By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — Accusing senators of “partisan obstructionism,” Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Monday she won’t seek confirmation of any of her nominees to head state agencies who haven’t already been through the process.

But she is doing it in a way to ensure that those she has tapped continue to serve: She is naming each of them as “executive deputy directors” of their respective agencies, positions that do not require Senate confirmation.

In a letter to Senate President Warren Petersen, the governor accused Sen. Jake Hoffman, who the Senate president chose to chair the Committee on Director Nominations of being not just “disrespectful” to her choices but trying to “leverage the confirmation of qualified nominees for the implementation of his policy preferences within the executive branch.”

“He has contacted nominees to imply that their confirmation hinged on the rescission of long-standing agency policies over which he has no authority,” the governor told Petersen. “He has held up the confirmation of a nomination simply for identifying as pro-choice.”

Withdrawing the nominees from consideration, the governor said, will ensure that “state government can continue to function for Arizona.”

Press aide Christian Slater said the net effect is that each agency will function without a director.
That is not unusual, on a short-term basis, with deputy directors often filling in when someone quits or is fired.

But this would make the first time, on a wholesale basis, that 13 agencies will be functioning that way.

The move will get a legal fight.

“There is no getting around the process,” Petersen, a Gilbert Republican, told Capitol Media Services.

“We have a system of checks and balances,” he said. “This isn’t a dictatorship.”

Petersen said the rejections of several appointees was justified, saying it included “several people who were either incompetent or overly partisan.” He did not spell out which ones fell into either of those categories.

And the Senate president said that the governor’s maneuver is little more than a political charade.
“It doesn’t matter what she calls someone,” he said. “If they are the actual director they must be confirmed.”

Petersen said that anyone who is running the agency, regardless of title, has to be confirmed by the Senate.

There is a provision that allows director nominees to serve up to a year if they have not been confirmed.

And Petersen said that, as far as he is concerned, if whoever is running the agency has not been through the process and been approved by the Senate, they lose their jobs.

He is relying on a section of law that says for certain offices “the governor shall nominate and with the consent of the Senate appoint such officer as prescribed.”

On top of that, Petersen said, the laws establishing each agency require that be headed by a director appointed by the governor. Those laws say it is the director who administers the department and even determines the compensation.

He particularly cited a law dealing with the Arizona Department of Housing. Hoffman’s panel two weeks ago rejected Hobbs’ choice of Joan Serviss to head the agency amid charges she was guilty of plagiarism. And that statute spells out that it is the job of the director to appoint a deputy director.

It appears, though, that Hobbs may have anticipated that and outmaneuvered the Senate. And the key is timing.

Christian Slater, the governor’s press aide, said once she withdrew each nomination, each agency had no director. That allowed her to appoint an “interim director” who, in turn, was empowered to name a deputy.

Then, after completing that chore, he said, each agency’s interim director promptly quit, often having served no more than five minutes.

And Slater had his own list of legal provisions he said actually backs what his boss is doing.

“There’s no statute that limits the time a deputy director can serve,” he said. And another law says that each agency deputy director “possesses the powers and may perform the duties prescribed by law for the office of the principal.”

Hoffman accused the governor of throwing “petulant temper tantrums when she doesn’t get her way.” And he defended the decision of the panel to reject the nominees it did, saying it is part of the role of the Senate under the constitutional system of checks and balances.

It hasn’t always been that way.

For example, under the old system, the choice by Hobbs of Jennifer Toth to head the Department of Transportation would have gone to the Senate Transportation and Technology Committee. Sen. Lela Alston, D-Phoenix, said that panel might have the background in transit issues.

What changes is this is the first time in 15 yeas the Republican-controlled Legislature has had to deal with a Democratic governor and her nominees. So Petersen this year agreed to create the Committee on Director Nominations to handle all appointments and appoint Hoffman, head of the conservative Arizona Freedom Caucus, as its chair.

And he has grilled nominees on their personal feelings about issues.

In Toth’s case, he asked her about what she thought about the roles of racism in road construction decisions and of toxic masculinity in accidents.

Toth, who had been director of the Maricopa County Transportation Department, responded that it is her job to adopt the policies set out by the governor and the Legislature. And she said her feelings aren’t relevant.

“This committee is here to evaluate you,” Hoffman shot back. “And I feel that it’s relevant, which is why I’m asking the questions.”

Others haven’t even gotten a hearing, like Karen Peters, who had been a deputy Phoenix city manager, to head the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Hoffman said at the time there was “concerning information” about her but did not specify.

For the moment, Peters is getting the last word.

In a memo Monday to DEQ staff, she announced her new position as executive deputy director “not subject to Senate confirmation.” And in that role, Peters said, she will serve in Hobbs’ cabinet, just like she were actually the director.

With the governor’s action, the next move is up to Petersen, as Slater said his boss has no intention of seeking a court order over her powers. The Senate president, however, said he has no such hesitation.

“This one’s black and white,” he said of his reading of the powers of the governor. “No question on the legal outcome.”

Hoffman agreed.

“The law is on our side,” he said.

It could end without a court fight.

In her letter to Petersen, Hobbs said she will resume sending nominations to the Senate if it resumes “confirming nominees as contemplated by law.”