The Pima County Board of Supervisors postponed its appointment of a new treasurer this week, leaving the position vacant for the time being.
“I just wanted to extend my apologies to the staff from our Treasurer's Office, and also some of the applicants who are here tonight,” Supervisor Rex Scott said at the board’s July 14 meeting. “We didn't want to continue this item, but again, upon the advice of legal counsel it was the most prudent action for the board to take.”
The board made the decision after emerging from an executive session Tuesday evening. Now, the supervisors plan to select a new treasurer at their next meeting, slated for July 28, unless they call for a special meeting before that date.
“I'm hoping early next week that there would be a special meeting. … Because there's no reason to have another full two weeks of limited treasurer office capacity,” Supervisor Matt Heinz said in an interview Thursday.
Heinz said the county had not yet completed background checks on all nine applicants, causing the delay. Finalizing an appointment without that step, he added, wouldn’t be “appropriate or responsible.”
“Once the background checks are done, the hope is to move pretty quickly on it,” he said.
The position has been vacant for about a month, following Brian Johnson’s June 15 resignation. Shortly after Johnson stepped down, the Tucson Sentinel and Arizona Daily Star obtained county records revealing that several employees had accused the former treasurer of sexual harassment.
Since Johnson’s resignation, Heinz said, the Treasurer’s Office has operated on a somewhat limited basis. Certain major functions — like employee payroll and collecting tax payments — have continued, Heinz said.
Chief Deputy Treasurer Jake Martin has publicly noted that he’s overseeing daily operations in Johnson’s absence. (Martin is one of the nine candidates in the running to replace Johnson.)
Still, Heinz added: “There’s no named, seated treasurer in the meantime,” causing complications.
“The (chief deputy treasurer) can do almost anything the treasurer can do when there is a treasurer. But when there is no treasurer, that is not legally possible is what our legal counsel is telling us,” Heinz added.
Who’s in the running for county treasurer?##
Under normal circumstances, treasurers are elected to a four-year term. But Johnson, who won election in 2024, resigned from the post in June. The supervisors must now appoint a replacement to serve through 2028, when Johnson’s term would have ended, according to Arizona statute.
In total, nine people are vying to replace Johnson. They are:
- Jake Martin, Pima County’s current chief deputy treasurer
- Brian Bickel, former CEO of the Southeast Arizona Medical Center in Douglas
- Derika Louk, a financial analyst supervisor for Pima County
- Sami Hamed, an instructor with the social services nonprofit Amistades
- James Hannley, an independent registered investment advisor
- Derrick Espadas, a managing partner at the accounting firm Spade Business Services
- Daniel Dempsey, co-founder and director of Underground Arizona, a nonprofit that distributes information about electric utilities
- Jorge Soto, an independent financial consultant
- Hugh Donald Womack, a substitute teacher for Tucson Unified School District.
Bickel and Hamed ran for county treasurer in 2020 and 2024, respectively.
The candidates [further discussed their backgrounds](
last week in a forum organized by the League of Women Voters.
