What does David Shinn even do all day?

Taking a look at Arizona Department of Corrections Director David Shinn's monthly calendars this year, which show a lot of blanks and lack of meaningful information.

David Shinn runs the Arizona Department of Corrections and has since October 2019 when Gov. Doug Ducey tapped him to replace Charles Ryan, the controversial director now pending a trial from weapons charges in stand off with Tempe police.

Shinn makes $195,000 per year in his taxpayer funded role and his calendars raise a lot of questions about what exactly he does every day to earn such an amount.

I previously wrote about Shinn’s July 2022 calendar, but didn’t actually dive into what’s in there. After briefly arguing with Corrections over releasing the January-June 2022 calendars to me free of cost (I won … for now) since they gave me his July and August calendars for free, I decided to look at them more closely.

Dillon Rosenblatt @DillonReedRose

So not only does @AZCorrections redact records –– and potentially withhold –– without having to explain why (see link), but now they are trying to charge me for David Shinn's calendars because they think they're for "commercial purposes" which is absurd.

fourthestate48.substack.comA little known law showing Arizona’s anti-transparencyA 2004 bill from the Arizona Legislature allowed some state agencies the discretion to redact or withhold records without explanation that most people likely didn’t know even existed.

Through eight months in 2022, Shinn’s calendar shows nearly 40 days (39 to be exact) where he is only listed as having something for one hour or nothing at all for an entire day. In that time period, there were 167 work days, meaning almost a quarter of them Shinn has nothing scheduled.

• The 39 figure doesn’t include days where he has something scheduled for only 75 minutes, or 90 minutes, or two hours or three hours, etc. Or the fact most of his Fridays (and plenty of other days sprinkled in) just say “HOLD” from 8 am to 5 pm with no other information included.

What a pretty typical week looks like on Shinn’s calendar

Shinn also lists “policy review” on his Fridays, but without a designated time and offering no inclination about what is discussed, with whom or for how long.

Shinn’s schedule seemed to pick up more around May, but does not appear to come anywhere close to a typical workday of eight hours.

Put into further perspective, Andy Tobin, the Department of Administration director, has a much busier schedule than Shinn, as seen here.¹ His calendars only go through July so far.²

Andy Tobin appears to do more in a single day than Shinn in a single week. This is a random selection from his calendar on April 7.

At best, Shinn’s calendars are lacking any information and show another sign that the Department of Corrections is purposely opaque.

At worst, Shinn actually rarely does anything most days and just kicks his shoes up and cashes in on his nearly $200,000 taxpayer-funded annual salary.

• Shinn’s calendar

• Andy Tobin’s Jan-July calendars

• Katie Hobbs’ September calendar

• Kathy Hoffman’s September calendar

1. The calendar doesn’t list the day, but I figured out it starts January 1 and each page number marks the sequential day thereafter so page 100 would be April 10.

2. I have Katie Hobbs and Kathy Hoffman’s calendars through September; David Shinn’s through August, Andy Tobin’s through July and nobody else has turned any calendars over to me including Ducey, Kimberly Yee and Rachel Mitchell* (the latter two who are on the ballot this November). *- A few hours after publishing, the MCAO sent me Mitchell’s calendars.