Yuma Sun e-Edition

Yuma County returns $33M to state

Adot to handle San Luis widening project

BY MARA KNAUB Sun STAFF Writer

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors on Monday agreed to transfer $33 million back to the Arizona Department of Transportation after the state incorrectly appropriated the money to the county for a San Luis road widening project.

County officials seemed happy to return the funds, with Chairman Tony Reyes making it clear that the county never wanted to administer the funds nor the project.

The state Legislature appropriated the money to the county for the construction, widening, repair and upgrade of Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

However, the state later discovered that the Senate bill incorrectly identified Yuma County as the recipient of the funds for this project.

On Monday, the supervisors agreed to return the funds so ADOT can administer the design and construction of the project on behalf of San Luis.

“It was a surprise to me to find out that the $33 million that the Legislature appropriated, it was going to go through the county to begin with,” Reyes said. “I thought well, they have the Department of Transportation. They normally channel those funds to them, which inevitably makes the project go higher because they have to follow a certain set of guidelines … It always seems to me like anything that the Department of Transportation touches is 30%, 40% higher than anything anyone else touches.”

Reyes acknowledged that a mistake had been made. “The Legislature is going to get (the funds) back and assign them to ADOT, and ADOT is the one that’s going to handle that project,” he noted.

“And I want to emphasize this. I did not want to handle that project. We didn’t want to handle that project. We have a lot of stuff on our plate, and that’s going to be a pretty big project to handle at the end of the day,” Reyes added.

The supervisors unanimously approved the consent agenda item.

Supervisor Martin Porchas questioned another consent

agenda item, a list of commuting vehicle usage for county employees for 2023.

The request includes vehicles for Tony Badilla, director of emergency management; Constables Art Gradillas and Rafael Torres; Deputy Constable Pedro Arroyo; Facilities Management Interim Director Kevin Southwick and staff members Miguel Parra and Mario Rosas; Public Health Director Diana Gomez and Dennis Owen, animal control manager; and Housing Director Jesus Roldan, Maintenance Supervisor Rene Franco and maintenance staff members Richard Zavala, Fernando Garcia and Jose Contreras.

The employees are allowed to take home county vehicles either on a rotational basis when they are on call or full-time when they are expected to respond to emergencies after normal working hours or on weekends. For example, Southwick is on-call 24 hours a day and often out after hours to conduct inspections, according to a staff report.

“This is something we do every year just to confirm the people that are allowed to take the vehicles home,” Reyes noted.

However, Porchas questioned whether the employees who take cars home when they are on call each have a car or they rotate the same vehicle. He signaled out the Housing Department employees, noting that the county has housing units in three different areas, Yuma, Somerton and San Luis.

County Administrator Ian Mcgaughey said he was not 100% certain and promised to get back to the supervisors with a clear answer. However, he noted that the list is the same as last year.

Reyes said that the board would approve the request contingent upon getting a clear answer. The supervisors unanimously approved the item.

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