“We the people” is the opening phrase of the U.S. Constitution that set the tone for how our nation and national government saw itself. It signifies that all Americans from the president to members of Congress to small-town mayors and average citizens have equal access to our government.

That too means that citizens, regardless of status or station, should be able to see what any government agency is doing.

Sunday, March 10, to Saturday, March 16, is Sunshine Week, when news agencies around the country celebrate wins that have made government more transparent and warn readers and viewers about government attempts to hide public information.

It is the right of every American citizen to know what our elected and appointed officials are doing. They work for salaries paid by our taxes, in offices paid for by tax dollars on projects funded by public money. Their actions, whether building a road, implementing a social program, teaching children, issuing permits or passing criminal legislation that can deprive citizens of their freedom, property, income or wealth, are of immediate and permanent public concern, meriting scrutiny, criticism and praise.

By design, we should know how they are spending our tax dollars, whether it’s educating our children, fighting crime or fires in equipment we paid for, setting up statewide or nationwide programs or policies for our progeny or going to war on our behalf on foreign soil.

According to the Associated Press, public records have become harder to get since the COVID-19 pandemic response. AP reporter David A. Lieb notes that governors, legislatures and local officials have suspended or ignored laws setting deadlines to respond to records requests, citing obstacles for staffers who were working at home or overwhelmed with crisis management, meaning information that once took a few days or weeks to obtain now often takes months — depriving the public of facts.

In Arizona, nefarious legislators routinely attempt to limit access to public records, while dutiful lawmakers thwart their attempts and defend your right to access government records, emails, letters, phone records and memos so that the public is wholly informed about what government bureaucrats and elected officials are doing, saying, writing and whispering as it affects us in the public.

Excluding national security matters, active criminal investigations and records protected by attorney-client or doctor-patient privilege, every document produced by or stored by local, state and the federal government, every email and text message sent from a government official, should be accessible at any time to members of the public, yet there are slews of state and federal laws to protect the public’s right to know because some government officials often don’t want what they say and do to be made public, so other officials had to force them to be transparent by law.

Everything government does should be known by the public at large, and easily accessible with a phone call, an email, a click on a website or visit to a government office. Citizens must make it clear to officials that this is how American governments have been and should always operate, without exception.

Over the years, journalists at Larson Newspapers have had to file Freedom of Information Act requests for federal agencies or Arizona open records laws requests for local and state governments to obtain documents to inform our readers.

More often than not, local agencies freely provide journalists and the public with records we request because it’s easy to be forthright with the media and the public. Perhaps in part, it’s because filing a formal open records law request will only delay the inevitable and, in the interim, embarrass the official and department who tried to deny the request, because when American citizens don’t get the public records we are entitled to, we journalists are rarely quiet about it.

When denied, our demands only get louder — and we reach Americans via our newspapers, television shows and radio broadcasts, who often jump in to assist. So to avoid the headaches, it’s best for all involved for government workers and elected officials to produce what’s requested without the fuss. Remember, it’s often the coverup, not the crime, that brings down those in power.

That being said, no government officials should seek to hide information from the public. They should demand transparency more strongly than we do because it affects their job directly. Remember that government records are your records — officials are merely the caretakers of what you already own. We are the government and the government is us.

Christopher Fox Graham

Managing Editor

Arizona Public Records Laws, Title 39

Arizona Revised Statute §39-121. Inspection of public records

Public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to inspection by any person at all times during office hours.

Arizona Revised Statute §39-121.01. Definitions; maintenance of records; copies, printouts or photographs of public records; examination by mail; index

A. In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Officer” means any person elected or appointed to hold any elective or appointive office of any public body and any chief administrative officer, head, director, superintendent or chairman of any public body.
2. “Public body” means this state, any county, city, town, school district, political subdivision or tax-supported district in this state, any branch, department, board, bureau, commission, council or committee of the foregoing, and any public organization or agency, supported in whole or in part by monies from this state or any political subdivision of this state, or expending monies provided by this state or any political subdivision of this state.

B. All officers and public bodies shall maintain all records, including records as defined in section 41-151, reasonably necessary or appropriate to maintain an accurate knowledge of their official activities and of any of their activities that are supported by monies from this state or any political subdivision of this state.

C. Each public body shall be responsible for the preservation, maintenance and care of that body’s public records, and each officer shall be responsible for the preservation, maintenance and care of that officer’s public records. It shall be the duty of each such body to carefully secure, protect and preserve public records from deterioration, mutilation, loss or destruction, unless disposed of pursuant to sections 41-151.15 and 41-151.19.

D. Subject to section 39-121.03:

1. Any person may request to examine or be furnished copies, printouts or photographs of any public record during regular office hours or may request that the custodian mail a copy of any public record not otherwise available on the public body’s website to the requesting person. The custodian may require any person requesting that the custodian mail a copy of any public record to pay in advance for any copying and postage charges. The custodian of such records shall promptly furnish such copies, printouts or photographs and may charge a fee if the facilities are available, except that public records for purposes listed in section 39-122 or 39-127 shall be furnished without charge.
2. If requested, the custodian of the records of an agency shall also furnish an index of records or categories of records that have been withheld and the reasons the records or categories of records have been withheld from the requesting person. The custodian shall not include in the index information that is expressly made privileged or confidential in statute or a court order. This paragraph shall not be construed by an administrative tribunal or a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent or require an order compelling a public body other than an agency to furnish an index. For the purposes of this paragraph, “agency” has the same meaning prescribed in section 41-1001 but does not include the department of public safety, the department of transportation motor vehicle division, the department of juvenile corrections and the state department of corrections.
3. If the custodian of a public record does not have facilities for making copies, printouts or photographs of a public record that a person has a right to inspect, the person shall be granted access to the public record for the purpose of making copies, printouts or photographs. The copies, printouts or photographs shall be made while the public record is in the possession, custody and control of the custodian of the public record and shall be subject to the supervision of the custodian.

E. Access to a public record is deemed denied if a custodian fails to promptly respond to a request for production of a public record or fails to provide to the requesting person an index of any record or categories of records that are withheld from production pursuant to subsection D, paragraph 2 of this section.

Arizona Revised Statute §39-121.02. Action on denial of access; costs and attorney fees; damages

A. Any person who has requested to examine or copy public records pursuant to this article, and who has been denied access to or the right to copy such records, may appeal the denial through a special action in the superior court, pursuant to the rules of procedure for special actions against the officer or public body.

B. The court may award attorney fees and other legal costs that are reasonably incurred in any action under this article if the person seeking public records has substantially prevailed. Nothing in this subsection shall limit the rights of any party to recover attorney fees, expenses and double damages pursuant to section 12-349.

C. Any person who is wrongfully denied access to public records pursuant to this article has a cause of action against the officer or public body for any damages resulting from the denial.