Pima County officials gave a Phoenix-based, free-market oriented think tank public records about potential tax incentives for Monsanto even as they refused to release similar records to the Arizona Daily Star.
The county gave the conservative Goldwater Institute two batches of Monsanto-related records in late September and late October, after refusing to provide similar records to the Star in late August. The Star only got those records last week, after learning that the institute had them and complaining to county officials about unequal treatment under the state public-records law.
A county spokesman, Mark Evans, said Thursday that the release to Goldwater was a “grievous error,” based on differences in how the institute and the Star filed their respective requests.
At the same time, however, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry insisted that the paper and the institute weren’t treated differently. He said he wasn’t aware of the Star’s request for a long time because it hadn’t been sent through the county’s standard public-records request portal run by the clerk of the Board of Supervisors; instead, it was emailed to Evans.
The county’s actions highlight a dispute over transparency about its Monsanto negotiations and other economic development efforts. It’s been criticized by Supervisor Ally Miller and by the Goldwater Institute for failing to provide information on pending tax incentive deals early enough.
County officials have said that they’re happy to give such information to supervisors upon request, but that they’re constrained from releasing such information to the public by nondisclosure agreements they sign with prospective employers.
RECORDS DISPUTE DATES TO AUGUST
In mid-August, the Star requested “all records you have on this pending (Monsanto) operation” from county officials.
Evans told the Star at the time that “it is in the best interest of the county to not release those records at this time as their disclosure may do serious harm to the county’s economic development efforts.”
However, in a Sept. 2 memo obtained by the Star, Huckelberry wrote that the Goldwater Institute, which is suing the county over an economic development deal with the near-space balloon company World View Enterprises, had requested and been provided “all of our files associated” with the Monsanto deal.
Huckelberry wrote of Goldwater’s request: “Their actions indicate a targeted attack on our economic development missions, while they ignore the same types of missions by Mesa, Scottsdale, Phoenix and Glendale in Maricopa County.”
Last week, Huckelberry called the suggestion “ridiculous” that the Star had been treated differently from Goldwater. “They were treated the same,” he said.
Asked how he didn’t know about the earlier denial of records to the Star when it had been reported in a newspaper article in August, Huckelberry said he didn’t remember the article. He said it wouldn’t have made a difference “because our public records policy require(s) all to go through the clerk to be numbered and tracked.”
Evans said he had assumed both the institute and the Star’s public-records requests would be denied.
COUNTY ACCUSED OF SHORT NOTICE
Supervisor Miller has criticized the “short notice” that supervisors receive before being asked to approve such deals, as has Goldwater.
“Let’s see how many days notice we get on this deal before it is served up for a rubber stamp!” Miller wrote in an Oct. 11 Facebook post following the publication of articles in the Star about the Monsanto package.
“Disgusting that I am hearing about this in the media as a county administrator does the deal in the dark of night.”
Five days later she clarified her position on Facebook, saying she didn’t “have enough information to be for or against this proposal,” but was concerned about lack of disclosure.
But Huckelberry said he would have provided detailed information on the negotiations with Monsanto to any supervisor as far back as March, when discussions began. In a pointed, Oct. 21 memo to Miller, Huckelberry wrote that, “Your failure to request the information should not be deemed a failure on my part to provide it.”
“I would be happy to make available to you any and all information the County has with regard to the Monsanto proposal,” he added.
Jim Manley, lead attorney with Goldwater, said the public “deserves to know well in advance what the county is proposing to give away — because the county is giving away the public’s money.”
Huckelberry said keeping the public apprised of negotiations would present a stark choice for the county, given that such negotiations with private companies are protected by nondisclosure agreements.
If the county doesn’t agree to nondisclosure, the companies won’t negotiate, he said.
