PHOENIX — Tucson auto dealer Jim Click gave more money than anyone else for some seats at Monday’s inaugural for state officials.
Records obtained Wednesday by Capitol Media Services show Click at the top of the donor list at $25,000. That made him $10,000 more generous than any others in financing the ceremony to swear in second-term Gov. Doug Ducey and five other state officials.
Click did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment left with his assistant.
But inaugural organizers said a donation of his size entitled recipients to six seats near the front of the event, held in the courtyard between the House and Senate, as well as six tickets to the reception afterward. Also in the package were three parking passes, the right to have three photos taken at the reception, and six inaugural pins.
That donation — along with any of at least $10,000 — also entitled the donor to put a corporate logo in the program handed out and on the inaugural website. But Click’s name and his dealerships weren’t on the program, which had to be printed before he made his pledge.
Pinnacle West Capital Corp., parent company of Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest electric utility, kicked in $15,000. That level netted three prime seats and VIP reception invitations.
That was more generous than other state utilities, including Tucson Electric, Southwest Gas, Salt River Project and Cox Communications, which each kicked in $5,000 — enough to get their names on the program.
Other $15,000 donors include Well Care Health Plans, Honeywell Aerospace, Southern Glazers Wine & Spirits, Freeport McMoRan and United Health Group, though gubernatorial press aide Patrick Ptak said the cash from the last three is so far just pledged and not yet received.
All totaled, the cash received and pledged totals $272,500.
Some other companies got their names on the program with in-kind contributions.
For example, the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance, the lobbying arm of the grocery store industry, put on a lunch for volunteers, separate from the VIP event. Mission Linen Supply provided linens for that more formal event for the major donors. And AFR Furniture Rental provided the cushioned chairs on the stage for those being sworn in and their spouses.
Ptak said the idea was to fund the event with private dollars, saying there was no state cash involved. But the governor’s office has yet to produce a formal list of where and how the money was spent.
Not all went to the production itself: Volunteers from the governor’s office who worked on the inaugural on their own time, doing everything from setting up to parking lot duty to ushering, received new sweatshirts emblazoned with the event name, the state seal and Ducey’s name.
