And then there were two: Ray Carroll withdrew his name Wednesday from consideration to be appointed to replace Beth Ford as the treasurer of Pima County, leaving Chris Ackerley and Patti Davidson.
Ford is stepping down April 12 as she approaches the end of her sixth term as Pima County’s top government banker.
Current Treasurer’s Office Chief Deputy Chris Ackerley, former Treasurer’s Office Chief Deputy Patti E. Davidson and Green Valley Justice of the Peace Ray Carroll all wanted a shot at serving the remainder of Ford’s term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2024. They submitted their applications last week.
Carroll has already been appointed to two Pima County positions. He was appointed to the District 4 seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors
in 1997 and subsequently won election to the office multiple times
before he retired nearly 20 years later in 2016. In 2017, the Board of
Supervisors appointed him to the justice of the peace post.
“I think I have the skill set and experience to fill the shoes,” Carroll told the Tucson Sentinel last week.
Wednesday, he pulled his name, throwing his support to Davidson.
In a letter to the Board of Supervisors and Board Clerk Melissa Manriquez, he said that he filed an application last week hoping “to break the ice and open public discussion, as no one had yet filed to fill the position.”
“In my current job as presiding judge of Green Valley Justice Court, we have an exceptional relationship with the Treasurer’s Office,” he wrote. “They have never hesitated to assist us with our end-of-the-month revenue disbursement questions and remittance certificates. I pray for a seamless transition with whoever is appointed and am no longer concerned about the appointment being unclaimed.”
“I had hoped that with my entry into the process, I could break the stalemate between those who felt a direct and uncompetitive appointment process was appropriate and those who felt it was not. I am writing to request that my application be withdrawn from consideration, as there are now two other applicants in the running,” he wrote, saying that Davidson is “highly qualified.”
Noting that he worked with Davidson during his 20 years as a supervisor, Carroll said “her vast experience and qualifications would have led me to appoint her if I were still on the board.”
“I hope she receives the appointment following the League of Women Voter’s forum where both candidates will have the chance to display their knowledge of the inner workings of the Treasurer’s Office,” Carroll said.
Ackerley, who is running for the Treasurer’s Office in this year’s election, went to work for Ford in 2022 after she recruited him as a potential successor.
The former state lawmaker told supervisors in his application that the Treasurer’s Office and County Superintendent of Schools Office are both replacing their financial systems in the upcoming months and he is the ideal person to oversee that transition.
“I have been significantly involved in discussions surrounding these conversions,” Ackerley wrote to the Supes. “My understanding of how the treasurer’s database systems operate will allow me to continue the development of integrations that work effectively.”
Ackerley served one term in the state Legislature, representing Green Valley and Sahuarita following the 2014 election.
Davidson worked as Ford’s chief deputy from 2001 to 2016 and retired from a 25-year career at Pima County in September 2022. She has an undergraduate degree in accounting and master’s degree in business administration.
“My knowledge of the Treasurer’s Office is extensive and in-depth,” Davidson told supervisors in her application.
The deadline to apply for the appointment was 5 p.m. on Friday. No other applicants put their names forward. Ford announced in early March that she would leave office in April, after saying last July that she was likely to retire before the end of her term.
The Treasurer’s Office essentially serves as a bank for county government and many other Pima County jurisdictions, including school districts and fire districts. The office takes in property tax payments and divides them according to the tax rates of various jurisdictions. Other state and federal dollars also flow through the office, which typically handles between $1.5 billion to $2 billion in assets at any given time.
Pima County Assessor Suzanne Droubie, a Democrat who is running
unopposed for a second term this year, urged the Board of Supervisors to
appoint Ackerley in a March 27 letter.
Droubie said the job was essentially technical in nature and having someone with experience in understanding how to properly allocate property-tax payments was vital to the smooth operations of the office.
“To ensure the continuity of the functions and interactions between the treasurer, the county, the various taxing jurisdictions, and the departments of the other elected officials, it is imperative that the treasurer’s successor be acquainted with the current operations of the office,” Droubie wrote. “This can only be guaranteed if the functions of the Treasurer’s Office continue to be carried out by the current deputy treasurer until Ms. Ford’s successor is elected by the voters of Pima County.”
The supervisors are scheduled to discuss details of the appointment at their April 2 meeting and make a final choice on April 16. Under state law, because voters elected a Republican to the seat, the interim treasurer must also be a Republican.
Although it’s been a common practice for many years for longtime local elected officials to set up a replacement for electoral success by pushing the supervisors to appoint a favorite connection, the current Board of Supervisors has several times balked at naming an interim who intends to seek election in their own right.
Ackerley is the only Republican to have filed a statement of interest in the 2024 race for treasurer. Democrats Brian Johnson and Sami Hamed have also filed to run. The deadline to submit signatures to qualify for the ballot is Monday.
If Carroll had been appointed to the seat, his position on the Justice Court bench would have had to be filled by a Republican.