Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Jan Brewer Has Been Named One of the Worst Governors in the Country for Her Ties to CCA

Posted By on Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 11:36 AM

Gov. Jan Brewer doesn't always have her share of fans 'round these parts ("these parts" meaning most anywhere in Arizona, as of late), but as of today, she's apparently among the worst governors in the country.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has named Brewer in the bottom 12 governors in the country for misusing public funds, pressuring public officials (including the removal of the independent chair of the state's redistricting commission) and paying out bonuses to outgoing officials (emphasis ours):

In June 2010, by executive order, Gov. Brewer moved to eliminate the state commerce department and replace it with a public-private entity called the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA). In November 2010, she announced that Don Cardon, the director of the old commerce department, would head the new authority.

On August 30, 2011, the ACA board, which is appointed and headed by Gov. Brewer, awarded Mr. Cardon a three-year contract called for Mr. Cardon to receive a $117,000 raise over his old commerce department salary, bringing it to $300,000. In addition, he received a $50,000 signing bonus, a monthly $1,000 car stipend, six weeks of paid time off a year, and an extra $30,000 allowance paid by private donors to cover additional expenses.

A few months later, on January 11, 2012, Mr. Cardon announced he was resigning from the ACA.

Gov. Brewer, who chairs the agency, supported the agency’s executive committee’s decision to give him a discretionary bonus of $60,657. The state paid the bonus, though Team ACA, a nonprofit fundraising organization associated with the ACA and also headed by Mr.Cardon, said it would reimburse the state for the bonus and half of Mr. Cardon’s salary.

ACA justified the bonus by saying Mr. Cardon helped create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in new investments. Those numbers included jobs businesses had promised to create but that did not yet exist, and capital investments projected but not yet made.

It's worth noting that the press release sent out by CREW mentions Brewer's ties to the Corrections Corporation of America, though the full CREW report on Brewer lacks that information.

For the full report on why Brewer is supposedly terrible, head here.

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