County Attorney says ‘shut up’ to critics urging DES director’s firing

PHOENIX — Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said it’s too early to call for anyone’s resignation, as the investigation continues into why Child Protective Services failed to investigate some 6,000 cases.

Some of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s critics say she should call for a special legislative session to look into the matter and that she should fire Department of Economic Security Director Clarence Carter.

Montgomery has a special message to those who are calling for those actions.

“Why don’t you just shut up and be an adult for a change? Let’s go through a process in which we can identify issues, identify the resources necessary to fix it and then make responsible decisions,” he said.

Montgomery said the governor is doing a good job of quickly investigating what went wrong.

“We need to keep in mind that it was just a mere few weeks ago when this problem initially came to light and then was publicly disclosed,” said Montgomery. “The response from a state level bureaucracy, in terms of how bureaucracies usually act, has been at lightning speed.”

The county attorney is hoping that an investigation by the Department of Public Safety will answer a number of questions.

“What permitted this situation to occur? What sort of administrative policies or procedures were in place that allowed someone to think that this was an appropriate way to dispose of cases?” Montgomery remarked.

He added that once that investigation is complete, “we’ll see what the next important steps are.”

Montgomery also said it’s too early to say whether anyone will be prosecuted.