Wilcox may end career on Board of Supervisors
by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez - Sept. 23, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Mary Rose Wilcox may end her lengthy political career with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Wilcox, a Democrat who has served on the governing board since 1992, said this week that she hasn't made up her mind if she'll run for a sixth term, saying Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas' failed investigations of her have made her question whether to run.
She made the statements while testifying in a State Bar disciplinary hearing to determine whether Thomas and two former deputies violated legal ethics.
Wilcox and her four Republican colleagues are up for re-election in 2012. Wilcox is the only member of the board who has not yet filed paperwork with the county's Elections Department, department director Karen Osborne said. Candidates must file a statement of organization before raising and spending money.
"It's a very personal decision," Wilcox said. "I don't know if I can run for political office again. Anyone who runs against me will throw all this up. People will never know whether the truth is out there or not. They won't take the time to know."
Wilcox said she fears "there may be retaliation against me" if she decides to run.
She and her husband are weighing the decision. On Thursday, she told The Arizona Republic she hopes to make an announcement within the next 30 days to coincide with her birthday.
Two years ago, Wilcox was indicted after Thomas and Arpaio accused her of taking business loans from an affiliate of a non-profit while voting to approve grants to its parent organization as a county supervisor.
They also accused her of failing to list other business loans in annual financial-disclosure forms.
The case against Wilcox collapsed when an out-of-county judge ruled that Thomas had acted unethically in the prosecution.
That ruling spurred an ethical inquiry of Thomas and his deputies.
BY LINDA BENTLEY | DECEMBER 1, 2010
Larry Naman’s now a free man, Wilcox is still a county supervisor
PHOENIX – With Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox under scrutiny again, readers have been asking what happened to the man who shot Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox in the butt in August 1997 just outside the auditorium where the five-member board of supervisors were leaving a meeting.
Larry Naman, 57, was released from the Arizona Department of Corrections in May 2010 after spending nearly 12 years of a 15-year sentence after being found guilty of attempted first degree murder for the incident. Naman was also ordered to pay Wilcox $27,000 in restitution.
Homeless at the time and without as much as a parking ticket, let alone any sort of criminal record, Naman said he shot Wilcox because she voted in favor of the sales tax to pay for the construction of Bank One Ballpark, or BOB, which is now Chase Field.
According to Naman, the tax should have been put to a public vote.
He was right.
In 1989, Phoenix voters passed a referendum, by a 2-1 majority, requiring public approval to build any sports facility costing more than $3 million.
However, to circumvent the will of the voters, the Arizona State Legislature passed a bill transferring stadium development authority from the city of Phoenix to Maricopa County.
In February 1994, by a vote of 3-2, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the one-quarter cent sales tax to raise the $238 million to build the baseball stadium.
Wilcox, as the tie-breaking vote, is the only one of the three supervisors voting in favor of the tax who was reelected.
Although he was facing a sentence of up to 21 years in prison
after he was convicted, Naman told Wilcox,
“I will say I’m sorry I shot you the day you
stand before the court and admit what you did was an act of violence.”
Of course the one-quarter cent sales tax wasn’t even close to covering the $238 million ballpark and the Arizona Diamondbacks ended up having to pay for cost overruns of $127 million.
Meanwhile, Naman spent his 12 years as a model prisoner, working, performing details ranging from general labor to kitchen help to landscaper to groundskeeper, without a single disciplinary action.
As our readers may know, there are people who can prove Wilcox has committed numerous criminal acts while in office.
Failure to prosecute Wilcox, who was indicted on numerous felony counts by two grand juries, was a political decision by acting Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, a long-time political ally of Wilcox, not lack of evidence.
Time will tell if the recently sworn in County Attorney Bill Montgomery will see those charges through.