Utah is now the only state in the country that allows legislators and state officials to keep their electronic correspondence secret from the public. HB 477 Undermines the current Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA) by excluding emails, voicemails, instant messages and text messages from public disclosure.
Notably, it was a GRAMA request last fall that revealed a UDOT employee was involved in an extra-marital affair with the president of the contracting firm at the middle of the disputed I-15 bid which led to the agency paying an undisclosed $13 million dollar settlement to the losing bidder to keep them from suing the state. Under HB 477, none of the information about the affair or the subsequent payout and cover-up would have been made public.
What bothers me the most is the brazen attitude with which the legislature rushed the bill to passage in less than 48 hours from the time it was made public.
These are quotes from senate President Michael Waddoups last week:
“We want to pass the measure before leaving Friday. It will complicate matters if it has a weekend to fester,” he said, adding that he did not want senators subjected to pressure from the bill’s opponents over the next two days.
“We really don’t need to have a committee hearing. But we think this is one of those that has a high enough priority,” the Senate leader said. “We think we understand it very well.”
He said the issue has been studied for some time and that the bill contains much of the same language as legislation that surfaced briefly after a task force examined GRAMA three years ago. At that time, Waddoups said, the House wasn’t willing to pass changes to GRAMA. And last year was an election year for all House members, as well as half the Senate.
“Nobody likes to do this in an election year,” Waddoups said. “So now is the time.”
Maybe I don't understand what the bill says, but I don't see the big deal here? What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteMy response ran a little too long to fit in a comment, so I've added it to the original post.
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell- it changes Utah's existing open government law to exclude electronic correspondence from being made public.
WHOA. I thought it had to do with the public's private electronic correspondence. Yowza.
ReplyDelete