Pinal County Lawsuit roils Board of Supervisors
VIA SBINSIDER | February 3rd, 2023
UPDATE: The Board has decided to hold a Special Session at 3pm today (Friday) to further review this matter. Link to video here.
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday (Fed 1) planned to release to the public the report detailing the allegations of defamation and harassment of county employees by Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh. The allegations and subsequent lawsuits filed by Garland Shreves and Amanda Stanford who work in the County Attorney’s office, claimed they were wrongly accused of having a sexual affair and that was the basis for Stanford being hired. Stanford resigned from her elective position as Clerk of the Pinal County Superior Court to go to work in the finance department of the County Attorney, Kent Volkmer. That resignation took place in April of 202o. The lawsuits were filed totaling $13 million dollars in April of 2022. Shreeves spoke in public at that time to the Board “When a publicly-elected county supervisor makes wild allegations without any accountability,” Shreves said, “I have no recourse as an employee, nor does Ms. Stanford…”
The Board hired outside investigations to develop a report and the release of that report was an on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting. The Board convened as usual at 9:30AM but unusually, immediately went into executive session to discuss the report.
After about 45 minutes the Board reconvened and debated a motion by Cavanaugh to delay the release of the report until February 15th as “other information may arise that could change the contents of the report” he said. Board members Jeff McClure (SaddleBrooke) and Mike Goodman stated that the report was complete and in Goodman’s words” we have county business to do and this is done” noting further that Cavanaugh has repeatedly made public his desire for “transparency and accountability”. Cavanaugh responded that he too wanted those things but there was more information that needed to be added to the final report before its release. Supervisor Miller of Casa Grande seconded the motion and after some more back and forth among board members, Chairman Jeff Serde (Apache Junction) who was obviously struggling to decide his position, voted to delay the report.
Sources close to the Board shared that Cavanaugh does not want the full report released as it would greatly damage his political standing. “He wants only the monetary damages that will be paid by the taxpayers to be released, not the nasty details.” Cavanaugh and all county Supervisors are up for election in 2024.
