Board to pick Shooter replacement Monday

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors will hold a special session Monday to choose a successor to Rep. Don Shooter, who was removed from the state House after he violated the Legislature’s policy on sexual harassment.

The members will appoint one of three nominees submitted by the Republican precinct committeemen of District 13, which met Thursday night and picked Paul Brierley, Tim Dunn and Cora Lee Schingnitz for consideration.

The meeting will begin 9 a.m. in the board’s auditorium, at 198 S. Main St. The meeting will be televised on the county’s cable channel, Yuma77, and webcast and available for later viewing at www. yumacountyaz.gov and the Yuma County Government Facebook page. Spanish subtitles are available for rebroadcasts.

The local GOP leaders were required by state statute to submit three names to the board. Dunn, a grain and vegetable grower, and Brierley, from the Yuma Center for Excellence in Desert Agriculture, announced their intent to seek the appointment before the meeting, and Schningnitz, a longtime party activist, was tapped to fill the third slot.

Whomever the five-member board chooses to step into the role will need to head up to Phoenix more or less immediately after they’re appointed, as the Legislature begins the sixth week of its session. The House voted 53-3 to expel Shooter, former chair of its appropriations committee, in a highly publicized session Feb. 1.