Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) now posts the names of individuals online who submitted records requests, and redacts staff members’ names in response to requests. SUSD will anonymize its employees’ words and actions, but it will ensure that the public is aware of who is looking into the district and how.
SUSD board candidate Amy Carney accused SUSD of intimidating individuals seeking information from the district.
“They don’t want parents or community members asking questions and they will now out you if you do,” wrote Carney.
Beginning July 1, SUSD began publishing a list of record requests including the name of the requester, the request, and the status of the request’s fulfillment. AZ Free News obtained emails associated with this update, as well as SUSD’s separate decision to redact staff names.
One parent emailed SUSD to request that it comply fully with an open records request by not redacting staff names. SUSD general counsel Lori Bird responded that they wouldn’t. She explained that the district decided to redact all staff names due to media attention.
“The District has a strong interest in maintaining a safe and secure environment for its employees including, to the extent possible, not creating situations where staff members are harassed and threatened either through social, digital or print media,” wrote Bird. “In the last few months specific staff have experienced unfounded accusations of child sexual abuse and ‘grooming’ and have been threatened and harassed utilizing their work contact information and also on social media platforms. Concerns regarding the safety of employees are taken seriously by the District.” (emphasis added)
AZ Free News has been one of the outlets to report frequently on SUSD and the controversial fruits of its records requests. Most recently last month, SUSD unintentionally provided a parent with blank patient intake forms for a Phoenix hormone and gender transition facility. The records request concerned a high school librarian and Gender & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) Club.
Earlier last month, SUSD made headlines again for the content of its social justice programming, “Unitown.” Parents and community members were divided on the curriculum, part of which included a sexual orientation exercise that challenged minors on their heterosexuality and asked about their sexual behaviors, such as whether it was possible they’d consider a homosexual lifestyle if they experienced “a good gay/lesbian lover.”
In May, SUSD came under fire again after its superintendent, Scott Menzel, defended a staff member for discussing gender ideology with kindergarten and elementary students. Menzel accused parents of Civil Rights violations.
Menzel previously defended staff members who encouraged childhood exploration of gender and sexual identity through GSA clubs.
In April, SUSD’s social justice professionals promoted drag queen storytime.
Last December, AZ Free News reported on SUSD allowing students to replace their legal birth names with preferred names to align with their desired gender identity.
Last March, an SUSD middle school principal required teachers to attend a training supporting and affirming LGBTQ+ ideologies in children.
SUSD is currently facing a lawsuit from Attorney General Mark Brnovich over its retention of Jann-Michael Greenburg as a governing board member. Brnovich contended that Greenburg shouldn’t remain on the board due to his alleged circumvention of Arizona’s Open Meeting Law.
Today, our office filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Jann-Michael Greenburg from the Scottsdale Unified School Board.
Parents should never be silenced regarding the education of their children. https://t.co/iIrJPn2kBm
A separate controversy involving Greenburg accrued international headlines, after a dossier on SUSD parents and community members compiled by his father, Mark Greenburg, was discovered. The elder Greenburg sued one mother, Amanda Wray, for publicizing the dossier, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Last month, a district court judge denied Wray’s anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A candidate for Maricopa County Attorney has retracted a comment she made last week which provided incorrect information that could lead to voter confusion during the current 2022 primary election.
Gina Godbehere is running on the Aug. 2 Republican primary election ballot against interim County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. And with Maricopa County’s election process under intense scrutiny since late 2020, voters cannot be blamed for presuming candidates have taken the time to get a good grasp on election procedures.
But Godbehere, an attorney and former prosecutor, raised eyebrows July 7 with a campaign newsletter which included a “note of caution” to voters on the county’s Active Early Voting List (AEVL).
The AEVL allows voters to receive their primary ballot by mail. Once completed, the ballot can be returned by postage-prepaid mail, placement in an official drop box, hand delivery to the county recorder’s office, or dropping it off at one Maricopa County’s 200+ voting centers.
The completed ballots must be received by the county recorder by 7 p.m. on Aug. 2, regardless of which return option is chosen.
Godbehere’s newsletter, however, incorrectly described what happens if a voter waits until Aug. 2 “to walk your early ballot into a voting center” and drop it off in a ballot box. In that situation, Godbehere claimed AEVL voters will have their ballot deemed “provisional” which she said meant the ballot would be “counted last” 7 to 10 days after the election.
Various election officials told AZ Free News there is nothing in Arizona law or the state’s Elections Procedures Manual referring to any dropped off ballot as provisional. In fact, the term provisional only applies to ballots cast in-person under specific circumstances.
On Monday, Godbehere’s campaign issued a statement admitting the mistake.
“These ballots are not provisional, but regular ballots,” the statement reads. “We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”
Maricopa County voters with questions about the election process can call 602-506-1511 or email voterinfo@risc.maricopa.gov
Godbehere and Mitchell are vying to be the Republican who takes on Democrat Julie Gunnigle in a Nov. 8 special election to serve out the remainder of former County Attorney Allister Adel’s term through the end of 2024.
Adel resigned under pressure in March and died the next month.
Last month, Liberty Unified School District (LUSD) outsourced its superintendency oversight to a staffing agency through a “retire/rehire” arrangement. In a divided 3-2 vote, the LUSD governing board allowed their superintendent, Lori Shough, to retire and then be rehired to the district through the staffing agency, Education Services Incorporated (ESI). ESI provides a workaround to state law, enabling Shough to draw from the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) while still working for the district full time.
The LUSD board held discussions on the ESI arrangement in an executive session last month, out of public view, for about two hours. Shough has worked in the Arizona school system for 24 years.
The arrangement is part of ESI’s “RetireRehire” program. The agency claimed that program members make more money in their profession without impacting the state’s retirement benefits. Shough won’t have to pay any fees for administering — but LUSD will.
“For many people, it’s like getting a raise,” stated ESI.
Under IRS guidelines, state law requires anyone who retires from ASRS but continues to work for their ASRS-providing employer to either limit their work to 20 hours for 20 weeks or less per year, or stay out of ASRS work for 12 consecutive months.
In an informational video about RetireRehire, ESI asserted that it began because of the ASRS rules, or separation of service requirement.
LUSD board members Michael Todd and Bryan Parks objected to the arrangement, arguing that it allowed Shough to “double dip” her retirement. In a press release, the pair argued that neither Arizona law or district policy allow school boards to outsource its authority to staffing agencies.
Parks expressed concern that Shough signed the ESI staffing agreement as both a worker and client, which he insisted removed the governing board’s control over the employment, direction, supervision, evaluation, compensation, discipline, and discharge of the superintendency.
“The whole scheme needs to be reviewed by the county attorney or the attorney general’s office,” said Parks. “Why should board members put in this effort and spend countless hours of time just to have schemes like this subject us all to personal liability? Who is going to be willing to volunteer as a board member when school districts do such things?”
As of last October, ESI reported working with over 1,500 retirees across 140 school districts, colleges, and government institutions in Arizona through its RetireRehire program.
The board, in another divided 3-2 vote, also approved confidentiality agreements for all ESI employees placed at LUSD. The board also agreed to a 75 percent performance pay compensation for Shough.
LUSD was also the first school district to have a transgender woman on its governing board. That member, a man named Paul Bixler who believes he is a transgender woman, argued against parents’ rights to their children’s information during House Education Committee discussions in the most recent legislative session.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Unintended mistakes happen in our daily lives, in the workplace, and even in government. But one thing Arizonans dislike is when bureaucracy tries to shut up someone who wants answers to why a mistake isn’t being addressed.
Such is the situation for Tiffany Shedd, a longtime Pinal County resident and candidate for Arizona Attorney General who could not get a straight answer for why the new county-issued voter ID cards listed her and her family’s address as Casa Grande instead of Eloy.
A deputy county attorney recently told Shedd she could no longer contact county elections officials about the problem. And now county officials have admitted that the voter ID card problem was just the tip of the iceberg.
Shedd spoke with AZ Free News about her experience and her frustration that the county has now acknowledged it sent about 63,000 voters in some Pinal County cities and towns incomplete ballots due to issues with precinct address coding.
And an undisclosed number of voters in unincorporated areas of the county community received ballots listing municipal races the voters are not eligible to cast a vote for.
“This is an absolute disaster which is not a Republican or Democrat issue, this hurts everyone,” Shedd says. “It is a huge problem to receive a ballot for an election that we are not qualified to vote in, and to be denied the opportunity to vote in your own city’s elections Is it any wonder people are questioning whether our elections are free and fair?”
For Shedd, concerns about the 2022 Primary Election started several weeks ago with the receipt of their voter ID cards.
“My family and I have been trying to get our address corrected for weeks after we noticed our town was changed on our voter ID cards from Eloy to Casa Grande,” said Shedd, adding that she was concerned their ballots would be challenged due to the incorrect address issue.
However, she says the Pinal County Recorder’s Office “was hostile” toward her queries and then a deputy county attorney told Shedd to stop calling election officials about the discrepancy.
“We didn’t swear, we weren’t disrespectful, but we were pushy because we knew this was going to create problems,” Shedd said. “Our driver’s licenses don’t match our voter ID cards and it was unacceptable to me that any elections official thought it was okay that we might be forced to cast a provisional ballot.”
Just as bad, says Shedd, is the fact county officials provided contradictory excuses for why no one would change their address back to Eloy. Among the excuses were that the County Assessor changed their legal address, that the Arizona Secretary of State did it, and that redistricting altered their property address.
One of the most head-scratching reasons given was that 9-1-1- services were somehow responsible for changing their voter registration data, Shedd said.
The deputy county attorney who told Shedd to stop her inquiries also told her not to worry about the address issue because the family would receive the correct ballots. Shedd responded by filing an online complaint with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
“The election integrity unit did take it seriously and was helpful within the bounds of what legal powers they have,” Shedd said, although she fears nothing will come of any investigation given the fact the AGO has no civil subpoena power in such cases.
Shedd also complained to the Arizona Republican Party and the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office before hiring a private attorney to represent her family in the event Pinal County interferes with their ability to vote. (Shedd intends to vote in-person next week.)
Then on Friday, Shedd’s frustration turned to disbelief when her son received a ballot which included the Casa Grande City Council race even though the family home is not within the city limits. She soon learned thousands of voters in Apache Junction, Casa Grande, Eloy, Mammoth, Maricopa, Queen Creek, and Superior got ballots without the municipal races.
Pinal County spokesman James Daniels blamed the ballot problem on human errors.
However, Shedd wonders whether election officials could have caught the ballot issue weeks ago if someone had taken the time to research how or why the voter registration system changed people’s addresses.
For weeks I have been raising the alarm about the wrong address on voter registrations and it’s effect on the primary. After being ignored we now have a huge mess! #Elections2022pic.twitter.com/SRo5ANzokp
Shedd also told AZ Free News she is concerned with the loss of confidence citizens will have in the local elections process, especially for concerned voters like her who hit a brick wall trying to address their incorrect voter registration data.
“How many people who aren’t an attorney or running for attorney general called someone at Pinal County to report address issues but were dismissed?” Shedd asks. “Election integrity cannot just be a talking point to get elected or raise money. It is the basis of our Republic.”
Pinal County in agreement with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office will send supplemental ballots to those 63,000 or so voters whose original ballots were missing one or more municipal races. But the new ballot will only list the missing races, so voters must also use their original ballot for all the federal, state, and legislative contests.
In the meantime, voters in unincorporated areas of the county who have municipal races included on their ballots should complete the portions for the federal, state, and legislative contests. They can simply ignore the municipal races, but Daniels says even if someone casts a vote for one of those races the tabulation system will not count anything from illegible voters.
The Tucson-based Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom canceled their Thursday filing appointment with the secretary of state’s office to put a constitutional right to abortion on November’s ballot after collecting less than half of the signatures required. That might explain why the abortion rights group never responded to our June 20 press inquiry on their signature-gathering progress.
In a tweeted statement, Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom insisted that they hadn’t failed. They also compared their effort to a Michigan campaign that qualified for the November ballot this week. The group touted that its signature-gathering pace far exceeded that of the Michigan campaign, which began two years ago.
However, the Michigan ballot measure in question doesn’t concern abortion at all — it concerns term limit requirements for state legislators and financial disclosure requirements for state executive and legislative officials.
While we did not meet the signature requirements to be on the next ballot election, this is far from a failure. The incredible engagement from business and volunteers all over AZ has shown that it is inevitable before the people of Arizona collectively take back our rights. pic.twitter.com/v4jBDGJWxU
— Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom (@azreprofreedom) July 7, 2022
The group pledged that they would be continuing their efforts to ensure a 2024 ballot measure.
The abortion rights group first launched their effort in late May. They reported collecting over 175,000 signatures — about 49 percent of the over 356,400 signatures they needed.
The proposed constitutional amendment is reproduced below:
Every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.
Neither the state nor any political subdivision shall restrict, penalize, frustrate, or otherwise interfere with the exercise of the right to reproductive freedom, including: any individual’s access to contraception; pre-viability medical and surgical termination of pregnancy; or medical and surgical termination of pregnancy when necessary to preserve the individual’s health or life.
Neither the state nor any political subdivision shall restrict, penalize, frustrate, or otherwise interfere with a qualified, licensed healthcare professional providing medical services or any person providing non-medical services necessary for the exercise of the right to reproductive freedom.
The term ‘viability’ means the point in a pregnancy at which, in the good-faith medical judgment of the qualified, licensed healthcare professional, based on the particular facts of the case before the healthcare professional, there is a reasonable likelihood of sustained fetal survival outside the uterus with or without artificial support.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
At the start of this month, Phoenix City Council unanimously approved up to 480 hours of paid parental leave, the equivalent of 12 weeks and costing an estimated $2 to $8 million annually. The benefit kicks in for births, adoptions, and foster care placements during 12-month periods.
The new benefit requires that employees meet Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) eligibility requirements: be employed by the city for at least 12 months and have performed at least 1,250 hours of work during the 12 month period preceding the leave. The city’s leave would run concurrently with FMLA leave, unless the FMLA entitlement was exhausted when caring for an immediate family member with a serious health condition or being unable to work due to a serious health condition.
The added benefit, which the city boasted was “among the most generous parental leave packages offered by any local government agency,” will kick in on October 1.
Mayor Kate Gallego expressed her enthusiasm for the new policy. She recalled her efforts years ago to implement a similar policy when lobbying for equal pay for women.
“It has taken quite a long time to figure out how to pay for this generous benefit financially,” said Gallego. “May this lead to healthier, happier babies.”
Councilwoman Yassamin Ansari equated caring for live children with abortion. She said that this policy reflected on the importance of family planning in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that abortion law should be left up to the states — the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“I think it’s especially fitting that we have this policy now, given that reproductive rights are under attack as well. We need to be doing everything in our power to protect Phoenicians’ ability to continue to make their own family planning decisions,” said Ansari.
Councilman Sal DiCiccio rebutted Ansari’s view of the policy’s impact, noting that this was support for the decision to choose life — not just an affirmation of one type of family planning that included abortion.
“For those of us on the pro-life side, we really need to start evaluating how and what type of programs we’re going to be supporting going forward,” said DiCiccio. “If we’re going to be seeing more adoptions, more foster care, then we’ve got to be stepping it up ourselves, too.”
Councilman Carlos Garcia expressed hope that this policy would just be the beginning of family care benefits. He mentioned childcare and housing benefits.
Councilwoman Ann O’Brien recounted how, 27 years ago, her husband first received two weeks of parental leave but she received none from her employer at the time. O’Brien added that paid leave would help mitigate the city’s employee shortage by offering a competitive benefit.
The City of #Phoenix just became an even better place to work with 12 weeks of paid leave for new birth, adoptive, or foster parents. The new parental leave benefit was unanimously approved by City Council on July 1. Details: https://t.co/Ol4NQY4GEzpic.twitter.com/A1GXtpSIn4
— Councilwoman Ann O’Brien (@PHXDistrict1) July 7, 2022
Councilwoman Betty Guardado said that 12 weeks was necessary for parental bonding time.
“Spending time with your child without losing your income should be a right for all working people in this country,” said Guardado.
Last year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reported that 26 percent of state and local government workers across the country had access to paid parental leave. In 2008, that number was 15 percent; it reached 17 and then dropped to 16 percent by 2012. It wasn’t until 2017 that the percentage increased by nearly 10 points to 25 percent. The last period of growth occurred in 2020 to the present total, 26 percent.
BLS data reports that 23 percent of private and civilian industry workers had access to paid family leave in 2021.
Watch the Phoenix City Council discussion and vote on paid family leave below:
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
