Feud Between Hobbs And Yee Over Agency Nominations Escalates
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s Governor and Treasurer continue to escalate their political feud over the constitutionality of executive agency nominees.
After Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, announced her decision to withdraw her remaining agency nominees for Senate confirmation, Treasurer Kimberly Yee, a Republican, revealed that during last week’s State Board of Investment meeting, she “did not recognize employees from the Arizona Department of Administration or the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions as legally participating members due to the recent actions of the Governor.”
Yee’s action led to political fireworks from the Governor’s Office with a press release calling out the State’s Treasurer for “falling in line with extremist Jake Hoffman’s decision to participate in partisan obstructionism.” The fiery communication from Hobbs’ Office asserted that Yee “broke the law and refused expert advice from professionals in order to play political games with taxpayer money, shirking her responsibilities as the State Treasurer.”
Hobbs’ Director of Operations and Interim Director of the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) said, “The taxpayers deserve to have their funds invested optimally to maximize ROI, and they have entrusted Treasurer Yee with that responsibility. By shutting out the voices of fellow agencies, you are failing to take into account all of the information that the law requires in order to do right by our taxpayers.”
Henderson sent a letter to Yee, accusing her of “illegally depriving ADOA of the power to participate in Tuesday’s Board meeting.” The interim agency director also noted, “Any matter covered in the meeting will need to be added to the agenda for the next meeting, at which you must recognize Assistant Director Restinas and allow her to participate as a member in accordance with the law.”
The Republican Treasurer quickly responded via letter to the governor, letting the State’s chief executive know that she took “exception to the unprofessional and juvenile rhetoric used throughout (Henderson’s) letter,” and that she was appalled by the “complete lack of respect from a member of your administration towards a duly statewide elected official.” Yee explained that her actions during the investment meeting last week were not done “for political reasons, as suggested by your staff, but rather out of an abundance of caution to ensure that the actions taken by the BOI during the September 26, 2023, meeting were legitimate and lawful.”
Treasurer Yee took several paragraphs to justify her actions in refusing to recognize the two agency leaders at her recent meeting. She asserted that, pursuant to state statutes, her Office required multiple pieces of documentation from the Governor’s team on the two appointments in addition to “legal authority supporting the appointments.” Yee stated that she “cannot in good conscience seat the ADOA and DIFI employees on the BOI moving forward” without receiving the aforementioned pieces from the Governor’s Office.
Yee also expressed her disagreement with Henderson’s allegation that her actions at the BOI meeting were “invalid and must be re-added to next month’s agenda.” She noted that one of the appointees, Retsinas, “attended the full meeting via WebEx as a member of the public and at no time informed the BOI, or Treasury staff, that she had been appointed by Mr. Henderson, as interim director of ADOA.”
In conclusion of her letter, Yee expressed hope that her letter “alleviates the concerns of (Hobbs) and (her) staff,” requesting the governor to “send us all documentation supporting (her) appointments as soon as practicable so that we may ensure that the appropriate designees are seated on the BOI moving forward.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
