Some members of the Utah Senate seem to think that the Legislature created a monster when, back in 1992, it founded the Utah State Records Committee. That’s the body charged with resolving disputes over the public’s access to their own government’s information.
What these lawmakers forget — or maybe just don’t like — is that the committee, and the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) it enforces, are there to serve the public, not the Legislature or any other government official.
Senators left the committee high and dry for months, unable to meet or act because it lacked enough confirmed members. Senators first refused, for no apparent reason, to approve Gov. Spencer Cox’s re-nomination of three current members whose terms had expired. Then the relevant committee dawdled and complained as they finally approved the nomination of three new committee members. Final confirmation could come as soon as Wednesday.
At least, now the panel will have a quorum and can address the backlog of public appeals for records that various government entities have been sitting on. Though there is a question of whether the committee will keep its duty to the public first.
In approving the nomination of Logan Wilde, who has been a member of the Legislature and of the Morgan County Commission and has served as Utah commissioner of agriculture and food, some senators openly suggested that his role was to defend government officials who might be trying to keep a lid on public records.
“He’s the kind of individual I’d like making decisions on my behalf,” said Sen. Jerry Stevenson, a Layton Republican, forgetting that records committee members are supposed to be representing the public interest, not politicians.
Wilde also echoed some senators’ dislike for moves to release the calendars of public officials — giving the public an idea of who those officials have given precious access to — by calling those requests a “fishing expedition.”
Really. The work involved for any journalist or public-spirited individual to go through pages and pages of a busy official’s calendar is no pleasant day at the creek.
GRAMA does have provisions for keeping some records confidential if, for example, they include personal or privileged business information. That’s why we have the records committee to rule on disputes. Not every open records request will or should be granted.
But the level of suspicion some senators have toward members of the public — not just journalists — who want to know what the government who rules them, which they pay for, is up to is enough to make a reasonable person wonder just what they are trying to hide.
