The Arizona Medical Board has improved its licensing and registration processes, but should continue to follow them and conduct a risk-based review of previously issued licenses. Because it previously lacked adequate policies and procedures, the Board has retained a vendor to review the initial medical doctor licenses it issued between October 1, 2011 and February 5, 2014. The Board should also conduct a risk-based review of the initial MD licenses it issued between February 6, 2014 and June 16, 2014, and continue to follow its improved licensing and registration processes.

The Department of Environmental Quality is responsible for ensuring that owners and operators of petroleum underground storage tanks comply with federal and state financial responsibility requirements. These requirements help ensure that UST owners and operators can pay to clean up leaks and spills and compensate third parties for bodily injury and any property damage incurred. Sites and/or operators of petroleum USTs include service stations, convenience stores, and local governments. The Department continues to fail to ensure that UST owners and operators meet financial responsibility requirements. Although the Department has begun to take steps to identify and address some of the weaknesses with its financial responsibility program, it should take additional steps, including developing policies and procedures to ensure UST owners and operators comply with financial responsibility requirements.

The study was conducted in response to concerns from state leaders about the perceived shortage of construction workers and the impact that this shortage may be having on the industry’s ability to meet the growing residential and commercial demand for construction. The purpose of this study is to document the state of the industry, its workforce, and its capacity to prepare skilled workers to meet a growing demand.

The information in this report is based on telephone interviews with 700 registered voters. One random sample of 500 registered voters was selected from all registered voters living in Arizona. This sample was proportionately stratified so that voters in each of Arizona’s 15 counties were included in the sample. An additional sample of 100 interviews with registered voters living in Pima County was also interviewed. A third random sample of 100 registered voters living in the more rural counties also was interviewed. The purpose of selecting the two smaller samples was to create sub-samples of Pima County and rural voters that could be compared with the opinions of voters in Maricopa County.

The purpose of this analysis is to identify supplier gaps in Arizona based on secondary data as well as a statewide buyer survey. The buyer survey includes results from a web-based questionnaire, as well as personal interviews. The analysis is structured around twelve industries of opportunity identified in “Arizona’s Economic Future,” prepared by Economy.com in August 2002.

One of the ways that buyer supplier relationships in Arizona could be strengthened is through a statewide program that would provide resources to allow buyers and local suppliers to identify each other more easily to and provide better feedback to suppliers enabling them to compete more effectively with nonlocal vendors. This study includes reviews of three such programs: AZBusinessLinc used in Tucson; Connectory which is a similar program used in California; and FOCUS which is used for government procurement in California.