PHX Reporter

Wendy Smith-Reeve, Arizona’s emergency management director, has resigned from her post amid a sharp disagreement with Gov. Doug Ducey’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Smith-Reeve sent an email accompanying her resignation, in which she criticized Ducey’s management of the crisis. She said there was a lack of communication and transparency.

Among her objections was Ducey’s decision to appoint Department of Health Services Director Cara Christ to head Arizona’s response to the novel coronavirus.

Smith-Reeve said the appointment of Christ to lead the response made her “presence and function duplicative.”

Daniel Ruiz, the state's chief operating officer, countered that Ducey had exercised his authority appropriately.

"The directives from the Governor's Office have been to work completely outside of the State Emergency Response and Recovery Plan that the governor acknowledged and directed the state enterprise to follow," Smith-Reeve wrote in her email.

In a later interview with the Arizona Republic, Smith-Reeve said the plan which Ducey had ignored was established precisely to keep state and federal agencies operating well with one another during a crisis.