Governing Board Issues
Public Records Policy

Nearly every public institution in Arizona is subject to the State's laws regarding public records. In effect, those laws hold that most of the records a public entity (such a community college district) creates are public.

This means that those records are usually accessible to the public. This includes not only those records that the law expressly requires the public agency to produce, but also those that (in the words of the Arizona courts) "are not required by law to be filed as public records, but which relate to matters essential to the general welfare of taxpayers."

Public records laws in Arizona are based principally upon holdings of State courts as to particular varieties of records. This fact often makes it an open question as to whether the many kinds of records that those holdings do not address are in fact public.

Consequently, the Maricopa Community College District Governing Board last fall enacted a policy regarding public records maintained at the colleges and District office.

The policy defines a "public record" as "any record, either paper or electronic, made by a public officer (including members of the Governing Board, faculty, staff and administrators) and kept as a memorial of an official transaction."

Accordingly, under the policy, records which the law does not "exempt from disclosure will be made available for public access for inspection." Moreover, those records may be made available for copying as well. In accordance with the state's public records laws, however, a reasonable fee may be charged for copying.

One of the more notable vagaries of Arizona's public records laws is the public record status of personnel files. The courts have addressed particular kinds of employment information a public employer might maintain about its employees.

For example, Arizona law currently deems public employees' dates of birth to be exempt from disclosure. As to most other kinds of records regarding its employees, however, the typical public agency is left to its own devices to determine whether those records are indeed public.

The new Board policy attempts to resolve the issue as to Maricopa employees. In response to a public records request to review an employee's personnel file, the policy "establishes that only the following information be disclosed regarding present or former employees:

1. Name
2. Titles or positions (including academic degrees and honors received)
3. Fact of past or present employment
4. Dates of employment
5. Salaries or rates of pay
6. Name of employee's current or last known supervisor."

The policy provides an emergency access provision as well. Such access may be given "in compelling circumstances affecting the immediate health or safety of the individual or others."

While the new policy provides specifics as to personnel files, it also directs the Chancellor to "establish administrative regulations that are necessary to outline the appropriate procedures and fees related to the inspection and production of public records."

For more information on State laws regarding access to records, as well as the complete text of the new Governing Board policy, visit the Office of General Counsel's website at www.dist.maricopa.edu/legal and click "Public Records."

Published in the Winter 2004 Edition of In Brief