Christina Bertch-Mumaw
Christina Lyn Bertch-Mumaw was initally appointed to the state veterinary board in 2010 as a Jan Brewer appointee; she was subsequently appointed to an additional five-year term by Doug Ducey in 2015. On the veterinary board she succeeded Joe Rawls, who was himself later utilized by the Board as a practice monitor in part of the rather infamous Virginia Kern saga (21-109). Bertch-Mumaw graduated from Colorado State's veterinary program and also held a certification in veterinary medical acupuncture. Based on her background summary as submitted to the Senate, she has worked as a relief veterinarian, an emergency veterinarian, and an owner-operator of Bell Rock Veterinary Clinic. She also hosted the Animal Q&A Show on KAZM radio and wrote a monthly column for The Village newspaper.
During her 2011 confirmation hearing before an Arizona Senate committee, the first question asked by a senator was whether Mumaw was a relative of the senator's former acquaintance, John Mumaw. Bertch-Mumaw's statement for the Board emphasized that she understands one of the Board's mandates is to enforce continuing education (CE) requirements on veterinarians; she related that she obtained 50 hours of CE in one year instead of the 20 the state requires every two years. She also emphasized her experience working in a variety of rural settings, experience she stated was lacking in the Board at that time. Her broad experience with "pretty much every species known to mankind" was also mentioned as a selling point, including dogs, cats, reptiles, zoo animals, wildlife, horses and livestock. She also maintained academic ties to her alma mater, Colorado State, where she taught a class several times a year. She was asked two additional questions, one about her dog, and another about her experience working as a relief veterinarians for rural veterinarians on vacation; she told the Senate committee that rural veterinary practice was a "different ball of wax" because rural areas have no emergency clinics. The entire hearing lasted slightly over four minutes. She was unavailable for her later 2016 reappointment hearing and was approved in about two minutes.
In 2014 Bertch was a co-defendant (along with the rest of the Board) in a lawsuit filed by horse-massagers Celeste Kelly, Grace Granatelli, Stacey Kollman and the Institute for Justice. The state veterinary board had concluded that only licensed veterinarians could legally massage horses in Arizona; three years later they relented and permitted non-veterinarian horse-massagers to give your horse a good rub.
Bertch was heavily quoted in a 2015 article, Modern Vets Healing Pets with Ancient Needle Therapy in the Prescott-area Quad Cities Business News (link). In it, she relates the tale of Mickey the horse, a racehorse down on his luck with severe spinal instability who was able to run the 25-mile Bumble Bee Endurance Ride thanks to two years of acupuncture. We're also told that of all the species she's used acupuncture on, including dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, guinea pigs, and fish, she believes it works best in dogs with bad backs: “They’ve been able to walk again.”
Voting Summary
Christina Bertch-Mumaw voted to dismiss about 80.3% of complaints in our Tails of Woe.
We've tallied up Christina Bertch-Mumaw's votes during the time covered by our public records requests. Of the cases we have, Christina Bertch-Mumaw voted in 173 cases. Of those, Christina Bertch-Mumaw voted in favor of at least one motion containing the word "dismiss" in 139 of them.
Below we've included Christina Bertch-Mumaw's vote breakdowns for up to ten of the most common motions. We also have a detailed list of votes and their associated complaints available in the Voting History.
| Motion | Aye | Nay | Recused | Absent | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dismiss with no violation | 124 | 0 | 11 | 54 | 189 |
| Offer consent agreement | 25 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 38 |
| Schedule informal interview | 16 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 29 |
| Find violation | 7 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 20 |
| Accept consent agreement | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Issue board order | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 11 |
| Remand to formal hearing | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| Dismiss with no violation and issue letter of concern | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| Disagree and dismiss with no violation | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Issue letter of concern | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
Archival Content
Additional archival content for Christina Bertch-Mumaw is posted below and hosted at the Internet Archive.
| Executive Summary | Christina Bertch-Mumaw Executive Appointment Summary (Legislative Session 501R) |
| Executive Summary | Christina Bertch-Mumaw Executive Appointment Summary (Legislative Session 522R) |
| Senate Nomination Hearing | Christina Bertch-Mumaw Senate Nomination Hearing (Legislative Session 501R) |
| Senate Nomination Hearing | Christina Bertch-Mumaw Senate Nomination Hearing (Legislative Session 522R) |