Amphitheater School District Wins The Arizona Press Club's Brick Wall Award. THE AMPHITHEATER School District is the recipient of the Arizona Press Club's third-annual Brick Wall Award, presented to the public official or officials who most brazenly flout the state's Public Records Law. This year's winner was selected from a field of a half-dozen individuals or agencies nominated by working Arizona journalists and judged by members of the Arizona Press Club's Public Records Committee. In the tradition of Gov. J. Fife Symington III--the recipient of both the first and second Brick Wall Awards--Amphitheater School District officials stonewalled repeated media inquiries for public records over the past year. "Amphitheater School District's actions were so reprehensible, we were forced to give Fife Symington a break this year," says Phoenix New Times staff writer Amy Silverman, chairperson of the Public Records Committee. "This award should send the message that no government agency has the right to withold information from the public, and that the culture of secrecy cultivated by Symington's office can spread to all corners--and all levels of government--in our state." Amphi was recognized for ignoring or mishandling numerous requests from the Tucson Weekly regarding records related to millions of dollars in land purchases. District officials repeatedly told Weekly reporters they had turned over all their files regarding real estate deals, while witholding key documents over a four-month period. In August 1996, when then-Amphi School Board president Vicki Cox-Golder was gearing up her campaign for the Pima County Board of Supervisors, Weekly staffers requested records regarding the district's land deals since 1988. One of Tucson's best-known real estate brokers, Cox-Golder was aiming for a key role in setting Pima County's land-use policies, so The Weekly thought a review of her real-estate record on the school board would shine some light on her approach to government. Amphi officials initially released only a handful of closing statements, which revealed the real estate broker for the district was Bill Arnold, who was also chairing Cox-Golder's campaign for the Board of Supervisors. Amphi officials had kept no written record of the hiring process and had never openly advertised to fill Arnold's position. Katie Frey, the official responsible for hiring Arnold, couldn't remember who had recommended him for the job. Frey was also unable to locate such basic documents as purchase contracts, which would have revealed the total commission paid to Arnold. In fact, she insisted no such documents existed. In response to requests for the purchase contracts, the district turned over more than 100 pages of easement deeds and other distracting material. Only after The Weekly threatened to sue under Arizona's public records laws were Amphi officials able to locate the purchase contracts. Althought district staffers now say the records were at the Amphi offices all along, one assistant superintendent told a Weekly reporter at the time that the purchase contracts had to be retrieved from the offices of Bill Arnold's real estate firm. Arnold would later bill the district nearly $500 for time spent locating the public records. The records revealed Arnold had earned close to $160,000 in commissions. Nearly $100,000 came from two insider deals in which the district spent $2.5 million purchasing high-priced property from other real estate brokers or their families, without ever having the land professionally appraised. A Tucson Weekly investigation showed neighboring parcels sold for thousands of dollars less per acre. In December 1996, after Cox-Golder had lost the Board of Supervisors election, The Weekly learned Amphi had another deal pending: The purchase of a parcel of land next door to the private runway of Cholla Air Park. The property had been in escrow since July 1996, a month before The Weekly had requested the district's records regarding land purchases. At the time The Weekly learned of the pending deal, the Amphi Board was obligated to purchase the land if they didn't back out of the deal within the next two weeks. Amphi officials had never turned over any records regarding the pending purchase. When a Weekly reporter asked an Amphi official why this deal was kept quiet despite the numerous requests for information, he replied, "I can't even begin to answer that question." Federal Aviation Administration regulations normally forbid the construction of schools next to runways, but because the airstrip was a private enterprise, Amphi could use a loophole to buy the property, which, The Weekly learned, was partially owned by the single largest contributor to the Cox-Golder campaign, Chuck Townsdin, who had been representing the Cox-Golder family in land matters for more than 20 years. Cox-Golder claimed to be shocked that the land belonged to a friend of the family. The school board was forced to back out on the deal when an angry mob of soccer moms and bush pilots packed the Amphi meeting room to voice their opposition to the pending purchase. The decision to cancel the deal cost Arnold a commission of more than $23,000. Cox-Golder is now planning to run for the Arizona Legislature in District 12.

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