Two Democrats vie in primary for Pima County treasurer nomination (2024)

Tucsonans will be electing a new county treasurer for the first time in nearly 24 years.

Democrats Sami Hamed and Brian Johnson will go toe-to-toe in the primary election on July 30 for a shot to run against Republican Chris Ackerley in November for the position.

The treasurer’s office, responsible for collecting taxes and maintaining financial records for Pima County, had been led by Beth Ford for nearly 24 years until her resignation in April. Ackerley was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to fulfill her role until the end of the year.

Here’s what you need to know about the Democratic primary election race:

Brian Johnson

Johnson was born and raised in New York and attended college at the University of Vermont and East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. He has lived in Pima County for 26 years.

Johnson has worked in finance and risk management for five years and in the Assessor’s Office for nine years. He also represented the area on the Arizona State Board of Equalization.

Johnson says that in the last 50 years, the Pima County treasurer’s office has diminished to having the least amount of responsibility possible. He says creating tax rolls and statements has been done by the county finance department instead.

If he wins the position, he says he will bring that responsibility back.

“The treasurer’s office collects property taxes,” Johnson said. “But it’s not done that way in Pima County, and it hasn’t been for years.”

Johnson says his top goals are to bring efficiency and transparency to the treasurer’s office. He wants to work with the county administration and Assessor’s Office to institute an integrated data infrastructure so that property tax and other relevant information can be easily maintained and accessible to taxpayers.

“Right now, they’ve got like three different data silos,” Johnson said. “And they don’t interact or talk with each other, so it’s difficult to try to get information from one another.”

He would also like to work with the Board of Supervisors to create an investment policy, something he said the county hasn’t had since 1995.

“Our investments (would be) in alignment with the county’s prosperity initiatives,” Johnson said. “If we have a Board of Supervisors policy … there’s accountability not just to the board but to the public.”

Johnson said in a debate on June 8 that structural changes are necessary to change the culture of the treasurer’s office. He said most of the routine accounting and transactional functions are software driven, and that a “competent IT unit” is crucial to maintaining those systems.

Johnson says his experience in finance and risk management sets him apart from Hamed in this race. “Sami really has none,” Johnson said. “I don’t think he knows what he’s in for.”

According to the Pima County First Quarter Campaign Finance Report, Johnson loaned himself $2,000 and spent $1,660 on his campaign. The second quarter report is due by July 15.

Sami Hamed

Sami Hamed was born and raised in Tucson. He attended the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (ASDB), Pima Community College and the University of Arizona, where he studied political science and Spanish.

From 2003 to 2009, Hamed served on the Board of Directors of ASDB. He was a congressional aide to Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva for over seven years and now sits on the Pima County Merit System Commission & Law Enforcement Council. Hamed also works at the University of Arizona in the athletics department and runs a business as a self-employed notary.

Hamed says his campaign largely focuses on building better customer service and access for the Pima County public and working to prevent tax lien foreclosure auctions.

He says staff in the treasurer’s office needs to reach out to community members when they are struggling, and not the other way around.

“We’d reach out directly to them with a phone call. ‘Hey, this is the treasurer’s office, we see that you are behind. What’s going on?’,” Hamed said. He said staff would then help taxpayers get back into good financial footing by connecting them with government resources to get funding.

Hamed says he also would beef up the IT function and make the website easier to navigate.

“We can make our office more accessible to the public,” he said.

Hamed says he would work with the Assessor’s Office to have staff visit libraries and attend events to educate the public on what different taxes are and why they are necessary.

He would also work with school districts to create a financial literacy program in economics classes in Pima County high schools, he said. A few high schools would pilot the program in August of 2025, he said.

It would teach students how credit and debit cards work, how credit reports affect you and why they’re important.

“Some kids get the financial literacy tools early in life, some don’t,” Hamed said. “Let’s create some financial literacy tools that can be used by the students, so they don’t make bad decisions.”

Hamed says his leadership makes him the most qualified candidate for the position.

“My job is to make sure the work is being done, that we’re following and adhering to the budget given by the Board of Supervisors, and to make sure we’re doing the best job possible for the taxpayers,” he said.

Hamed did not file a first quarter campaign finance report. The second quarter report is due by July 15.