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Government Relations
Weekend Update
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Last week during an informal meeting, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) appointed a new county manager.
The BOS did a nationwide search but ultimately selected a internal candidate Jen Pokorski, current Assistant County Manager to lead the organization. Jen will replace Joy Rich, whose retirement is effective today.
Jen has been part of Maricopa County since 2005. In her current role she manages seven departments which are: Air Quality, Animal Care and Control, Environmental Services, Flood Control District, Planning and Development, Real Estate, and Transportation. Prior to her current role, she served as director of Planning and Development and director of the Ombudsman's Office.
Government Relations looks forward to continue working with Jen as she enters her new leadership role.
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The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) Economic Development Committee (EDC) met on Tuesday.
The meeting began with a presentation from Brad Halvorsen, Executive Vice President for the Flinn Foundation. His presentation focused on the impact of biosciences on Arizona’s economy. The Flinn Foundation launched Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap in 2002 with the goal of Arizona becoming globally competitive and a national leader in select areas of biosciences. The roadmap is led by the Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee. This group consists of 135 state leaders from the public and private sectors in science, health care, business, and academia. Mr. Halvorsen’s presentation highlighted the roadmap’s latest findings, outlook, and the impact of the bioscience sector on the region.
EDC members received a second presentation from Dr. Guy Reed, Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona. His presentation highlighted how the college is uniquely positioned to accelerate the biomedical and economic engines in Phoenix and the state through entrepreneurialism, product development, and community building.
To conclude, staff provided an update on MAG’s efforts for enabling legislation to allow the extension of Proposition (Prop) 400 to be placed before voters. Staff provided an update on the current vehicle bill for the Prop 400 extension plan SB 1246 and another bill that passed the House Appropriations Committee this week SB 1102. Staff shared that the percentage allocations within both bills are inconsistent with the regionally approved plan. MAG staff shared that they plan to continue negotiations with the House, Senate, and Governor to find a legislative solution that supports the implementation of the region’s adopted plan.
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April is National County Government Month (NCGM). This year, the theme of NCGM is “Counties RISE”, an acronym for Resiliency, Inclusion, Solvency, and Empowerment.
Each year in recognition of the celebration, the National Association of Counties (NACo) provides resources to help counties share about their work. One example is the iCivics curriculum that NACo created for students grades 6 – 12 to teach about the important role of county government. NACo also created an online game entitled “Counties Work”. To view these and other resources, click the links below.
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Maricopa County Government Relations
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