A meeting between key legislators and the governor Oct. 20 began with a friendly offering of food but ended in disagreement over what was said.

House Speaker Jake Flake, R-Dist. 5, and Senate President Ken Bennett, R-Dist. 1, met with the governor the first day of the special session to discuss legislative issues and a proposal from Mr. Bennett regarding Ms. Napolitano’s line-item vetoes to the current budget — vetoes that have been challenged in court.

The week before the Legislature convened, Mr. Flake criticized the governor for her initial refusal to include a $4.2 million supplemental appropriation in the special session for the legal expenses of the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) to defend its maps against legal challenges from Democrats. Ms. Napolitano said she wanted to see legal billings and find out why the commission needs more cash, saying “paying lawyers is not my top priority.” The governor is thinking about expanding the call to include the IRC matter.

The speaker said that if Ms. Napolitano is a fiscal conservative, he’s a vegetarian. Mr. Flake owns a cattle ranch in Snowflake. The Oct. 20 meeting began, Mr. Bennett said, with the governor offering the two leaders a vegetable platter.

Mr. Bennett said he proposed that if the governor would sign a bill that would, in effect, negate the $65 million in additional spending he said was created by her line-item vetoes, Republican leadership would withdraw the Supreme Court lawsuit challenging some of her vetoes.

The suit was argued Sept. 19, but the court has yet to rule.

Mr. Bennett said the governor laughed at his proposal.

“I don’t think it got into her long-term memory because it stopped at her laugh mechanism,” he said.

At her weekly news conference the next day, Ms. Napolitano said she didn’t recall the proposal.

“We did not talk about that,” she said. “That kind of a deal was not discussed. That’s the first I’ve heard of it.” —