Lawmaker proposes bills to make access easier

Elvia Díaz
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 21, 2004 12:00 AM

A key state lawmaker wants to create a position for an expert who can answer questions about accessing public records and make it easier for Arizonans to scrutinize government actions.

Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, said he plans to introduce a bill to create the office of public access counselor. The expert, he said, would be available to ordinary people as well as government employees to sort out questions about public records.

Martin will also introduce a bill to ban officials from city, county, state, school boards and other government entities from initiating lawsuits to keep records from being disclosed. Martin said the law is necessary because some government officials have gone to court to keep public records confidential instead of waiting until citizens exercise their right to sue over the matter.

John Fearing, executive director of the Arizona Newspapers Association, applauded Martin's willingness to sponsor bills the group has sought.

"These are great ideas," Fearing said, noting that the counselor would be an alternative to lawsuits in the quest for access to public records. "We have good public records law. But if you're denied the information, the only alternative is to go to court."

A recent test of Arizona's Public Records Law found that about half the agencies that were audited delayed release of the requested records, and one in four failed to turn them over within a week or never provided them.

Nearly three in four police agencies and school offices - 69 percent and 68 percent, respectively - passed the test, compared with an 86 percent compliance rate for city and county managers' offices.

News organizations, led by the Associated Press Managing Editors of Arizona, sent journalists acting as regular citizens across the state Sept. 14-16. They requested reports about violence and drugs from school offices, property crime records from police agencies and expense documents submitted by city and county managers.

Auditors were instructed to identify themselves by name but not to volunteer the names of their employers or why they wanted the documents.

The public access counselor office would be similar to a position in Indiana, which has a successful program, Fearing said. During the past five years, the Indiana public access counselor has answered more than 9,000 access-related questions, he said.

The Arizona counselor would be able to investigate disputes and offer opinions, said Fearing, who believes the official could cut the number of lawsuits. The media or anyone seeking public records could still resort to the courts. The idea, Fearing said, is to have a knowledgeable person available to answer questions that may arise over public records disputes.

Rep. Andy Biggs, a Gilbert Republican who unsuccessfully sought during the 2004 legislative session to make it more expensive to view public records, said he will not pursue the legislation next year.

Biggs' failed bill grew out of a case involving the Gilbert Public Schools and a Phoenix-area television station, which asked to review documents of bus incidents. The school wanted the station to pay 35 cents a copy, or roughly $350, because it took an employee three days to prepare the documents, school representatives said.

Under public records law, news media outlets have to pay for copies obtained, but not to review the documents. Some government agencies argue that they have to make copies for review, anyway, so confidential information can be redacted.