Parker Live The Parker area, online.
Yakima Company, which has been involved in legal entanglements with La Paz County for several years, has filed a writ of attachment on around $10.9 million in public funds supervised by the County, $10.7m of which belongs to other entities.
In a move County Administrator Dan Field calls “sad”, “foolhardy” and “unethical”, Yakima owner Jim Willett’s action freezes the money in the County’s care so that it cannot be used by the State, Special Districts, Public Works or any of the other entities to whom it belongs. A court judgment in his favor against the County in 2007 granted him $9.2 million plus legal fees. Since then, the case has been characterized by short periods of appeals, negotiations and stalled talks.
Field says the County had not been served with any notice of the action. He condemned it in the strongest terms, saying, “For a company [Yakima] who says they don’t want to hurt anybody, they did this knowing darn well the money isn’t ours.”
He continued, saying, “They know we have no money. Frankly, they’re injuring the people. What concerns me the most is the essential services like emergency services that rely on those funds, and payroll for our employees.”
La Paz County’s lean budget mirrors the lean budgets of municipalities and state governments around the nation due to the economy. Laws protect County services, including all the main departments, payroll and assets, so the County is initiating legal action to overturn the writ.
Field says the County is currently engaged in the legal logistics of releasing the funds, saying Yakima can’t do this, “but they did.” He says he hopes the money can be released within the next couple of days. “The payroll is what I’m worried about,” he said.
At a meeting this morning, some County employees were notified that their direct deposits would not be on time Thursday, but that the County had a plan to make payroll payments one day late, on Friday.
Field characterized Willett’s action as “a legal maneuver” designed to force the County into accepting his terms in the ongoing imbroglio, despite the County’s lack of excess funds with which to pay him. Another employee said he thinks Willett’s move was an attempt to “make this real” for the public.
Field says, “People should not panic. We’re going to get it released. This is a highly unethical tactic by Jim Willett. It’s just about money for him, but these are people’s lives.”
Michael Roth has been exposed by the people of Salome. Were talkin to Quartzsite people and they all know he would sell you a wash in Wenden if you are stupid enough. If you buddy up with Roth your going to get bit cause hes like a wild animal. Sigfreed and Roy found out that wild animals can look tame but are always wild.
Hey Lindee, I believe it was the KLPZ crew that demonized his father and mother during the recall. I recall the KLPZ folks saying the recall was a waste of time and energy. And calling it a “Stupid Recall”. Now the young Jones is a top ASU freshman and has questions. I suppose his questions come from his new found knowledge in journalistic integrity and not the KLPZ tradition of “who do we promote” and “who do we destroy.”
He is not a stupid man and would not in my opinion throw the first stone. And you should know better.
Billy Wayne,
Is that all you got?
Keith & Juanita at KLPZ have opinions and say them, Lost. I guess that explains this hostility though.
Lost in LaPaz,
I know Andrew well. Think he is a great guy. Just trying to slow him down. If you have only questions…they should be questions. If he wants to attack he should. Call it what it is. Thats the guy I know. Thats all I was saying
Lindee,
Thanks for sharing. I met my wife here 5 years ago and we both decided to stay here because we thought it would be a nice cheap place to start out together, and we both dabble in the minerals trade. This place is perfect for us because we don’t have to travel the world to make deals on pretty rocks, the world comes to us once a year. We like it here even though the politicians (read Dan Field and his gang at Quartzsite Town Hall)) have destroyed one of the most free economies in the state.
I encourage you to run for office. We can’t do any worse than the batch we have in there now. Oh wait, we all said that when we voted in the current group….
Hey Andrew, Hope you understood what I meant. You said you had only asked “questions”, when you had actually made some harsh “statements”. I was trying to point out that may have generated the following comments by John. No sides here. Just observation and comment.
Mr. Roth, I was just tring to see how it was that you have so much time on your hands. You seem to be on the blog most of the day. Still not sure I understand….if you are in the Rock/Jem trade shouldn’t this be your really busy time. Kinda like CPA’s who work round the clock?
It’s true. I do have a lot of free time. I’ve always made it my goal to work smarter NOT harder than the average bear. There are CPA’s that trade their time for dollars and there are CPA’s that do deals. The deal making CPA gets rich while the time for money guy is a slave.
And for what it’s worth, Quartzsite’s vending opportunity is not like it used to be. Thanks again to Dan Field and his sycophants
hmmmm
Roth – Im just helpin the good people from being fooled by you. You say anything to promote yourselve or attack people even if it aint true. It really dont matter cause your rep is soiled in La Paz. We know about your Yavapai County days to. I think the people on this page should watch Roth on youtube. Its funny s**t.
?????
Post the youtube Billy. You are the one making baseless accusations now aren’t you?
Billy, don’t you know Roth wants to start an popular uprising in Quartzsite like in Cairo, and Roth will be the guy riding the camel through the crowds! See you again Sat. nite at the Octotillo, 7pm. Roth got caught again!!
“M” Caught at what?
Lindee – Roth stated in a prior post he hasn’t had a job in 20 years. That may answer some of your questions. You also offer Andrew good advice. Let’s hope he doesn’t waste the advice or education and learns to think for himself.
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This has turned out to be the most pointless discussion EVER! JOHN I’m a journalist student at the JOAQUIN IS AWESOME school for Journalism in my living room and JOHN, SIR YOU ARE AN IMPOSTER! This garbage of a BLOG/NEWS OUTLET known as “parkerliveonline.com” is an embarrassment to TRUE Journalism! Look I don’t know how they do “NEWS” in NORTHERN IRELAND BUT THIS IS MERICA SON!!!!
TRUE Journalism? Guys, this is a local town blog, not NBC Nightly News. John deserves credit for listening to his community and getting this news out there as soon as it was validated. Hes not trying for a Pulitzer, hes posting small town news on a BLOG. Relax people.
If anything, John is showing more integrity in this story than the real news media. He at least confirmed the story was fact before he posted it. Most major news outlets don’t even do this anymore.
The fault with blaming the local media is that we really don’t HAVE any local media. The only form of news media we have is a once a week newspaper. The rest is internet blogs, music radio stations, and home made gossip columns.
I would say the people of the county can blame themselves for voting in the same politicians, but the voters cleaned out the people who made this mess in 2008. We elected janitors who promised to clean up this mess. But when they got the job, they didn’t bring their broom.
I do think the majority of the county has been content ignoring the Yakima problem. Hopefully this whole mess will finally put the fire under their britches and get people to go to the board meetings.
If the county needs money I hear the best place to get a loan is at the Joint Venture.
So all you people trying to recall the Sheriff need to take a much closer look at WHO you should be recalling. They PROMISED to fix this mess left by good ol Gene as their campaine b.s. and they let it get this far. Shame on each and everyone of you.