PHOENIX — The Arizona Corporation Commission voted unanimously this week to redact references to a fired employee from a public meeting’s transcript and video, the Arizona Mirror reported.
Commissioners had debated the executive director’s authority after ACC Executive Director Doug Clark fired Laurie Woodall, Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson’s policy adviser, without notifying her.
General counsel Tom Van Flein told commissioners the discussion was a personnel matter that should have been held in executive session. “That’s the reason why we probably should’ve gone into executive session,” Commissioner Kevin Thompson replied. At Van Flein’s urging, the panel voted to treat references to Woodall as private and remove them.
First Amendment attorney David Bodney told the Mirror the move “flies in the face” of Arizona’s open meeting laws. He said redacting after the information was already discussed publicly would seem “too little, too late.”
Arizona’s open meeting law requires public bodies to conduct business in public view in nearly all situations.
Sources: Arizona Mirror. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Unknown / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
