Senate Bill 225, Government Records Access and Management Act Amendments, Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo — Part of this bill would make any document that bears the seal of an architect a protected record, preventing public access. This continues a trend we have seen where more and more types of documents are removed from even consideration of public access.
A more troubling provision in the bill would make it a crime for anyone who receives a record that is “inadvertently” provided under a record request to disclose or disseminate that information or to refuse to destroy the record or return it immediately.
The bill is likely unconstitutional based on U.S. Supreme Court rulings that protect the publication of legally obtained material. Instead of ensuring government employees do their jobs right when they respond to records requests, it would potentially punish the recipient of information when they don’t. It could also have a chilling effect on anyone who might receive public records and be reluctant to publish them because of the potential for criminal consequences later on.
Therefore the Utah Transparency Project opposes this bill as it is currently proposed.
The bill has been sent to the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee and is awaiting a hearing.
The Utah Media Coalition offers real-time assessments of legislation that could either increase or decrease public access to government records.
The Utah Media Coalition gives this bill a "Closed Door" rating.
