Graham County supervisors approve multiple grants, contracts, rezoning and debt-refunding authorizations

Graham County supervisors on March 3 approved a bundle of applications, contracts and land-use and financing steps meant to support law enforcement, court services, school special-education agreements, road work and county finance operations.

The board voted to permit out-of-state travel for four sheriff’s office staff to attend a Spillman (dispatch/jail records) conference in Grapevine, Texas; approved multiple grant applications from the sheriff’s office and county attorney’s offices including DUI and STEP overtime grants and state criminal-justice grant applications; accepted donated right-of-way parcels along Powerline Road to support future road work; authorized intergovernmental agreements that continue county support for special-education services at Fort Thomas, Thatcher and Bonita school districts; approved vendor and personnel contracts for the assessor, treasurer, superior court and county IT; accepted bids for review on several capital projects; approved two resolutions that authorize preparatory steps for a refunding of outstanding bonds; and approved a rezoning request for a kennel property (REZ925-25, parcel 107300408).

Why it matters: the approvals enable the county to pursue outside funding that reimburses overtime for traffic enforcement and to pursue an automobile-theft task-force grant; to keep court competency evaluations available; to complete software and data integrations used by finance and the treasurer; and to advance steps that could reduce annual debt service if market conditions make a refunding economical.

Key approvals and votes at a glance

- Out-of-state travel: The board approved travel for four employees (lead dispatch, two dispatch staff, one IT staffer) to the Spillman conference in Grapevine, Texas. Sheriff P.J. Allred asked for the travel, saying it would “be really great if I could send 4 employees to the... Spillman conference” (remarks at 2092.505–2155.2148). Motion moved by Supervisor Howard and seconded; the motion passed.

- Sheriff grant applications: The board approved applying for the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety DUI overtime grant (about $26,000) and the STEP enforcement overtime grant (about $20,000), and approved applying for the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission Drug, Gang and Violent Crime Control grant (about $26,000) with a 50/50 match. Sheriff Allred presented the requests and the motions passed.

- County Attorney grant application: The board approved the County Attorney’s application for the Arizona Automobile Theft Authority vehicle task-force grant for FY25; County Attorney Scott Bennett said the county’s license-plate-reader investments could strengthen an application. The motion passed.

- School special-services IGAs: Superintendent Donna McGuy presented three annual intergovernmental agreements between Graham County and (1) Fort Thomas, (2) Thatcher Unified School District, and (3) Bonita Elementary School District to provide special-education services via the Graham County Special Services Consortium (including Dan Hinton School). Each IGA was moved, seconded and approved.

- Assessor personnel agreement extension: Brett Bluth, representing the assessor’s office, requested approval to extend Jerry Robinson’s work agreement through April 2025 at less than 20 hours per week to process trial title transfers; the board approved the extension.

- Treasurer tax-deed offer: Treasurer Cindy Orr presented an over-the-counter tax-deed offer on Parcel 10959025 that met the minimum to cover back taxes, interest and fees; the board approved the offer.

- Superior Court limited-services contract: Superior Court requested and the board approved a limited-services contract with Dr. John Walker for Rule 11 (competency) evaluations through 06/30/2026 because the court had four pending evaluations and its usual evaluator was unavailable.

- Engineering right-of-way acceptances: Engineering reported multiple donated right-of-way parcels (50-foot width) on Powerline Road from several property owners to facilitate future road work (chip seal). The board approved acceptance of the parcels as presented.

- IT services consultant agreement: The board approved an IT services consulting agreement with Robert Hemming (03/03/2025–06/30/2026) to support integration between the county’s Tyler New World system and the treasurer’s incoming CollectWare deployment; Julie Rodriguez explained Hemming’s role in writing middleware and in automating manual audit reports.

- Bond-refunding authorizations: The board approved Resolution 2025-03 authorizing execution of an intergovernmental agreement with the Graham County Jail District and continuing-disclosure steps as the county’s finance team explores a potential refunding of roughly $21,980,000 of outstanding bonds. Julie Rodriguez said the authorization establishes parameters and allows staff to prepare documents; the board emphasized any refunding would proceed only if the net present value savings target (no less than 3%) was met. The jail district board (the board sitting in that capacity) separately approved Resolution 2025-02 to authorize issuance and sale of not-to-exceed $22,000,000 pledged revenue refunding obligations as part of the same refunding planning.

- Rezoning public hearing: The board held a public hearing on a rezoning request (REZ925-25, parcel 107300408, about five acres) for a kennel operated by Wade and Terry Lineberger. Planning staff reported no neighbor opposition and recommended rezoning to bring the use into compliance; the board approved the rezoning. Planning staff noted the parcel is served by county inspections and has operated as a kennel for some time.

- Bids and procurement: The board opened and noted bids for multiple projects and directed staff to review for conformity and to award to the lowest conforming bidder. Notable bid items: Solomon Road asphalt patching (two bids received; lowest conforming bidder to be selected after staff review), annual ballpark concession stand (one bid by Erica Vargas received above the established minimum), and a shade-structure replacement at the fairgrounds maintenance yard (three bids; lowest conforming bidder to be selected). The board voted to forward bid review and award to staff for those projects.

- Executive session direction: After returning from executive session, the board directed staff to negotiate a counter settlement offer “based on prior negotiating agreement.” The board recorded the motion and approved it in open session.

Discussion and context

Sheriff P.J. Allred described the Spillman conference request as centered on training for dispatch and jail-records staff and said the travel costs are split across several departmental funds. The board’s support for the sheriff’s grant and travel requests was voiced by multiple supervisors; Supervisor David noted the importance of compliance and the administrative work required to track and report on grant funds.

Julie Rodriguez, speaking on finance matters, said the county has about $21,980,000 in bonds eligible for refunding and said the board would proceed only if market conditions yielded sufficient savings: “to set the parameters that we're looking for no less than a 3% net present value of savings.” (remarks at 3481.085–3486.045).

Public comment and other items

A member of the public who identified himself as Louie (residing south of the fairgrounds) urged stronger traffic enforcement on local roads, saying he had been struck by a commercial vehicle and urging agencies to increase enforcement. The board had earlier discussed chip-seal planning, highway maintenance and upcoming chip-seal season during staff reports.

What the board did not decide

The bond refunding approvals authorize staff to prepare and pursue a refunding if market conditions and a minimum savings threshold are met; no final refunding sale or final refinancing was executed at the meeting. Several procurement items were forwarded to staff for review and award; the board did not make award decisions at the meeting itself.

Next steps

Approved grant applications will be submitted where permitted; staff will complete vendor and contract paperwork and return with final awards or further recommendations where required. Staff will proceed with right-of-way recording steps and road planning for Powerline Road, and finance staff will continue work with municipal advisors on preliminary refunding analysis.

(See the Votes at a glance section above for motions and outcomes.)

Ending note: The board recessed into executive session and returned to open session, where it authorized staff to negotiate a counter settlement offer as noted above.