Title: Armer v. SUPERIOR CT. OF ARIZ., IN & FOR CTY. OF PIMA
Citation: 112 Ariz. 478, 543 P.2d 1107
Docket Number: 12274
State: Arizona
Issuer: Arizona Supreme Court
Date: December 18, 1975

112 Ariz. 478 (1975) 543 P.2d 1107 Walter ARMER and Dan Clarke, Members of the Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Water Conservancy District, Petitioners, v. SUPERIOR COURT OF the State of ARIZONA, IN AND FOR the COUNTY OF PIMA, the Honorable Norman S. Fenton, a Judge thereof, Terry D. Thure, Chairperson of Citizens to Revise Arizona's Water Laws, a nonprofit Arizona corporation, and Barbara Tellman, a member thereof, Respondents. No. 12274. Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc. December 18, 1975. Snell &amp; Wilmer by Mark Wilmer and George H. Lyons, Phoenix, for petitioners. Risner, Wolf &amp; Raven by William J. Risner, Tucson for respondents. Dennis DeConcini, Pima County Atty., Tucson, Moise Berger, Maricopa County Atty. by David B. Krom, Deputy County Atty., Phoenix, for amicus curiae. *479 CAMERON, Chief Justice. This is a petition for special action by Walter Armer and Dan Clarke, members of the Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD). We accepted jurisdiction because the question is one of statewide importance and because there was no adequate remedy by way of appeal. We must answer two questions: The facts are not in dispute. Petitioners are members of the board of directors of a multi-county water conservation district who have not filed financial disclosure statements pursuant to either the Arizona disclosure statute, A.R.S. § 38-542, or the Pima County disclosure ordinance, Pima County Ordinance No. 1975-1, enacted pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-545. Respondents Thure and Tellman are, respectively, Chairperson and member of Citizens to Revise Arizona's Water Laws, a non-profit Arizona corporation. They brought an action in the Pima County Superior Court seeking an order requiring that respondents Armer and Clarke, who are residents of and were elected from Pima County, file disclosure statements under Pima County Ordinance No. 1975-1. The trial judge issued an order to show cause why the petitioners herein should not be required forthwith to file financial disclosure statements. Petitioners then filed a motion to dismiss and to quash the order to show cause, which motion was denied by a minute entry dated 24 July 1975. Petitioners filed the present action in this court asserting that the trial court acted arbitrarily and abused its discretion in denying the motion to dismiss. STANDING Petitioners, relying upon a number of United States Supreme Court cases, argue that the respondents Thure and Tellman lacked standing to bring an action to enforce the Pima County financial disclosure ordinance. Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War, 418 U.S. 208, 94 S. Ct. 2925, 41 L. Ed. 2d 706 (1975); Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S. Ct. 691, 7 L. Ed. 2d 663 (1962); Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1, 92 S. Ct. 2318, 33 L. Ed. 2d 154 (1972); O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 94 S. Ct. 669, 38 L. Ed. 2d 674 (1974); Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 92 S. Ct. 1361, 31 L. Ed. 2d 636 (1972); Association of Data Processing Service Org., Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S. Ct. 827, 25 L. Ed. 2d 184 (1970); Barlow v. Collins, 397 U.S. 159, 90 S. Ct. 832, 25 L. Ed. 2d 192 (1970); and United States v. Students Chal. Reg. Agcy. Pro. (SCRAP), 412 U.S. 669, 93 S. Ct. 2405, 37 L. Ed. 2d 254 (1973). We do not believe, however, that those cases are controlling in the instant action in the Arizona courts. The question for this court is whether, as a matter of Arizona law, respondents had standing in the trial court to bring a special action in the nature of a mandamus. By Rules 1 and 2 of the Rules of Procedure for Special Actions, 17A A.R.S., special actions are substituted for mandamus and other extraordinary writs. Our statute provides as follows: And we have stated in construing § 28-201, A.C.A. 1939, the predecessor section of A.R.S. § 12-2021: Respondents Thure and Tellman are assertedly citizens and taxpayers of Pima County which county is part of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District. We believe they are beneficially interested in having the petitioners comply with the law on financial disclosure. See also People ex rel. Baird v. Bd. of Supervisors of Kings County, 138 N.Y. 95, 33 N.E. 827 (1893); Hollman v. Warren, 32 Cal. 2d 351, 196 P.2d 562 (1948); 52 Am.Jur.2d Mandamus § 389; contra, Young v. Regents of University of Kansas, 87 Kan. 239, 124 P. 150 (1912); Davidson v. Council of City of Beaver Falls, 348 Pa. 207, 34 A.2d 505 (1943), overruled on other grounds, Dombrowski v. City of Philadelphia, 431 Pa. 199, 245 A.2d 238 (1968). If the petitioners, as members of the board, are in fact required by law to make a financial disclosure and have refused to do so, respondents, as members of the public for whose benefit the financial disclosure law was enacted, have standing to bring an action in the nature of mandamus to require disclosure. PETITIONERS' DUTY TO FILE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS For the purpose of requiring public officers to file financial disclosure statements, our statute defines public officers and local public officers as follows: And: By statute, a "multi-county water conservation district" is "a district composed of three or more counties which have joined together for the creation of a district." A.R.S. § 45-2601. The statute further provides: Petitioners are not state public officers for the purpose of financial disclosure since they are not members of the legislature, a judge of the Court of Appeals, or officers whose constituency embraces the entire State. It is interesting to note in this regard the members of the Court of Appeals who are members of a multi-county district but who are elected from one or more counties within that multi-county district, A.R.S. §§ 12-120, 120.01 and 120.02, were specifically included while petitioners' district was not. Neither are petitioners local public officers since they do not hold "an elective office of an incorporated city, town or county." A.R.S. § 38-541. Even though they are elected from a particular county, they still represent a three-county constituency. Therefore, Pima County Ordinance No. 1975-1, as enacted pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-545, does not require members of a multi-county water conservation district to file a financial disclosure statement with the county. The legislature may require the officers of a multi-county district to file financial disclosure statements, but it cannot delegate to a county the power to require members of a board of directors of a multi-county district to do so. Petitioners do not hold an office of Pima County and are not subject to the Pima County Ordinance No. 1975-1. Upon issuance of the mandate herein the matter is ordered returned to the trial court with instructions to dismiss the petition of the respondents herein. STRUCKMEYER, V.C.J., and HAYS, HOLOHAN, and GORDON, JJ., concur.