Published: 12.19.2004

Let light shine on government

By Dean Martin

SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR

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 sue pre-emptively 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 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 pre-emptively sued people to thwart their efforts to request public records. This practice must stop. I will sponsor 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.

The public access counselor bill would establish the Office of the Public Access Counselor, an independent expert on open meetings and public records law.

When members of the public have a disagreement with any level of government on whether 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 would 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 such small jurisdictions 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 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 could not afford to hire a lawyer, the public access counselor would provide another option for an expert opinion.

These two reforms would 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 is a state senator from District 6 in Phoenix. He wrote this column for newspapers participating in "Open & Shut," a study of government access that appears statewide today. Reach him at 602-926-5284 or dmartin@azleg.state.az.us..