DES Director decides to resign after controversy

The Director of Economic Security has decided to resign, KGUN9 sister station KNXV reports.

Tim Jefferies told ABC15 on Wednesday afternoon that he has submitted his resignation letter.

The resignation comes after a challenging month for the director.

In October, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey took away Jefferies’ power to fire his staff. He was also accused of buying alcohol for an employee party.

An investigation by The Arizona Republic revealed DES dismissed a record 475 workers since the start of 2015.

The governor's office said the state human resources department will now review and approve any and all proposed terminations. 

ABC15 spoke to a pregnant woman who was fired from the department and is now on welfare. 

Sarah Coelho's job was to help other people sign up for welfare. She said she did nothing wrong to get fired. 

"I was 27 weeks pregnant, and I lost my insurance three days later," she said. "I had to pay out-of-pocket for all of my prescriptions and my doctor visits for the next month."

She said she didn't get a reason for getting fired.

"Just that my services were no longer needed," she said.

But Coelho wishes the governor would have taken away Jeffries' power before she was terminated.