My good buddy Joel Campbell gives us the scoop in the Salt Lake Tribune: It may be a dubious honor, but Utah’s open-records fight has become a battle cry for open-government activists across the nation. The Washington-based Sunlight Foundation delivered a petition Friday at the Scott M. Matheson Courthouse signed by thousands of open-government activists [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: HB477, Sunlight Foundation, Utah | Leave a Comment »
Brooke Adams continues to do a stellar job of chronicling the Utah working group’s efforts to redraw the state’s FOI laws: As the work of a group charged with recommending changes to Utah’s open-records law draws to a close, it’s clear there’s a major sticking point among its members: whether written correspondence from constituents to [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: foi reform, HB477, Utah | Leave a Comment »
My buddy Joel Campbell takes the whole cost issue of HB477 apart in a must-read column: Many proponents of the failed HB477 argued that the government needed to control the costs of voluminous public records requests and limit the ability of the public to “inspect” a record free of charge. Before such policies get blindly [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: costs, HB477 | Leave a Comment »
I love it when Dave and I are in the first four grafs of a story! Whenever Charles Davis speaks to government officials, business leaders, lawmakers and journalists, he holds out Utah’s open-records law as one of the best in the nation. “It is incredibly user-friendly,” said Davis, a records expert and associate professor of [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: HB477, Utah | Leave a Comment »
It’s an FOI request that serves as a perfect example of why we need access to the very documents at issue in Utah….amazingly, what was cited again and again by the lords of darkness was, at best, “an estimate.” This fabulous story had me laughing out loud – As Utah lawmakers argued why they needed [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: FOI at work, HB477, Salt Lake Tribune, Utah | Leave a Comment »
The conversation turns from policy to politics in Utah, as the operatives see an opportunity to close e-mail for that most politically popular of reasons — the protection of constituent “privacy,” a word symbolizing much and meaning nothing. It’s a smart political move for Utah GOP legislators to repeal the GRAMA amendments and to now [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials, 7. Electronic records | Tagged: HB477, Privacy, Utah | Leave a Comment »
Think a few organized citizens can’t shake up the world? After enduring two weeks of public fury, Utah lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Friday to repeal a bill that would have restricted public access to government records. While Senate President Michael Waddoups accused the media of lobbying on the issue and others blamed the press for biased [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: FOI legislation, HB477, Utah | Leave a Comment »
All here thanks to the Salt Lake Tribune… It’s an interesting list, containing many of the hot-button issues in FOI-Land these days. Then again, we can all see how some of the are but red herrings. Ought to be a lively discussion!
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: HB477, Utah | Leave a Comment »
Governor Herbert has called a special session Friday that may repeal HB477, while a group has been formed to study how to re-vamp and replace the state’s open-government records law. In a statement Herbert released he signaled the need for the working group to replace the bill as it stands now instead of simply delaying [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: HB477, Utah | 2 Comments »
Breaking news, from the Salt Lake Tribune: Gov. Gary Herbert called Monday for the repeal of a controversial law created to restrict public access to government records, saying both the process and substance of the law “resulted in a loss of public confidence.” Herbert said he would call a special session soon to enact the [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: HB477, Utah | 1 Comment »
