County Supervisors Association briefs board on legislative advocacy and new data tools

Alton Joe Shepherd, president of the County Supervisors Association (CSA), and Executive Director Craig Sullivan briefed the board on CSA activities this year, including research tools, legislative advocacy and collaborative projects with state universities.

Sullivan described a newly launched website and data dashboard that aggregates county budgets, pension liabilities, probation information and other county-level datasets to support research and advocacy. He said CSA tracked 63 bills that touched county operations this session and testified nearly 50 times in committees to defend county interests; key wins included reinstatement of state-funded probation grants that had been at risk.

Shepherd and Sullivan invited supervisors to the CSA policy summit Oct. 6–8 in Flagstaff and encouraged continued local participation in CSA policy work.