Passing along this wonderful post from Sunlight on a fabulous new FOI classroom project! Love to see this kind of stuff! On April 11, 2012 ten University of Utah Honors students will launch a state-wide public initiative which, if successful, will forever change how Utah citizens interact with their local governments. The initiative, called the [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind | Tagged: FOI projects, studies, Utah | 1 Comment »
After an infamous backfire on FOI reform, Utah pols are back to work, this time with a much better, collaborative process: Last year, an attempt to change Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act led to a raucus Capitol Hill rally, outraged editorials and citizens throughout the state up in arms. This year, the effort [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: for reform, Utah | Leave a Comment »
Now this is clever: A coalition of news organizations from across Utah has created a new system to rank legislation dealing with the state’s open records law. The Utah Media Coalition’s rating system will let the public and lawmakers know how it views proposed changes to the Government Records Access and Management Act, or GRAMA, [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: FOI advocacy, legislative proposals, Utah | Leave a Comment »
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 »
Today’s update from Utah (thanks, Brooke!) is full of all kinds of news, not the least of which is training and an ombuds… A lot of ideas are still in flux, but one has gained consensus: More education would help requesters, responders and government officials alike understand how Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: FOI legislation, HB 477, Utah | 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 »
This is the first in a series of stories The Slat lake Tribune is doing on the state’s public records law, and it has a great anecdotal opening: In 1992, the first appeal brought before the State Records Committee under Utah’s newly adopted open-records law came from The Salt Lake Tribune, which wanted the Department [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: Freedom of information legislation, 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 »
