By Jakob Thorington | Arizona Capitol Times
After Republican lawmakers recently established rules to reduce public records retention, they are now proposing more changes that opponents say would further obstruct access to information.
In an 8-1 vote, HB2808 was approved during a Feb. 15 House Government Committee hearing, but it will likely fail if the bill isn’t amended to exempt specific scenarios where documents take longer than a month to produce.
The bill originally required agencies to respond to a public records request in five business days and allowed flexibility to extend another five days but was amended to 15 business days with another 15-day extension.
“At the end of the day, we should be expedient when we get these requests,” said the bill’s sponsor Rep. Michael Carbone, R-Buckeye, during the hearing.
