The Senate Bill 1487 complaint filed against the city of Sedona for its destination marketing contract with the Sedona Chamber of Commerce did not originate with Arizona Sen. Judy Burges [R-District 22], the senator who filed it. Instead, it came to her from Arizona Rep. Bob Thorpe [R-District 6], who represents Sedona.
In a phone interview Wednesday, July 25, Thorpe denied having any emails containing the word “Sedona” between May and July.
However, a June 28 email, written by Thorpe to Greg Jernigan, general counsel to the Senate, has the subject line: “SB1487 complaint per the City of Sedona and the Sedona Chamber of Commerce.”
In it, Thorpe wrote to Jernigan, “Hi Greg: Sen. Burges has agreed to file a SB1487 complaint concerning possible financial / economic improprieties between the City of Sedona and the Sedona Chamber of Commerce. The below text has been reviewed by council and should not require any additional editing.”
“Please use the below text (as is) to develop and file a SB1487 complaint with the Attorney General’s office as soon as possible, and please include in the filing the attached supporting documents. Of course, ask Sen. Burges to review the complaint prior to filing it with the AG. Many thanks, Rep Bob Thorpe. Cell: 928-310-8811.”
A July 20 public records request fulfilled by Burges indicated Thorpe sent the text of the Sedona complaint to Jernigan on June 28 and requested it be filed under Burges’ name.
In an email to Burges on July 2, Jernigan wrote, “Rep. Thorpe indicates that you have agreed to filing this with the [Arizona Attorney General’s Office]. Would you please review this to determine if you approve of filing this as is with the AG. If you approve we will need a letter signed by you requesting the AG to investigate this matter pursuant to [Arizona Revised Statute] Sec. 41-194.01.”
The statute number refers to the state law passed as SB 1487.
“I did agree to sponsor this letter,” Burges wrote. “Your opinion as to legal content is most appreciated.”
“I think the request is a legitimate legal issue for the AG to investigate,” Jernigan wrote. “Suggested language for the letter to request that the AG investigate is in the e-mail below.”
Burges’ complaint filed to the Attorney General is verbatim what Thorpe sent to her, including the same typographical, spacing and punctuation errors and anomalies.
“I didn’t file it. I [pause] Sen. Burges volunteered to file it,” Thorpe said in a phone interview on Wednesday, July 25.
Listen to the full audio of the phone call by clicking here.
Regarding a public records request, Thorpe claimed he has no record of any emails regarding Sedona.
When asked why Thorpe asked Burges to file the complaint instead of filing it as it involves a city in his legislative district, he said, “Cause there’s a number of, well, she, she said she would file it. Hey, um, because this is an ongoing investigation, I really don’t have any comment.”
While the question was not about the investigation itself but how the complaint was filed, when asked for comment to explain to his constituents as to why he asked a senator from another district to file a complaint against a city in his district, Thorpe stated, “OK, well it’s an ongoing investigation, so I don’t have any comment on it.”
On Monday, July 23, the Sedona Red Rock News filed a public records request with Thorpe’s office.
The request asked for all emails “containing the words ‘city of Sedona,’ ‘Sedona Chamber of Commerce’ or ‘Sedona’ in either the subject line or the body of the email,” to or from his email address or any email address of his staff between May 4 and July 20.
Nearly identical records requests were filed with the offices of Arizona Rep. Brenda Barton [R-District 6] and Arizona Sen. Sylvia Allen [R-District 6]. Barton and Allen have yet to reply.
Email records indicate Thorpe opened the public records request July 23, but he did not supply any emails, per the request.
Thorpe stated that he has no emails with “Sedona” in the subject line or body over the 77-day period in the request. However, Sedona is in Thorpe’s district and he has voters in the region.“I did a search, looking for any Sedona emails and I didn’t find any,” Thorpe said.
Burges provided several of her emails to the NEWS containing the keywords asked for the public records request, including the email on June 28 that Thorpe wrote and sent to Jernigan containing two of the keyword phrases.
“Then you have something I no longer have,” Thorpe said.
Legislators’ emails are public records under Arizona state law. When asked if Thorpe deleted public records by deleting emails, Thorpe stated, “I looked through my email, I did a search.”
When informed the NEWS had a copy of an email he sent to Jernigan on June 28, Thorpe said, “OK, if you have that email … I did a search, and I didn’t find emails. I did a search for a number of different keywords and I didn’t find it, so I don’t know what to tell you. If you got it, you got it.”
Thorpe then asked if the NEWS had filed a public records request. Thorpe earlier acknowledged he had received the request on July 23, prior to him searching for the keywords the NEWS had requested.
Thorpe redirected the NEWS to file the request again with Arizona House of Representatives Public Records Counsel Justin Riches.
Riches is currently working on providing the material requested from Thorpe and Barton. The NEWS also filed a request for Allen’s emails with the senate public records counsel. A followup story on this issue will be published in a later edition.
