13 Oct 30th-NOv 5th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | FULL BAR! BILLS OF $50 OR MORE Dine-In or Take Out Not Including Combinations Dinner Only Expires 12/31/25 Closed On Tuesdays $5 OFF 2050 N. Alma School Rd., #36 • 480.857.4188 policing, although he made something of a Freudian slip. “There is no one on the planet, as much as me, who wants my deputies to be biased,” Sheridan told the crowd before correcting himself. “Unbiased. No one, next to the court, wants unbiased policing more than me.” All out of time Some found Snow’s lecture useful. “Those people who were there tonight got the history lesson behind why it has to happen,” said People First Project founder Clarissa Vela, who also attended the previous meeting that went “haywire.” Piña, the chair of the advisory board, felt Snow’s remarks got everyone “up to speed.” “I think it was an important overview of the case,” he said. “I’m glad the public got the chance to hear that.” But while Snow may have imposed order over the meeting, there was little opportu- nity for residents to express themselves, as some community activists worried would be the case under the new format. That included residents concerned about the ongoing costs of the case, though that subject was raised by Snow. Earlier this month, Snow issued a report from Warshaw’s monitor team that included an audit of the county’s compli- ance expenses. Far from the runaway train of costs, the monitor found that the sheriff’s office had overstated the price tag of following Snow’s orders by $163 million. Expenses loosely related or completely unrelated to the case — including purchases like golf carts, car washes and jet fuel — were chalked up to compliance in Melendres. By doing so, the audit suggested, the county was able to circumvent state laws limiting budgetary spending. Sheridan has questioned the audit’s accounting without rebutting any of the specifics. In a ruling issued Oct. 21, Snow gave the sheriff’s office the opportunity to respond to that report, though he noted that he’d already “given them the opportunity” and they “have not provided their justifica- tion.” The audit did not include the roughly $34 million the county has spent funding the monitor’s activities or the county’s attor- neys’ fees in the case, though Snow pointed out that Maricopa County’s high attorneys’ costs are something the county has “chosen” for itself by fighting the case. “This is not an easy case. It is an expen- sive case,” Snow said. “It is a case where everybody in Maricopa County has bene- fited, whether or not they appreciated it.” Warshaw, who has been the focus of crit- icism by county officials, took a similar lecturing approach to Snow as he intro- duced his monitoring team, almost all of whom have a background in policing. In layman’s terms, he tried to explain the importance of emptying the PSB backlog, comparing it to getting bad customer service at Walmart. Warshaw also called on the audience to “lower the temperature. Lower the rhetoric. It is not helping.” By the time the question-and-answer portion of the evening arrived, only about 30 minutes remained in the meeting’s allotted time. Instead of opening the microphone to attendees, the CAB had collected questions from the community in a Google Doc to read on their behalf. Piña asked questions about the audit. Sheridan responded that he “vehemently disagreed” with it but didn’t know how the much- repeated $350 million number came about. Nowakowski shared community questions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raids and the makeup of the monitoring team. But quickly, it was 8:30 p.m., when the meeting had to end. Several people yelled from the crowd when time was up, including Republican Arizona Attorney General candidate Rodney Glassman, a Sheridan ally. “Your Honor, how is it that you can be so polite to all of us and the federal monitor can be so condescending?” Glassman called out. After the meeting, Glassman told Phoenix New Times that he felt Warshaw was “talking down to everyone in the room” and spoke “arrogantly.” Another woman tried to ask Snow to start the next meeting “with the prayer and the pledge,” but court staff quickly began ushering everyone out of the packed court- room, down the steps and out of the building entirely. “I really hope you all come back next time and we will answer them,” Snow told the crowd about their questions. “I apolo- gize that it didn’t happen this evening.” Listen Up from p 10 Federal Judge G. Murray Snow moved the quarterly Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office community meeting, which had become unruly, to the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in downtown Phoenix. (Zach Buchanan)
