With the new year, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has a new chair. Kate Brophy McGee takes over the position. She was elected to the board in 2024 after serving in the state Legislature and in other elected offices.
In moving into the role, she’s laid out a number of issues she’d like to tackle this year — mainly focusing on quality of life.
Full conversation
KATE BROPHY MCGEE: Well, I will tell you that I do have chair priorities, but my basic priority as the leader of the board is to get the basics right. So making sure that what is working stays working and that we continue on the path that former Chair [Thomas] Galvin set for us as a brand new board and that we focus on public safety, and in my case, I really focus on quality of life for Maricopa County constituents.
That in turn leads to the type of economic development and job creation we can all get behind.
MARK BRODIE: I know that one of those quality of life issues that you want to tackle or at least look into is evictions. And there have been a lot of Maricopa County residents evicted from their homes over the last number of months and years. What can the county try to do about that? Like what solutions are potentially available to you?
BROPHY MCGEE: So I have been spending, I was approached by leaders on the city of Phoenix council. who are working to tackle this issue. And when I started looking up the statistics, I was pretty shocked. There are more than 80,000 eviction filings for the third year in a row.
So I started looking towards what's out there now that is working or working on this issue because it's pretty shocking. I then talked to some of the individuals and agencies involved, such as the justice courts and the multi-housing folks to come up with a set of principles around which we might solve part of a problem. The Maricopa county, like all the counties, is a statutory subdivision or administrative arm of the state. So working within existing state laws, what can we do?
I also understand from my work down at the Capitol that homelessness is a spectrum issue. And you might say, well, what do you mean by that? That there are individuals and families on the cusp of eviction that want to stay housed and that's the the group that I am focused on. You go all the way to the other end of the spectrum and you're dealing with the people who are typically severely mentally ill and or addicted.
So this is intended to tackle those folks who want to stay in their homes, confirming with the multi housing agencies. The landlords don't want to kick people out. It costs them time, it costs them money, it costs them lost rent. So what could we do? What part could we play in reducing that rate of 80,000 a year, keeping families in their homes and on the economic side, keeping making sure the landlords continue to collect their rents?
BRODIE: So you mentioned, you know, doing what you can within existing state law on evictions. I wonder if there might be changes to state law that you think might make it a little easier to achieve what it is you're trying to achieve?
BROPHY MCGEE: It could well be, but as I did so often in the Legislature, I would start with what is, not what I want it to be. So any results that we achieved would be incremental, but they would be in the realm of really possible. So what I was shocked to learn in my deep dive this past year, most people know that they will miss their rent payment before they miss it.
Once the rent goes five days past due, that throws the entire problem or issue into an eviction cycle in which most of those folks do wind up being evicted. So I'm looking at the five days before the rent is due and the five days after the rent is due and working from the confirmed premise that landlords really do not want to evict because of the costs and the lost rent.
BRODIE: So you reference, you know, your time in the state legislature. I'm wondering how that maybe informs how you approach both this job as chair of the Board of Supervisors, but also the kinds of issues that you're looking to delve into this year, given your experience on the state level and now the county level?
BROPHY MCGEE: Well, and thank you. As I told you earlier, work with what's possible as opposed and what as opposed to what you want it to be. That way you can scale your expectations back and not just be hideously disappointed. So that's been a huge part of it.
I always have gravitated to quality of life issues, child welfare, homelessness, mental illness. And so I am comfortable in that wheelhouse and once I got into the job as county supervisor, I discovered that there is work we can do there and wonderful people like Presiding Judge Pamela Gates, who will work with me.
BRODIE: Let me ask you about one other issue that you are sort of inheriting from last year, which is that of elections. Obviously, 2026 is an election year. The county has a number of elections it'll be running. Do you have a sense of when we're expecting to see the results of the audit, the look through that you guys authorized last year?
BROPHY MCGEE: The results of the chain of custody audit and the technology audit are, my understanding is they're finishing up their report and we will be presenting it to the public shortly. I am committed, along with my colleagues, to doing everything we can to make our voters feel confident in elections outcomes.
BRODIE: How confident are you in the way that the county is running its elections? Obviously not having seen the results of this quite yet, but I'm curious, just based on what you know and what you've seen, how confident are you?
BROPHY MCGEE: I am very confident, and I have said that publicly. I've experienced elections up close and personal, since actually 2000, you know, school board, legislative. And this last election was my 17th campaign. It resulted in a recount because the margins were very close. I observed as a candidate from that side of it. And, of course, once I got over onto the county side of it, I observed as a an election administrator. You know elections are run by human beings and the seeing the dedication of those employees to getting it right means the world to me.
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