Legislature chips away at GRAMA

A handful of others were targeted at preventing certain actions, such as a dispute in the town of Alta when a disgruntled resident recruited friends and family to pummel the town clerk with repeated requests for the same information.

Only a few alterations involved community security issues. In 2002, months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Utah lawmakers passed four bills — one banning terrorism by use of a weapon of mass destruction. The others limited access to information about National Guard activities and protected architectural plans of public buildings, public works facilities and the locations and layouts of explosives plants.

"For the most part, we haven't had a whole lot of national security stuff in Utah. It just hasn't been an issue," said Joel Campbell, a former journalist who teaches at Brigham Young University.

This year, seven of 15 bills that dealt directly or indirectly with GRAMA and open meetings law passed and await the governor's signature.

Task force chairman Sen. Dave Thomas, R-South Weber, and Rep. Doug Aagard, R-Kaysville, said they didn't accomplish all they had hoped. Of three bills that grew out of the task force study, only one passed, and it was amended to remove provisions to make communications between an elected official and the public a protected record.

"Of course I'm disappointed," said Aagard, who sponsored the bill. "I think that's got to be dealt with and I don't think (the law) is in balance right now. We need GRAMA, but it's just the difficulty of finding the balance."

O'Brien and Campbell said the results of 2006 legislation appear to be a draw for issues of open government and access.

Among the bills that passed were ones to expand the definition of open meetings to include informal workshops and executive sessions, require the proceedings of closed meetings be recorded and require mandatory GRAMA training for employees of government entities.

But another bill lets government restrict the contact information published about public officials or employees. The so-called Blackberry bill means that a lawmaker's home address or cellular telephone number could be kept secret. The bill was signed into law by the governor on March 6.

"All and all I don't think we are dramatically worse off than we were," O'Brien said.

Thomas and Aagard say lawmakers and the media lack a shared perspective when it comes to GRAMA. The two men locked horns more than once with O'Brien and the coalition of Utah newspapers and television stations he represents.

"The task force was trying to find some middle ground," Aagard said. "Sunshine's wonderful, but there are limits to how far you can go."