Arizona Registrar of Contractors

Fidelis V. Garcia, Director

Fidelis V. Garcia was named as Director of the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC) by Gov. Janet Napolitano on February 9th, 2007. Garcia previously served as the agency’s Acting Director for approximately 1 year following the resignation of former director Israel G. Torres.

Garcia comes to the ROC from the city of Phoenix Municipal Court, where he served as a Judicial Officer for four years. He presided over large and complex cases cited under Phoenix City ordinances including neighborhood preservation, property abatements, zoning, sexually oriented businesses, sanitation, mobile vending and construction codes.

He received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University. At 25, during his third year of law school, Garcia was appointed as the presiding judge for the Guadalupe Municipal Court. During his two-year tenure, he received statewide recognition for his re-organization of Guadalupe’s court.

The youngest of nine children, Fidelis Garcia is a native Arizonan and was raised in the town of Guadalupe. In 1994, he chaired the Guadalupe Cesar Chavez Holiday Committee, which successfully lobbied the Guadalupe Town Council to pass the first paid Chavez holiday in the State of Arizona. While serving as Guadalupe’s presiding judge, he worked with local school districts to help reduce Guadalupe’s truancy rate by 50 percent.

Armando A. Contreras, Deputy Director

Armando Contreras joined the Arizona Registrar of Contractor’s Office as Deputy Director in April of 2007. Prior to joining the ROC Armando was named by Governor Janet Napolitano to serve as the Arizona Small Business Advocate and Executive Director of the Governors Council on Small Business to the Arizona Department of Commerce. Armando also served as the Executive Director of the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry for 10.5 years.

Armando had experience early in his career with construction when he worked with an asphalt and concrete company in California. Serving as a contract administrator working both in the field and as a part of the executive team, Armando gained valuable familiarity with the construction industry that he brings to his current position with the ROC.

Armando has served as an Executive Officer of the Board of Trustees for the Grammy Award Winning Phoenix Boys Choir, and is one of the co-founders and current board member of the Arizona Latino Research Enterprise (ALRE). He is also a mentor for the Governor’s Capitol Elementary School Mentor Program. Armando has been invited twice by President George W. Bush to the White House. In addition, he delivered the invocation at the Hispanic Prayer Breakfast where the President, Senator John McCain and Senator Edward Kennedy were present. 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Armando graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. He also holds a Masters Degree from the University of San Francisco and two certificates from Indiana University School of Fund Raising.

Armando is now a proud Arizona resident and lives with his wife and three children in Phoenix.

Brian Livingston, Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Director/Public Information Officer

Brian is the agency's Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Director and Public Information Officer. In his capacity as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Director, Brian will serve as the legislative liaison for the agency, which facilitates intergovernmental relations with local, state and federal governments. Brian also works as an intermediary for the ROC with the contracting industry, neighborhood associations and labor unions. He is also responsible for the coordination for the many public outreach programs conducted through the Registrar’s office.

Brian serves as the Assistant Director in charge of the Investigations Department. In this position, he oversees the activity of the investigations department, which includes the coordination, and development of "sweep and sting" operations for the ROC. These operations are designed to identify and ensure appropriate action is taken against those who are violating the contracting laws of the State of Arizona.

Prior to his employment with the ROC, he served as the Executive Director of the Arizona Police Association. In this position, he was responsible for the day-to-day activities of the association. He also acted as the legislative liaison for the association working with many legislators, both nationally and locally, to pass legislation that protected police officers, their families and the citizens they served.

Brian is a retired Arizona police officer and is Vietnam era veteran of the United States Air Force.

William A. Albright, Assistant Director-Operations

William A. Albright was hired as Chief of the Legal Department, Arizona Registrar of Contractors on September 28, 1998 and served in that position until September 1, 2004. On that date Mr. Albright assumed duties as Assistant Director for the agency. In this role he has responsibility for the supervision and operation of the Licensing, Investigations and Inspections departments as well as the agency’s three regional offices and all field offices statewide.

Mr. Albright graduated from Arizona State University in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He also received his Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University in 1971 and became a member of the State Bar of Arizona in that same year.

He has previously served as a Deputy Public Defender in Yuma County, Arizona and as an Assistant Attorney General in Phoenix in the Licensing and Enforcement Section. Prior to that he served as a judge advocate in the United States Air Force retiring after twenty years of service in 1990. While in the Air Force he held positions at both the base and headquarters levels.

Mr. Albright is married, has five children and currently resides in Chandler, Arizona.

Alan Felber, Assistant Director - Licensing, Inspections & Examinations

Alan Felber has been with the Registrar of Contractors since August 1987, and served as the ROC’s Chief of Licensing from January 1989 to January 2006. Alan is currently serving as an Assistant Director over the Licensing, Inspections and Examinations Departments. He is a Certified Building Inspector, and an Arizona State Plumbing Code Commissioner. He was a member of the Carpenters and Joiners Union, Local 1089 from 1979 to 1983, and a construction superintendent for commercial and residential building from 1983 to 1987, before leaving the private sector to join the Registrar of Contractors as an inspector.

Wilma Himel CPM, Assistant Director - Administration

Wilma Himel is the Assistant Director for Administration and the Recovery Fund. Wilma was appointed to her position in December 2005. Wilma Himel has worked for the Arizona Registrar of Contractors since 1995 in Accounting, Business and Finance, and Budget positions which involved procurement, payroll system implementation, preparing and monitoring the biennial agency budget, and preparing other Agency plans and reports, including the strategic plan, equal employment opportunity plan, and the performance incentive pay plan.

Wilma holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business/Accounting and is a Certified Public Manager. She has over 30-years of experience in local, tribal, federal and state governments and is a member of the Arizona Affirmative Action Association, the Government Finance Officer’s Association, a board member of the Arizona Society of Certified Public Managers and sits on the Agency Incentive Pay Steering Committee, Transportation Committee and Public Information Team.

Gene Martel, Assistant Director - Technology

Gene came to the ROC in June of 2006 after 5 1/2 years with Arizona’s Government Information Technology Agency (GITA).

While at GITA Gene served as the Digital Government Services Manager and as the State Web Portal Manager for the Arizona @ Your Service Web Portal. As the Portal Manager, Gene was directly responsible for the implementation of Arizona’s first web portal, and the many infrastructure services necessary to support Arizona’s e-government initiatives.

Under the portal initiative Gene provided strategic direction as well as critical oversight and coordination for the implementation of several high profile agency applications and e-government services. This included such services as the centralized credit card processing system and the Common Licensing System (CLS) for Arizona’s regulatory agencies.

Gene previously worked for the state of Washington in a similar capacity. During his 14 years of service there he was involved in the development of several key electronic government initiatives. These included the Washington Information Network (WIN) Kiosk project; Access Washington, the state’s award winning Internet service; Inside Washington the state’s Intranet service; the Digital Government Applications Academy, and various other Information Technology (IT) initiatives.

Gene has over 27 years of Information Technology experience, for which the last 21 years has been focused solely on government technology solutions - this in conjunction with his earlier studies in Computer Science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Gene is committed to the process of making ROC work more effectively and efficiently through the use of “smart” technologies – thereby providing the most benefit and convenience to the public that it serves.

Gene is married, has two sons and lives in Glendale Arizona.