Roughly a month after taking over for former Recorder Stephen Richer, Heap has been quick to boast about performing his everyday duties as if they were major accomplishments. In a press release issued on Feb. 7, he made a point of taking credit for personnel changes that happened before his term began.
In the release, Heap criticized Richer’s “lack of organizational leadership” and “over-focus on external political communications." (Richer and Heap are both Republicans, though Richer became a target of the MAGA wing of the party for shooting down the same kind of election denialism that Heap and his allies have espoused.) As a result, Heap's release said he “eliminated the salaries and positions of six external communication officers to free up resources for needed improvements.”
The inference is that Heap fired them, which is how news outlets including the Associated Press took it. The truth is that all six of those staffers resigned before Heap assumed the position and that Heap has merely chosen not to back-fill their positions.
Phoenix New Times asked Heap’s office for the names of the six communications employees whose positions were eliminated. In response, Heap’s chief of staff, Sam Stone, offered a no-comment and directed New Times to submit a public records request.
New Times submitted such a request, asking for the names of the six staffers Heap fired. Heap’s office responded that “there are no responsive records as the six employees resigned from their positions before January 6, 2025,” the date on which Heap was sworn in. In response to a subsequent records request, Heap’s office provided the names of the former employees.
The first to leave was Marcus Milam, a former communications officer and government liaison. He resigned after accepting a “job in (his) preferred field” in late September, according to recorder’s office records. Next was communications manager Sierra Ciaramella, a former creative director for Gov. Doug Ducey, who resigned as communications manager in late November.
Two more staffers — Communications Department Officer Taylor Kinnerup and Management Assistant Diane Sibenaller — resigned in the first two weeks of December. On Jan. 3 the remaining two resigned. As their jobs were “below manager," their names were “redacted as per policy,” according to Heap’s office.
Heap was sworn into office the following Monday, Jan. 6. It’s not clear if any staffers resigned because Heap was taking over. New Times has requested the resignation letters for all six but has yet to receive them. New Times also sent questions to Heap’s office but has not heard back.
In a Feb. 10 email posted to X by a journalist, Maricopa County Supervisor Debbie Lesko said she had yet to receive any requests from Recorder Justin Heap about his desired changes to election administration.
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Trouble with the facts
The exodus of communications staffers isn’t the only subject on which Heap has overstated the facts.In January, Heap crowed about culling thousands of inactive voters from the voter rolls as if he were instituting a huge cleanup. In fact he was performing the same statutorily mandated duties as his predecessors. Earlier this month, Heap announced a new measure to allow observers into the room where ballot envelope signatures are verified. Others, including Richer, pointed out that had already been happening.
Heap’s allies have also railed against a shared services agreement between the recorder’s office and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors that was signed months before Richer left office. The terms of that agreement weren’t particularly controversial: It moves office IT functions under the county umbrella and moving certain ballot processing jobs to the county elections department, which processes ballots. But MAGA types have painted the agreement as an effort to neuter Heap before he took office.
On Feb. 10, self-described MAGA investigative journalist Brian Ference posted the text of an email supposedly sent by new county supervisor Debbie Lesko, who voted against certifying the 2020 election while in Congress and who is certainly not anti-MAGA. In the letter, Lesko laid out that she voted for Heap and has “met and talked with him several times” since his election and has “asked him to submit to me, in writing, exactly what he wants. So far, I have not received that.”
New Times has asked Lesko’s office to confirm the authenticity of that email but has not yet heard back. However, on Feb. 11, Lesko tweeted that she had received a written request from Heap about changes he wants to make to the shared services agreement. New Times has requested that written request but has not received it.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office oversees voter registration, the mailing of ballots and more than 50 million public records in the county, according to the office’s website. However, most election-related duties — including the tabulation of ballots and in-person voting — are handled by the county elections department.
