I was perusing Paul’s website this morning and was very surprised to see he discovered the Larry Sharp connection to Brad Mitzelfelt. I knew ACU had donated money to Brad but was not aware of its other activity. The story below is from my old blog back when the county decided to give EMACs access to TAD supervisors. Some of it applies to this situation; some of it doesn’t. But to say ACU is dirty is an understatment. I will be writing more about that tonight or tomorrow. Here is a reprint:

Why the EMACS situation raised red flags with me

Some years ago I worked for a department head. That department head was also the president of the board of directors of SBCCCU, now known as Arrowhead Credit Union. I’ve written a bit about the visits we used to get from those wanting her help to get on the board of directors. Eaves had an interest but the most common visitor was Jim Hlawek. Why would anyone care that much about being on a credit union board of directors?

There were perks, many perks. During the FBI investigation Hlawek told investigators about some of those perks. I’m not sure, however, that he knew them all.

You see, this was just before the internet, just before identity theft became a frequently written-about issue, and before the current consumer credit act that made our credit reports more easily attainable for the average person. There were no real checks and balances keeping unsavory individuals from getting credit histories on someone. Credit reports were a mystery to most of us.

For those that have not worked in a political environment, it is cutthroat. The SBCCCU board of directors provided a service to those in the know. As a credit union they could easily run credit histories on members of the BOS, department heads, anyone they wanted to find dirt on and no red flags would be raised because of course they were a credit union that should have a legitimate reason for needing a credit history.

I became very upset when I found out that my director had run a credit history on me. My director had made several comments to me that I thought were odd and as I never shared my personal life with her, I couldn’t understand where she got the information. I asked our deputy director. It was one of those days when he was ticked off at her (which was most of the time) and he filled me in on a bunch of SBCCCU’s dirty little secrets.

That is also when our deputy director filled me in on the other things that were happening. Harry Mays was still CAO but was leaving. The HR announcement for the position had almost no requirements and I questioned him. He told me that Jerry Eaves had already selected Jim as the CAO. He went on to tell me about Jim’s criminal past. Dave’s sister worked in the same Arizona county that Jim came from. Dave had the whole scoop and had shared it with our director and others. When our county administrators claim they did not know about Jim’s shady past, they are LYING!!!!!!! They knew. Problem was Jerry wanted Jim in there. Jim was someone Jerry could control.

So of course when it was time to do the fake interviews my director was asked to be part of the CAO selection committee along with a few of Jerry’s other cronies. I remember when she left our office Dave made some smart-alecky remark to her about Jim not even having to attend the interviews. When she returned a few hours later she went on and on about how hard the interview panel worked to come up with a selection. Of course it was Jim.

My director would do what Jerry told her, but to give her credit she drew the line at letting Jim on the Board of Directors. As far as I know he never got on. Eaves was trying to get his wife on the Board of Directors as well. I don’t if she made it. Jim used to visit us often even after becoming CAO. He made my skin crawl.

Anyway, the county has pulled employee credit histories without employee authorization. I know that for fact. Is the EMACS situation as innocuous as they claim. I hope so but we all know nothing seems to have changed at the top.