Illustration by Isabelle Cardinal

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox is hands-down one of the most controversial politicos in Phoenix. In her nine years on the Phoenix City Council and her 15 years on the board of supervisors, she’s advocated for kids, minorities and people with AIDS. She’s helped revitalize Downtown. She’s won awards for outstanding public service. She and her husband, Earl, a special assistant in Governor Janet Napolitano’s Office of Children, Youth and Families, own El Portal, a popular Downtown Mexican restaurant. Yet, despite her accomplishments, Mary Rose Wilcox’s long career has been clouded with allegations of ethical breaches ranging from an undisclosed sweetheart real estate deal with a major utility to the illegal razing of a historic house. (She was charged with criminal misdemeanors for tearing down the house.)

Mary Rose Wilcox has always triumphed over her accusers; she’s never been found to commit a single ethical breach or a single crime. Still, her well-publicized missteps have raised questions about why she got herself into such messes in the first place.

Now, PHOENIX magazine has discovered that Wilcox, while serving on the board of supervisors, did not publicly disclose two loans totaling $57,500 that she and Earl obtained from a Maricopa County contractor – Chicanos Por La Causa Inc., a behemoth Valley Latino nonprofit.

In addition, while the CPLC loans were still outstanding, Mary Rose Wilcox voted to approve 16 different county contracts that awarded CPLC a total of more than $1 million to deliver social services, PM has learned from public records.

State law requires county supervisors to abstain from voting on any measure in which the official has a conflict of interest or is “pecuniarily interested.” The state also requires that county supervisors disclose important financial transactions, whether business or personal, on annual financial public disclosure forms. Wilcox did not report the CPLC loans on her financial statement and did not declare a conflict of interest that would preclude her from voting on CPLC contracts during the time she owed money to CPLC.

Wilcox tells PM she didn’t have to disclose the loans, because they were business loans. And she didn’t see a conflict of interest, which explains why she voted to approve the CPLC contracts.

“I’ve been an elected official for a long time,” she says, “and I always try to do what’s right. These were business loans and they were paid back.”

Then she asks, “Are you just trying to burn me or what?”