House committee OKs changes to public records laws

PHOENIX — State lawmakers are moving to throw new roadblocks in the path of at least some people who want public records.

On a 6-2 vote the House Committee on Government and Higher Education approved a measure that would allow government agencies and employees to reject a request if it is “unduly burdensome or harassing.”

But SB 1282 does not define exactly what that is. And that worried several lawmakers who fear it could be used as a way to spurn legitimate requests.

“I’m just worried who’s going to make the judgment call that it’s unduly burdensome or harassing,” said Rep. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert. “If that’s the town or the government agency, I think they can just start saying, ‘This is all unduly burdensome.’ ”

And Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, cited a controversy several years ago in Quartzsite.

“They had a police chief and people working at the city that were very obstructionist,” she said.

But Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who is sponsoring the legislation, said this is aimed at a small percentage of people who he said abuse the state’s public records law, going on “fishing” expeditions, asking for large numbers of documents and, sometimes, not even picking them up.

Part of the problem, he explained, is technology.

Kavanagh said at one time public records requests were self-limiting.

He said it used to be that records were produced on paper. The 25-cent-a-page charge, Kavanagh said, tended to force people to keep their requests narrow.

“Now it all goes on a CD and all you can charge is $5,” he said.

“But that is not the real cost to the government entity,” Kavanagh said. He said there’s the time not only gathering the documents but having an attorney or other staffer go through to remove confidential information.

“This can run into thousands of dollars,” he said.

Lawmakers said they had no problem with the part of Kavanagh’s legislation that requires people seeking documents to identify what they want “with reasonable particularity.” But Petersen said he fears the broad authority being given to public officials to decide what is harassing.

“Part of being in government is we have to deal with some things we don’t want to deal with sometimes,” he said.

Kavanagh said there already is a built-in protection in the law.

It allows those who believe they have been denied access to sue. More to the point, if the person seeking the records prevails a court can order the government agency to pay all the legal fees and other costs.

Steve Moore, the Yuma city attorney, said this is not some academic problem.

“We have two individuals that comprise 70 percent of all the public records requests we receive in a year,” he told lawmakers.

The legislation has the support of the Arizona Newspapers Association, which traditionally fights any move to tighten up on the statute.

Media lawyers have said the language appears to reflect the standards that courts already use in determining whether to uphold a decision by a public agency to deny access to records.