Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission Update

Here is the latest news on the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.

Last night the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission met in Glendale to discuss the latest machinations to redraw the multitude of new voter districts as mandated by the Constitution.

During that meeting, the commission went into an open legal briefing to discuss how the commission should handle a recently-launched investigation by Arizona Attorney General, Tom Horne.

Horne has taken an interest in the commission’s proceedings after public outrage occurred when and how the commission chose a Democrat-friendly mapping firm to redraw Arizona’s district lines. At question is how the commission arrived at its decision during executive session meetings and what information was used. For several weeks, citizen activists have sought information about the commission’s proceedings behind closed doors and how Strategic Telemetry was chosen without any public input. Public records requests have also revealed that some of the information has gone missing.

Yesterday, Arizona Capitol Times covered the meeting with primary coverage dedicated to the commission’s response to AG Horne’s investigation.

CapTimes  reporter, Christian Palmer writes the following:

Democratic Commissioner Jose Herrera said he had no intention of answering questions from the Attorney General’s Office, which he accused of waging a partisan investigation on the public dime that unfairly targets unpaid commission members.

“It shouldn’t be this way, where we have politicians trying to intimidate us,” said Herrera, who urged at the IRC meeting that fellow commission members resist Horne’s investigation.

and later in the article,

During the meeting today, Kanefield informed the commission that Horne’s office is legally entitled and entrusted with investigating potential violations of open meeting laws, and as such has already been given written transcripts of the commission’s executive sessions.

Written transcripts, he said, could be used to pursue an investigation into possible violations of open meetings laws, while it remained uncertain whether the documents could serve a parallel purpose of pursuing an investigation of possible procurement violations.

That revelation prompted Herrera to declare that the Attorney General’s Office “should respect that we have legislative immunity” and that the prospect of involving partisan politicians in commission dealings was “sad.”

“I hope you protect us. That’s what you’re paid for,” Herrera said, speaking to IRC attorneys.

During the open legal briefing, the commissioner’s attorneys informed commission members that Arizona law extends commission members “legislative privilege” protecting them from being forced to disclose information used in any decision making process during executive sessions.

However, in an earlier Arizona legal case, Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission v. Fields, the court ruled that the commission could protect information related to the actual process of crafting the district boundaries. The commission’s attorneys did not answer the question of whether the commission’s recent administrative actions – of actually choosing the firm Strategic Telemetry – would be protected under legislative privilege rather than under normal administrative actions and thus, under Arizona’s Open Meeting law.

At the hearing, both Democratic commission members, Jose Herrera and Linda McNulty appeared defensive and concerned about the AG’s investigation while both Republicans on the commission, Scott Freeman and Richard Stertz were willing to cooperate with the AG’s office.

The next meeting of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission will take place on Friday, August 5th at 6 PM at the Burton Barr Central Library in the Pulliam Auditorium.