The Daily Agenda: No guarantees for nominees
She can't just blame Jake ... Brno v. the Bar ... And raise your hand if the Sinaloa Cartel bribed you.
Gov. Katie Hobbs’ administration suffered another avoidable blow late last week as Senate Republicans scooped her on the news that she was already firing her appointed director of the Department of Child Services.
Legislative Republicans painted the forced departure as proof that their process of vetting is working — or at least, that it’s needed, since Hobbs isn’t doing the job herself. It’s a fair point against Hobbs, who has largely bungled the confirmation process.
Matthew Stewart was supposed to be Arizona’s first Black DCS director. As a longtime employee who had spoken out about the agency’s history of over-investigating Black families, he offered perspective and insight that the agency sorely needs.
Stewart’s personnel file shows he was reprimanded for insubordination after refusing to show up to work in-person during the height of the pandemic. He later resigned from the agency. That’s pretty forgivable.
But Sen. Jake Hoffman also claimed that a whistleblower delivered information to the Senate about some of Stewart’s “questionable moves on consulting contracts," that several top staffers of the agency have recently resigned under his leadership and that Stewart fired “openly gay employees of DCS, who have now filed complaints against him.” The latter charge, Hoffman claimed, is what ultimately prompted the forced resignation. (We filed a records request to DCS seeking documentation of these claims.)
Hobbs has refused to answer questions about why, exactly, she wanted Stewart out, saying only that the decision was “in the best interests of all parties involved.” But what would have been better for everyone’s interests is never nominating him at all.
Agency directors can help make or break a governor’s tenure. Former Gov. Doug Ducey’s early years were marked by bad directors who distracted from his agenda and sometimes caused chaos in their departments. To govern, Hobbs will need a strong, vetted team — and eventually, they’ll have to earn support from the Senate.
As it stands now, only two of the 26 agency directors Hobbs must nominate have been confirmed by the full Senate. One was withdrawn after a badgering by Hoffman’s committee, while another has to come back for more grilling. Stewart never made it to the Senate committee.
The scorecard is not looking good for Hobbs, and it’s largely her own fault. Her nominees have faced hostility from the Senate’s nomination committee, of course, but they haven’t appeared prepared for that intense scrutiny. And the administration is doing seemingly little to promote her nominees in the Senate, where Hobbs once served. Instead, the governor has been taunting “fake elector Jake Hoffman,” the chair of the committee.
Declaring Hoffman a bully who just hates your appointees isn’t a sound strategy for getting them confirmed, even if it’s true. If she’s going to form a functioning cabinet, Hobbs will need to look inward and adjust course. Her current strategy clearly isn’t working.
Was it worth it?: Former AG Mark Brnovich is facing at least eight complaints to the State Bar of Arizona following revelations that he buried and misrepresented his investigators’ findings in an interim report on his investigation into alleged problems with the 2020 election, the Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez writes, noting one of those complaints came from the Governor’s Office.
Veto costs Hank $44 per month: Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a measure to bar cities from collecting a rent tax. Unlike previous proposals, this would have held cities harmless for one year by reimbursing them for the lost income from the state general fund, 12News’ Kevin Reagan reports. She said it wouldn’t improve Arizona’s housing crisis.
Birds of a feather: Last week, the Republic noted that U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is near the top of Congress’ biggest spenders on security. The Daily Beast adds an interesting footnote: Of the $560,000 in campaign funds Sinema spent on security, $307,000 went to TOA Group LLC, owned by Vrindivan Gabbard Bellord, the sister and occasional spokesperson for former Democratic Congresswoman turned political commentator Tulsi Gabbard, who is a close friend of Sinema. Bellord is also drawing a $50,000 salary from Sinema’s office, raising ethical red flags.
Grass is for the rich: The Republic’s Joanna Allhands argues that while we’ll have to pay more for water in the future to reflect its scarcity and pay for upgrades to aging infrastructure, there are ways to structure the cost that treat water as essential to life.
“Rates could be restructured, so everyone pays a cheap base rate with a modicum of water included for indoor use. Additional water use indoors or outdoors would cost extra,” she writes. “Water providers could install flow restrictors on the homes of folks who can’t afford to pay their bills instead of shutting them off completely, so they still receive a trickle of water to maintain public health.”
And he’s only a two: The Town of Gilbert has been tracking and ranking residents near its Ocotillo Road expansion according to how vocally opposed they have been to the project on a scale from one to four, with one being most vocal, AZFamily’s Briana Whitney reports. Resident and critic Rich Robertson dug up the document through a public records request. Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson said she was “appalled that something like that might be going around.”
Just cars, please: The Gilbert City Council again attempted to bar the city from participating with potential plans to bring more trains, be that light rail or Amtrak. While that ordinance ultimately failed, the entire council agreed they don’t want a light rail track in town, the Republic’s Maritza Dominguez writes.
Judging the judges: The Republic’s Jimmy Jenkins writes about Khalil Rushdan, who spent 15 years in prison for a 1997 murder that he didn’t commit and was exonerated after a federal judge overturned the case calling it a vindictive prosecution. He’s one of Hobbs’ appointees to the Maricopa County Commission on Trial Court Appointments and plans to use that seat to create change in the criminal justice system.
Hotels have room service: The Super Bowl and Waste Management Open were expected to be the ultimate stress test to the Valley’s newfound attempt to regulate Airbnbs, the Republic’s Sam Kmack writes, but there weren’t many complaints about them. The lack of complaints raises the question of whether regulations are working, if neighbors were just more forgiving of parties that weekend or if it’s because many Airbnbs were actually unoccupied.
Think local: Republican lawmakers' main attempt to deal with the Saudi Arabian company pumping huge amounts of water in northwest Arizona to grow alfalfa to send abroad wouldn’t solve the real problem, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tim Steller writes. Rep. Leo Biasiucci’s House Bill 2376 would ban seven countries from owning or leasing state land (though not Saudi Arabia). But the real problem is groundwater laws remain too lax and “anyone with enough money can come into Arizona and deplete its aquifers without any regulations or consequences,” Steller writes. A better idea comes from Biasiucci’s HB2731, which would create local water regulatory boards.
Taxpayers foot the bill: Phoenix Police are facing yet another lawsuit for killing a suspect, the Phoenix New Times’ Katya Schwenk reports. The family of Ali Osman filed a formal lawsuit following their notice of claim seeking $85 million. Phoenix police shot and killed Osaman in September after he threw rocks at a patrol car. Police said, “Let’s get this motherfucker,” according to body camera footage, and waited two minutes after shooting him to render aid. They had a less-lethal shotgun in the car but used live rounds instead.
Update that assessment form: 12News’ Bianca Buono and Katie Wilcox expose disparities in the sex offender registration system that mean those who molest young girls are treated less severely than those who molest boys. Sex offenders are assigned points on an assessment form based on the severity of their crimes — the higher the points, the more severe their category of risk and more disclosure required to the public. Sex offenders categorized low enough aren’t required to be listed on the public sex offender database, including one man who molested a young girl and spent 10 years in prison, they write. Molesting girls carries one point, while molesting boys carries three points. Molesting children of both genders carries five points.
People never learn: While people in the Rio Verde Foothills area are struggling to find affordable water after Scottsdale cut off the tap, the city and its surrounding subdivisions just keep expanding, which will require even more water, the Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon writes.
“It’s not fair to tell people to ‘cut, cut, cut’ — and then we authorize all this growth,” Scottsdale City Councilman Barry Graham told Scanlon.
Moving bills is hard work: Our bill to create a monument at the Capitol mall to honor murdered journalist Don Bolles got some ink in the Republic, where Bolles reporter Richard Ruelas notes the bill cleared the House.