The Labor Commission of Utah's Anti-discrimination and Labor Division, however, was noted to be "rude" when we asked for a list of companies that violated Utah's minimum-wage laws over the past year, until it was disclosed that the intern represented the news media. The intern noted an immediate change in demeanor. We were then told it was impossible to break out the information from their data.

Reymann said he encounters frustration and accounts of poor treatment by citizens who come to him for help in getting government records. He attributes this to a lack of employee training in GRAMA. Reymann explains it is natural that if an employee does not know if a document is public or not, they will err on the side of caution and deny the request.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi said she's actually relieved that state workers would withhold information if they are not sure if it is public or not, because it spares the state, and taxpayer, possible liability.

Kikuchi said the governor believes that GRAMA is important and should be followed. But his administration has not addressed the issue of training state workers on how to deal with public information requests.

"There's no requirement in terms of GRAMA training for all state employees," Kikuchi said. But, she said, it is state policy that every state agency have a "GRAMA-designated expert" to handle requests.

That's fine, Reymann said, but the result of not addressing training is that citizens get the run-around from employees who may not know who their GRAMA expert is. "It would take a minimal amount of resources to instruct employees on what GRAMA is," which would spare other employees time and citizens frustration.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com