Goldwater Institute request denied in Glendale records battle

The city of Glendale won the latest court tussle with the Goldwater Institute watchdog group over possible lease concessions and incentives for the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge Friday ruled against a Goldwater request to hold Glendale in contempt for not turning over documents in the case fast enough.

Goldwater will also have to pay legal fees related to the contempt request.

The Phoenix-based watchdog group sued the Phoenix suburb last year after Glendale turned down public records requests related to the Coyotes.

Goldwater wanted to see what kind of deals Glendale might be offering to Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who was looking at buying the Coyotes.

The Coyotes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in May 2009 and then-owner Jerry Moyes tried to sell the team to Research in Motion CEO Jim Balsillie who wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The National Hockey League and Glendale fought that move in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and the NHL bought the Coyotes in October and plans on selling them to a new ownership group.

Reinsdorf submitted a bid during the bankruptcy fight but later pulled that offer back.

Glendale said Friday it has provided 600 documents to Goldwater related to the Coyotes case and is trying to abide by court rulings in the matter.

Goldwater spokesman Dan Guerin said the institute will collect more evidence and examples related to Glendale turning over documents and could make more requests to Judge Edward Burke.

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