Reader comments
Lawmakers lock up their records and toss key

Witch Hunt | 6:21 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Every Bernick article leads him more to fanaticsm. It is becoming comical.

Anonymous | 6:38 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Why would a legislator want you to call? You will just make up a story anyway regardless of the facts.

Get The Facts Right | 6:40 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Last I recall, not every legislator has a cellphone at taxpayer expense. I seem to recall KCPW reporting that several legislators paid for their own phones and their monthly service fees.

Comments continue below

hold on... | 7:16 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

I don't agree with "witch hunt". Bernick is trying to raise awareness of the collective dictatorship forming in our midst. Look at the evidence. The legislature has taken steps to make itself more powerful and less accountable. It ignores the will of the people. How is this not a legitimate point to make?

Mahershalalhashbaz | 7:36 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Witch Hunt must be a legislator. I agree this is outrageous. Just vote against whoever is your current legislator. That is the best way to vote. Out with the old, in with the new.

Milo P Otis | 7:45 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

"The legislative attorneys said they couldn't give me the monthly bills because some of the calls on the BlackBerrys could be personal and private under GRAMA." - The phones which were paid for by the tax payers should have their numbers made available OR turn the damn thing in and pay for your own. The "Attorneys said . . . " but what about the Legislators themselves? Why hide behind what an Attorney says? The phones should be used for contacting other Legislators and their constituents. So what's wrong with turning over the records - what's there to hide?

Question for Burnick: Which Legislators are voluntarily cooperating? November isn't that far off.

Who's paying the bills? | 8:07 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

If taxpayers are paying the monthly cell bills, it's ridiculous that we can't know what we're paying for (i.e., what calls we're paying for). If they pay their own bills, I'm not sure the same is true.

Reader | 8:56 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

To Anonymous and Witch Hunt, are you hacks for these clowns in the Legislature? As a taxpayer, I want to know what this bunch is spending our tax dollars on. Remember, they work for us, not the other way around. The majority of these people never fail to amaze me.

Anonymous | 9:38 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Bob Bernick should receive praise, not criticism, for his investigative reporting. Our one-party dominated legislature has refused meaningful campaign reform, ethics reform, some cooling off time after leaving the legislature and becoming a paid lobbyist, and finally have refused to tackle conflict of interest problems that pervade the legislature.
Thanks to Bernick and the Deseret News for reporting the abuses that pervade the Utah legislature and its one party power politics.

Seriously? | 10:02 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Are you people serious? Do you really think that a record of phone calls made by legislative leadership should be public? That's ludicrous. Why not file a request on their office phones too? In fact, maybe we should assign a taxpayer watchdog to stand beside a legislator 24 hours a day and report back to the public. Sensitive discussions happen. They have to. How about judge's deliberations, should those be open? Or the Governor's discussions with whomever about whatever? I understand some folks' distaste for some legislative conduct, but if legislators (or any other public official, for that matter) cannot hold a private conversation without it being known with whom they spoke, when they spoke, and perhaps even what they spoke about being made public, the people's work will never be done effectively. Bernick needs to get a grip.

Sunshine Disinfects | 10:01 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

The best disinfectant is sunshine. The more secretive legislators are, the more I believe they are hiding something. The best way to clean out corruption and make them accountable to Utahns is through transparency. Thanks for letting us now they just might be hiding something! Great reporting!

Appearances count | 10:23 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Any legislator who calls his psychiatrist or AA counselor on a taxpayer-funded cell phone deserves to be "outed" for stupidity. We "little people" are forced to bend over backward at our offices to make those kinds of calls from our personal phones. Why shouldn't they follow the same rules?

Meanwhile, there's no reason that "sensitive discussions" can't take place regardless of whether GRAMA hides the phone records. No one would be surprised to find, say, that Valentine and Curtis spend hours on the phone together. It's the other folks that legislators spend hours on the phone with--at taxpayers' expense--that is rightly our concern.

It's too bad we can't assign a watchdog to each one to keep an eye on them 24/7, but with a part-time legislature, that hardly seems fair. Still, they should at least agree to conduct themselves appropriately while on our dime.

Geese and Ganders | 10:44 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

It is okay for the government to have access to my phone bills, emails, and the books I check out at the library because, after all, unless I am a terrorist I have nothing to hide and nothing I discuss is THAT personal or private anyway, right?

And of course, our elected officials should be able to use taxpayer money to buy phones and pay the monthly bill for the phones and since they are such honest and upright individuals and have nothing but our best interests at heart, we do not need to know who they are calling and how often or what secret deals are being struck while they are doing the people's work and who cares if they conduct personal business on public funds?

Gee - I wish my employer felt that way about the stuff he provides me to enable me to do my job instead of making me accountable for my time and usage...

public work done in public | 11:00 a.m. Aug. 1, 2008

The bottom line is that the public's work should be done in public. So the request is not only reasonable, but again underscores the role of the press in a free society (just think about a similar request in say, china?).

And as to the "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" that is, I'm sure, the stated reason for the denial of the telephone records, the Legislator waived their right to privacy when they made the phone call on their publicly funded telephone.

Bob, I know the appeals process is long, but the DNews should take heart in knowing that the Legislature also passed a little provision recently that will allow you guys to recover your attorney fees when you win (and probabilistic thinking tells me that a judge won't likely hold her nose and let the Legislature hide behind that GRAMA provision). I hope you pursue your appeal, please. The press is there to do exactly what you do week in and week out, Bob, dig for the truth and disseminate it widely when you find it.

I'll look forward to your follow-up story next Spring, just in time for the session wrap-up!

Well said, "Public work" | 5:26 p.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Go Bob go!

Disinfect the DNews | 6:05 p.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Get the Facts Right said "several legislators paid for their own phones and their monthly service fees".

If you are right, then Bernick is wrong. Of course, this wouldn't be his first error/deception. I'm tiring of his inaccurate, self-righteous rants.

Time for some sunshine disinfectant for the DNews.

After the Fact | 8:06 p.m. Aug. 1, 2008

Bob, why weren't you paying attention and calling the alarm when the legislature was doing this foolishness? Seems to me that's your job. I remember being outraged when they made the contents (as well as the phone numbers) of their blackberries off limits. You even published a letter from me about it.

This delayed faux outrage seems a little out of place. Wake up and smell the postum.

Lola | 8:18 p.m. Aug. 1, 2008

If they are doing the people's work during their work hours then what ever they are talking about should be about the people's business and the people should know what is going on with their business, right.

behind closed doors | 1:24 a.m. Aug. 2, 2008

The legislators feel that what they do should be private and behind closed doors. That is why Utahans feel their legislators are so corrupt. If it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, etc......

If it stinks, clean it up.

Bitter, Bob? | 10:11 p.m. Aug. 29, 2008

Doesn't it stink when you can't get the taxpayer to fund your reporting efforts? It seems like anymore if a reporter can get the information they are looking for instantly then they'll make something up to fill in the blanks.

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