Transition team members Chuck Coughlin and Doug Cole answer questions from the Valley Citizens League regarding Gov. Brewer’s policies, staff choices and budget plans.

Since Janet Napolitano announced that she would be trading the Salt River for the Potomac, Jan Brewer's transition team has been pulled in countless different directions. But with only a matter of weeks separating Napolitano's announcement and Brewer's gubernatorial oath of office, the new governor's transition team has focused its energies on two areas – the budget crisis and personnel.

Chuck Coughlin and Doug Cole, two top members of Brewer's transition team as she prepared to replace Napolitano as governor, talked of the difficulties facing their team and the state at a Valley Citizens League luncheon on Jan. 27. They said fixing Arizona's broken budget and finding the people who will fill out Brewer's administration have been their top two priorities since Napolitano announced she would leave her post to head up the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Because Brewer is taking over midway through Napolitano's term instead of running for the office in a normal campaign, Cole said, she did not have the same opportunities as other candidates to spend 12-18 months laying out policy platforms and agendas. And she did not have a team of campaign officials waiting in the wings for official appointments.

"When you go through a transition like we are now, you get none of that," Cole said of the normal processes that winning gubernatorial candidates go through on their way to the Ninth Floor.

In a nod to the press, which has sought answers about Brewer's policies since it was announced that she would take over as governor, Cole and Coughlin explained why the budget and personnel matters must be dealt with first.

That the budget is priority No. 1 is likely not a surprise to anyone. The fiscal year 2009 budget is short about $1.6 billion, and state revenue projections for 2010 are expected to be down by about $3 billion. Coughlin said Brewer and legislative leadership are "working hand-in-hand" on a fix for the 2009 budget, which he said may be worked out by the end of the week, just three days away. After that, he said, they can start working on 2010.

But personnel is a less obvious matter, at least to those who are used to hearing and reading daily about the budget crisis. Much like the issue of policies and agenda, Brewer's lack of a gubernatorial campaign left her at a disadvantage in filling out her staff, the duo said.

Many governors, such as Napolitano, bring people from their campaign staffs to the Ninth Floor. In a conventional transition, Coughlin said, lines of communication evolve more naturally. Brewer and her team, on the other hand, have been inundated by hundreds of job seekers.

"I think my pool guy is getting e-mails," Cole joked.

Brewer, who was sworn in on Jan. 21, already has selected much of her staff, including several top staff from her six years at the Secretary of State's Office. Former top deputy Kevin Tyne is now her chief of staff, and former elections director Joe Kanefield became general counsel. But many policy advisor positions are still unfilled, though Brewer announced her K-12 education and health and human services advisors shortly after the luncheon.

The governor is also still determining which state agency heads will stay on the job in her administration, and which will be replaced. Seven Napolitano-appointed department heads have resigned since the former governor announced that she would leave her post, and others may be replaced as well. Cole said they are deciding on a case-by-case basis instead of cleaning house across the board.

"Just because it's a party change doesn't mean everybody goes," he said.

Coughlin and Cole spoke about the state's grim budget situation, with Coughlin saying "everything is on the table." Too many people, Coughlin said, didn't recognize the severity of the budget crisis, which led some state agencies and departments to ignore contingency plans. He added that this will lead to layoffs.

The Governor's Office needs unprecedented cooperation with agencies, universities and others to help determine what can be done more cheaply and what doesn't need to be done at all, Coughlin said. Going forward without solving the budget shortfall would be like trying to buy $10 worth of groceries with $7, he said.

The Congress is debating passing an economic relief package for the states, most of which are facing severe budget crises, though it's not clear how that money would be split up. Cole said Brewer met with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat representing the 8th Congressional District, on Jan. 23 to talk about a possible federal stimulus package.

"They don't know" how much money Arizona could get or how it would be distributed, said Cole, who speculated that the federal government would probably approve money to the states first for Medicaid relief and transportation infrastructure.

Cole also addressed Arizona's lack of a lieutenant governor position and the current system that puts the secretary of state first in the line of succession if a governor cannot complete his or her term. Cole noted that this is the fourth straight decade in which an Arizona governor has left office prematurely, leaving the secretary of state as his or her replacement.

"Do the voters of Arizona really know who they're voting for for secretary of state?" Cole asked.

Ironically, Brewer spent about eight years in the state Senate trying to pass a bill that would create a lieutenant governor position. Cole echoed some of Brewer's arguments, such as the possibility that an elected governor of one political party could be replaced by an unelected one of the other party. He also said that secretary of state is essentially an administrative job, similar to Brewer's argument that holding the position doesn't necessarily mean one is qualified to become governor.

Prior to her six-year stint as secretary of state, Brewer spent six years on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, 10 in the Arizona Senate and four in the state House of Representatives.

At the luncheon, David Jones, president of the Arizona Contractors Association, said many in the business community would like to have a lieutenant governor who could help champion commerce and tourism for the state. Secretary of State Ken Bennett, whom Brewer selected to replace her, has said he would like his position to be more like that of a lieutenant governor.