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State employees lack training on open-records law
Deseret Morning News
May 15, 2005

Utah's local governments aren't the only public agencies that need training in the state's open-records law.

State agencies show the same lack of education among some state employees, an audit showed.

A survey of 13 state agencies conducted by the Deseret Morning News last fall shows that of the 14 total requests made for public information, 64 percent of the agencies supplied the information asked for, while the others pretty much gave the newspaper the run-around.

The Deseret News sent out five interns to contact state agencies believed to have some of the most day-to-day contact with the public, such as the Division of Motor Vehicles, from which was asked a list of car dealers cited for violations of the law.

According to the newspaper's audit, asking for lists, such as a list of dentists disciplined over that past three years in Davis County, or a list of construction contractors disciplined over the last five years in Salt Lake County, proved fruitless. State employees explained that while they had the ability to call up individual names, they did not have the ability to create lists.

The question of how to handle computer data under Utah's Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA) remains unclear. "GRAMA does allow you to ask for records in the format in which they are kept by the agency," said Salt Lake City attorney David Reymann, who deals with open government issues for the news media and public.

Several years ago, compiling a list took hours of digging through paper files. But with new technology, some lists from databases can be created with a few keystrokes.

"This is different than a hundred paper files that you're asking a state agency to sit down and go through," Reymann said. "I would like to see GRAMA be more explicit in the way it deals with computer data."

A special task force comprised of state lawmakers will meet Tuesday to review GRAMA and propose changes to the law that governs the public's access to government information. Some advocates for open government have expressed concern that some lawmakers may seek to further restrict the public's access to documents.

The state agency audit did show some state agencies to be very helpful, and friendly.

When the Judicial Conduct Commission was asked for a list of judges disciplined over that last five years, the audit noted the worker was "extremely courteous" and the information was easily obtained.

The State Board of Education was also noted to be prompt and helpful as was the Division of Child Care Licensure.

The Labor Commission of Utah's Anti-discrimination and Labor Division, however, was noted to be "rude" when we asked for a list of companies that violated Utah's minimum-wage laws over the past year, until it was disclosed that the intern represented the news media. The intern noted an immediate change in demeanor. We were then told it was impossible to break out the information from their data.

Reymann said he encounters frustration and accounts of poor treatment by citizens who come to him for help in getting government records. He attributes this to a lack of employee training in GRAMA. Reymann explains it is natural that if an employee does not know if a document is public or not, they will err on the side of caution and deny the request.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi said she's actually relieved that state workers would withhold information if they are not sure if it is public or not, because it spares the state, and taxpayer, possible liability.

Kikuchi said the governor believes that GRAMA is important and should be followed. But his administration has not addressed the issue of training state workers on how to deal with public information requests.

"There's no requirement in terms of GRAMA training for all state employees," Kikuchi said. But, she said, it is state policy that every state agency have a "GRAMA-designated expert" to handle requests.

That's fine, Reymann said, but the result of not addressing training is that citizens get the run-around from employees who may not know who their GRAMA expert is. "It would take a minimal amount of resources to instruct employees on what GRAMA is," which would spare other employees time and citizens frustration.