Alhambra, which is a kind of clearing place for where they send inmates to different yards depending on what your (criminal) classification is.

"Right now I'm in the tents down in Florence, and the doctor has ordered me over to a different yard, which is indoors and air-conditioned. These tents aren't. This tent city is much better than Arpaio's up in Phoenix. They have small swamp coolers, but they don't cool much when it gets really hot like it was yesterday. Most times, it's pretty comfortable."

When asked if he had become acclimated to prison life, he replied: "I'll survive."

He did say that his health needs were being met and that he was being checked regularly.

As far as his daily routine goes, he commented: "I get up, and I go over to the education area... working with these kids who have difficulty passing their GED. They have to pass their GED before they can be moved out, so I've got a job. They won't let me teach, so I work as a teacher's aide, which I think is a terrible waste of talent, but I don't make the rules."

While his incarceration has only just begun, Griffis did readily respond to the question of his eventual release and what his plans were once he was on the outside.

"I've retired twice now, and I'm coming up on 65. I'll probably be 67 to 68 before I get out, so I'm going to enjoy my retirement. I doubt if any universities would let me teach for them now."

As far as his obligation of 400 hours of community service, he said: "One of the things I was going to do before I was brought down here was to do volunteer work for the food bank in Apache Junction. I was involved in having that built years ago. As a matter of fact, I even did some carpentry work on it. I was thinking about volunteering there, and I build a lot of stuff and give it to different charities. I need to find out what counts as community service and what doesn't."

Griffis said his ire was born out of his contention that the supervisors and other county officials were aware of his financial dealings, especially his opening of a private account in order to finance the Superstition Valley Transportation Project.

The supervisors have presented a different picture, calling for a harsh sentence for Griffis because of his alleged betrayal of the trust of the board and public. Romley said that no one else shared blame for Griffis' schemes.

Griffis expressed anger over the manner in which he claimed that Romley's investigators mistreated his family, contending that taking the heat off his loved ones was a prime factor in his agreement to plead to the felony counts.

"The plea I made wasn't based on legalities. It was based on economics and my health. The prosecutor and his people were after my family. They hassled my kids... went to their places of employment. They made the lives of my former employees, who I thought very highly of, miserable.

"Yes, I paid myself out of that account (Griffis' Wells Fargo Bank account where the SVTP funds were deposited), but no, I didn't steal anything out of that account. The board and the county attorney (Robert Carter Olson) knew fully well what I was doing, and they lied about it. I can't make them tell the truth."

Regarding his dealings with the developers when he took control of the SVTP project, he said that it was the builders that wanted him to open a private account, because they were uneasy with the $5 million going into the "county's coffers."

"The road cost $5 million and not a penny of it came out of taxpayers' money. The developers paid for it. They came back to me and told me that they'd like the county to build the road. They said that they would pay for it, but they didn't want the money to go into the county coffers. They didn't trust the county.

"The developers told me that this was not a county project and that I was entitled to a commission on it. At first I said no. But then later on, and I can't tell you why, I paid myself out of the account. There was never a penny of county money involved in that project. The county got a $5 million road, which otherwise they wouldn't have gotten, and I hired all of the architects, all of the construction guys. I wrote all of the checks myself. I briefed them (board members and others) once a week on that road, the financial status and where the money came from. The developers had given me $5 million without any documentation on it."

To the contrary, Romley's perusal of the supervisors' and staff member's documents and e-mail records, as well as Romley's retrieval of Griffis' own deleted e-mails, did not provide evidence to confirm any of his allegations that he had kept board members and other county officials apprised of what he was doing.

"I've done so many criminal investigations," said Romley, "that I am convinced that the (elected) supervisors had no knowledge that Griffis had opened up a private bank account and was pilfering the money."

Griffis hinted at a possible motive for his actions, which included inflating his salary to raise his retirement benefits, when he stated: "They (other officials) were quick to take credit for most of the things that I had done for the county."

In closing, Griffis said: "What I need to do is to get the hell out of here. These are nice people, but I'd rather be someplace else with my wife. I've been married 44 years, and this is the longest that I've been away from her, including my tour of duty in Vietnam."

 

NOTE: All Hi-Lighting and comments in Red Font have been added by GCWS.

Press Release - CLICK HERE (4-pages)

Plea Agreement - CLICK HERE (5-pages)

Citizens Comments and Editorials are Heating UP - CLICK THIS LINK

Prosecutor wants 10 years for Griffis

 Defense cites ex-Pinal County manager’s health woes, character in clemency plea

 By J. CRAIG ANDERSON TRIBUNE  

Special prosecutor Richard Romley is asking a judge to sentence disgraced former Pinal County Manager Stanley Griffis to 10 years in prison, saying Griffis’ admitted theft of more than $400,000 from the county was a serious betrayal of public trust that demands harsh punishment.
   However, the defense is pleading for probation or house arrest, saying Griffis is in poor health, is not a danger to society and is a kind and decent person who simply made bad decisions out of anger.
   Romley and Griffis’ attorney, Lee Stein, filed memoranda with Maricopa County Superior Court special assignment Judge Thomas W. O’Toole late Friday, with each offering their sentencing recommendations and the underlying reasons.
   Romley’s memo contains new details about Griffis’ activities while working as the county’s top administrator, including specific instances in which he ordered county employees to break laws for his own benefit. It argues that showing leniency to Griffis would further violate the public’s already shaken trust in government officials.
   “In a democratic society, it is essential that those who serve the public do so with the greatest of integrity and responsibility,” Romley’s memo says. “Public corruption undermines the very foundation of our democracy and must be confronted with certainty, swiftness and severity of punishment.”
   The memo filed by Stein describes Griffis as a decorated war hero and dedicated family man who, overworked and frustrated with an ungrateful county Board of Supervisors, suffered a lapse in judgment.
   “He was encountering pressure from various members of the Board of Supervisors, including one member who was actively trying to force him out. (Which member of the BOS was this and why did he / she not go public?) Simultaneously, the Board members were taking credit for his work, not acknowledging his efforts and not standing up for him,” Stein’s memo says. (Of course the salary of Mr. Griffi’s was published at approx $200,000 per year – Really sounds as if his employers were very ungrateful)“It was this convergence of circumstances that angered and frustrated him and led him to make the bad choices he has made, and which he regrets deeply.”
   Griffis pleaded guilty in January to six felony counts including theft, fraud and tax fraud.
   He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge O’Toole in early May.
   The maximum allowable punishment for Griffis’ crimes is 51 years in prison.
   Romley is asking for 10 years in prison, plus an additional seven years probation and restitution payments of $7,000 per month.
   As part of his plea agreement, Griffis has agreed to repay money that includes $426,800 he admitted stealing from a county road improvement fund known as the Superstition Valley Transportation Project, intended to reduce congestion in and around Apache Junction and Queen Creek.
   He also has agreed to pay Romley’s fee and other investigative costs totaling $172,000.
   Because the plea agreement requires that Griffis pay $275,000 of the total restitution amount of $640,000 when he is sentenced, the former county manager has been forced to obtain a second mortgage and is nearly broke, according to Stein’s memo.
   “He has almost no remaining assets,” it says.
   In addition, the defense memo says Griffis, 64, is “in extremely poor health” with severe heart disease, a clogged artery, acute breathing problems, diabetes and “malaria flare-ups” from contracting the disease while serving in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War.
   A prison term would kill him, Stein concludes.
   But the prosecution memo notes that Griffis took a trip to Africa in December to “construct homes,” which would seem to indicate he is in decent health.
   “The Department of Corrections has adequate health care capabilities to address any health problems that may arise for the defendant,” the Romley memo says.
   Romley, a former Maricopa County Attorney hired by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors to investigate allegations that Griffis misused public funds to purchase weapons and ammunition, has said Griffis is the only Pinal County official facing criminal charges despite the involvement of other county staff members.
   Romley’s sentencing memo describes four separate instances in which Griffis ordered his staff to break the law in order to boost his take-home salary and pension benefits, and to give him sole control over the public funds he stole.
   “The defendant ordered numerous county employees to have all checks related to Superstition Valley Transportation Project be given to him,” it says. “When this procedure was challenged, he ordered that normal protocols would not be followed and that all checks were still to be sent to him.”  (And the Supervisor of District 2 did not miss the money)
   Griffis also used artificially inflated salary figures to apply for a higher annual pension than he deserved. For three years, Griffis was paid for vacation time he didn’t earn, untaxed, and then he used the illegal pay to obtain undeserved retirement benefits. (The Treasurer apparently did not notice that something was wrong with the government payroll reports)
   Public employee pensions are calculated based on the three highest-salary years during the employee’s last 10 years of employment.
   Griffis has been ordered to repay those extra benefits — more than $37,000 — since Arizona State Retirement System officials caught on to the deception in August.
   From 2002 to 2003, Griffis’ salary increased from $129,480 to $200,588. The boost was far more than his budgeted annual pay increase of $21,300, and the bulk of it came from cashed-out vacation pay, which under his contract he was not entitled to receive until retirement.
   Griffis continued to receive more than his budgeted pay from January 2003 until he retired in January 2006. His gross pay for that period was $677,177 — about $200,000 more than his regular salary.

       Tax records obtained from Pinal County show more than $300,000 of Griffis’ pay was excluded from taxation. During those three years, the county withheld only $42,337 in federal income taxes from his paychecks. (The Treasurer apparently did not notice that something was wrong with the government payroll reports)
   Throughout that time, Griffis periodically told county staff to increase the amount of his cashed-out vacation pay. He also had them create phony payroll codes to funnel the money, pre-tax, into private accounts.
   According to the defense memo, Griffis cannot explain why he committed those crimes, but they are an aberration in an otherwise exemplary life.
   Griffis “had no criminal record and has been a law-abiding and highly productive member of society for his entire life,” it says. (Is this a true statement or did he just now get caught?)
   He “has faithfully and tirelessly served his family, his country, his community and his church in a myriad of ways.”
   —
   CONTACT WRITER: (480) 898-5936 or E-Mail Craig Anderson 

Stanley Griffis

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 This is what happens when you mess with people in Pinal County.
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SEVERAL PINAL COUNTY MANAGER STORIES ARE ALL AVAILABLE - SCROLL DOWN TO REVIEW.

Pinal staff escapes charges
Investigator says aides intimidated by ex-county manager

 By J. CRAIG ANDERSON - TRIBUNE - February 23, 2007

   The recent investigation into Pinal County government corruption began and ended with former County Manager Stanley Griffis, who has pleaded guilty to felony payroll and tax fraud, along with stealing nearly half a million dollars of public transportation funds.
But Griffis did not act alone.
   Independent investigator and former Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley has said Griffis is the only Pinal County official facing criminal charges. Griffis pleaded guilty last month to six felony counts of theft, fraud and tax fraud,
   However, county e-mails and memos released by Romley on Thursday show that several other county employees conveyed, executed or were apprised of Griffis’ illegal instructions to give him personal control of public funds, overpay himself, hide his income from taxation and steal from the state employee retirement system.
   None of the other employees in- volved took steps to stop the illegal activity, but Romley said none appears to have benefited from Griffis’ schemes. They were intimidated into doing his bidding and therefore will not be punished, Romley said.
   “Some individuals did some jobs, but it was basically because Mr. Griffis ordered them to,” he said.
   Those individuals include Griffis’ then-assistant Ria Petty, now administrative manager in Pinal County Manager Terry Doolittle’s office. She oversaw deposits of Superstition Valley Transportation Fund checks into a private bank account that Griffis controlled and ultimately withdrew $426,800 from for his personal use. The transportation fund was created as a means for housing developers in the fast-growing county to contribute to building roads.
   Shortly after Griffis created the illegal account, then-county public works comptroller Ann Rankin sent a memo dated Aug. 6, 2001, to building safety director State Brown, instructing him that all the fund’s checks should go directly to Griffis and that the county manager controlled those monies.
   Romley uncovered far more detailed records of county staff involvement in Griffis’ admitted payroll fraud, including an e-mail exchange between accounting operations manager Jane Cisco and accountant Nina Guillen, dated Sept. 12, 2005. In it, the pair discussed falsifying Griffis’ eligible vacation hours.
   Griffis had instructed county finance and human resources staff to cash out 47 hours of vacation time each pay period and deposit it into a special account, which allowed him to hide the money from taxation while still claiming it as part of his salary.
   Romley said that was important to Griffis because he then used the artificially inflated salary figures to apply for a higher annual pension than he deserved. For three years, Griffis was paid for vacation time he didn’t earn, untaxed, and then he used the illegal pay to obtain undeserved retirement benefits.
   Public employee pensions are calculated based on the three highest-salary years during the employee’s last 10 years of employment.
   Griffis was later forced to repay those extra benefits — nearly $28,000 — after Arizona State Retirement System officials caught on to the deception in August.
   In the e-mail exchange, Cisco and Guillen discussed that they were to pay Griffis 47 hours’ worth of vacation pay on his next two paychecks, although he only had seven accrued hours remaining and was donating additional hours to his daughter, Michelle Griffis, a county employee who still works in the assessor’s office.
   “He only has ... 115 (hours) of sick and 7 of vac(ation), Guillen wrote. “We take 47 vacation each pay day.”
   “Is there not any more sick?” Cisco responded.
   “His time is getting low, and now he is donating to his daughter,” Guillen replied. “I need to transfer about 50 to cover this payday and have enough to cover one more and that is it.”
   From 2002 to 2003, Griffis’ salary increased from $129,480 to $200,588. The boost was far more than his budgeted annual pay increase of $21,300, and the bulk of it came from cashed-out vacation pay, which under his contract, he was not entitled to receive until retirement.
   Griffis continued to receive in excess of his budgeted pay from January 2003 until he retired in January 2006. His gross pay for that period was $677,177 — about $200,000 more than his regular salary.
   Tax records obtained from Pinal County show more than $300,000 of Griffis’ pay was excluded from taxation. During those three years, the county withheld only $42,337 in federal income taxes from his paychecks.
   Throughout that time, Griffis periodically told county staff to increase the amount of his cashed-out vacation pay. He also had them create phony payroll codes to funnel the money, pre-tax, into private accounts.
   Usually, he sent instructions to Cisco via e-mail, according to the documents. Other recipients included Guillen, Human Resources Director Mike Arnold, accountant Wanda Perry and records coordinator Deb Kosbab.
   In an e-mail dated Sept. 27, 2004, Griffis told Cisco to place a check for “sabbatical pay” into the pre-tax account.
   “When you pay me for the two weeks sabbatical, I would like for it to all go into the Amtrust Bank” account, Griffis wrote. “It should be a before taxes transaction.”
   County spokesman Joe Pyritz said the employees who sent or received e-mail instructions in connection with the payroll fraud did not want to comment.
   “They may be called in the sentencing phase to testify, and some of them are a little leery about talking before that,” Pyritz said.
   Griffis’ sentencing is scheduled May 10 in Maricopa County Superior Court, where he could face up to 51 years in prison. He has agreed to repay $639,000.
   Griffis’ attorney Lee Stein also had no comment about the payroll issue.
   Despite the volume of evidence linking county employees to Griffis’ illegal actions, Romley said he did not uncover a single record indicating the Pinal County Board of Supervisors was aware of those activities.
   —
CONTACT WRITER: (480) 898-5936 - or E-MAIL CRAIG

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Pinal graft called Ariz. worst  

Ex-county boss Griffis pilfered $426,800, investigators say  

By J. CRAIG ANDERSON - East Valley TRIBUNE - February 21, 2007

   Pinal County’s former manager lined his pockets with nearly a half-million dollars of public funds earmarked for building East Valley roads in what investigators are calling the worst case of theft by a government official in Arizona history.
   Stanley Griffis has pleaded guilty to six felony counts of fraud and theft that include spending $426,800 of the county’s Superstition Valley Transportation Project funds to enrich his family trust, purchase cars and remodel his home.
   In a five-page plea agreement signed Jan. 31, Griffis also admitted to defrauding the Arizona State Retirement System, committing tax fraud and misusing county credit cards on 65 occasions for his personal benefit, including the purchase of a $600 lifetime membership to the National Rifle Association.
   As a result, he has agreed to pay more than $600,000 in restitution and faces up to 51 years in prison. Griffis is scheduled to be sentenced before a Maricopa County Superior Court judge in May.
   Former Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley, who led the investigation with help from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the Arizona Office of the Auditor General, announced the plea agreement Tuesday during a news conference in Florence, the seat of Pinal County government.
   The investigators called it the largest and perhaps boldest theft by a public official in Arizona history.
   “I can’t think of a bigger one since I was (elected) county attorney, and that was 18 years ago,” said Romley, now a private consultant, hired by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors in January 2006 to investigate allegations that Griffis spent $21,000 in Pinal County Sheriff’s Department funds on guns and ammunition for his personal use.
   But the weapons purchase merely allowed investigators in the door. When they opened it, Romley said, they found a seemingly endless trail of documents showing how Griffis used private bank accounts to steal public money, illegally cash in benefits, spike his pension and avoid income taxes.
   “We had to trace many different bank accounts,” he said.
   Most of the money Griffis stole came from the Superstition Valley Transportation Project, a fund created by Pinal County in the late 1990s to address the increased need for roads caused by rapid development in the Superstition Valley area, which includes Apache Junction and Gold Canyon.
   Developers were to be charged an impact fee for every home they built, and that money was to be used to improve transportation routes, Romley said.
   However, in January 2000, Griffis opened a private bank account in the name of the transportation project, for which Griffis alone controlled deposits and withdrawals.
   Although some money in the account was used for road projects, Griffis also began taking funds for his personal use. In all, he admitted stealing $426,800 from the account.
   Griffis created another bank account in 2003 into which he had the county regularly deposit a portion of his salary and cashed-out vacation pay, pre-tax. In all, $308,000 was paid into the account.
   “He never paid taxes on those monies,” Romley said.
   Griffis never reported any of his absences during the time he was manager and thus accrued hundreds of hours of sick and vacation time, Romley said. His contract only allowed Griffis to accrue 1,200 hours of vacation time, to be paid after his retirement, but Griffis had the county convert the hours to cash beginning in 2003 for the purposes of inflating his regular salary, Romley said.
   A lesser crime involved using county credit cards to pay for gas and other personal expenses to which Griffis was not entitled. In all, he benefited improperly by about $3,250, Romley said.
   Investigators also got a glimpse of how Griffis ran the county, as a “tyrant” who threatened retaliation against anyone who challenged his authority.
   “There were consequences if you didn’t follow his orders,” Romley said.
   As a result, he said, no other county officials will be indicted in connection with the fraud and theft, even though Griffis clearly did not act alone.
   The Board of Supervisors issued a written statement Tuesday saying that Griffis “abused the trust the Board of Supervisors placed in him to effectively create an environment in which he had unbridled autonomy over financial matters.”
   It goes on to say the board “has accepted complete responsibility for misplacing its trust” in the former manager but does not “accept responsibility for the personal criminal conduct of Mr. Griffis.”
   Griffis, who was the county’s top administrator for 17 years before retiring while under investigation and on administrative leave in January 2006, was not present at the news conference or available for comment. Griffis, in his mid-60s, has been suffering from heart problems and recently underwent bypass surgery.
   As part of the plea agreement, he has agreed to pay $602,000 in restitution to the county — which includes $172,000 for investigative fees — and $37,000 to the Arizona Department of Revenue for taxes owed. Griffis was ordered in August by the state retirement system to return $27,795 in benefits.
   Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, also present at the news conference, said Griffis’ case is “a sad story of the abuse of public trust here in Pinal County, but it’s a story that’s over.”
   Goddard said new policies and controls have been implemented that will prevent similar abuse by a public official.
   But some onlookers, including Pinal County Republican Committee Chairwoman and longtime county government critic Sharron Gill, said they aren’t so sure. “The massive growth of this county requires people who have more business sense and more savvy than what we currently have,” Gill said. “There have been too many mistakes.”
   —
   CONTACT WRITER: - (480) 898-5936 or E-MAIL CRAIG

County Supervisors & Manager at hearing

Rick Romley

Photos are thumbnails - CLICK THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE

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County rejects bid to fund Griffis' suit Former Pinal official suing over pension

Carl Holcombe - The Arizona Republic - Nov. 9, 2006 12:00 AM (Red font and underlining added for importance)

Former Pinal County Manager Stan Griffis, the focus of an ongoing public corruption probe, won't get any county financial help in his battle with the Arizona State Retirement System over how big his monthly retirement checks should be.

Griffis is appealing a decision by the retirement system to strip him of about $50,000 a year and had asked the Pinal County Board of Supervisors to fund that appeal.

On Wednesday, the board said no.

Griffis was placed on administrative leave and then retired in January after a sheriff's investigation revealed he spent about $21,000 of county money on sniper rifles and ammunition he kept for personal use.

Griffis and others connected to him are the target of a nearly yearlong ongoing investigation by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley.

The retirement system this summer determined that Griffis had improperly submitted annual salary amounts that were inflated with a total of $206,433 in converted unused vacation and sick hours.

A public employee's pension payments are determined by a formula that takes into account their three highest salary years.

However, the retirement system does not allow converted vacation or sick hours to be included in those salary numbers, even if the employee is paid that money.

The agency reduced Griffis' monthly pension payments to $8,765 from $12,945 in July, from $155,000 to about $105,000 annually, and ordered him to pay back $27,795.

In an August letter to ASRS, Griffis' attorneys said that a verbal agreement Griffis had with the Pinal County Board of Supervisors allowed his base salary over the three years, which was submitted to the agency, to include additional funds from accumulated vacation days as part of his regular salary and not as converted hours.

The letter stated that the majority of the county supervisors approved increasing Griffis' salary to reflect the vacation pay.

Griffis asked the county to pay his legal and other costs to fight to get the benefits back, basing his argument on a 1995 written county employment agreement.

County officials rejected the request without discussion Wednesday at its board meeting after an executive session to discuss the issue.

Special county attorney Marc Lieberman, of Kutak Rock LLP, said the county was only responsible for covering Griffis' legal fees under that employment agreement if Griffis was sued in his capacity as county manager.

"It was sort of an easy one," Lieberman said. "Indemnity only goes to lawsuits against Griffis. He's trying to characterize his actions (against ASRS) as some sort of lawsuit."

Griffis' attorneys at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain PA declined to comment on the decision.

Supervisor David Snider said county attorneys told him he shouldn't explain why he rejected Griffis' request.

An agency administrative hearing on Griffis' appeal is Wednesday.

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Pinal won’t pay ex-leader’s legal fees 

Submitted salary was inflated, state board says  

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS — E.V. Tribune November 9, 2006

   The Pinal County Board of Supervisors won’t help its former top administrator fight for a larger retirement check.
   The board on Wednesday rejected a request by former County Manager Stan Griffis to pay his legal fees while he appeals the Arizona State Retirement System’s decision that stripped him of some $50,000 in yearly pension pay.
   The system had determined Griffis’ submitted salary amounts were inflated with $206,433 in converted, unused vacation and sick hours, increasing his monthly pension from $8,765 to $12,945.
   The agency took it away in July, and he was ordered to pay back $27,795.
   Griffis is the focus of an ongoing public corruption probe being conducted by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley.
   He had been placed on administrative leave and then retired in January after a sheriff’s investigation revealed he spent about $21,000 of county money on sniper rifles and ammunition he kept for personal use.

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Griffis told to return $27,795

State audit: Retired Pinal official inflated pension (posted August 29, 2006)

 By J. CRAIG ANDERSON TRIBUNE - CONTACT WRITER: (480) 898-5936 or canderson@aztrib.com

   Retirement won’t be quite as comfortable for former Pinal County Manager Stanley Griffis now that a state agency is taking back pension pay it says he didn’t deserve.
   Griffis, currently the subject of a separate corruption investigation, was ordered to return $27,795 in retirement benefits to the Arizona State Retirement System after an audit determined the reported salary — the basis for his pension — had been inflated.
   According to state documents, Retirement System auditors notified Griffis in mid-July that his annual benefits would be slashed by more than 30 percent, from about $155,000 to $105,000.
   Griffis’ attorney, Lee Stein, said he may appeal the findings but would not comment further.
   Retirement System spokesman David Cannella said public employees’ pensions are calculated based on their three highest-salary years during the last 10 years of employment.
   Auditors determined that Griffis’ reported salary for the three years before retirement was overstated by about $200,000 because it included the proceeds from cashing out hundreds of hours of leave time. As a result, he has been receiving monthly pension checks of about $13,000 instead of the correct amount — just under $9,000.
   “We made an overpayment of $27,000 and we want it back,” Cannella said.
   Retirement System auditors did not determine whether the erroneous reporting was intentional, he said.
   Former Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley is investigating allegations that Griffis spent county funds on $21,000 worth of weapons and ammunition for his personal use in 2005.
   Romley, who was hired by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, said that he also is looking at the pension issue as part of a “criminal investigation.”
   Cannella said intentional salary inflation, also known as “salary spiking,” is rare because such information generally comes from the retiree’s employer.
   Salary spiking is considered an attempt to defraud a state agency, Cannella said, which is a felony offense punishable by up to a year in jail and a $150,000 fine.

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Stan Griffis - Retired Pinal official has benefits cut

Carl Holcombe - The Arizona Republic - Aug. 26, 2006 12:00 AM

Former Pinal County Manager Stan Griffis, the target of an ongoing public corruption probe, will lose tens of thousands of dollars in retirement benefits after an investigation by the Arizona State Retirement System.

Last month, the state retirement system sent a letter to Griffis, 63, requiring him to pay back $27,795 and notifying him that his monthly retirement checks will be reduced to $8,765, from $12,945, according to documents obtained from the agency by The Arizona Republic.

The $4,180 cut in monthly payments means about $50,000 less a year for the rest of Griffis' life, reducing his annual payments from about $155,000 to about $105,000.

Beginning with public employees hired since 1984, state retirement has used age, years of public employment and highest salaries, not counting vacation or sick pay, over three years to calculate monthly retirement payments. According to county and agency records, Griffis had inflated his annual salary during his past three years of employment $206,433 by including payments for unused vacation and sick hours.

By converting the hours, Griffis also may have violated his contract with Pinal County, which allowed him to convert only up to 1,200 hours at the time he left the job. Payment for 1,200 hours at Griffis' highest salary would have amounted to about $96,000. The $206,433 amount indicates he took hundreds more hours than that.

Griffis' attorney, Lee Stein, of Phoenix-based Perkins Coie Brown & Bain PA, said they may appeal the state decision and declined to comment on the findings.

He said Griffis, who retired Jan. 11 after 16 years with the county, had been granted a short extension and has about two weeks to make a decision.

Griffis and others connected to him are the target of an investigation by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley.

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors hired Romley to conduct the investigation after placing Griffis on administrative leave in December and after a Sheriff's Office investigation revealed he spent about $21,000 of county money on rifles, ammunition and equipment, which he kept for personal use.

Romley is empowered to call a grand jury in the investigation and will determine whether Griffis should face criminal charges or civil penalties.

Pinal-Griffis gun case becoming more complicated, Romley says

Investigation will likely continue for next few months

 By J. CRAIG ANDERSON TRIBUNE
CONTACT WRITER: (480) 898-5936 or canderson@aztrib.com

 
   Investigators are finding more ammunition than expected as they probe allegations that retired Pinal County Manager Stanley Griffis used county funds to enhance his personal gun collection.

   The investigation, led by former Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley, has expanded and is likely to continue for a few more months, Romley told the Tribune on Monday.

   “Truth be told, this investigation has grown significantly in a number of areas,” Romley said, adding that he would not give specifics until his report is completed.

   The Pinal County Board of Supervisors hired Romley in January to conduct an independent investigation following allegations Griffis purchased more than $21,000 worth of firearms and accessories with county funds in 2005.

   Griffis, who was placed on administrative leave in December and retired a month later, has said the issue is a misunderstanding.

   Romley is serving as a special deputy Pinal County attorney to follow up on a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office fact-finding report about Griffis’ purchases completed last fall.

   The former prosecutor said he’s speaking out about the inquiry’s progress after learning that some East Valley residents were getting impatient for the outcome, especially after it was reported that Romley will take a three-month hiatus from the Griffis case.
 
   “They really deserve an answer as to what’s going on,” he said.

   Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson on Wednesday named Romley as a special adviser to the VA probe into the recent identity theft of 26.5 million veterans. In his absence, Romley said Brad Astrowsky, an experienced white-collarcrime prosecutor, will serve as his temporary replacement.

   Astrowsky is former head of identity theft crimes for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and is now an associate at law firm Zimmerman Reed PLLP in Scottsdale.  

   Romley had told the Tribune that he hoped to complete his investigation by the end of May. But on Monday he said the expanded scope of the probe has resulted in the need to gather and review tens of thousands of additional documents.
   “It’s not even close to being done,” he said.

DEPUTY: Richard Romley discusses Monday an investigation into the alleged misuse of Pinal County funds.
BRAD ARMSTRONG, TRIBUNE

Stanley Griffis

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Pinal County’s pay of ex-manager scrutinized

 By J. Craig Anderson, Tribune - June 8, 2006
Contact J. Craig Anderson by email, or phone (480) 898-5936

Pinal County paid retired County Manager Stanley Griffis thousands of dollars above his regular salary during his last three years of employment, while labeling more than half his gross pay “excludable” on federal income tax records.

The new information has surfaced while a corruption investigation led by former Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley continues to expand into new areas of Griffis’ activities as the county’s top administrator.

Documents obtained by the Tribune indicate that from 2002 to 2003, Griffis’ salary jumped from $129,480 to $200,588. The boost was far more than his budgeted annual pay increase of $21,300.

Griffis continued to receive in excess of his budgeted pay from January 2003 until his retirement in January 2006. In all, his gross pay for the three years was $677,177 — about $200,000 more than his budgeted salary.

The tax records, obtained from Pinal County, reflect that $392,196 of Griffis’ pay was marked “excludable.” For the three-year period, the county withheld a total $42,337 in federal income taxes from Griffis’ paychecks, the records show.

Pinal County assistant manager Manny Gonzales declined to explain what “excludable” means, saying he was instructed by Phoenix attorney Michele Iafrate, who represents the county, not to answer the question.

“This thing is still being investigated, so I can’t really respond,” Gonzales said.

Lee Stein, a Phoenix attorney who represents Griffis, did not return phone calls seeking an explanation of the tax exclusion.

However, in an earlier interview Stein did explain why Griffis’ gross pay exceeded his regular salary.

“The increases that you see are largely due to Stan cashing in his accrued leave pay over a three-year period,” Stein said.

Stein said Griffis’ contract allowed him to accrue up to 1,200 hours of vacation pay, which he chose to cash out incrementally during his last three years as county manager.

Before he retired on Jan. 11, Griffis’ regular salary was $167,669 a year, which equates to about $81 per hour. If he had cashed out 1,200 hours of vacation pay, the total increase would have amounted to $96,732 — less than half the excess pay he received.

David Cannella, spokesman for the Arizona State Retirement System, said pensions for public employees are calculated based on their three highest-salary years during the last 10 years of employment.

Cannella would not comment specifically about Griffis, but he said the practice known as “salary spiking,” in which annual pay is artificially inflated to generate a higher pension, is rare because it requires the participation of other employees within an organization.

 In cases where a retiree’s salary appears to include accrued pay for sick days or vacation, the Retirement System usually notices the sharp increase and calls the former employer to resolve the matter, Cannella said.

“You can’t include these kinds of payouts for your last year,” he said.

Griffis has been under investigation since leaving office for allegations that he used $21,000 of county funds to purchase weapons and ammunition for his personal use in 2005. He has since returned the items and said the issue was a misunderstanding.

But Romley, who was hired by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors to lead the investigation, said his inquiry has expanded into several other areas and would take at least a few more months to complete.

Payroll history*

Former Pinal County Manager Stanley Griffis received 42 percent more than his budgeted salary between January 2003 and his retirement in January 2006.

2003 Maximum salary budgeted:
$150,779 Actual gross pay: $200,589 “Excludable” salary: $100,418 Federal income tax withheld:
$16,501

2004 Maximum salary budgeted:
$157,643 Actual gross pay: $235,840 “Excludable” salary: $149,564 Federal income tax withheld:
$11,882

2005 Maximum salary budgeted:
$167,669 Actual gross pay: $228,704 “Excludable” salary: $137,786 Federal income tax withheld:
$12,795 Source: Pinal County tax records *Does not include pay for January 2006.

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 Payroll oddities surface in Pinal

Carl Holcombe
The Arizona Republic - Jun. 7, 2006 12:00 AM

Former Pinal County Manager Stan Griffis, who is the target of a public-corruption investigation, took home hundreds of thousands of dollars over his budgeted pay during his last three years in office, records obtained by The Arizona Republic show.

County officials could not explain the discrepancies.

The difference between Griffis' budgeted pay during 2003, 2004 and 2005, after taking into account annual raises, and the amount of money he took home during those three calendar years totals between about $189,000 and $213,000, according to county records.

Pinal County payroll records also reveal Griffis' gross pay rose steeply during his last years. For example, he was paid $120,792 in 2001 and $129,480 in 2002. In 2003, his pay rose by about $71,000, or 55 percent, bringing it to $200,588.

"We don't know where it came from," said Pinal County Supervisor Sandie Smith. "We want to find out exactly what it was. That's why we've asked Rick Romley to look at it."

Romley, a special investigator and former Maricopa County attorney, was hired by the county to probe allegations of criminal and civil misconduct by Griffis and anyone linked to him.

Current County Manager Terry Doolittle and Supervisors Lionel Ruiz and David Snider said they couldn't comment on the pay discrepancies while the investigation is ongoing. Romley declined to say where the additional pay came from. But he said the investigation will go much deeper and take several more months than originally expected.

"Other matters have now come forth that involve serious allegations that have forced me to expand the investigation," Romley said. "We're going to do a thorough job."

The investigation was launched Jan. 11, the day Griffis retired after 16 years as county manager. The Pinal County Board of Supervisors had put Griffis on administrative leave in December following a Sheriff's Office investigation that revealed he spent about $21,000 of county money on sniper rifles, ammunition and equipment that he kept for months for personal use.

Griffis didn't return The Republic's calls requesting comment. Attorney Lee Stein, who is representing Griffis in the investigation, said Griffis was paid for accrued time, such as unused vacation or sick time.

"That was him cashing out accrued time over a three-year period," Stein said.

Stein said the Board of Supervisors knew about it.

Under a 1995 employment agreement with the Board of Supervisors, Griffis would have been permitted to be paid for up to 1,200 hours,or 30 weeks, of rolled-over sick and vacation pay. All other county employees are allowed to accrue 360 hours, according to county Finance Director Jane Cisco.

But instead of getting paid for the rolled-over time at the end of his employment as most employees do, Stein confirmed that Griffis was paid for rolled-over time at least every year during his last three years.

County policy doesn't allow employees to get early payouts on accrued time unless they get approval from the County Manager's Office, Cisco said. If they do get approval and cash out hours early they can start over accumulating unused hours. At 15 years of service, county employees also get a one-time boost of 160 hours for vacation time.

At retirement, Griffis earned about $80 an hour. At that rate, the rolling over of 1,200 hours could explain about $96,000 of the approximately $200,000 difference in budgeted vs. take-home pay over his last three years. To explain $200,000, Griffis would have had to have cashed out at least 1,300 more hours.

Also, it is unknown what annual take-home amount the Arizona State Retirement System is using to calculate Griffis' monthly pension. The agency would not release the numbers.

The system uses a formula that includes the three highest years of gross salary, said the system's spokesman David Cannella.

It's against state law for public employees to boost their gross pay with payments for things like accrued sick time, vacation or special retirement payments, Cannella said.

Board of Supervisors Places County Manager on Administrative Leave Pending Outcome of Review

The preliminary internal investigation into the matter has been completed and the report forwarded to Financial Audit Manager Phillip Shultz of the Arizona Auditor General’s Office. The Auditor General’s Office has reportedly determined the case doesn’t warrant their involvement, in which case the Board of Supervisors would most likely determine what, if any, action will be taken in the matter.

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	Deputies seize weapons from Pinal manager Carl Holcombe - The Arizona Republic - Nov. 30, 2005 12:00 AM Pinal County sheriff's deputies seized $21,000 worth of sniper rifles and related equipment from County Manager Stan Griffis after he refused to return the weapons. Griffis said he bought the guns with county money last spring for the sheriff's volunteer posse. But the posse is not allowed to use such weapons. One sniper rifle remains unaccounted for, according to findings from a sheriff's investigation. Griffis said he never had the $3,000 gun, despite the purchase order obtained by the Sheriff's Office, and doesn't know where it is. Griffis, who is retiring in January after 16 years as county manager, has faced no punishment in the case. The Pinal County attorney said he was unaware of it until questioned by The Arizona Republic, as was the state Attorney General's Office. The Arizona Auditor General's Office has declined to investigate, citing a lack of staff. Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez said Griffis never consulted him about purchasing the weapons using the posse's account. The account is funded by a small amount of annual county revenues and money the posse earns working security for events like the Country Thunder music festival. Griffis said he used money from the county's $1 million contingency fund to pay back the posse account. Griffis, a firearms trainer and volunteer posse member, said he considered the guns his "duty weapons." He never tagged or inventoried the equipment with the county and kept the weapons loaded and in his truck, county reports said. The Sheriff's Office began an investigation into the purchase after posse members began making allegations of embezzlement. Vasquez said he couldn't figure out why Griffis bought the guns because the volunteer posse members are barred from using such weapons on duty and Griffis can't train deputies because he isn't a sworn peace officer. "When you get into these kinds of rifles, they're used by snipers, and that's not the position I want the posse to be in," Vasquez said. "They don't have the training. We use SWAT for sniper rifles. We'll probably never use the posse for (that)." According to the investigation report released by the Sheriff's Office under the Arizona Public Records Law, "(T)hese expenditures had zero relation to any authorized duty or function of the (posse). . . . If the firearms and other items were not authorized for posse use, which was the original claim, then taking public money from other areas of the Pinal County budget for these expenditures was also a misuse." Griffis said he spent from April to August providing occasional training on the weapons to posse members. He said that posse members frequently accompany sworn deputies on patrol and that those rifle skills could be handy if a deputy is incapacitated. The investigation was completed in late October, and deputies were sent to Griffis' Gold Canyon home to retrieve the weapons, accessories and ammunition. Griffis said he has resigned from the posse and from firearms training for the posse. Posse coordinator Charles Higgins said the posse members are supposed to be backup personnel and have no need for high-powered weapons. "What's the need for rifles?" Higgins asked. "We're not SWAT." He said the posse account is not typically used to buy weapons. Posse members buy their own guns. Pinal County Attorney Carter Olson is reviewing Sheriff's Office reports on the matter after becoming aware of the situation this week, spokesman Chuck Teagarden said. Pinal County Supervisor David Snider said he still had not fully read the report. Supervisor Sandie Smith sent a Sept. 26 letter to the Auditor General's Office, about a month before the sheriff's investigation was done. The two-sentence letter asked for an expanded review of posse expenditures and county firearms inventory procedures but said nothing about the investigation, Griffis' purchase of the guns or why she was making such a request. County officials are reviewing their policies and procedures to see if policies were violated, Deputy County Manager Terry Doolittle said.
	Purchased items Pinal County Manager Stan Griffis used a volunteer sheriff's posse account to buy weapons and accessories the posse isn't authorized to use and never received. These are some of the items purchased. • DPMS AR-15 .223 rifle: $840. • Springfield Armory M21 .308 tactical rifle: $2,931. • Two Leupold Mark IV rifle scopes: $1,866. • One case .223 ammo: $286. • Three scope bases and two sets of QC rings: $375. • One laser sight for a 1911 Colt: $393. • Twenty boxes of 16-gauge ammo: $108. • Six AR-15 magazines: $127. • One free-float rifle forearm for the DPMS rifle: $173. • An AR-15 front sight, rear sight and a holographic sight: $601. • One weapon flashlight: $295. • Clay bird targets. • Unknown MasterCard purchases: $511.62. Source: Pinal County Sheriff's Office

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