FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

 ‘Big Brother’ needs watching

 A stop to pre-emptive suits and a public access counselor will bolster people’s right to know

State Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, chairs the Senate Finance Committee and is vice chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

   Bureaucrats and government agencies have no trouble putting out good news to promote themselves. But what happens when the news isn’t so good, or is of limited interest?
   As a member of the public, you have a right to request any public record or attend any open meeting. Where do you turn when that request is denied?
   Should the average person be required to hire a lawyer and go to court to make government do its job? Or worse yet, should a government agency be allowed to preemptively sue members of the public to stop them from requesting public records or punish them for even asking?
   The answer to both questions should be a resounding ‘‘no.’’
   For the upcoming state legislative session, we’re working on two bills to address these issues. The first focuses on a problem that, fortunately, is rare, but very egregious: pre-emptive lawsuits.
   When someone is going after a corrupt bureaucrat, or is in a battle to save a local community center or school, that person typically requests public information to build a case. In a few outrageous instances, the government has preemptively sued people to thwart their efforts to request public records.
   This practice must stop.
   No one should live in fear of requesting a public document. I will be sponsoring legislation to prevent the government from suing you for keeping an eye on it.
   The second bill is the public access counselor bill, which is modeled after a successful and popular 1998 Indiana law.
   Currently, if you request a public record and are refused, your only recourse is to hire a lawyer and sue. A large corporate news organization may be able to afford that, but what about the average citizen and taxpayer? A citizen fighting to save his local community center, trying to find out what happened to the money in the budget, or a citizen trying to research zoning decisions that affect her neighborhood cannot afford an expensive legal battle.
   The public access counselor bill would establish the Office of the Public Access Counselor, an independent expert on open meetings and public records law. Citizens and government would have the option of calling upon the public access counselor for advice, training and expert opinions to help settle disputes regarding public meetings and open records laws, free of charge.
   When members of the public have a disagreement with any level of government (city, state, school district, etc.) on whether or not a record should be public or a meeting should be open, they would now have the full resources of an expert in public records law at their disposal at no cost to them.
   Government employees also will be able to call on the public access counselor for advice or training to make sure they are complying with open records and open meeting laws. This is especially helpful in small jurisdictions such as school districts or small towns that can’t afford to hire a full-time public records lawyer, and will help prevent lawsuits and save valuable personnel time and resources.
   Ultimately, more records will be open and Arizona’s citizens and courtrooms will be spared the time and expense of lawsuits that could be prevented. The option of going to court is preserved, but nobody would be forced to go to court as the only recourse. For those who can’t afford to hire a lawyer, the public access counselor provides another option for an expert opinion.
   These two reforms will help protect the rights of citizens and taxpayers to keep an eye on their government, without being forced to hire a lawyer for an expensive court battle.

DEAN MARTIN COMMENTARY