When the fact that members of Tucson Unified School District’s Audit Committee had close familial relationships with District staff, administrators hoped it would go away. After the Arizona Daily Star finally covered the highly questionable situation, administration and some Board members including Adelita Grijalva went into damage control.
Grijalva, it appears, created more damage and now a complaint has been filed with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
On Monday, Board members Michael Hicks and Mark Stegeman advised the Attorney General in a letter that they have concerns that Grijalva has violated Arizona’s Open Meeting laws.
The letter reads:
Today’s Arizona Daily Star (article attached) reports: “[Adelita] Grijalva declined to comment, saying the information that has been revealed regarding the relationships was discussed during executive session and it is illegal under state law to disclose that.”
We are concerned that her disclosure of the discussion that occurred in executive session violates A.R.S. 38-431.03(B). The information disclosed, that the board (allegedly) discussed specific conflicts of interest on the audit committee, could not possibly be inferred from the posted agenda for the meeting (also attached). Obviously we are not here confirming or denying that such a discussion occurred.
The issue is not the disclosure of the fact that one or more members of TUSD’s audit committee have spouses who work for TUSD (the main topic of the article), a fact which has been in the public domain at least since its discussion during September’s public meeting of the audit committee. The issue is today’s new claim (true or not) about what occurred during the executive session discussion on October 20. Though the law draws no distinction between the public and private disclosure of executive session discussions, disclosure to thousands of persons through a direct statement to the media obviously carries the potential for immediate dramatic consequences.
(As an unrelated hypothetical example, the mere fact that board members had mentioned the names of superintendent search firms, in the context of an agendized superintendent evaluation, could have significant consequences even if the names themselves were already in the public domain.)
The ADI reported in April that Sanchez and Grijalva forced watchdog volunteers off of its Audit Committee. Sanchez and Grijalva made the move to end the terms of the more vocal members of the Committee with the excuse that they wanted only residents of the District to serve. They never mentioned that they wanted them in bed District staff.
Dr. Sanchez raised eyebrows at the State Capitol last session when he misrepresented the requirements of the desegregation order in a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee. In that hearing, Sanchez fought efforts by a desegregation plaintiff representative, and other stakeholders, who sought an audit of desegregation funds. For years, those funds have been used inappropriately for regular operating expenses.
After his poor performance before the House Appropriations Committee, Sanchez moved quickly to evict Chairman Jim Lovelace and Member Chuck Kill from TUSD’s Audit Committee. According to sources, Sanchez was furious after Lovelace’s Arizona Daily Star op-ed, Time for TUSD to stop making unforced errors, made its way into legislators’ hands.
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