Gov. Katie Hobbs says dismissal of Arizona-Mexico Commission is just a start

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said she wants to tear down and rebuild the hundreds of state boards and commissions that are part of her office.

The Democrat raised eyebrows recently when she dismissed the entire Arizona-Mexico Commission.

She explained the move during a press conference Tuesday, saying it was part of a larger strategy.

“We’re going to be doing this with other commissions. … It’s a way to have sort of a clean start and reappoint the members that we want to reappoint,” she said.

Hobbs, who took office in early January, said a lot of holdover members from former Gov. Doug Ducey’s administration have been serving in multiple roles.

“These are largely volunteer positions, which there are numerous Arizonans that want to serve in and who are qualified to serve in,” she said.

“And, so, we’re going to be looking to make sure that we can really diversify membership in a lot of these boards and commissions.”

The Arizona-Mexico Commission works to “strengthen Arizona’s ties to Mexico and build a cross-border community of professionals from nearly every industry,” according to the group’s website.

Hobbs said the terminated members were all invited to reapply.

“At least half of them have taken us up on that,” she said. “So, we’re just going to be looking and making sure that we’re filling that commission with the people that are there for the right reasons and the people that we want to be there.”

There are more than 300 boards and commissions under the Governor’s Office, Hobbs said.

“Many of those terms are fixed in statute and we don’t have any purview to remove members, but the ones that we do we’re certainly going to be looking at making this kind of action on other commissions,” she said.

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