The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) held a special public meeting on Wednesday to discuss a Shared Services Agreement (SSA) drafted by the MCBOS to give Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap some of his job responsibilities back. The previous MCBOS, even though it was in lame duck status at the end of their term, executed an agreement with the previous recorder Stephen Richer in October that took away Heap’s IT department and other significant powers.
Until 2019, the recorder’s office handled all election responsibilities, not just early and mail-in voting. After then-recorder Adrian Fontes mishandled the 2018 election, he agreed with the MCBOS to turn over Election Day administration to the MCBOS. The October SSA took away even more authority from the recorder, and the new board appears reluctant to return much of the authority.
Heap issued a statement after the meeting. “The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors presentation today was one side of an ongoing negotiation,” he said. “Recorder Heap disagrees with some statements that were made; however, his focus remains on getting an elections agreement in place that best serves the voters of Maricopa County. The agreement put forth by the Board today represents the framework of a deal, but the devil is in the details, and those details still need to be ironed out.”
Grassroots activist Merissa Hamilton of EZAZ posted her disappointment with the draft SSA on X. “BOS SSA Creates Innefficiencies, Poor Voter Experience, Legal Non Compliance and Lacks Statutory Integrity,” she said. “I reviewed the SSA @ThomasGalvin published for the Special Meeting Agenda today, and it doubles down on every aspect of major maladministration that’s plagued Maricopa County over the last decade.”
Heap was criticized during the meeting for firing his attorney and bringing on a new one. However, Heap had been assigned Tim Eckstein of the Democratic firm Osborn Maledon by the county. Heap replaced him with Andrew Gould, a former Arizona Supreme Court judge and conservative candidate for attorney general.
