Corporation Commission Voted to Scrub Its Own Tape. Its Lawyer Now Says the Vote Was Never Properly Noticed.

On Oct. 7, the Arizona Corporation Commission debated a firing in public, then voted unanimously to remove it from the public record. Fifteen days later, it voted to put it back.

The Oct. 7 meeting was about whether Executive Director Doug Clark had the authority to fire Laurie Woodall, policy adviser to Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson, for alleged insubordination. Márquez Peterson said she had not been consulted.

General Counsel Tom Van Flein told commissioners the discussion did not belong in public. "It's a personnel matter. It shouldn't be part of an open meeting," he said. On his recommendation, the Commission voted to strike Woodall's name from the minutes and the video, along with hypotheticals commissioners had used to discuss the director's firing power. Asked about his authority to do that, Van Flein said: "We're kind of in a gray area here. It's appropriate if the three of you say it is."

The Commission pointed to a state personnel rule, R2-5A-105. The Arizona Mirror reported that the same rule allows an employee's name to be released through a public records request. The names of commissioners' policy advisers are also listed on the Commission's own website.

First Amendment attorney David Bodney said: "One is hard-pressed to imagine a rationale for redacting Laurie Woodall's name and her 'situation' from 'the record.'"

Autumn Johnson filed an Open Meeting Law complaint with the Attorney General's Office. It challenged the vote to scrub the record and argued that the agenda, which listed only statute numbers, never told the public what would be discussed.

On Oct. 9, Chair Nick Myers asked Attorney General Kris Mayes for a formal opinion on Clark's authority. That request did not become public until Oct. 20. Commissioner Rachel Walden said she learned of the Open Meeting Law complaint from news reports, and she told Van Flein: "You don't report to the chair."

On Oct. 22, the Commission voted unanimously to deny any redactions to the Oct. 7 recording. Van Flein said neither of the Oct. 7 votes had been properly noticed under the Open Meeting Law. "The recording available to the public on azcc.gov does not contain any redactions or edits," Commission spokesperson Nicole Garcia said.

The Commission also voted 4-0, with Myers abstaining, to hire outside counsel to analyze the executive director's power to discipline and fire commissioners' staff. The firm will be chosen at a future meeting. Mayes' office has said it hopes to weigh in within 90 days.

The tape is back. The question of who can fire a commissioner's staff, and who gets told, is still open.

This story is based on the Commission's Oct. 7 and Oct. 22 meetings as reported by KJZZ, the Arizona Mirror and Arizona Capitol Times, and on written answers from Commission spokesperson Nicole Garcia. We have not confirmed whether any part of the Oct. 7 recording was ever withheld from azcc.gov between the two votes. We asked the Commission, and that question is unanswered, as are questions about what legal authority it relied on and whether the Attorney General's office has contacted it. If you have records from either meeting, we want to see them.