REFERENCE TITLE: Don Shooter; expulsion

State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-third Legislature Second Regular Session 2018

HR 2003

Introduced by Representative Mesnard

 

A RESOLUTION

 

expelling don shooter from the house of representatives.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

Whereas, on November 7, 2017, allegations of sexual harassment were alleged against Representative Don Shooter; and

Whereas, subsequent to that charge, Representative Shooter asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Javan D. Mesnard, to commence an investigation; and

Whereas, Speaker Mesnard appointed a bipartisan team to investigate and evaluate all of the allegations, and that team hired special counsel; and

Whereas, over the course of the next eleven weeks, special counsel conducted interviews with over forty witnesses and victims; and

Whereas, the culmination of the investigation was presented to the House of Representatives on January 30, 2018; and

Whereas, special counsel found there is credible evidence that Representative Shooter has violated the Arizona House of Representatives policy on workplace harassment and has created a hostile working environment for his colleagues and those with business before the legislature; and

Whereas, that pattern of conduct has occurred from the time he was first elected to the Arizona Senate to as recently as 2017.

Therefore

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona:

1.  That the House of Representatives finds that Representative Don Shooter's pattern of conduct was dishonorable and unbecoming of a member of the House of Representatives.

2.  That Representative Don Shooter's conduct undermined the public's confidence in this institution and violated the order and decorum necessary to complete the peoples' work in the State of Arizona.

3.  That in the exercise of the power granted to it by Article IV, part 2, section 11, Constitution of Arizona, the House of Representatives condemns workplace harassment and, with concurrence of two-thirds of its members, hereby expels Representative Don Shooter.

4.  That the seat of the member of the House of Representatives, legislative district 13, occupied by Don Shooter is now vacant.