Ruling brings up issues of privacy

Salt Lake County officials fear a recent ruling by the Utah Supreme Court could keep employees from exposing sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Supreme Court ruled that county officials were wrong in denying a government records request by the Deseret Morning News for a copy of a sexual harassment report involving a top official in the county clerk's office. The justices unanimously ruled that government records are presumed public under the Government Records Access and Management Act.

Now county attorneys are re-evaluating the blanket ban prohibition of the release of such reports.

"It will probably change, yes, but how I don't know," said Dahnelle Burton-Lee, chief deputy district attorney.

Councilman Joe Hatch said a blanket ban provides the protection employees need to feel comfortable to come forward with complaints about sexual harassment.

"Why would anybody want to come forward now?" Hatch said. "You can't promise the allegations won't be spread throughout the papers. No one can promise me even a modicum of confidentiality."

The Deseret Morning News sued for access to the independent sexual harassment report after a former county clerk's office employee, Marcia Rice, sued chief deputy clerk Nick Floros for sexual harassment in 2003.

Rice also alleged that Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen knew of the situation but did nothing to stop it. Then, some members of the County Council accused former District Attorney David Yocom of soft-pedaling the investigation to allow Floros to retire.

Rice's suit was eventually settled out of court, and Floros resigned and was allowed to retire before the independent report was completed.

The Deseret Morning News filed an open records request for the report, saying the public had a right to make sure the investigation was free from any political influence. The paper also argued that privacy was not an issue because the victim of the sexual harassment already had waived her privacy interest in the report.

The county denied the request, saying they owed no obligation to explain their investigation.

On Tuesday, Council Chairman Michael Jensen said the council originally denied the request because "our biggest concern was the safety of our employees. We didn't want them to feel reluctant coming forward."

Jensen said the county always tries to "err on the side of our employees' confidentiality."

Deseret Morning News attorney Jeff Hunt said "any claim this is going to discourage victims from coming forward are totally unfounded by the facts of this particular case."

Rice voluntarily revealed her name and filed a federal lawsuit about the sexual harassment, and all other witnesses in the report, except for Floros and Swensen, are identified by pseudonyms to protect their identities.

"It is disappointing, although perhaps not surprising, that those government officials who sought to conceal this report for so long would still attempt to justify their decision in the face of such a strongly worded Supreme Court opinion saying they were dead wrong," Hunt said.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com