The conflicting interests of Brian Fernandez

Arizona’s conflict-of-interest rules are supposed to stop lawmakers from voting on bills that personally benefit them.

In practice, they leave plenty of room to maneuver: As long as a law affects at least a small group of people, it’s generally not considered a legal conflict of interest.

That’s how Republican Sen. Kevin Payne has been able to regulate food trucks while owning a food truck business, why Senate President Warren Petersen can run housing development bills while working for a home construction company, and why Sen. David Gowan can repeatedly back bills to boost Arizona firework sales while working as a fireworks salesman.

But Democratic Sen. Brian Fernandez’s case feels different.

Last year, Fernandez abstained from voting on a bill that would have sent money to his employer, a Yuma hospital system where he holds a senior leadership role, after Senate attorneys warned it raised conflict-of-interest concerns.

But months later, he voted for the same funding anyway — this time in a smaller amount tucked into the state budget.

To be clear, lawmakers routinely secure pet projects in the budget. District-specific funding items are one way legislative leaders win over politically divided members and assemble enough votes for a massive spending plan.

It’s more unusual to see lawmakers who are also employed by the companies receiving those taxpayer dollars — and who sponsor bills to fund them.

Fernandez told us that distinction did not create a conflict because, as one of many Onvida Health employees, he “did not and would not have received a material financial benefit from any of the dollars appropriated.”

Fernandez first entered the Legislature in 2021, when the Yuma County Board of Supervisors chose him to fill the House seat vacated by his mother, Charlene Fernandez, who currently chairs the state Democratic Party. He later won election to the area’s Senate seat in 2022, and again in 2024.

Fernandez studied broadcasting and communication at Arizona State University, then built a career in tech — he founded several software companies and, according to his latest financial disclosure statement, continues to run one called “Team Start.”

More recently, his career took a turn toward hospital administration.

In the emailed response Fernandez sent us to questions about his role at Onvida and the related budget funding, the senator said he’s worked at Onvida since December 2024 as the “Vice President of External Affairs,” a role that “focuses on community engagement and awareness of the hospital's initiatives.”

But the bio on Fernandez’s LinkedIn page lists his role at Onvida as “Vice President of Government Relations,” where he “drive(s) strategic policy initiatives to improve healthcare access and regulatory outcomes.”

That “government relations” role further muddies the waters. Government relations positions are, by their nature, lobbying positions. Their role is to manage relationships and deal with the government to benefit their company.

Lawmakers advocate for bills as elected officials all the time, but not as pseudo-lobbyists for other companies.

Still, Arizona has a part-time, citizen legislature, and its 90 lawmakers are expected to hold outside jobs. That leaves teachers voting on education policy and lawyers weighing in on the legal system.

But Fernandez’s job isn’t just affected by public policy — it’s centered on influencing it.

Within about a month of starting his job at Onvida, Fernandez filed a bill to send state money to a new partnership program between Onvida and the University of Arizona.

His bill appropriated money to the UA “to construct a regional medical center in the city of Yuma,” but did not specify an amount. Republican Sen. Tim Dunn, who also represents the Yuma area, later championed his own legislation with the same language and a $7 million appropriation.

Dunn told us the funding was meant to help launch a collaborative medical school project between the UA and Onvida to address the rural healthcare shortage — a project he said was in the works a year before he got involved.

Dunn said he knew Fernandez had been involved “in some of the first conversations with the University of Arizona,” but didn’t offer more specifics.

And at the committee hearing on the bill, it was Fernandez — not Dunn — who stepped up to pitch it to fellow lawmakers.

Arizona needs more medical professionals, he said, but it’s hard to attract them to rural areas like Yuma.

The committee recording picked up Fernandez whispering “thank you” after the vote, seemingly directed at Republican Sen. Hildy Angius. She sponsored a strike-everything amendment for the money.

But after talking to the Senate's lawyers, Fernandez abstained from voting when it reached the full Senate.

Instead, he announced, “I'm taking a rule 30 on this.”

Rule 30 is the section of the Senate’s rulebook that requires lawmakers to disclose potential personal financial conflicts and fill out a form describing the potential conflict.

On his form, Fernandez wrote: “I currently work for a hospital system in Yuma and there may be some overlap with this bill.”

The senator told us he abstained from the vote “to avoid the appearance of impropriety” and “out of an abundance of caution after speaking with legal counsel.”

The Senate passed the $7 million appropriation for the UA without Fernandez’s vote, but it didn’t make it through the House.

Instead, the funding — now cut to $3 million — showed up buried in the fine print of the annual state budget. This time, it went instead to the city of Yuma for “further distribution to a nonprofit regional hospital located in the city of Yuma that supports at least 400 beds.”

Lawmakers often write appropriations with highly specific qualifiers instead of outright naming the recipient to avoid violating the Arizona Constitution’s special legislation clause, which bars the state from giving exclusive privileges to a corporation, association or individual.

In January, Yuma’s City Council approved the $3 million in state funding and routed it to Onvida Health.

Fernandez argued that, despite introducing the funding proposal and later voting for the budget that benefited his employer, he lacked the personal financial stake required for a legal conflict of interest under Arizona law.

Under the statute, a conflict of interest exists only when an elected official has a “substantial interest” in the outcome. Basically, that means a chance to actually make or lose money based on what happens.

Fernandez said he “did not have an actual personal financial interest” in whether Onvida received state funding, and “would not have received a material financial benefit from any of the dollars appropriated.”

Instead, the senator said he falls into a different category as “a member of a class of persons consisting of at least ten members,” or in his case, employees of Onvida Health.

That may sound like a technicality, but Arizona lawmakers have long benefited from the state’s narrow conflict-of-interest law.

Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman sponsored a bill this year to create a Charlie Kirk specialty license plate that directs part of the proceeds to Turning Point USA — a group financially entangled with Hoffman’s own marketing and consulting firms.

Former Republican Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, who owned a chain of charter schools, voted to increase charter school funding while backing policies that stripped away oversight.

And the Republic reported in 2021 that four House Democrats were on the payroll of Chicanos por la Causa while the social services nonprofit had frequent business before the Legislature.

In all three cases, none of the lawmakers were prevented from voting on legislation that raised conflict-of-interest concerns, nor did they face any legal repercussions.

We asked Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan if she knew about Fernandez’s potential conflict of interest. She said staff had “talked to him about it, and that he said he took steps to fix it.”

When we pointed out that he not only voted on the state budget, but sponsored the original legislation that proposed the funding for Onvida, she seemed surprised.

For his part, Fernandez said he did not personally lobby for the state funding. He pointed instead to Onvida’s lobbyist, Brett Galley, who officially signed in to support the bill, and Fernandez said he did not participate in discussions over the appropriation for the new program.

While the Capitol’s lobbyists typically advocate from the outside, whether by testifying on behalf of clients or pressing lawmakers behind the scenes, Fernandez’s position was more direct. More than trying to persuade elected officials to support an Onvida program, he used his power as an elected official to advance it.

And other officials behind the program made clear it would not have happened without him.

The UA and Onvida announced their new partnership last December, after a special Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Yuma.

Regents and executives gathered at an Onvida location for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, but the project was not the kind of new brick-and-mortar campus that typically calls for oversized scissors. It is a new three-year medical school program.

Students training to become primary care doctors will spend half the program at the UA College of Medicine–Phoenix and the other half doing in-person clinical work at Onvida’s hospital in Yuma.

The first cohort starts in July, and Onvida says it will spend about $30 million over eight years to fund full-tuition scholarships.

The Yuma health group specified that their partnership with the UA was in the works before the $3 million from the state Legislature, and while its lobbyist registered in support of the funding, Onvida Health did not engage in any other lobbying on the issue.

But when the partnership was publicly unveiled, Fernandez was presented as one of the key figures behind it.

He didn’t seem to mind taking credit.

The UA’s medical school celebrated the announcement on LinkedIn, sharing photos of UA President Suresh Garimella wielding giant red scissors to cut a ribbon in front of a UA-Onvida banner, as both Fernandez and Dunn smile alongside him.

Rodney Short, attorney for the city of Yuma, commented on the post, thanking Fernandez for “securing the appropriation.”

Fernandez got more praise during the Board of Regents’ formal meeting, which included an overview of the new medical school program.

Regent Doug Goodyear invited Fernandez to join the regents at the table at the front of the room, telling him, “You have been a tireless champion, and we are grateful for your work.”

Garimella followed with his own shoutout. Fernandez had strongly backed the effort, he said, and the program was “in some ways, his brainchild.”

Fredric Wondisford, dean of the UA’s medical school, piled on: Onvida, he said, was interested in training medical students, and Fernandez helped connect the health system with the university.

And Fernandez himself got to say a few words.

The partnership is a major expansion for both the UA medical school and Onvida, and its backers say it could help address persistent rural health care shortages in Yuma.

We asked Fernandez how he weighs those promised benefits against a potential conflict of interest.

He said he does not see it as an ethical judgment, but a legal question.