Counsel: amendment to House Bill 2610 may add unconstitutional qualification for certain offices; committee recommends bill with caveat

The Arizona House Rules Committee recommended House Bill 2610 is constitutional and in proper form by a 5-3 vote after counsel advised members that a committee amendment raises a constitutional issue for offices whose qualifications are set in the state constitution.

Counsel told the committee the bill’s amendment would bar a person from holding public office if they were removed from or resigned from a school district governing board under the bill’s provisions. "Our Supreme Court has stated that for those offices, like the legislature, for which the qualifications have been constitutionally enumerated, the legislature may not add or subtract from those," Mr. Holder said. He recommended a floor amendment limiting the prohibition to offices without constitutionally enumerated qualifications.

Representative Mapp (referred to in questions) and other members pressed on whether counsel’s concern applied to the amendment as drafted; counsel confirmed the concern to the extent the amendment applies to constitutionally enumerated offices. The committee then voted; the secretary announced the recommendation by a vote of 5 ayes and 3 nays.

Counsel characterized the constitutional concern as discrete to the amendment’s effect on offices with constitutionally enumerated qualifications and did not assert the entire bill is unconstitutional. The committee did not adopt the floor amendment at this hearing; counsel recommended adopting a substitute floor amendment when the measure reaches the floor.