Main Page: Difference between revisions

From Arizona Citizen Voice
← Older edit

Neil thibodaux (talk | contribs)

2 user groups
2,850 edits
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
 
(83 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
__FORCETOC__
__NOTOC__
=== Arizona Citizen Voice ===
'''Arizona Citizen Voice''' (ACV) is an independent volunteer organization asking our Arizona Senators and Representatives to take action on behalf of Arizona's citizens to pass legislation in 2027 to hold Arizona counties accountable to citizen complaints about poor governance. 


=== Vision ===
The centerpiece of this legislative action is to create ''county-based'' Ombudsman-Citizen Aide that is modeled after and overseen by the existing [https://www.azoca.gov/ Arizona Ombudsman-Citizens’ Aide] Legislative Agency to ensure consistency across all Arizona counties. New statutes are also needed to force Arizona counties to develop and maintain documentation of its internal control systems to a standard created and maintained by the [https://www.gao.gov/ United States Government Accountability Office].  
Arizona citizens can readily find how to submits their concerns to their County Officials for resolution.
=== Purpose ===
The purpose of this website is to inform the Arizona citizens of governance gaps at the county level and ask for your support to resolve these weaknesses with changes to the [https://www.azleg.gov/ARStitle/ Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.).]


=== Objective ===
We are not trying to ''fight city hall'' as the expression goes. We are asking Arizona counties to listen to their citizens, respectfully consider their concerns and take action to fix issues when citizens' concerns are validated. We don't want a fight; we want to be heard.
Present a bill to the Arizona Legislature that will change the A.R.S. by December 2026. Create a new statute or revise an old statute to hold Arizona counties accountable to a process that allows citizens to file complaints, which will be addressed or resolved by a Compliance Review and Corrective Action Framework. This bill promotes transparency, accountability, consistency, and continuous improvement while strengthening public confidence in local/county/state government.  


=== We need You ===
From a citizen's perspective, this is a bipartisan issue. The proposal doesn't favor one party over the other. The proposal's sole purpose is to give each citizen equal standing to be heard when they have felt unfairly treated by county government. Watch [[Five Paper Trails|'''Our Video''']] to learn about the problem we are trying to solve. Read our '''[[Interesting Takeaways]]''' if you want to seek specific examples of poor governance. 
add content


=== Methodology (move) ===
ACV is an all-volunteer organization. We do not receive funds from any outside entity. We certainly don't have any funds to be lobbying through normal channels.  
An outline of the steps taken and to be taken to obtain Legislative support to change the A.R.S. are as follows:


# [[Observations of Poor Governance]]
We've layered our presentation so that you don't have to read every page of our website to understand our mission. Some of you may have already felt an injustice from your personal interactions with your County. You have seen firsthand how their actions or inaction can cause harm and can't get answers when they are desperately needed. If you're in that boat, you're ready to jump into action and this will be a short read.   
# [[Comparison of Observations to a Standard]]
# [[Identification of Deviations from the Standard]]
# [[Develop a Case for Action from the Deviations]]
# [[Propose a Bill for Consideration by the Arizona Legislature]]


=== About Me ===
If you're a "Doubting Thomas," we have data to satisfy your skepticism. That said, you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting a legal argument proving there is a governance problem beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, we will trend examples of poor governance, so patterns of poor management decisions reveal themselves as issues in need of a legislative intervention.    
This project was created by [[Author Bio|Jamie Weinhauer Martin]], a retired Corrective Action Plan (CAP) professional with extensive experience investigating performance anomalies and driving systemic improvement in regulated industries. After observing recurring governance gaps in Maricopa County, Jamie applied the same disciplined CAP approach used in the private sector to public administration.'''>third person<'''


I began this journey with somewhat of a partisan perspective. I didn't seek to change election outcomes. I wanted to know what actions Maricopa County (MC) had taken to address the numerous election-related anomalies reported in 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025 elections. This is consistent with my CAP experience. My focus shifted towards the lack of an effective method to file complaints with Maricopa County. My scope grew to all Arizona counties when my peers in other Arizona counties echoed by concerns about the less than adequate responsiveness to citizen's concerns. '''>first person<'''
The raw data comes from citizen interfaces with the county and government reports. Interestingly, we found examples of poor governance in government investigations of election-related anomalies. For example, procedures intended to ensure compliance with the Arizona Revised Statutes were violated as determined by an inspector for the [https://www.azag.gov/sites/default/files/2025-06/2020_General_Election_Investigation_Summary.pdf Arizona Attorney General's Office 2020 General Election Investigation]. The investigation found numerous anomalies, but no malicious or criminal intent. Basically, the Arizona Attorney General's investigation left a trail of incompetence (poor governance) as the reason for deviating from legal requirements. As would be expected in a criminal investigation, compliance with the law was more important than doing the <u>right thing</u>. Therefore, they left breadcrumbs of poor governance examples in their effort to show compliance with the law.    


This became a bipartisan issue when I realized the tendency for counties to stonewall it citizens is widespread and most complaints do not have partisan origins. I am seeking bipartisan support for this bill for the benefit of all Arizona citizens. Citizens only have a voice if the County gives thoughtful consideration to their concerns.  
We chose to present information in the Wiki format because of its use of hyperlinks. These hyperlinks will allow you to learn more according to your personal areas of interest. Please heed our warning: you may get lost in the data so use the organization of topics in the left margin to help you navigate through the abundance of data. Use the left margin as you would a directory in a shopping mall. The organization of topics will help you find where you are in the data and where you want to go.  


=== About Us ===
=== Navigational Guide ===
In November 2025, Neil Thibodaux joined my earlier efforts to determine how MC was going to prevent recurrence of these repetitive election-related anomalies. He had extensive experience with CAP, but in a different industry than my experience. Our belief in CAP united us in the pursuit of improvements. Neil also had experience with organizational effectiveness reviews, which was helpful when my emphasis shifted from addressing election-related anomalies to addressing an even bigger problem with MC governance gaps. He had been trained in using the [https://www.nri.eu.com/NRI1.pdf Management Oversight and Risk Tree] analysis process to find the organizational causes to significant events, with emphasis on preventing a recurrence of the same and similar events.  
The following diagram will help you determine how far you want to go to understand the issues and the proposed solution.


We would like to bring other volunteers into this initiative. Please contact me ['''<big>Jamie needs a separate email account for CAPAZ]</big>''' if you think you can help. We need to people to perform research, review content, and maintain this website. After reading this website, you may see a need we haven't even thought about. Please consider joining our team. 
----[[File:Home Page Directory Rev1.jpg|thumb|612x612px|left]]'''<big>[[Arizona Citizen Voice Goal|Arizona Citizen Voice GOAL]]</big>'''


=== About CAPAZ ===
Click here to learn more about the GOAL.
'''Corrective Action Plan Arizona''' (CAPAZ) is an independent citizen-base, public-interest project that applies proven CAP methodology. This is a volunteer effort. We do not receive funds from any outside entity. Please contact me ['''<big>Jamie needs a separate email account for CAPAZ]</big>''' if you like what you see and want to join this team for positive change.
----'''<big>[[Legislative Action]]</big>'''


CAP is not new to government, considering the following:
Click here to learn more about what we are asking of our Legislators.
----'''<big>[[Public Support]]</big>'''


* US Government Departments and Agencies routinely require some nongovernmental companies to implement CAP, which is then used by the government as an oversight tool
Click here to learn how you can help.
* US Government requires government entities to implement CAP if receiving entity receives funds in accordance with [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-F/subject-group-ECFRc3bd6ae97de5a40/section-200.511 2 CFR 200.511 (c),] which is illustrated the [https://gao.az.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/CAP%20guidance.pdf Arizona Government Accounting Office's CAP].
----
* US Government Accountability Office's [https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-107721.pdf Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government] has requirements for federal executive branch agencies to establish a process that management must implement to properly assess and improve internal control, which includes CAP-like attributes in [https://guides.gaoinnovations.gov/greenbook/2025/principle-17-evaluate-issues-and-remediate-deficiencies/ Principle 17 - Evaluate Issues and Remediate Deficiencies.]


=== About You ===
<small>.</small>
Your voice is important. Abraham Lincoln made these remarks in this Gettysburg Address:<blockquote>''"...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."''</blockquote>You may be able to help me with a case for action. I need justification to gain legislative support for a new Arizona law that will establish a process to review citizen complaints for governance gaps and implement corrective actions when appropriate. The problem becomes more significant with more examples.  How can you help? <blockquote>Send me details about a frustrating encounter with your county government. With your consent, I would use your unpleasant experience as data in support of a case for action. Your help will be needed to ensure your governance gap is a deviation from a standard. If you dive into this website, you will gain knowledge of the standards for good governance.  </blockquote>
You can help keep this idea in front of your Arizona Senator and Representatives. How can you help?<blockquote>
Following the November 2026 election, send your Senator and Representatives a message. Tell them you want to hold County government accountable to its Citizens. Ask them to support the proposed Bill.</blockquote>The effort to get the bill approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor is being delayed until after the November 2026 election to allow you to vote for the candidates that you feel will support this effort. The delay will give us some time to draft the bill. The sense of urgency begins after the elections because the Legislature begins their annual review of Legislative initiatives in January 2027.


=== Our Video ===
.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rNILRNN4phE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
----


{{#ev:youtube|VIDEO_ID}}
<big>'''[[Proposed Bill]]'''</big> - To be developed.
----<big>'''[[Standard for Good Governance|Standard for Good]]'''</big> - Read Federal Standards for Government.
----
'''<big>[[Governance Gaps]]</big>''' - that we identified in our assessment.
----'''<big>[[Poor Governance Examples]]</big>''' - See how we identified the Governance Gaps
----.
----
----Visit '''<big>[[Navigational Details]]</big>''' for additional website information.


=== Our Prayer ===
=== Governance Gap Video ===
I hope you can join me in an effort to find the right words, said at the right time, to allow others to see how the proposed bill serves citizens and government. It is a desire to promote positive outcomes from a freedom to exchange ideas.<blockquote>''Lord, we believe the County leaders and employees can be fair and just if guided towards a process that seeks to understand before judgments are made. We have felt injustice from County and believe others have had similar experiences.''
A short seven-minute video was developed to help you understand our motivation for seeking a change to the Arizona Revised Statutes to hold Arizona counties accountable to you, an Arizona citizen.{{#ev:youtube|rNILRNN4phE|alignment=center}}


''We are trying to be faithful to your desire for each of us to love you and love our neighbors.''  
=== '''Our Prayer''' ===


''We seek a process that facilitates cooperation between the State, Counties and their citizens.''  
Some citizens feel that we are in a battle with our own government. It's a battle of words, not a physical battle. It's not a yelling match; we seek words that spark curiosity and thoughtful consideration. ACV adopted this prayer in an effort to receive God’s guidance. We, you and all of us need to find the right words, said at the right time, to allow others to see how the proposed bill serves both citizens and government. It is a desire to promote positive outcomes from a freedom to exchange ideas. <blockquote>''Dear heavenly Father, you have blessed the United States of America with founding fathers that served you. You gave them the wisdom to for the first time in recorded history to create a nation for the sole purpose of serving its people. While not perfect, a government by the people and for the people has prevailed for over 250 years. With your love and grace, our nation’s laws have evolved as people’s needs have changed.''


''Please grant us the knowledge and wisdom to advance this idea with faith and humbleness. Lord, please let us choose the right words for each opportunity to share our vision with others. We pray that our goal serves you. Amen.''</blockquote>
  ''We seek your wisdom and ask for your guidance in preserving the public’s trust in Arizona County government. A citizen’s voice is meaningless unless acknowledged and addressed with respect. We envision new laws to ensure all citizen concerns are heard. Your desire for peace and love will be served by a thoughtful government response. Your desire for justice will be served when citizen input has been addressed, promoting transparency and making governance decisions that are efficient, effective, safe and benefit the majority of people.''


=== Our Disclaimer ===
''Please guide us towards finding the right words to justify new laws. With your grace, new laws will restore public confidence in government by ensuring citizen voices are heard. A government by the people can’t serve its people unless each voice has an opportunity to be heard. It’s a daunting change, but necessary to address our fast-paced society, where those in control may not always slow down to hear from the meek.  ''
The contributors to this site believe it is the Arizona County processes that are broken, not the County employees. This website assesses County performance as a public stakeholder with a vested interest in county governance.  


Our assessment was impeded by a lack of transparency. Maricopa claims they are under no obligation to create documents unless specified as a requirement within the Arizona Revised Statutes according to a Maricopa County's legal team's Defense Brief in a court case with me, Jamie Weinhauer Martin, as the Plaintiff. I had claimed the county had not fulfilled my Public Records Request.
''Heavenly Father, it is through our understanding of your desire for love and peace that we seek these new laws. Please grant us the will to carry these ideas forward to our Arizona Legislature and Governor. With devotion to you, we will be patient, place our trust in you, and accept any outcome. We pray that our vision serves you. Amen.''</blockquote>
 
This assessment relies on information collected during my interfaces with MC officials and employees. I have also had to rely on information in the public domain. This type of information was less than ideal for assessment purposes, but it was all that was available given that Maricopa County did not create the documents needed for a more accurate assessment. Therefore, this assessment has relied on the quantity of information, not the quality of information.
None of the findings of this report are of sufficient detail to identify misconduct or fraud. In fact, we believe all of MC employees are doing their best to adhere to the expectations of an organization with deficient governance practices.
We identified numerous examples of poor governance during our assessment. In fact, there were too many to fix at one time; it would be too disruptive to County services to attempt such a lofty goal. Instead, good governance would prioritize governance problems and implement improvements within the budgetary constraints.  
 
In our opinion, the fundament governance gap is a lack of responsiveness to citizen complaints about poor governance. We have been unable to identify a publicly accessible county process that 1) receives and tracks citizen complaints, 2) performs a compliance review to determine the significance of the problem, 3) assigns responsibility to an individual when a deficiency must be resolved, 4) investigates the issue, 5) creates corrective actions based on the cause of the problem, and 6) monitors the implementation and effectiveness of corrective actions. Process steps 1, 2 and 3 are the '''''Complaint Process''''' and steps 4, 5 and 6 are the '''''Corrective Action Process'''''. If implemented together, public trust in County increases by formally acknowledging their concerns and County performance improves with the implementation of each corrective action.  
 
=== Start Your Journey ===
Choose your path:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%;"
|-
! style="width: 50%; text-align: center; font-size: 1.2em;" | [[The Story|📖 Read The Story]]
! style="width: 50%; text-align: center; font-size: 1.2em;" | [[Governance Analysis|📊 Explore Governance Analysis]]
|-
| style="text-align: center;" | Follow the chronological narrative of events <br>that revealed governance gaps.
| style="text-align: center;" | Dive into structured analysis<br>using the Green Book framework.
|}
 
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%;"
! colspan="3" | Quick Navigation
|-
| style="width: 33%; text-align: center;" | 🏠 '''Main Page'''
| style="width: 33%; text-align: center;" | [[The Story|📖 The Story]]
| style="width: 33%; text-align: center;" | [[Governance Analysis|📊 Governance Analysis]]
|}

Latest revision as of 05:51, 27 September 2026

Arizona Citizen Voice

Arizona Citizen Voice (ACV) is an independent volunteer organization asking our Arizona Senators and Representatives to take action on behalf of Arizona's citizens to pass legislation in 2027 to hold Arizona counties accountable to citizen complaints about poor governance.

The centerpiece of this legislative action is to create county-based Ombudsman-Citizen Aide that is modeled after and overseen by the existing Arizona Ombudsman-Citizens’ Aide Legislative Agency to ensure consistency across all Arizona counties. New statutes are also needed to force Arizona counties to develop and maintain documentation of its internal control systems to a standard created and maintained by the United States Government Accountability Office.

We are not trying to fight city hall as the expression goes. We are asking Arizona counties to listen to their citizens, respectfully consider their concerns and take action to fix issues when citizens' concerns are validated. We don't want a fight; we want to be heard.

From a citizen's perspective, this is a bipartisan issue. The proposal doesn't favor one party over the other. The proposal's sole purpose is to give each citizen equal standing to be heard when they have felt unfairly treated by county government. Watch Our Video to learn about the problem we are trying to solve. Read our Interesting Takeaways if you want to seek specific examples of poor governance.

ACV is an all-volunteer organization. We do not receive funds from any outside entity. We certainly don't have any funds to be lobbying through normal channels.

We've layered our presentation so that you don't have to read every page of our website to understand our mission. Some of you may have already felt an injustice from your personal interactions with your County. You have seen firsthand how their actions or inaction can cause harm and can't get answers when they are desperately needed. If you're in that boat, you're ready to jump into action and this will be a short read.

If you're a "Doubting Thomas," we have data to satisfy your skepticism. That said, you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting a legal argument proving there is a governance problem beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, we will trend examples of poor governance, so patterns of poor management decisions reveal themselves as issues in need of a legislative intervention.

The raw data comes from citizen interfaces with the county and government reports. Interestingly, we found examples of poor governance in government investigations of election-related anomalies. For example, procedures intended to ensure compliance with the Arizona Revised Statutes were violated as determined by an inspector for the Arizona Attorney General's Office 2020 General Election Investigation. The investigation found numerous anomalies, but no malicious or criminal intent. Basically, the Arizona Attorney General's investigation left a trail of incompetence (poor governance) as the reason for deviating from legal requirements. As would be expected in a criminal investigation, compliance with the law was more important than doing the right thing. Therefore, they left breadcrumbs of poor governance examples in their effort to show compliance with the law.

We chose to present information in the Wiki format because of its use of hyperlinks. These hyperlinks will allow you to learn more according to your personal areas of interest. Please heed our warning: you may get lost in the data so use the organization of topics in the left margin to help you navigate through the abundance of data. Use the left margin as you would a directory in a shopping mall. The organization of topics will help you find where you are in the data and where you want to go.

The following diagram will help you determine how far you want to go to understand the issues and the proposed solution.

Arizona Citizen Voice GOAL

Click here to learn more about the GOAL.

Legislative Action

Click here to learn more about what we are asking of our Legislators.

Public Support

Click here to learn how you can help.

.

.

Proposed Bill - To be developed.

Standard for Good - Read Federal Standards for Government.

Governance Gaps - that we identified in our assessment.

Poor Governance Examples - See how we identified the Governance Gaps

.

Visit Navigational Details for additional website information.

Governance Gap Video

A short seven-minute video was developed to help you understand our motivation for seeking a change to the Arizona Revised Statutes to hold Arizona counties accountable to you, an Arizona citizen.

Load video
YouTube

Our Prayer

Some citizens feel that we are in a battle with our own government. It's a battle of words, not a physical battle. It's not a yelling match; we seek words that spark curiosity and thoughtful consideration. ACV adopted this prayer in an effort to receive God’s guidance. We, you and all of us need to find the right words, said at the right time, to allow others to see how the proposed bill serves both citizens and government. It is a desire to promote positive outcomes from a freedom to exchange ideas.

Dear heavenly Father, you have blessed the United States of America with founding fathers that served you. You gave them the wisdom to for the first time in recorded history to create a nation for the sole purpose of serving its people. While not perfect, a government by the people and for the people has prevailed for over 250 years. With your love and grace, our nation’s laws have evolved as people’s needs have changed.

We seek your wisdom and ask for your guidance in preserving the public’s trust in Arizona County government. A citizen’s voice is meaningless unless acknowledged and addressed with respect. We envision new laws to ensure all citizen concerns are heard. Your desire for peace and love will be served by a thoughtful government response. Your desire for justice will be served when citizen input has been addressed, promoting transparency and making governance decisions that are efficient, effective, safe and benefit the majority of people.

Please guide us towards finding the right words to justify new laws. With your grace, new laws will restore public confidence in government by ensuring citizen voices are heard. A government by the people can’t serve its people unless each voice has an opportunity to be heard. It’s a daunting change, but necessary to address our fast-paced society, where those in control may not always slow down to hear from the meek.  

Heavenly Father, it is through our understanding of your desire for love and peace that we seek these new laws. Please grant us the will to carry these ideas forward to our Arizona Legislature and Governor. With devotion to you, we will be patient, place our trust in you, and accept any outcome. We pray that our vision serves you. Amen.

Retrieved from "https://arizonacitizenvoice.com/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=3200"