The Valleywise Health board: two seats over the county's public hospital

November 3, 2026 general election. These are the only two contested special district races anywhere on a Maricopa County ballot this year. The board they elect governs the county's public hospital system on a budget of about $1.27 billion, sets a property tax levy of about $169 million, and just hired a new chief executive. Almost nobody votes in these races with any information at all, because almost none is published. What follows is everything we could verify.

What this board controls: the Maricopa County Special Health Care District does business as Valleywise Health, Arizona's only public teaching hospital and safety net system: a new 10-story acute care hospital (opened June 13, 2024, with the Diane and Bruce Halle Arizona Burn Center and a Level I trauma center), three behavioral health hospitals, and 11 community health centers. Its five-member elected board, one member per county supervisorial district, serves four-year nonpartisan terms without pay and sets policy, adopts the budget, certifies the tax levy, and hires the President and CEO. For fiscal 2027 (adopted June 24, 2026) the budget is $1.27 billion in operating revenue and $1.12 billion in operating expenses, with a $33 million capital budget and about 4,957 staff positions. The tax levy the board adopted for fiscal 2027 is $169,029,910 total: $109,388,429 for maintenance and operations (0.1704 per $100 of assessed value, the district's full operating levy authority, renewed by voters as Proposition 449 in 2020) plus $59,641,481 to pay principal and interest on general obligation bonds (0.0928 per $100). Our arithmetic from those published rates: the combined Valleywise levy costs about $26 a year per $100,000 of a home's market value. Bonds are authorized by voters, not the board alone: Proposition 480 (2014, $935 million) paid for the new hospital, and Proposition 409, approved November 4, 2025 with 51.4 percent of the vote, authorizes up to $898 million more for behavioral health expansion, inpatient and emergency capacity, and rebuilding health centers. The board's newest big decision: it hired Dr. Michael White as president and CEO in July 2026 (he started August 1), succeeding Steve Purves, who led the system for 12 years.

District 3: the seat that changed hands twice

District 3 covers Anthem, Cave Creek, Desert Hills, New River, Paradise Valley, and north Phoenix, per the district's own vacancy notice. The seat's recent history matters for judging the incumbent: Kate Brophy McGee held it until she was elected to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in November 2024. The board appointed Barbara Rodriguez Mundell, a former presiding judge of Maricopa County Superior Court, in February 2025. Mundell resigned effective March 27, 2026, citing a family medical emergency. The board then appointed Kelly Barr, by its own vote (under the district bylaws, vacancies are filled by the remaining board members, not by the county supervisors), on April 23, 2026. Barr has held the seat for about six months. Whoever wins in November takes the seat for a full four-year term.

Kelly J. Barr (incumbent, by appointment)

Associate Vice President and Chief Alliance Officer at Arizona State University's Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. Before ASU, more than 30 years in leadership at Salt River Project, where she served as Chief Strategy, Corporate Services and Sustainability Executive and oversaw corporate planning, environmental services, and innovation. Law degree and bachelor's from the University of Arizona; an Arizona native. Other board service: trustee of The Nature Conservancy, more than six years on the board of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, more than a decade with Arizona Forward (chair, 2020 to 2023), and chair of the City of Phoenix Environmental Quality and Sustainability Commission.

Why she sought the seat, from her appointment application as quoted by Valleywise: family members and friends received "critical, and in one case, life-saving treatment" through the district, and she was "motivated to ensure that this same high standard of care remains available to every resident of Maricopa County." From her service on the Maricopa County Citizens Jail Oversight Committee she cited the "urgent need for accessible mental health treatment" and providing specialized care "rather than allowing them to cycle through the justice system." These are appointment statements from April 2026; no separate campaign platform from Barr was found.
Her short board record: on June 24, 2026 she seconded the motion to approve the fiscal 2027 operating and capital budget and adopt the $169,029,910 tax levy, which passed 5 to 0. She was present for the July 8, 2026 approval of the new CEO's contract.
Endorsements and listings: the Legislative District 28 Republican Committee endorses her (jointly with District 4 candidate JoLynn Herber, in the statement quoted under Herber below), and she appears on the Tea Party AZ ballot list and an LD3 Republican ticket site. The office is nonpartisan; these are partisan organizations' recommendations, not ballot designations.
Money: no campaign finance totals for Barr were found in any source we searched.
Controversies: none found.

Angel B. Algarin

An assistant professor at Arizona State University's Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, with a PhD from Florida International University, an MPH from the University of Kentucky, and a bachelor's from Ohio State, per ASU's profile. His research, per ASU, studies the impact of social stigma on HIV care and prevention; he holds a National Institute on Drug Abuse career award for work on stigma, methamphetamine use, and HIV prevention among Latino sexual and gender minority populations. He filed for this seat in August 2025, the earliest filing in either Valleywise race.

Why he is running: not stated anywhere we could find. No campaign website, platform statement, candidate survey, or interview about this race was found as of October 27, 2026. His academic research agenda is documented above because it is the public record of who he is; it is not a campaign platform and this page does not present it as one.
Endorsements: listed by Civic Engagement Beyond Voting (via Blue Voter Guide), and the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund maintains a candidate page supporting him. Neither listing carries a biography or platform text.
Money: no campaign finance totals for Algarin were found in any source we searched.
Controversies: none found.

District 4: a two-term incumbent and a name

District 4 covers the West Valley: Peoria, Glendale, Goodyear, Avondale, Buckeye, Litchfield Park, El Mirage, Sun City, and Sun City West, per Valleywise. Its representative is, per the district, the board's only West Valley resident.

J. Woodfin "Woody" Thomas (incumbent)

First elected in 2018 and sworn in that December; re-elected in 2022. A certified general real estate appraiser by profession; mayor of Litchfield Park from 2000 to 2006 and a member of its planning and zoning commission from 2006 to 2012; worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1977 to 2016. Bachelor's degree in dairy science, University of Maryland, 1975. On this board he has already served as vice chairman (2020 to 2022) and chairman (December 2022 through December 2024), so District 4 voters are being asked to return a former chair for a third term.

Record, from the board's own minutes: he moved approval of the fiscal 2026 budget and its $176,208,374 levy (June 19, 2025); moved approval of the Proposition 409 ballot language (May 28, 2025), and wrote the argument in favor of Prop 409 in the county's 2025 voter pamphlet, supporting replacement of the 1978 behavioral health hospital and rebuilding of the South Central and Comprehensive Health Centers; moved approval of the fiscal 2027 budget and the $169,029,910 levy (June 24, 2026, passed 5 to 0); moved the appointment of Kelly Barr to the District 3 seat (April 2026); and seconded approval of the new CEO's contract (July 8, 2026). A voter who wants to know what a third Thomas term looks like does not have to guess: he has been a central mover of the district's budgets, its bond measure, and its current board composition.
Stated priorities for 2026: none found as a campaign statement. No campaign website, candidate survey, or 2026 platform from Thomas was located. His most recent on-record framing is from his chairmanship in November 2023: reshaping Valleywise "to better serve our community, bring in more advanced services and an even greater focus on providing our patients with an exceptional experience," tied to the new hospital opening.
Money: no campaign finance totals for Thomas were found in any source we searched.
Controversies: none found. Searches of his name with the district's finances, taxes, and audits returned only district releases and minutes.

Jolynn Herber (also rendered JoLynn Herber)

Almost no public footprint, and none of it verified beyond her filings: she filed statements of interest for this seat in March and April 2026. No campaign website, occupation, prior office, candidate survey, or news coverage of her was found in this research. One candidate aggregator states the position plainly: her job and prior public-office history remain unverified. District 4 voters are asked to choose between a two-term incumbent with a long public record and a challenger about whom the public record says essentially nothing. That imbalance is the finding.

The only substantive statement attached to her candidacy, attributed to her endorser, not to her: the Legislative District 28 Republican Committee, explaining why it supports Barr and Herber together, says the two "believe Valleywise Health can provide excellent medical and mental health care to Maricopa County residents while also respecting the taxpayers who fund it. They will work to control expenses, prioritize resources where they are most needed, and keep Valleywise focused on its core mission of providing high-quality care to people in need." That is the committee's characterization of both candidates, not a statement from Herber herself.
Other listings: the Tea Party AZ ballot list, an LD3 Republican ticket site, and a Festival Ranch Republican voter guide all list her for this seat. All are partisan organization slates for a nonpartisan office.
Money: no campaign finance totals for Herber were found, and the aggregator above lists her campaign finance as not available.

Not up this year: District 1 (Martin C. Demos), District 2 (Virginia L. Korte, the board's chairman), and District 5 (Earl V. Wilcox, vice chairman). On the board's four-year staggered cycle those seats next face voters in 2028.

Verification notes

These are the checks a reader can redo without taking our word for any of it. Where a number in the body came from published records, the source is named here so a reader can trace it; where we could not verify something, we say so in the body rather than omitting it.

The board's own records anchor the body. Valleywise's board packets and minutes supplied the June 24, 2026 fiscal 2027 budget adoption and its $169,029,910 levy, the June 19, 2025 fiscal 2026 budget and $176,208,374 levy, the May 28, 2025 Proposition 409 ballot language approval, and the 2023 through 2026 board actions attributed to Thomas. The district's audited financial statements supply the fiscal 2024 figures (operating revenue $1.13 billion, operating expenses $1.15 billion, capital spending $25 million) and its independent confirmation that the district is "taxpayer-supported" rather than self-funding.
The history of the District 3 seat is unusually well documented. The board's appointment press release and agenda package for the April 2026 special meeting supplied Barr's credentials, her quoted application statement, her board record, and the 6-to-1 vote in her favor. The 2022 and 2024 election filings supplied the Mundell appointments and the 2018 election of Brophy McGee; a local outlet's obituary reported Brophy McGee's death on September 27, 2024.
Endorsements are attributed, not asserted. The LD28 Republican Committee's endorsement of Barr and Herber together, the LD3 Republican slate, the Tea Party AZ list, the Festival Ranch voter guide, and the Civic Engagement Beyond Voting listing for Algarin are all cited as what those organizations said. The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund's profile of Algarin is cited as its own description of his endorsement. The absence of a candidate survey, platform statement, or campaign website for Thomas, Algarin, or Herber is a finding from this research, not an inference about their campaigns.
The District 4 contrast is structural, not editorial. Thomas's long public record comes from board minutes and district releases; Herber's thin record comes from her own filings and the absence of any other public material. The body reports both without endorsing either. The only statement attached to Herber's candidacy is quoted as her endorser's words, not hers.
The levy arithmetic is checked. The district's fiscal 2027 adopted budget gives the $169,029,910 total levy as $109,388,429 for maintenance and operations (0.1704 per $100 of assessed value) plus $59,641,481 for bond debt service (0.0928 per $100). Those two rates sum to 0.2632 per $100, which is $26.32 per $100,000 of assessed value. The body's "about $26 a year per $100,000 of a home's market value" follows that calculation, rounding down.
What we did not find. No campaign finance totals for any of the four candidates were found in any source we searched. No campaign website, platform statement, candidate survey, or interview was found for Thomas, Algarin, or Herber. No news coverage of Herber was found. No controversies were found for any of the four candidates. Those absences are reported in the body where they matter rather than omitted.

How to vote without getting your ballot rejected

Check that you are registered and your party is right. These are nonpartisan seats, so party registration does not affect your ability to vote in them, but the district's races appear only on ballots in the district where you live: District 3 voters see Barr versus Algarin, District 4 voters see Thomas versus Herber. Confirm your registration and district at voter.azsos.gov or the county recorder's voter page before you vote.
Vote by mail or in person. Maricopa County mails ballots to voters on the active early voting list about 27 days before the election, and anyone else can request one. Mail it back early enough to arrive by 7 p.m. on November 3, 2026, or drop it at any vote center or drop box. If you vote in person, you may use any vote center in the county.
Sign the affidavit envelope exactly as you registered. Your signature is matched against the one on file. If it does not match, the county contacts you to cure it; do not wait for that notice.
Do not vote for a board seat outside your district. The district's races are geographically bounded. A ballot cast in the wrong district's race will not count for that race.

Sources

Valleywise Health, About Valleywise Health; board leadership page, Leadership; and History (the district's mission, its 1877 origin as Maricopa County Hospital, its 1994 name change, and the 2003 Valleywise branding).
Maricopa County Special Health Care District, History of Valleywise Health (PDF).
Valleywise Health, Fiscal 2027 Adopted Budget (PDF; adopted June 24, 2026; $169,029,910 levy: $109,388,429 maintenance and operations at 0.1704 per $100 plus $59,641,481 debt service at 0.0928 per $100; $1.27 billion operating revenue, $1.12 billion operating expenses, $33 million capital budget, about 4,957 staff positions).
Maricopa County Special Health Care District, Fiscal 2026 Budget Book (PDF; adopted June 19, 2025; $176,208,374 levy).
Maricopa County Special Health Care District, Audited Financial Statements, Fiscal Year 2023 (PDF) and Audited Financial Statements, Fiscal Year 2024 (PDF; operating revenue $1.13 billion, operating expenses $1.15 billion, capital spending $25 million, "taxpayer-supported" description).
Valleywise Health board, minutes and agendas: May 28, 2025 minutes (PDF; Proposition 409 ballot language), June 19, 2025 minutes (PDF; fiscal 2026 budget), June 24, 2026 minutes (PDF; fiscal 2027 budget, Barr's second), and July 8, 2026 minutes (PDF; CEO contract).
Valleywise Health, press release: board appoints Kelly Barr to District 3 seat (April 2026; credentials, application statement, 6-to-1 vote) and April 2026 special meeting agenda package (PDF).
Maricopa County Elections, Candidate Registration and Candidate List; Arizona Secretary of State, Election Information; and the Arizona Republic obituary for Mary Brophy McGee (September 27, 2024).