Maricopa County spokesman Al Macias has been fired from his $90,000-a-year job for misconduct – accused of spending hours surfing and shopping on the Internet and using his work computer to help the political opponent of Supervisor Fulton Brock.
Macias, 56, was the county’s communications director for most of the past eight years and was recently named project manager. He is an Arizona native.
According to a June 3 termination notice from County Manager David Smith, Macias violated ethics policies by “disclosing potentially negative information” about Brock to his District 1 political opponent, Ed Hermes. The district includes Chandler, Ahwatukee, Tempe and Queen Creek.
The notice lists days when Macias spent hours on nonwork related Internet surfing, including May 15 when he spent about seven hours “shopping for T-shirts, looking at news sites . . . and watching various video clips.”