Not so fast
Alan Stephens, a top aide to Governor Napolitano, reacts to Sen. Jack Harper, R-4, co-chairman of a joint House-Senate committee that took testimony on problems with the Arizona Veteran Home.

A committee charged with investigating serious violations at the state’s Veteran Nursing Home and why the governor didn’t learn of them for six weeks became embroiled in charges of political grandstanding after a senator elicited testimony that a gubernatorial staffer was indicted for bribery and abruptly ended the meeting.
The political morass overshadowed testimony from one of Gov. Janet Napolitano’s top aides that he should have told her about the problems as soon as he found out about them.
As the allotted 90 minutes for the hearing wound down April 4, Harper, who co-chairs the committee investigating the Veteran Home, queried Alan Stephens about his relationship with Napolitano, calmly asking him if he had worked for her in any other capacity or if she had ever worked for him.
Stephens, co-chief-of-staff to the governor, responded that Napolitano had been his lawyer when he was indicted in the 1991 AzScam scandal, in which several legislators were videotaped accepting bribes to vote in favor of Indian gaming.
Immediately after Stephens acknowledged he had been indicted, Harper tried to gavel the meeting to a recess, despite the protestations of Stephens and Democrats on the committee.
Harper said, “This is a shocking revelation that we’ll have to digest overnight.”
An angered Stephens pointed at the District 4 Republican and yelled, “I was found completely innocent by the court judge.”
Harper then recessed the hearing until the next afternoon.
Reaction: Incident sullied reputations of lawmakers
The fallout against Harper was swift and came from all sides.
Less than half an hour after the meeting ended, Sen. Richard Miranda, D-13, berated Harper on the Senate floor for inquiring about Alan Stephen’s past relationship with Gov. Napolitano and for the way Harper handled the incident.
“I have to say that I am greatly disappointed at the conclusion of our committee meeting,” he said. “The issue was and should be for that committee is the health care of our veterans in the nursing home. That is the issue this committee is charged with.”
Miranda said Alan’s hiring Napolitano ago to represent him in a case some 20 years ago has “no connectivity” to the Veterans nursing home and the incident sullied the reputations of all lawmakers.
“I’m saddened that we had to ask that question because when things like that are done, it doesn’t reflect just on one person,” he said. “It reflects on all of us and how the public views us.”
Republicans also publicly criticized Harper’s actions. Sen. Robert Blendu, R-12, chided Harper for making the hearing overtly political..
“I think there is plenty to talk about if we stick to [the Veteran Home],” he said. “I don’t want this to turn into some kind of a witch hunt or some kind of information gathering session. That is not what this is for…
“I would trust our members to conduct our business with the dignity that it deserves.”
Republicans distance themselves
When the House convened later that afternoon, Republican representatives on the committee made speeches distancing themselves from Harper.
“In the last minute or so, there were actions taken that were very controversial, very belittling and, I think, left a bad taste in my mouth,” Rep. John Nelson, who co-chairs the committee, said.
Nelson, R-12, also said Harper should have let Stephens finish answering the question instead of cutting him off.
Likewise, Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-30, said the bottom line of the hearing was that “veterans were neglected.”
“This is not about anything that happened in the past, in the 1990s; this is about what happened in the past couple months,” Paton, an Army lieutenant who recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, said. “Politics has no place in any of this.”
Harper: ‘Line of questioning was appropriate’
In a floor speech after the hearing, Harper said the question and immediate recess of the committee was not orchestrated; rather, it was an innocent question and an attempt to preserve the order of the meeting.
“One question was about the working relationship of Alan Stephens and the governor, and Alan Stephens revealed that the governor was his attorney…,” he said. “That was (something) that I learned today. You know, it was kind of a shocking revelation…”
“We’ll learn things by accident, by asking questions. One of the things that we learned in the committee is that there are members in the minority caucus that are capable of extreme anger in those situations.
“I thought that some people were going to go beyond the rules of the Senate there and the meeting got very disorderly at the end there when people did not want to follow the rules,” he added.
In a letter posted on a weblog April 5, Harper defended the line of questioning. He wrote, “The line of questioning was appropriate, as we are trying to determine why there was a breakdown in the Governor’s office, as well as at the Arizona Veteran’s Home… Now after the dust has settled, reporters have opined that I should have known Alan Stephans’ [sic] history in the AZScam scandal. I have better things to do than to gossip about the past of the Governor’s staff, specifically, looking out for the veterans.”
After Rochelle Whitton, whose father is currently in the Veteran Home, testified before the committee April 5, she chastised the panel for the way the hearing concluded the day before, saying the line of questioning took the focus away from the veterans who were being neglected.
Harper was nonplussed by her statement.
“It’s astonishing that a random question turned into such a circus,” he responded.
Harper declined a request to be interviewed directly about the committee hearing.
Napolitano said Harper’s questioning of her top aide was inappropriate.
“I think the line of questioning… demonstrated, at least for some members, this is not about a fair appraisal — it’s a personal witch hunt and that, I think, is beneath the dignity of the Legislature and I think members of his own party felt the same way,” she said.
When Stephens returned for a second day of testimony, he told lawmakers Harper’s questioning the day before suggested “an ulterior and political motive.”
Stephens: I should have notified the governor
Before the meeting became ensconced in accusations of politicking, Stephens told the committee he erred by not telling Napolitano of the problems at the Veteran Home until the day before the media reported on the violations.
“Looking back on it, hindsight being what it is, I should have made her aware of it immediately on February 12,” Alan Stephens said April 4. “I did not and I regret it.
“Even though these issues were being addressed [by the Department of Health Services], in hindsight, I should have notified the governor.”
Stephens did not inform her of the violations DHS found on a routine inspection until March 23, the day the Arizona Republic submitted a request for a copy of a report detailing the problems found in the Veteran Home.
Stephens also testified he didn’t inform the governor of the problems sooner because he believed DHS was handling the violations and Napolitano did not need to take any action on the matter.
“I didn’t [tell the governor] because of the issues, which I was led to believe through the e-mails [with DHS], that the department was taking care of the issues at the Home…” he said. “I was, at the time, operating under the belief that these issues were being addressed.”
DHS Director Susan Gerard also testified before the committee. She told lawmakers she called Stephens about the violations Feb. 9, the day her department’s inspection began and the problems were discovered.
Along with Stephens, two other gubernatorial aides knew of the violations at the Veteran Home: Director of Communications Jeanine L’Ecuyer and policy adviser January Contreras.
In an April 5 press briefing, Napolitano said she will not fire any of her staffers, though she did say her office needs to improve its communication processes.
“Again, as I say, if we need to tighten up on our internal communications with processes and so forth, we will,” said Napolitano. “But I do not intend to take disciplinary action against my staff.”
The joint legislative committee reconvened April 5, but concluded after the deadline for publication. L’Ecuyer and Contreras were scheduled to testify.
Senate reporter Luige del Puerto and Arizona Capitol Reports researcher Tasya Grabenstein contributed to this report.