By Hank Stephenson | Arizona Capitol Times
The Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council, a statutorily created body made up of county prosecutors and other law enforcement figures, doesn’t want reporters listening in on their public meetings.
The group is required to abide by the Arizona open meetings laws, but for the past few meetings it pulled from its agenda the call-in number for the public to listen in telephonically, while keeping the number on the meeting notice that is sent to members of the council.
That’s because members of the council have been accurately quoted in stories in Arizona Capitol Times talking about strategies to kill bills that attempt to reform the practice civil forfeiture.
An email chain shows that APAAC has been worried about the media calling into their meetings since September 2015. That is when reports ran in the Capitol Times and its sister publication, The Yellow Sheet Report, based on a discussion in which prosecutors said they weren’t worried about attempts to reign in civil forfeiture because former House Speaker David Gowan wasn’t going to let the bill go up for a vote.
The email chain shows Kim MacEachern, APAAC’s then-lobbyist, sent the Yellow Sheet article to Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon.
He asked: “How did they get the information?”
