Don't impede public access to information

Should it be difficult to learn how much money your city administrators earn? Should you have to pay $25 for a copy of your city's budget — a budget built in part on the taxes you've already been forced to pay?

The answers should be obvious. Free societies don't erect barriers between the people and information about their public servants.

Unfortunately, some Utah cities think otherwise. They operate under the notion that it is an inconvenience for them to provide such information, and they want you to pay extra not only for the time of the employee who has to fetch those copies, but for the electricity and other overhead costs involved.

Today is Sunshine Sunday, the first day of Sunshine Week, a national effort in which media and advocates for openness are encouraged to highlight the importance of public access to information. To mark the day, this newspaper published a story comparing the salaries of city officials statewide. The story showed that some relatively small cities pay their administrators more than larger cities, such as Salt Lake City.

This is essential information for any taxpayer. More than that, however, it is information a taxpayer has a right to receive. Your taxes fund your city's operations, and city officials ought to be accountable for every way in which they spend that money.

However, Deseret Morning News reporters ran into some obstacles while collecting this information. Draper, for example, charged the paper $30 an hour for looking up records. Those charges would apply to any member of the public, as well. The city also charges $25 for a copy of the budget, and $120 for copies of the city's ordinances and codes.

Other cities charge similar fees. They waived them for the newspaper but would be all too eager to charge you, should you want to do your own research.

It should be noted that most cities turned the information over freely and without hesitation. Utah is fortunate to have a fairly effective law, known as GRAMA (Government Records Access Management Act), which sets rules for how Utah governments are supposed to treat such records. The law encourages cities to release information free of charge, but it does allow them to charge a minimal amount. Naturally, there is a cost associated with gathering formation, but that should not be used as an impediment. Clearly, some cities are violating the spirit of that law.

In simple terms, this boils down to an understanding of whose business a local government is conducting. Each taxpayer has an ownership share in his or her government, and that entitles that person to information about how tax dollars are being spent.

Sunshine Week corresponds with the birthday of James Madison, the Founding Father honored as the author of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Madison clearly believed that governments become tyrannous when they are not accountable to their constituents and when they place themselves above any criticism.

This is not just a local issue. Nationally, there are efforts afoot to grant greater access to federal records.

Madison said, "If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." But, of course, we all know that this is not the case. Utah's local governments should all operate under the assumption that they are run by something less than angels.