Adelita Grijalva appointed chair of Pima County Board of Supervisors

Adelita Grijalva will take over as chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors after a 4-1 vote Tuesday, replacing District 3 Supervisor Sharon Bronson.

Grijalva was elected to represent District 5 on the board in 2020 and will now become the first Latina to serve as chair. She just ended her 20th year on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board after deciding not to run for reelection and has served as vice chair on the Board of Supervisors for two years.

Supervisor Rex Scott motioned to nominate Grijalva as chair of the board for 2023, with Steve Christy, the board’s sole Republican, dissenting. Scott was appointed as vice chair in a unanimous vote.

Grijalva said she’s wanted to be chair of the board since last year when the board’s vote ultimately led to continuing Bronson’s role in the position. Now that she’s earned the seat, Grijalva said she wants to help the community “better understand what it is that we’re doing and how we’re voting” and help calm the sometimes volatile call to audience segments of each meeting.

“Just creating a more welcoming environment to the board meetings, I think that’s going to be incredibly helpful, you know, changing sort of the culture,” she said. “For a while there, it’s pretty toxic. And I’d like to make sure that everyone that comes feels comfortable being there.”

Christy first put forth a motion to continue Bronson’s leadership as chair while replacing Grijalva with Scott for the vice chair position. The vote failed with only Bronson and Christy approving the motion.

When asked if she was vying to continue her leadership role based on her vote, Bronson said she was “just looking to see what the board wanted to do.”

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“The chair doesn’t have any authority, but all the responsibilities,” she said. As far as Bronson’s confidence in Grijalva taking over the gavel, Bronson said, “Confidence is a thing that needs to be earned. So we’ll see as she progresses in her new position.”

The board selects which supervisors will serve as chair and vice chair at the start of each year. The chair of the board presides over every meeting and controls the board chamber, which includes making calls on points of order and signing resolutions and ordinances adopted by the board. The vice chair presides in the chair’s absence.

Bronson has served as chair of the board sporadically since her election in 1996 but has presided over the supervisors’ chambers throughout the past two years of the current makeup of the board, which includes three supervisors serving their first terms.

Supervisor Scott said he approved Bronson’s continuance as board leader in 2022 to “send the right message of continuity and stability to the community” after former County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry suffered a bicycle accident that led to his resignation from the job.

“Now that we are past that time, and (Grijalva) has been the vice chair for two years and she also has a lot of experience as a board chair through her time in TUSD, it just seemed to me that it was time to get back to regular order and have a change in leadership,” Scott said, later adding, “I’m sure (Grijalva) will conduct our meetings with the same fairness and integrity that Supervisor Bronson did.”