PHOENIX -- The man who wants to take over as Maricopa County sheriff said he applauds the governor's executive order to take the more than $1.5 million from Joe Arpaio's illegal immigration fund.

Dan Saban told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR Arpaio's so-called crime suppression sweeps are an irresponsible use of money.

"The sheriff is more of a celebrity than a professional," Saban said. "I'm here to offer the voters another option because when you compare and contrast, I'm just very concerned about the public safety issues in this county as a taxpayer and a professional."

The sheriff's office is facing another $4 million dollars in cutbacks that could reduce patrols, investigations, and overtime money.

Napolitano said Wednesday that her administration's decision to cut off immigration enforcement dollars to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office wasn't an attempt to change the police agency's approach to cracking down on illegal immigration.

Instead, Napolitano said the decision was meant to provide funding for trying to clear a backlog of nearly 59,000 outstanding felony warrants across the state. She also said state police, who control the funding, have had trouble getting the sheriff's office to collaborate with them.

"We do not intend to use state money for go-it-alone sweeps," Napolitano said.

Arpaio said the decision to yank the funding was an effort by Napolitano and her allies to show their disapproval of his immigration patrols.

"Nobody had the courtesy to tell me," Arpaio said of the decision to pull the funding. "I had to learn through the news media that she was doing this."

Arpaio's immigration efforts include creating a special immigration unit, getting 160 of his officers trained in federal immigration law and setting up a hotline to report immigration violations.

His crackdowns in three heavily Hispanic areas of metropolitan Phoenix during late March and early April drew complaints from other politicians that the sheriff was grandstanding and that the sweeps were fraught with racial profiling. Arpaio said the patrols were intended to suppress crime and that his deputies didn't racially profile Hispanics.

The number of outstanding felony warrants was first raised by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who had asked federal authorities to conduct a civil rights investigation of the sweeps and who believes the sheriff should focus on finding felony fugitives.

Napolitano said the Arizona Department of Public Safety's decision to pull the sheriff's immigration funding came during tight budget times and was meant to improve public safety.

Roger Vanderpool, director of Department of Public Safety, had complained in October that the sheriff's office wasn't meeting a requirement of the funding deal that called for the sharing information.

Arpaio said the criticism was a ruse for cutting off the funding and that his office had given such information to the Department of Public Safety but that the state police couldn't put the data into their computers because of a formatting problem.