BY LINDA BENTLEY | AUGUST 4, 2010
Remembering Romley and his opulent taxpayer-funded tribute to himself
PHOENIX – Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to fill the balance of Andrew Thomas’ term, who resigned to run for Arizona Attorney General, is also running for county attorney. When Romley left office in 2004, he used the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office’s annual report to pay a tribute to himself.
Not only was the annual report used as a vehicle to commemorate Romley’s 16 years in office, it was a shockingly expensive bound document on heavy, glossy stock, complete with gold embossing on the front and back covers, various sized throwouts (fold-out pages) and a rice-paper-like velum flyleaf repeating “Focus on Excellence,” with the last showing through a gold-rimmed cut out in the front cover.
Romley’s opulent and self-serving farewell tribute to himself was also devoid of facts and figures most citizens would expect to find in a government agency’s annual report.
Romley provided figures noting 83 percent of kids knew what his Drug Free AZ program was and they recognized its “world” logo. There were no figures provided regarding the effectiveness of any of his programs.
The report also includes a little snippet saying Romley was featured in a chapter of the 2003 book titled, “The Price of Their Blood: Profiles in Spirit,” a picture of young Rick Romley during his tour of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps, along with numerous other pictures of Romley throughout the document.
Attorney Bill Montgomery, who is also running for county attorney in the Republican primary, pretty much summed up what he thinks of Romley in his South Park-esque YouTube video titled “Bill Montgomery – ‘RINO’ Hunter,” which may be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQyyNHM5Il0.
