The Pinal County Deputies Association has been in existence in its current form for over 10 years. One of the charter members who helped develop the by-laws, goals and objectives was Mike Reardon. Prior to his vote on the Board of Directors for endorsement he had indicated that he would be supporting Sheriff Vasquez. It was only when he was called for his vote that it was learned that he would be supporting Babeu instead. He has moved away from our established goals and attempted to use the Association to forward his own political agenda.
Mr. Babeu has been a peace officer with the Chandler Police Department for about five years. Of that time he has only spent about two years on the road as a patrol officer. To most of us that would barely qualify him as a rookie. Now he wants to take on a department of our size and tell us how we should do our jobs? He has expressed the desire to run for only one term and in the process use our agency as a stepping stone to fulfill his political aspirations.
The primary objective of the Association has always been to obtain Meet and Confer. The Association has always understood that regardless of what changes for the better or worse a sheriff may make, in four years the next sheriff can change it all. The goal of the Association has been to give the employees legal standing to meet with the Sheriff and the Pinal County Board of Supervisors on a more equal footing to address the issues of pay, benefits and working conditions. Meet and Confer does make it possible for the employees to be treated fairly in disciplinary and promotions regardless of the politician currently in office.
Sheriff Vasquez understands this and has been instrumental in assisting the Deputies Association in bringing about Meet and Confer. He has met with the Deputies Association and the Pinal County Board of Supervisors and spoke in behalf of Meet and Confer. He has entered into a long term commitment to his employees to assist them in matters that directly concern them in their employment. He was successful in getting 40 new positions within the Sheriff’s Office (even Vanderpool was only able to secure two or three and those were obtained by assessing and reassigning existing funding). He put disciplinary boards together that included the Association and the Fraternal Order of Police as employee advocates. He has allowed employees to bring employee advocates with them into Internal Affairs interrogations. He made a written two-year agreement with the Association to meet with them on a regular basis to discuss and solve problems brought to him.
From the Association’s standpoint, we have been lucky to have a Sheriff like Chris Vasquez. We needed a major change in 2000 from 24 years of a regime that had placed our reputation at its lowest point. Sheriff Vanderpool started a process of professionalization that brought us out of that era and caused us to be proud of the agency we worked for. Sheriff Chris Vasquez has continued the process and expanded it with personnel, equipment (computers in the cars) more ID Techs and better training. We have come a long way, and, yes, we still have a long way to go. No one can accomplish a job like this within a single, four-year term. We need Chris Vasquez to guide us through the next set of obstacles and stick with us for the long term. He has been committed to us, and we will continue to be committed to him.
Yes, we have endorsed Chris Vasquez for Sheriff. He has kept his promises to us and we will keep our promise to him.
Aubrey M. Keck
Board of Directors, Pinal County Deputies Association
On Oct. 8 Sheriff Vasquez received the endorsement of the Casa Grande Police Association. Below is a comment from him on this endorsement:
I am very proud to announce that today I received the endorsement of the Casa Grande Police Officers’ Association. This endorsement means a lot to me as it is where I started my career and is the foundation of my experience as a police officer, supervisor and as an executive leader. It is where I gained the expertise in implementing Community Based Policing programs. I have a strong record of success at the Casa Grande Police Department which carried over to even more success with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. I thank the CGPOA for their confidence and support.
The CGPOA knows what it means to receive new leadership. They just hired a new Deputy Chief. In doing so the officers demanded real law enforcement experience at the command level with a proven track record of success. This is the same I believe the citizens of Pinal County will demand on November 4th.
Sheriff Chris Vasquez
Submitted photo
