TOLLESON, AZ — A state legislator said a Valley school district is refusing his official request for financial transaction records.
Representative Matt Gress, a Phoenix Republican, asked for the records from the Tolleson Union High School District last month. Gress’ request came after a fiery Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing in July over Tolleson Union’s leaseback agreement with the Isaac School District.
The $25 million property leaseback deal gave Isaac enough money to keep their schools open during a financial crisis last winter.
On August 26, Gress, in his “oversight authority as a legislator” asked the Tolleson Union High School district for electronic records of the FY 2023-2024 and FY 2024-2025 ledger for the district, to include records of all purchase orders, contracts, and/or payments to all vendors, consultants, and other contractors.
Tolleson Union’s Superintendent Jeremy Calles responded by email to Gress, saying, “We are not required to create a record that does not exist, we are not required to provide records in your specified format, and you are subject to our standard charge of $1 per page.”
Gress said the district later demanded more than $26,000 in fees to produce the records, which he said was a move to discourage requests.
In an email last week to Gress, Calles wrote, “I have significant concern about your assumption that you can continually request significant amounts of data with an expectation that I and my staff drop everything to attend to your requests.”
Calles added that a $1 per page fee would not even cover staff salaries to produce the records.
“In my experience, it is unprecedented for an Arizona public entity to demand that the State pay for public records or to assert that it can withhold electronic records,” Gress said. “Exporting purchase orders from financial software is simple, and other districts have complied quickly.”
“There is a process for JLAC to investigate Districts through the use of the Auditor General's Office and Representative Gress should utilize that process,” Calles said in an email to ABC15. “If [Gress] wants to conduct his own investigation, then he is only entitled to the same rights of every citizen which is to utilize the Arizona Public Records Act.”
Calles said his attorney will be filing a defamation case against Gress.
