Opinion ID: 1280889
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Is Possession a Nexus Between the Treasurer's Office and the Check Distribution List?

Text: The federal courts have uniformly held that an agency must control a record before it is subject to disclosure under the FOIA. See, e.g., United States Dep't of Justice v. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. 136, 145-46, 109 S.Ct. 2841, 2847-48, 106 L.Ed.2d 112 (1989); Kissinger, 445 U.S. at 151-52, 100 S.Ct. at 969; Wolfe v. Department of Health & Human Servs., 711 F.2d 1077, 1079-80 (D.C. Cir.1983); National Sec. Archive v. Executive Office of the President, 688 F. Supp. 29, 32 (D.D.C. 1988), aff'd, 909 F.2d 541 (D.C. Cir.1990) (agency to whom FOIA request is directed must generally have exclusive control of the disputed documents). When one agency transfers the document to another, the receiving agency must also exert control over the document before disclosure can be compelled. See Ciba-Geigy, 428 F. Supp. at 532 (analysis of control remains the critical inquiry when there has been a transfer of the records in question.). The control test is helpful in analyzing our statute, which also exempts private information from disclosure even when it is held by a government agency. An agency has control over the documents when they have come into the agency's possession in the legitimate conduct of its official duties. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. at 145, 109 S.Ct. at 2848. Thus, mere physical possession is not sufficient to impart control. Kissinger, 445 U.S. at 151, 100 S.Ct. at 969. In Kissinger, the Court considered whether certain notes of Kissinger's private telephone conversations, which were taken to his office at the State Department, were agency records by virtue of the fact that they were located in the offices of a government agency. The Court concluded: We simply decline to hold that the physical location of the notes of telephone conversations renders them agency records. The papers were not in the control of the State Department at any time. They were not generated in the State Department. They never entered the State Department's files and they were not used by the Department for any purpose. If mere physical location of papers and materials could confer status as an agency record Kissinger's personal books, speeches, and all other memorabilia stored in his office would have been agency records subject to disclosure under the FOIA. 445 U.S. at 157, 100 S.Ct. at 972 (citing Forsham, 445 U.S. 169, 100 S.Ct. 977). In Kissinger, the Court found that the agency did not have the requisite control because it neither generated the document nor used the document for an agency purpose. Id.; see also Tax Analysts v. United States Dep't of Justice, 845 F.2d 1060, 1068 (D.C. Cir.1988), aff'd, 492 U.S. 136, 109 S.Ct. 2841, 106 L.Ed.2d 112 (1989) (Agencies must use or rely on the document to perform business, and integrate it into their files, before it may be deemed an `agency record.'). As we have noted above, the record in this case does not show that the treasurer generated the list or used it in the course of his official duties. An agency's mere possession of private information does not make that information subject to disclosure under A.R.S. § 39-121.