Jordan District lawsuit on hold

A deal has been struck between the Utah Attorney General's Office and the Jordan School District over a closed-door meeting.

Utah Attorney General's spokesman Paul Murphy said in a statement Friday afternoon that the Jordan School District has agreed to let attorneys review the records of the meeting "to determine if the records in question are 'protected' under Utah's Government Records Access Management Act."

The attorney general's office will review the records and then discuss its findings with Jordan School District officials, Murphy said.

Earlier this month, the Utah Attorney General's Office threatened to sue the school district after the district twice refused to hand over tapes and minutes of school-board meetings to determine if district officials had violated the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act.

At the center of the legal battle is a series of meetings that began in September 2006. The Jordan School Board began discussing, during an open meeting, whether to continue financing school resource officers or look at other security options.

The board held a pair of closed-door meetings in October and November. Their decisions to close the meetings were protested by a Deseret Morning News reporter.

Ultimately, the newspaper complained to the Utah Attorney General's Office, which is obligated to investigate under the law. When the school district refused to cooperate with investigators for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, he threatened the lawsuit.

"This is not something we should have to litigate," he said at the time. "It's sad and ridiculous."

The Utah Attorney General's Office said Friday that both parties now want to resolve the issue without court action and without spending taxpayer money.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com