Arizona AG accuses Scottsdale school district of violating open meeting law

PHOENIX – Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing the Scottsdale Unified School District of violating the state’s open meeting law.

The complaint primarily focuses on Jann-Michael Greenburg, who was president of the SUSD governing board when the alleged violations occurred in August 2021.

“Defendants violated the open meeting law by knowingly structuring an agenda and meeting so as to prohibit public comment about a proposed mask mandate and other subjects,” the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court says.

The suit asks a judge to impose a civil penalty on Greenburg “in the maximum amount allowed under law” and take any other action deemed appropriate, including “removing Greenburg from office.”

“SUSD manipulated public input and silenced the voices of parents in order to advance its own agenda,” Brnovich said in a press release. “This type of bad school behavior demands expulsion.”

Greenburg, who is in the final year of his term, has filed a statement of interest to seek reelection.

The governing board voted in November 2021 to remove him from his role as president, but not from his elected position of board member, after he was accused of distributing a dossier about some parents. His father allegedly maintained the file in publicly accessible Google drive folders.

The Scottsdale Police Department investigated the incident and determined Greenburg didn’t commit a crime because the dossier consisted of open source and/or public documents.

Police briefed the FBI and Arizona Attorney General’s Office and provided both a copy of the investigation for review of possible criminal violations under their jurisdictions.

Brnovich’s lawsuit does not address the dossier incident.

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