Pinal Dems slam Martyn over contributions

Pinal County Democrats are crying foul over $2,000 in campaign contributions given to Bryan Martyn, the county's most visible Republican candidate who is running to replace Sandie Smith as District 2 supervisor.

The money came from employees of El Dorado Holdings, a Phoenix real estate company with ties to former County Manager Stan Griffis - now serving a 3 1/2-year prison sentence for embezzling at least $428,000 in public money.

In late 2005, Griffis received e-mails on his work computer that showed an employee of El Dorado Holdings was making arrangements for Griffis and K. Michael Ingram, president and CEO of the company, to make a big-game hunting trip to east Africa, according to a 2007 Tribune story. The e-mails showed that the company wired at least $30,000 to a Tanzanian safari tour operator to cover the costs.

Last May, Ingram gave $390 to Martyn's campaign, the maximum allowed, according to campaign finance records.

Those reports show about $13,500 has been donated to Martyn from developers, land-use lawyers, real estate agents and construction-related business interests. That's 31 percent of the $43,332 that Martyn reported he has raised for his campaign, according to a Sept. 25 filing with the county's election department.

Martyn faces Mary Shope, a Democrat, and Elliot Fisher, an independent, in the Nov. 4 election.

Joe Robison, head of the Pinal County Democrats, has complained that developer contributions, particularly from El Dorado Holdings, "give the appearance that Pinal County may be headed for more corruption if Martyn were to be elected to the county board."

"It wouldn't be so bad if people weren't out there saying they wanted to stop the corruption," Robison said. "The real estate developers are where Griffis was getting his money to stash away."

Part of Martyn's campaign has been to criticize incumbent Democrats in the county for their ties to Griffis.

Sharon Gill, Martyn's campaign manager, said that the campaign has accepted money from developers because "you have to work with them."

However, she said she was unaware of the tie between El Dorado Holdings and Griffis when the money was accepted by the campaign. The trip to Tanzania was excessive, she said.

"Believe me, I don't agree with that at all," she said. "That's way over and above the bounds of common sense."

Gill said that as Martyn's campaign manager, she should have vetted the source of the money that was coming into the campaign.

"That's probably my fault that I haven't looked into it more," she said. "I personally had forgotten any connection with that, and I'm sure Bryan would tell you the same."

Ingram did not return phone calls seeking comment. Martyn gave back contributions from Johnson Utilities this election cycle after the company spilled sewage into a portion of Queen Creek.

Martyn said he is not beholden to developers, but said he doesn't want to alienate them either. Development in Pinal County could lower taxes and help build better roads, he said.

"Developers are not the enemy here," Martyn said. "Developers are the only way we are going to be able to generate the revenue that we need."

Shope has run her campaign on about $7,000, saying she won't take money from developers so she won't owe them anything. Fisher, meanwhile, has raised several hundred dollars in his bid.

"Taking developer money is a conflict of interest," Shope said. "To me it seems pretty clear. I'm going to be voting on the very proposals they bring to me."