Two top Arizona health officials resign amid ‘unprecedented politicization’ of process

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Katie Hobbs in February 2023. Photo by Gage Skidmore (modified) | Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

Two of Arizona’s top public health officials have resigned rather than face an acrimonious confirmation process at the legislature, where Republicans have used agency director hearings to play hardball politics with Gov. Katie Hobbs and stymie her government. 

On Wednesday, Hobbs announced that Jennie Cunico, the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, and Carmen Heredia, who heads Arizona’s Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, have stepped down from their positions. Heredia was scheduled to go before the state Senate’s Committee on Director Nominations for consideration on Thursday. 

In her announcement, Hobbs blamed the Republican majority for co-opting the confirmation process to attack her nominations on political grounds. 

“Unfortunately, the Senate’s unprecedented politicization of the director confirmation process has ended the directorship of two healthcare professionals who have made our state government run more efficiently and more effectively,” she said in a written statement. “The people of Arizona are tired of the relentless politics that has undermined good governance in the name of partisan retribution. It should not matter whether the leaders of our state government are Democrats or Republicans; it should matter that our state is run by public servants who do what’s right for everyday people.”

Under Arizona law, the governor’s agency picks are required to be vetted and approved or rejected by the state Senate. The process has historically been uneventful, with candidates facing interviews from lawmakers on committees relevant to the agencies they’ve been chosen for, but Hobbs’ election prompted Republicans to set up an entirely new committee to vet her choices. And that has resulted in aggressive, hourslong interrogations that more closely resemble federal confirmation hearings. 

After several of her candidates resigned or were shot down for political reasons, Hobbs attempted to circumvent the process by appointing them as executive directors. Cunico was appointed in 2023, following the withdrawn nomination of her predecessor, former Pima County Health Director Dr. Theresa Cullen, who underwent a contentious hearing that focused on her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Heredia was appointed in late 2022. But a failed court battle over the legality of Hobbs’ actions meant the duo would eventually need to win approval from the state Senate to continue serving in their roles.

Both Heredia and Cunico cited the contentious confirmation process in their resignation letters as the reason for their decisions to step down, despite their desire to continue working in public health. 

“Serving the people of Arizona — especially our most vulnerable — has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life,” Heredia wrote. “However, it has become increasingly difficult to carry out this mission in good faith under the current political climate. I am deeply concerned about the escalating politicization of state agency leadership roles under the Republican-led Legislature. The intrusion of partisan agendas that drag professionals through career damaging hearings is not an effective way to attract and retain qualified people in these critical roles and has made it increasingly challenging to serve Arizona agencies effectively.”

“It is clear to me that there is no path forward to confirmation,” echoed Cunico. 

Cunico, whose confirmation hearing hadn’t yet been scheduled, had already faced criticism for a Child Fatality Report that recommended increasing gun safety regulations and advised parents to remove firearms to prevent gun-related deaths. Republican lawmakers accused the department of public health of advocating for “stripping Arizonans of their Second Amendment rights.” While Cunico was not a part of the team that developed that report, it’s likely that, as the figurehead of the state’s public health department, the topic would have been brought up during her confirmation. 

Republicans celebrated the resignations. Sen. Jake Hoffman, a Republican from Queen Creek who chairs the Director Nominations Committee and who also heads the legislature’s far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, said they are a “testament” to the work done by lawmakers to ensure candidates are the best choice for Arizonans. 

Hoffman denounced Heredia for what he said was “mismanagement” of the state’s Medicaid program and blamed her for the sober home living fraud that targeted Arizona’s indigenous community and cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. 

“Arizona is in the middle of a monumental Medicaid fraud crisis with a loss of more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars,” he wrote. “Under Katie Hobbs’ leadership, Heredia’s response has been incredibly disturbing, to say the least.”

That widespread fraudulent scheme, under which behavioral health and addiction treatment facilities lured and neglected patients to obtain Medicaid reimbursements, began in 2019 and went unchecked by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s administration. In a bid to clean up the mess and crackdown on fraudulent sober living homes, some legitimate businesses have had their payments suspended by AHCCCS. But officials have said that a process exists to release those payments and the department has sought to correct mistakes when they occur.

Hoffman vowed to continue pushing for stringent reviews of Hobbs’ candidates. 

“Since its inception, the Committee on Director Nominations has been committed to honestly, thoroughly, and accurately vetting Katie Hobbs’ nominees,” he wrote. “We have served as Arizonans’ last line of defense against incompetent, unqualified, and highly partisan picks to lead state agencies.”

This post was originally authored and published by Gloria Rebecca Gomez from AZ Mirror via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.