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

Heading: The Effect of Expenditure of State Funds to Generate the Check Distribution List.

Text: Phoenix Newspapers claims, finally, that because ADOT paid its consultant to create the computer program used to determine the monetary amounts due the Indian landowners, the check distribution list is subject to disclosure. The argument is that because state funds were expended to assist in the disbursement of funds, the public has an interest in all aspects of the disbursement. The Community admits that [a]lthough the distribution of the ADOT payment to allotted landowners was a duty of the United States, ADOT contributed services to facilitate and hasten the process. Particularly, ADOT developed a computer program to calculate the amounts to be paid to each allotted landowner. Petition at 4. As we noted in Carlson, the 1975 amendments to the public records law broadened the category of matters to which the public right of inspection applies. 141 Ariz. at 489, 687 P.2d at 1244. A.R.S. § 39-121.01(B) requires public officers to maintain all records reasonably necessary or appropriate to maintain an accurate knowledge of their official activities and of any of their activities which are supported by funds from the state or any political subdivision thereof. Id. (citing § 39-121.01(B)). Thus, Phoenix Newspapers argues, the check distribution list must be disclosed because it is held by the treasurer to maintain an accurate knowledge of ADOT's expenditure of state funds. We find this argument unpersuasive. ADOT was required to pay fair value for the parcels within the freeway right-of-way. Fair value is a function of the size and location of the land parcels involved; the allottees' names were irrelevant to the determination. The list is neither a record maintained by a public officer nor a record of or pertaining to a public officer's activities. While records pertaining to the expenditure of state funds to purchase private property qualify as other matters, this does not mean that the seller's private records pertaining to his use of the funds paid by the state come within the public records law just because a copy inexplicably turns up in the hands of a public officer. Nor do we believe that state funding for the private computer program put the program in the public domain. We have found no case under a state public records statute that addresses the effect of funding on the status of a record. We therefore turn for guidance to federal cases that have considered the analogous issue under the FOIA. See Church of Scientology, 122 Ariz. at 340, 594 P.2d at 1036 (FOIA offers some guidance to Arizona courts in construing Arizona public records statute). In Forsham v. Harris, a private group of physicians and scientists developed data while conducting studies of diabetes treatment. 445 U.S. 169, 171, 100 S.Ct. 977, 980, 63 L.Ed.2d 293 (1980). The research was funded by a federal agency that also had authority to obtain the data. The data formed the basis of published reports that the Food and Drug Administration relied on in taking certain actions. The issue was whether federal funding in conjunction with the federal right of access rendered the data an agency record for purposes of the FOIA. The Supreme Court held that these facts were not sufficient to create an agency record because the federal agency did not control the documents. Id. at 182, 100 S.Ct. at 985; see also Ciba-Geigy Corp. v. Mathews, 428 F. Supp. 523, 532 (S.D.N.Y. 1977) (Because there has not been an adequate showing that the underlying [substantially federally-funded] data of the researchers was directly controlled or substantially utilized by a government agency in the performance of governmental operations, the records cannot be deemed `agency records' for purposes of disclosure under the FOIA.). Of course, Forsham and Ciba-Geigy were decided under the FOIA, not under the Arizona statute. However both the FOIA and our statute seek to make government agencies accountable to the public by giving the public a right of access to records concerning an agency's activities. Conversely, the public has no right of access to private records located in government offices that have no relation to the agency's activities. To the contrary, as the United States Supreme Court has commented: the FOIA's central purpose is to ensure that the Government's activities be opened to the sharp eye of public scrutiny, not that information about private citizens that happens to be in the warehouse of the Government be so disclosed. United States Dep't of Justice v. Reporters Comm. for Freedom of Press, 489 U.S. 749, 774, 109 S.Ct. 1468, 1482, 103 L.Ed.2d 774 (1989); cf. Industrial Comm'n v. Holohan, 97 Ariz. 122, 126, 397 P.2d 624, 627 (1964) (information in Commission's file that is not collected to serve as a memorial of an official transaction or for the dissemination of information is private ... [and] is protected from the prying of unauthorized individuals to the same extent as the records of a private person). The above cases establish that the public does not have a right to demand access unless the record has a substantial nexus to the agency's activities. We must therefore determine whether there is a nexus between the treasurer's office and the check distribution list.