The Goldwater Institute is claiming it won big Wednesday in its bid to prompt more government transparency in possible taxpayer giveaways to a major-league sports franchise. The institute went to court to compel Glendale to turn over any records related to that city’s attempts to convince a future owner of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team to stay at Jobing.com Arena. But the ruling isn’t quite as sweeping as the institute’s news release implies.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke said Glendale gets to keep secret any documents that touch on the city’s actual negotiations with a potential Coyotes owner, including any possible tax incentives or sweetheart lease deals for use of the hockey arena. Burke has demanded that Glendale bring him those records the city wants to keep secret, so he can make sure the city isn’t trying to hide documents that really should be public now. But I doubt the records released at this point will give outsiders any idea of what Glendale has been up to in these private negotiations.
The best part of Burke’s ruling is Glendale has to release all negotiation documents as soon as the city schedules a proposal for the council to publicly consider, or when any ownership bids are filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. That means the judge will protect negotiation privacy only until the talks appear to be over, and then the public gets immediate access to records that might shed more light on what has been going on. Even then, Glendale won’t have to turn over records that reveal how much the city was willing to spend to complete a deal.
The outcome isn’t perfect, but at least a variety of records likely will be available for review in time for taxpayers to influence what Glendale does before the city signs any final agreement with the Coyotes.
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Thank goodness Mesa and Scottsdale steered clear of this mess. Hopefully future government entities will take a long, hard look at the Glendale fiasco before throwing away millions of taxpayer dollars on sporting venues. Citizens of Glendale will be paying for this for years.