In the last two weeks, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has received two letters asking her office to investigate Democratic Sheriff Chris Nanos for perjury.
The Pima County Board of Supervisor voted two weeks ago to refer Nanos’ case to the AG after it couldn’t find the votes to remove him from office under their authority from a territorial-era law that can force row officers to “report” to them.
And Supervisor Matt Heinz — a longtime critic of Nanos — wrote his own letter to Mayes that went a step further than the letter (and documentation) that was sent by County Administrator Jan Lesher. His two-page letter specifically outlines why he believes Nanos committed perjury when the sheriff sent his 12-page letter to the supervisors answering their questions.
Sheriff Chris Nanos answering some of the many questions he’s faced lately.
A quick reminder that a little more than a month ago the supervisors used a territorial-era law to force Nanos to give a report on:
Suspending his Republican opponent, Lt. Heather Lappin, as well as Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Cross — who was supporting her — several weeks before the November 2024 election.
Allegations that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department was/is collaborating with immigration officials
His handling of the PCSD budget over the last few years
How he represented himself when he applied for a job in Pima County after leaving El Paso
In his letter to Mayes, Heinz focused on the one area that Mayes’ office hasn’t sent to her office before: what Nanos told Pima County officials more than four decades ago about why he left the El Paso Police Department and what he repeated last month in a formal letter to the board.
Reporting by the Arizona Republic and further investigation by the county — more on that in a minute — suggest that, at the very least, Nanos downplayed why he left El Paso by stating he resigned in lieu of termination.
“The El Paso records reviewed by the Board do not merely reflect a minor or isolated disciplinary matter,” Heinz wrote. “They appear to document a broader disciplinary and performance history, including repeated tardiness, prior discipline, warnings and suspensions, negative incidents, declining performance, and a finding of consistent inefficiency and insubordination.”
Heinz argued that Nanos lied in that 12-page letter and that his sworn statement to the board “materially mischaracterized” the documented basis for his separation from the police department in Texas.
”The El Paso records appear to reflect a serious disciplinary and performance history, a finding of consistent inefficiency and insubordination, a unanimous vote to terminate his employment, and a resignation in lieu of termination. By contrast, Sheriff Nanos’ report to the Board framed the matter as a resignation offered in response to a three-day suspension,” Heinz wrote.
Nanos — through his attorney, James Cool — argued last month that the circumstance of his hiring is irrelevant to the supervisor’s political jurisdiction over his elected office.
“Whatever the Sheriff did or did not do before being elected is necessarily unrelated to his performance of the duties of his office,” Cool wrote last month.
Heinz says Mayes has the power to prosecute Nanos for lying.
“No person is above the law. Sheriff Nanos must be held accountable, and only you have the authority to do so,” Heinz wrote to Mayes.
This isn’t the first time the Pima County Board of Supervisors has asked an outside agency to investigate Nanos. The supervisors voted to send letters to Mayes in September 2023, November 2024 and again in June 2025.
None of the complaints led to formal charges against Nanos.
The Pima County supervisors also formally approached the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona during the Biden administration in December 2024 and again this year under an appointee of President Donald Trump. Their answers were the same — there wasn’t enough evidence to trigger a criminal investigation.
An email from the U.S Attorney for Arizona told county officials there is no current investigation into Nanos.
Technically, there is also an item about Nanos coming back at tonight’s meeting.
In April, Heinz pushed to waive attorney-client privilege for the 65-page report prepared by NorthStar Employment and Legal Solutions.
A leaked copy of the county-commissioned report found that Nanos violated county ethics rules when he suspended Lappin — and likely did the same with Cross.
Last month, only Republican Supervisor Steve Christy wanted to release the memo after the board discussed it in executive session. The four Democrats voted to postpone the decision until today’s meeting.
Their decision could have been influenced by the active lawsuits filed by Lappin and Cross against the county, as the county publicly releasing the report could strengthen their cases.
But both are headed for trial anyway, and it’s possible the report could be obtained by the plaintiff’s attorneys in discovery.
A quasi-governmental agency that issues bonds worth tens of millions of dollars every year to finance everything from senior housing to first-time homebuyer assistance programs is facing a crisis.
And even multiple members of the Pima County Board of Supervisors — which oversees the Pima Industrial Development Authority — have declined to go on the record with us to discuss why they are going behind closed doors to discuss replacing the entire five-person Board of Directors of the Pima IDA.
The likely reason for all the secrecy is who asked to put it on the agenda: Pima County Attorney Laura Conover. Before the supervisors can act tonight, they will go into executive session about it. At least one supervisor noted they were bound by a confidential memo put out by Conover’s office last week.
Whispers abound about why the supervisors are being asked tonight to remove all five officers, ranging from bureaucratic issues to infighting among the current board.
Whatever the reasons may be, it is also curious that their replacements are only being asked to serve four month terms, suggesting there is going to be a Part Two to this story down the road.
Water wheelin’ and dealin’: Amid dire forecasts for the Colorado River, Tucson and Phoenix are getting closer to making a water-sharing deal, and they’re looking for other cities to join them, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. Under the evolving deal, which we wrote about three weeks ago, Tucson and Phoenix would set up programs to share small amounts of water in an emergency and long-term programs to help communities if their Central Arizona Project allotments get cut.
Back home: Karla Toledo, the DACA recipient whose arrest by ICE agents at her Tucson home drew a strong backlash last week, was released from custody on Friday, Mia Kortright and Mohinur Mannonova report for the Tucson Sentinel. Toledo was granted a $1,500 bond, which her lawyer Mo Goldman said was the lowest possible amount.
"She has the critical job of helping recruit healthcare workers, pays her taxes and gives back to our community serving on local boards and through volunteer work," Democratic U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva said. "She is the complete opposite of the 'worst of the worst' that Trump claimed he would prioritize.”
Making it worse: When ICE detainees go through mental health crises, they’re often put in solitary confinement, rather than treated, the Star’s Emily Bregel and Emily Hamer report for the Star. In the case of an Iranian dissident who was tortured by Iranian officials and fled to the U.S., ICE officials in Eloy put her in solitary confinement while she tried to deal with the trauma she endured. That led to three days of delirious pain in a “cold room the size of a parking space, containing nothing but a toilet and a plastic box to sleep in,” Bregel and Hamer write.
Safer in Mexico: The Iranian Football Federation says its soccer team will train for World Cup games in Tijuana, Mexico, instead of the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, per the Associated Press. Iranian officials cited security concerns and uncertainty caused by the war in Iran.
If you want certainty about local politics and government, there’s no better place than the Tucson Agenda.
The rub for rubbernecking: State troopers cited 67 drivers for using their cell phones as they drove by a fatal crash on Interstate 10 near Craycroft Road, Nick Rommel reports for Arizona Public Media. A truck hauling cars blew a tire, flipped in the median and caught fire. Drivers slowed down to film the wreck on their phones and state troopers used Arizona’s Hands Free law to cite them for using cell phones while driving. It was the first such example of Department of Public Safety officers using the law following a wreck in the Tucson area, officials said.
Here are the top events this week for those who want a front-row seat to local politics.
The Pima County Republican Club meets today at 11:30 a.m. at The Kettle just west of I-10 on 22nd St.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors meets today at 4 p.m. at the County Administrative building in downtown Tucson. (Here’s the agenda/live-stream.)
The Tucson Unified School District Government Board meets today at 6 p.m. at 5145 E. 5th Street. (Agenda and live stream)
The Legislative District 20 debate for Democratic candidates for House and Senate will be broadcasted on the Arizona Citizen’s Clean Election Commission’s YouTube page. The fun starts tomorrow at 6 p.m., with Joe hosting.
The Pima County Democratic Party is hosting its annual fund-raiser, the Udall Dinner, on Saturday at 5 p.m. Tickets for the dinner, with Gov. Katie Hobbs as the keynote speaker, are still available.
Did we miss an event? Email Joe to get it on our radar.
Every election season, candidates churn up all kinds of dirt on their opponents.
Usually, it’s recent stuff, but for politicians who have been in the game for a while, you sometimes see dirt resurface from years ago.
Over the weekend, Scottsdale Vice Mayor Adam Kwasman took a jab at the bizarre history of Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine. Arizona political strategist DJ Quinlan took that as an opportunity to resurface a bonkers episode from way back in 2014 that has us chuckling, in a gallows humor kind of way.
When immigration rhetoric reached a fever pitch back then, Kwasman was running for Congress and leading the charge to yell at a busload of…YMCA campers.
Poor guy. He thought he’d get to yell at immigrant kids when he set up a protest alongside a road in Oracle.
A video of the incident showed Kwasman all hyped-up as a yellow school bus approached. The case of mistaken identity (and borderline insane behavior from Kwasman) made national headlines.