Comments about ‘Utah lawmakers repeal controversial open records law’

Here is a concept our Legislature should consider. Maybe, after repealing the joke that is HB477, they make a case to the people of Utah as to why revisions are needed in the first place.

I, for one, have yet to be convinced that changes are necessary.

No, Rep. Harper, the people won and you, the out of touch legislature, lost. This was also a victory for "Freedom of the Press", a constitutional guarantee, not just the "evil media", as your tone implied. Now, I'd like a list of the entrenched senators who are unwilling to vote for a repeal of this bill, but of course, they are in a closed caucus. How convenient to be able to shield themselves from their constituents. This is "open, transparent" government in Utah. After the Alliance for Unity, a group representing the most trusted organizations in the state, expresses the need for repeal, we've got these wonderful senators who don't care what we think, but can hold out in their caucus for whatever reason they want, without answering to us why. I'm beginning to think that maybe the "sleeping giant" of the Utah electorate may be awakened. Go to the Utahns for Ethical Government website and donate (they even have PayPal). If we all donated $25 to this cause, we could make a significant difference. Then, find out who contributed to your legislator's campaign contributions and find out who's influencing their vote.

They must be thick headed, REPEAL THE BILL, no fixes, no smoothing thing over.

Let's all know whether our local representatives voted for or against 477, and remember it, and make it an issue, at next year's caucuses.

The tragic thing is that most of the proponents will be reelected. Please vote for the person, not the party. Reexamine their credibility. If they voted for this bill they obviously have a character flaw that cannot be ignored.

Don't give them a second chance, they think we are all gullible. Watch this whole "amendments" silliness. There was nothing wrong with the law before HB477. What is the legislature trying to hide?

Each day brings Utah's citizens a little closer to seeing the true colors of some of the members of Utah's Republican Senate.
The majority of Utahn's want to see the repeal of HB477. There is no guessing or wondering about this. It is documented!
Ok, why then, are these Republican Senators unable to listen to their constituents, the people who voted them into office?
This goes much deeper than HB 477. What in the world are these people trying to keep hidden from all of us?
If only someone were able to find out...........

Things will never change, until Utah has a multi-party system.

As long as people automatically vote (R), there's no hope of change.

Utah's one-party system got us to this point.
How many of you are brave enough to start listening to US -- the people you claim are "commies". We're not. We're your neighbors, and we pay more taxes than most Utahns.

'House repeals controversial HB477; Senate may follow with 2 amendments' - Title

Hurray?

We'll repeal it...

but we might just 'fix it' later.

aka, we might do the same thing over again.

And because Utah votes straight 'R' party, no one can do anything about it.

You deserve what you vote for Utah.

And, even after screaming at the top of your lungs...

they'll just wait till later to do the same, thing.

Who are the 3 people who voted against repeal?

The fact that this law has had its repeal passed through the lower house of the state legislature shows that things have chanced without a change in the make-up of the state legislature.

Utah has managed to pass comprehensive immigration reform where no other state nor the federal government has.

Utah's best chance for true change is to either get a third party that can run candidates to victory, or to get a Democrat party that truly redupiates the radicalism of the national party. Matheson made a large progress for the later. His holding firm when so many "pro-life" Democrats, many with much clearer pro-life credentials than him, folded, shows that there is hope for Utah Democrats, as did Matheson's endorsement of the state's pro-man/woman marriage admendment.

Beyond this, Bennett's defeat as an incumbent senator by his own party is an extreme rarity in recent political history, the other three examples I know of during this century either involve the defeated candidate making a come-back as a third-party candidate or a party-jumper being defeated in part because he did not have the base.

The three House members who voted against repeal:

Mike Noel (Kanab)
LaVar Christensen (Draper)
R. Curt Webb (Logan)

Make a note of it.

The three who voted against repeal are: Reps. Mike Noel, Curt Webb and Neal Hendrickson. They and any who voted for it in the first place should not be reelected.

Correction: it was not LaVar Christensen who voted against repeal, it was Neal Hendrickson (West Valley City).

Anyone who thinks the legislature has really learned anything about how government should conduct their business only needs to read the first line of the article "The Utah House of Representatives, without debate, voted to repeal the controversial HB477, which rolled back changes to the state's Government Records Access and Management Act." The so called conservatives all talk about the constitution and what our founding fathers intended. They intended the peoples business be done in the light of day, not in a caucus meeting. These folks have learned nothing, and unless they are voted out in mass, they will continue to do the peoples business behind closed doors.

DO NOT let anyone off the hook that voted for the initial bill. They think we are all idiots and they will keep trying to get away with this. If we vote them out then future lawmakers will realize they can't pull this garbage in the future. Vote for others at convention!

How many posters have read HB 477? I believe very few.

Harper was right - the media won. They used their incredible power to manipulate the public into believing this bill did things it did not do. They demonized the legislators. They whipped the uneducated citizens into a frenzy of ignorance. It is really frightening that
1. The media has so much power because the citizens won't read and think
2. The public can't see the manipulation

This is how great nations are deceived by powerful factions (such as the media) and eventually brought to ruin.

HB477 - Yet another example of "behavior unbecoming of a legislator". Even better than voting out those who were in favor of HB477 ... SUPPORT those few who fought in opposition every chance they had. THEY are the INCUMBENTS we need RE-ELECTED. Happy to be represented by such in both the Senate and in the House. BIG thanks, once again, to the two that represent me, Morgan and Poulson from Cottonwood Heights.

It's ironic that the senate's caucus meeting today was closed to the public. Obviously they are saying things in private they do not want the public to know. If we are smart we should expand the GRAMA law not destroy it. We need to know more not less.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. Patrick Henry

WAKE UP UTAH! WHY DO YOU KEEP VOTING FOR PEOPLE WHO CONSIDER YOU THEIR MINIONS INSTEAD OF THEIR CONSTITUENTS?

@freedomforthepeople:

Yes, I've read HB477 and I'm extremely familiar with GRAMA. This is not a fight for just the media; HB 477 would have closed off many, many relevant records, especially legislative records. It would have also raised fees considerably, and it completely deleted all the statutory presumptions of government openness.

I suspect YOU'RE the one who's not familiar with the bill, because if you were, you'd never claim that the media's reporting on HB 477 was inaccurate.

And please consider this: when a bill is opposed by 80% of the Utah voters, the Society of Professional Journalists, Jason Chaffetz, Ross Romero, Gayle Ruzika, Chris Buttars, Patricia Jones, the LDS Church, the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church---none of whom seem to agree on much else--you know you've got a dog of a bill.