4th Sub House Bill 69 — Government Records and Information Amendments, Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain • Until Friday, this bill would not have impacted Utah’s open records in a major way, except to clarify when government officials can access election information.
But as the bill neared the finish line, Sen. Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven, the Senate sponsor, added language that would protect government entities from having to pay legal fees when they lose open records cases, unless the government officials acted in “bad faith” — an almost impossible threshold in a legal setting.
If it passes, average Utahns exercising their legal rights to know what their government is doing has to take on the vast resources of their government without hope of being made whole, even if a court agrees they should have received the information in the first place.
Utah law allows legal fees to be awarded to the prevailing party in a variety of cases involving religious liberty, environmental disputes, contract litigation, property rights suits and others. There is no reason to make the public’s exercise of their right to government transparency an exception.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees have been awarded to media outlets in cases that led to the release of the attorney general’s calendars, uncovered information on alleged government corruption, shed light on officer-involved shootings and revealed how $5 million in taxpayer money was spent on dubious lobbying efforts. Some or all of these cases might not have gone forward without pro bono legal representation and the potential receipt of legal fees when they prevail.
But it’s really the average Utahn — who doesn’t have access to pro bono representation and doesn’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars to exercise his or her rights — who will be most harmed.
If bureaucrats know their agency won’t ever be on the hook to pay fees when they lose, there is no incentive for them to diligently comply with transparency law.
And procedurally, slipping such a sweeping provision into the bill, ensuring it will never receive a public hearing, is bad form.
For all of the above reasons, the Utah Media Coalition strongly opposes 4SubHB69.
The amendment was added to the bill in the Senate, meaning it will likely be voted on this week and, if approved, sent back to the House for a vote.
The Utah Media Coalition offers real-time assessments of legislation that could either increase or decrease public access to government records.
