We are excited to announce that as of December 11, both the Phoenix and Tucson offices will be open for ‘walk in’ services; (appointments will no longer be required, though checking in with the respective lobby security desks will still be required.)

The ‘walk in’ services will be available from 8:00am until 4:00pm, Monday thru Friday, except for state holidays.

As of December 11, we will also resume offering notarization services; (please note that the fee is $10 per notarization, with a maximum of 6 notarizations per visit.)

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you soon.

From Monday, October 21, 2024, through Friday, December 27, 2024, in-person services will be limited at the Secretary of State offices within the Executive Office tower in Phoenix and may not be available without an appointment. It is strongly suggested that customers call before attempting to come to the Phoenix office. Our office in Tucson will remain available for business services walk-ins.

We appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience during this time. Thank you for your cooperation.

Any transactions that are returned due to insufficient funds in your account will incur an NSF fee of $25.00 in addition to the original charge incurred. This fee will be applied for each occurrence of a returned transaction.

NOTICE REGARDING NON-SUFFICIENT FUNDS (NSF) FEES

Any transactions that are returned due to insufficient funds in your account will incur an NSF fee of $25.00 in addition to the original charge incurred. This fee will be applied for each occurrence of a returned transaction.

Disclaimer

The Secretary of State is the filing office and publisher of Administrative rules. Therefore our office does not interpret or enforce rules. For questions, contact the agency that promulgated the rules.

Rules

Exemptions to the Rulemaking Process

It is not uncommon for an agency to be exempt from the rulemaking process as specified in the Arizona Administrative Procedures Act, also known as the APA (Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 41, Chapter 6, Articles 1 through 10.)

An agency's exemption is written in law from the Arizona State Legislature or under a referendum or initiative passed into law by Arizona voters. When an agency files an exempt rulemaking package with our office we require that it specify the law which gives the exemption in what’s call the preamble of rulemaking.

In the Administrative Code we include editor’s notes at the beginning of a Chapter to notify the user that certain rulemaking Sections in the document were made by exempt rulemaking. Exempt rules notes are also included in the historical note at the end of a rulemaking Section.

Notice of Exempt Rulemaking - Standard APA Exemptions

This is an exemption that is in the APA listed under A.R.S. § 41-1005 and A.R.S. § 41-1057. These exemptions give the agency full authority to make, amend, or repeal rules without following the steps outlined in the APA. A few examples of these steps include providing a notice of public hearing or filing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for publication in the Administrative Register. It should be noted that some agencies, although exempt from all APA requirements, will draft a Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking and solicit public comments on the rules.

Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking

Unique exemptions to certain processes required under the APA

Recently there has been a trend to give an agency an exemption under session law with an expiration date to complete its rulemaking. The Legislature is specific on the steps an agency must take to complete the rulemaking.

These include:

  • A. Publish a Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking somewhere
    • 1. Publishing a Proposed Exempt Rulemaking or “draft” rules on the agency’s website;
    • 2. Filing for publication in the Arizona Administrative Register a Proposed Exempt Rulemaking; or
    • 3. Requiring an agency to do both one and two.
    • 4. An agency may also be required to or in good faith, file a Notice of Public Information about the Proposed Exempt Rulemaking. This notice often includes the statutory exemption, where the stakeholders can review the draft rules and provide comments.
  • B. Solicit and Accept Public Comments.
    Some exemptions require an agency to solicit public comments. The solicitation may be part of a Notice of Public Information as stated under subsection (A)(4), or simply asking from comments on an agency’s website.
  • C. In rare instances an agency may file a Notice of Supplemental Proposed Exempt Rulemaking if significant changes are being made to the original Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking.
  • D. The law may or may not REQUIRE an agency to publish the proposed exempt rules in the Register, but the agency makes the determination whether it will file and publish this type of notice with our office.
Notice of Final Exempt Rulemakings

This type of notice is filed when an agency completes its draft rulemaking under the exemption. It doesn’t matter if the agency filed the draft rules with our office for publication in the Register. If the Proposed Exempt Rulemaking was available for review somewhere, the notice to be submitted for publication in the Code is a Notice of Final Exempt Rulemaking.

Agencies are encouraged to publish all exempt notices in the Register to help maintain the public records and transparency.

Disclosure – Publication of exempt notices in the Register are yet one more way for the public to learn about the rulemaking. Since the Register is the official rule publication for the state stakeholders and the public will turn to it first for information. Other notification methods such as publishing public meetings in a newspaper of record are also encouraged. Some agencies may also choose to publish public meetings on the Department of Administration's Public Meeting online kiosk. Every agency is required to publish every public meeting notice on their websites under A.R.S. § 38-431.02.

Public Records - The public record is permanently maintained and archived under the Secretary of State's records retentions schedule. Therefore, the entire rulemaking record is more readily accessible to both the public and agency personnel.

Meetings

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A rule is the result of rulemaking by a state agency, board or commission.

Rules are "made" in Arizona as final, expedited, exempt, and emergency (temporary) rules.

A.R.S. 41-1001(17) states: "‘Rule' means an agency statement of general applicability that implements, interprets, or prescribes law or policy, or describes the procedures or practice requirements of an agency."

Laws 1972, Ch. 35, § 1 required all agency administrative rules to be published and printed in one official publication.

In 1975, the Secretary of State's Office completed the codification (the action and process of arranging the rules according to an adopted system) of the rules. The office published and printed this first multi-volume set as the Official Compilation of Administrative Rules and Regulations.

In January 1987, the title of the publication was changed to the Arizona Administrative Code.

In the fall of 2018 the office eliminated publishing on paper and began to authenticate pdf chapters online making the electronic pdf the official version.

It is not uncommon for an agency to be exempt to the rulemaking process. Often the authority for the exemption is specified in the Arizona Administrative Procedures Act, also known as the APA (Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 41, Chapter 6, Articles 1 through 10.)

An agency's exemption is written in law from the Arizona State Legislature or under a referendum or initiative passed into law by Arizona voters. When a notice of exempt rulemaking is filed with the Administrative Rules Division we require an agency to specify the law which gives it the exemption in what's call the preamble of rulemaking.

In the Administrative Code we include editor's notes at the beginning of a chapter to notify the user that certain rulemaking sections in the document were made by exempt rulemaking. Exempt rules notes are also included in the historical note at the end of a rulemaking section.

Notice of Exempt Rulemaking - Standard APA Exemptions

This is an exemption that is in the APA listed under A.R.S. § 41-1005 and A.R.S. § 41-1057 . These exemptions give the agency full authority to make, amend, or repeal rules without following the steps outlined in the APA. A few examples of these steps include providing a notice of public hearing or filing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for publication in the Administrative Register. It should be noted that some agencies, although exempt from all APA requirements, will draft a Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking and solicit public comments on the rules.

Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking - Unique exemptions to certain processes required under the APA

Recently there has been a trend to give an agency an exemption under session law with an expiration date to complete its rulemaking. The Legislature is specific on the steps an agency must take to complete the rulemaking.

These include:

A. Publish a Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking somewhere.

1. Publishing a Proposed Exempt Rulemaking or "draft" rules on the agency's website;

2. Filing for publication in the Arizona Administrative Register a Proposed Exempt Rulemaking; or

3. Requiring an agency to do both one and two.

4. An agency may also be required to or in good faith, file a Notice of Public Information about the Proposed Exempt Rulemaking. This notice often includes the statutory exemption, where the stakeholders can review the draft rules and provide comments.

B. Solicit and Accept Public Comments. Some exemptions require an agency to solicit public comments. The solicitation may be part of a Notice of Public Information as stated under subsection (A)(4), or simply asking from comments on an agency's website.

C. In rare instances an agency may file a Notice of Supplemental Proposed Exempt Rulemaking if significant changes are being made to the original Notice of Proposed Exempt Rulemaking.

D. The law may or may not REQUIRE an agency to publish the proposed exempt rules in the Register, but the agency makes the determination whether it will file and publish this type of notice with our office.

Notice of Final Exempt Rulemakings

This type of notice is filed when an agency completes its draft rulemaking under the exemption. It doesn't matter if the agency filed the draft rules with our office for publication in the Register. If the Proposed Exempt Rulemaking was available for review somewhere, the notice to be submitted for publication in the Code is a Notice of Final Exempt Rulemaking.

Agencies are encouraged to publish all exempt notices in the Register to help maintain the public records and transparency.

Disclosure and Transparency – Publication of exempt notices in the Register are yet one more way for the public to learn about the rulemaking. Since the Register is the official rule publication for the stakeholders and the public, they will turn to it first for information. Other notification methods such as publishing public meetings in a newspaper of record are also encouraged. Some agencies may also choose to publish public meetings on the Department of Administration's Public Meeting online kiosk . Every agency is required to publish every public meeting notice on their websites under A.R.S. § 38-431.02 .

Public Records – Original filed notices are permanently maintained and archived under the Division's records retentions schedule.

Contact Rules Division

Office of the Secretary of State
Administrative Rules Division
1700 W Washington St Fl 7
Phoenix AZ 85007-2808

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