On 8-14-25 I did get a response so some of the questions I forwarded to President Elliott on 8-11-25. After reviewing her response, I submitted some follow up questions on 9-4-25 to Luisa Ott the CFO but no sooner had I done that I saw a news article that she was on leave pending a criminal investigation from the Pinal County Sheriffs Office. Ms. Elliott then replied that Ms. Ott had left the District. I do not know if it was related to anything she was doing with CAC but will try to find out.
Miranda Myers is the controller, but I don’t know whether she will be the new CFO. seems to be, for the time being at least, the CFO. Ms. Elliott answered some of my questions but deferred some of the questions to Ms. Meyers with the caveat that there is a transition and shortage of staff. While this is normally a legitimate point, they were reminded that most of these questions were directed to Ms. Ott on 6-30-25 and that these were not esoteric questions, but rather questions that a competent organization and diligent Board would have at their fingertips without being prodded.
Balance Sheet Updates:
The biggest issue for now is that no one can tell me about the Cultural Arts Center. Supposedly this will cost $20 million but no one can tell me exactly how much or when and how it was approved. I have seen no pictures or presentations and was told that it was part of the overall capital budget approval. In the 4-15-25 Board meeting it was stated that a general contractor and architect were chosen and that they would begin preliminary planning meetings so there should have been some Board presentation and approval at this time.
The threshold for approval of capital projects was raised from $50,000 to $100,000 at that 4-15-25 meeting. There were three items above that limit that were approved at that meeting but none were related to this project.
In the narrative of the 2026 budget discussion said that there was $48 million allocated to the projects at the Signal Peak Campus but the attending schedule listed $55 million so I await clarification of that. I’m assuming that the Arts is included in that and was told there is roof repair in there but await clarification of the balance. I think most organizations would have a multi-year capital plan but that does not seem to be the case.
Bonds
I was told that they would not be issuing new bonds and that they don’t have authorization of new bonds, yet the budget showed proceeds of $9 million from the sale of bonds with an offset of $9 million so I am awaiting clarification on that issue.
Operating Income and Expenses
I’m deferring a deeper dive into income and expenses until I can tie down the balance sheet issues noted above.
I was given a detailed expense report that gave me insight into the chart of accounts and better understanding of how the money was spent but that report was over two years old. They said that their systems had changed and that they could get me a newer report in a different format which I now await.
What remains unclear is whether the Board has ever seen this level of detail or whether they had simply approved of over $100 million based on a 3-page schedule, a one page summary, and a 1-minute discussion. Hopefully this was not the case, but I haven’t seen any evidence to the contrary despite my requests.
Moving Forward
I will be attending the 9-16-25 meeting and have requested the information packet the administration refers the board to and with that information along with the promised updates will continue this long hard slog to accountability.
CAC Monitor 