For the first time in more than 10 years, the Rio Nuevo board has all authorized seats filled.
Last week, Gov. Katie Hobbs removed some longtime members from the board to appoint Democrats. She retained one existing board member, Fletcher McCusker, who is an independent.
The governor is allowed five appointments to the nine-member board, and the House and Senate each appoint two.
On Friday, House Speaker Ben Toma reappointed Edmund Marquez to the board, and Senate President Warren Petersen reappointed Jannie Cox, both former gubernatorial appointments.
The speaker appointee, Mike Levin, and the Senate appointee, Chris Sheafe, remained in place.
Since 2012, the Rio Nuevo board has operated with at least one vacant seat.
βWe are grateful to Governor Hobbs for seeing the wisdom of facilitating a bipartisan board and we especially thank Speaker Toma and President Petersen for helping to maintain our continued success by reappointing incumbent membersβ, said McCusker, who has served as the board chairman since 2012. βWe have a unique opportunity to place the community and our downtown revitalization path above party politics.β
The four new members that the governor appointed to the board are:
Sharayah Jimenez, founder of Cuadro, an architecture firm
Richard Oseran, owner of the historic Hotel Congress
Corky Poster, principal at Poster, Mirto & McDonald
Taunya Villicana, CEO of Aspirational Wealth Management
The new boardβs first meeting is scheduled for Oct. 24.
