Tombstone’s marshal and city officials continue refusing to release an audit on public money spent by the Chamber of Commerce, and an expert on public records access says they are violating state law.

Marshal Billy Cloud and Chamber of Commerce President Susan Wallace denied the Epitaph’s Arizona public records request for a copy of the chamber audit.

Cloud wrote in a Sept. 13 letter to the Epitaph that he would not release the document because it is part of an on-going investigation. Cloud did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

“I believe it is protected from disclosure until the case has been brought to a close,” he wrote in the letter to the Epitaph.

Daniel Barr of the Arizona First Amendment Coalition said Cloud’s position violates Arizona’s public records law. That law has no exception for an ongoing investigation, criminal or otherwise.

Chamber President Susan Wallace also denied the Epitaph’s request. “We haven’t been released by the marshal’s office to disseminate any information,” she said.

The Epitaph maintains the audit is public property because it examines the chamber’s previous administration and its usage of public monies including the city bed tax and profits from the Boothill Graveyard Gift Shop.

Barr, who is partner in the law firm Perkins Coie, said it is the “burden of the public body to establish the reasons for withholding it.” In other words, to keep the audit from going public, Cloud is legally obligated to explain how releasing the review would hurt the investigation and/or his office’s ability to meet its responsibilities.

Cloud wrote that City Attorney P. Randall Bays would review the Epitaph’s request. Bays did not respond to multiple requests to be interviewed.

For days, Cloud has repeatedly refused to meet or speak with the Epitaph. It is not known if he forwarded the request to Bays.

Barr said Mayor Jack Henderson has the authority to order Cloud to release the audit because Cloud is a city employee. Henderson referred all inquiries to Bays.

Oct. 12 will be three months since cancelation of a public presentation about the audit.

In early September, Cloud said his office was not conducting a criminal investigation, and he suggested the chamber use a third-party arbitrator to conduct interviews of former board members. Once the interviews were completed, Cloud said, the review would be presented to the public.

Chamber Vice President David Bales said Cloud’s recommendation for an arbitrator is only an “option.” But Wallace said the chamber, which has been managed exclusively by volunteers since the resignation of former Executive Director Pat Greene, has not met with the marshal to discuss who needs to be interviewed and who the arbitrator might be.

On Sept. 28, the Epitaph contacted Kathryn Marquoit with the Arizona Ombudsman office and asked her to help mediate the dispute. The Arizona Ombudsman is charged with working to resolve disagreements between citizens and government agencies over public records access.

Cloud said in an interview in early September he could not release the audit because it is not complete.

But Marquoit said the 2009 Arizona Supreme Court case Lake vs. City of Phoenix, established that unfinished police reports are public records.

Barr agrees.

“If they are still doing other work,” said Barr, “then the document should be released.”