Gilbert Council Member Chosen As New Maricopa County Assessor

By Matthew Casey
Published: Friday, February 14, 2020 - 12:21pm

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Eddie Cook
Matthew Casey/KJZZ
Eddie Cook speaks to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in early 2020.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has chosen a member of the Gilbert Town Council to serve the rest of Paul Petersen’s term as County Assessor.

Petersen resigned last month to focus on fighting criminal charges stemming from accusations that he ran an illegal adoption scam.

Eddie Cook was unanimously chosen from the list of five finalists interviewed by the Board to finish out the rest of this year as County Assessor.

Cook said he used his time on the Gilbert Town Council to transform government so it runs more like a business.

Now Cook will inherit a major IT project that’s considered the future for how people interact with the County Assessor online. But it reportedly fell behind last year. 

“I’ll have to spend some time from my technical background to understand a lot of mechanics behind that. But rest assured, I’ll definitely be very committed to making sure that (the project) is fully successful,” Cook said.

Cook has to resign from the Gilbert Town Council before he can start work as County Assessor, a job in which he hopes voters this November will give him a four-year term.

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