I'm typing this on Wednesday night, just after I filed the article about the latest batch of documents from the Trolley Square shootings. Here's the background on how we acquired the reports and photographs.

In January, the Salt Lake City police department released its final report on the shootings. We here at The Tribune wanted the source material for that report and figured since the shootings were officially a closed case, we could have access under GRAMA. On Jan. 17, I filed a GRAMA request with the police department.

My request is summarized below... in the police department's denial letter. You'll see the department had arguments for why the documents should be kept out of public view.

I respectfully disagreed and filed a letter of appeal found below. On March 27, the Salt Lake City Corp. appeals board heard my case. I was accompanied by Tribune justice editor Elizabeth Neff while the police department was represented by an attorney as well as two police detectives who offered explanations for why the documents should be withheld.

My specific legal arguments aside, The Tribune's philosophical argument went like this: The police department's final report only tells us what it thought was important or wanted to say. We want our own access to the information about Sulejman Talovic, his victims and the killings.

The police department and the city's philosophical argument was essentially: We have provided information to the public about Trolley Square. Releasing additional information can expose our investigative techniques and cause more emotional harm to everyone involved.

The appeal board's ruling found agreements and disagreements with all the arguments and reasons to release some records and not others.

This hasn't been the first disagreement over records related to the Trolley Square shootings. The parents of slain victim Vanessa Quinn have gone to federal appeals court trying to obtain a report from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This may not be the last time The Tribune asks for records related to the shooting either. There are still things we want to know about the shootings. We don't know if anyone has that information, but we're not ready to stop looking.


TrolleyGRAMAappealSLC.pdf

hppscan53.pdf


-- nc

Labels: GRAMA, SLC

Want to know the annual budget for the Bulgarian Department of Transportation? . . . Assuming Bulgaria has a department of transportation.

Here's a Website that can help you find it. It's the National Freedom of Information Coalition's collection of international freedom of information laws.

And apparently the record laws in some countries can work as well as the ones we have here in the home of the free. I typed "Freedom of Information Act" into a Google News search engine on Friday. Articles from foreign news sites comprised almost the entire yield.

In a speech in February at an international conference on the right to public information, human rights advocate Diego Garcia Sayan said: ". . . more than half of the current (public records) laws worldwide were passed after 2000, showing the momentum that this new thinking has gained recently."

But the sunshine has not spread around the globe. The Carter Center, which sponsored the February conference, said:

"Numerous countries with once vibrant and robust access to information legislation are now in retreat, while the passage of new laws has slowed and implementation efforts are often insufficient. "

"Moreover, it remains unclear that the myriad benefits of the right to information are in fact reaching the most disadvantaged people and promoting the anticipated societal transformations."

-- nc

Labels: FOIA, NFOIC

One attorney wonders whether the State Records Committee is paying attention to the recent decision discussed below.

This spring, the Deseret News won a records case that went all the way to the Utah Supreme Court. The court ordered Salt Lake County to release a report on a sexual harassment investigation. Then on May 8, a former Utah Department of Corrections employee, represented by attorney Chad Steur, took a similar case to the State Records Committee.

Steur's client wanted sexual harassment investigation reports on two other corrections workers, one of whom was found by the department to have harassed. Steur used the News ruling to argue releasing the reports on both workers.

The records committee sided with Steur on the report for the worker found to have harassed and ordered the report released. But the committee allowed corrections to keep secret the report for the guy who was absolved of harassment. The committee said releasing that report would "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy." Here is a link to the complete order.

The split decision eats at Steur. He says the News ruling should have applied to both reports and says the records committee made an arbitrary decision.

"It remains to be seen whether the records committee is going to follow the mandate from the Utah Supreme Court that all records are public," Steur told me in an interview.

Steur said his client wanted to judge for herself whether both harassment cases were handled properly but cannot without the reports.

-- nc

Labels: GRAMA, State Records Committee

The Utah Supreme Court earlier this year issued a ruling that open records advocates ought to spend some time studying -- it's a great opinion.

In Deseret News v. Salt Lake County, the justices unanimously found that an investigation report into alleged sexual harrassment in the County Clerk's Office was a public record.

One of the best aspects of the ruling was the court's finding that it is not enough for a government agency simply to classify a whole category of records as protected. The agency needs to look at the specific record sought and determine whether it meets the rather stringent standard of being a "clearly uwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

"To qualify for nonpublic classification a record must not only invade personal privacy, it must do so in a 'clearly unwarranted' manner," says the ruling written by Justice Ronald Nehring.

"The content of an investigative report of a sexual harassment allegation could by its nature be expected to invade privacy. It is also possible that considerations of public interest might push aside concerns over even the most intimate, embarrassing, and humiliating episodes of human sexual behavior."

Indeed, the justices found that such public interest existed in this case because the report communicated "a genuine question about the propriety of the manner in which Salt Lake County officials monitored their workplace and responded to evidence of sexual misconduct."

".... We believe that the public interest in governmental accountability will often prevail over the interest of insulating an official from unwanted intrusion into sexually related conduct."

The justices also made an important finding in a footnote in the case dealing with the conflict in GRAMA over weighing public interests of disclosure vs. private interests of protection.

While one part of GRAMA says courts may order disclosure when the public access interest "outweighs the interest favoring restriction," the justices said GRAMA's statement of legislative intent holds sway. That means disclosure is required when competing interests are of "equal weight."


-- dh

There was an obit printed last weekend in the Trib that sent me into the paper's morgue for background -- not the electronic archives, but the files downstairs that contain thousands of folders stuffed with old, yellowed clippings.

The obit was for Jerome C. "Jerry" Gatto, of Salt Lake City, who spent time in federal prison for his guilty pleas on charges of bilking a bunch of folks out of $1.7 million in a gold-mine scheme. He also was an associate of organized crime figure Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno and his sons.

Among the clips was a pretty spooky one involving press rights, or the lack thereof.

In October of 1983, then 3rd-District Judge Homer Wilkinson issued a gag order prohibiting the the news media from using the terms "Mafia" or "organized crime" or similar terms in their trial coverage.

Gag orders are fairly common in high-profile court cases, but usually they're aimed at those with direct involvement -- attorneys, witnesses, jurors and the like.

Banning the press from printing something -- and the electronic media from airing it -- is generally considered unconstitutional "prior restraint," like that rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Pentagon Papers case.

But the Utah Supreme Court upheld Wilkinson's gag order.

The 4-1 ruling written by then Chief Justice Gordon Hall added a new test in determining when fair-trial interests outweighed free press interests: basically whether immediate public access to the information was important.

"In this case we perceive no significant public interest in immediate access to the sole subject of the restraining order: that Gatto, on trial for theft by deception, had some direct or indirect connection or association with organized crime," the ruling said.

But the Supremes did limit the ability to suppress information -- suggesting that they might have ruled differently in the case "of a public official, (or when there is) evidence of official misconduct" or when the organized crime connections were relevant in the trial.

"In those types of cases legitimate public interest is at its highest peak and the right to know could well outweigh competing interest and justify the expense and risk of sequestering the jury."

-- dh

Police relented on the records request (see Circling the Wagons below) for the identity of a man who burst into the home of his ex-girlfriend, an officer, and threatened she and her children before taking his own life.

Here's the story.

-- dh

There's lots of news coverage about the farm bill passed by both houses of Congress in veto-proof majorities. The agriculture policy blog, Mulch, this week shined light on a provision in the legislation creating a new exemption to the Freedom of Information Act.

The provision prohibits the disclosure of certain information provided by farmers who are applying for farm subsidies. A federal appeals court in February ordered such data released, Mulch reports, but this provision negates that ruling.

Farm subsidies have long been hot topics in agriculture. In Utah, such famously not-so-needy farmers as Larry H. Miller have received farm subsidies. The appellate ruling might have given public access to Miller's application and told us why he thought he deserved government aid.

"There are bureaucrats who feel this is something that should be kept private and there are a lot of farmers who feel that way," Ken Cook, Mulch's lead writer, told me in an interview.

Lots of other applications for government grants and aid are public records.

-- nc

Labels: FOIA

Most of the time, a police chief would be the one telling a person seeking public information to "file a records request."

But, in this case, a police chief -- Cottonwood Heights' Robby Russo -- is the one being told to make the request. And the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office is the one telling him to do so.

So what does Russo want? Daily logs of "who's on duty in our city -- and that we're paying for," he says.

The logs contain basic information of how many officers are assigned to Cottonwood Heights and whether they are on patrol around the city or in the office on phone duty, as well as any major incidents.

The problem is the logs include data from all of the precincts the Sheriff's Office oversees, says spokesman Lt. Paul Jaroscak, and that information is protected and requires a written request.

Russo says the only data the Sheriff's Office would hand over without such a request was how many officers were assigned to the city.

"We pay for a certain level of service," Russo says, "and we want to know if that's what we're getting."

By the way, Cottonwood Heights is defecting from the sheriff's umbrella and forming its own police department. The new CHPD takes over Sept. 1.

-- Maria Villasenor

Kennecott Utah Copper has joined the open-records offensive -- not to hold government accountable, but to cover its back.

The copper giant recently filed a records request with Salt Lake County, asking officials to hand over all documents "identified by a recent request by Jeremiah Stettler."

Hmmm. It seems the company has the jitters after newspaper's last investigation revealed a decade-long coverup of seismic instability at Kennecott's tailing impoundment north of Magna.

But Kennecott is welcome to look at the county's documents -- after all, they're public.

What's interesting, though, is that Kennecott faxed its request from the office of political pollster Dan Jones & Associates. Now I'm the one who's curious.

-- js

The Utah Transit Authority held a "public hearing" last night in which the only person there to do any listening was a court reporter hired for the purpose.

That's right, the board, which will make a decision later this month on imposing a fuel surcharge on bus and train rides didn't sit and listen to the public. Instead, members will have access to the written transcript of any comments.

A group of disabled bus riders and advocates for the poor who came to protest the surcharge proposal left angrily when officials declined to let them speak out publicly at the microphone.

UTA general manager John Inglish said it was "unfortunate they decided to leave" and that the board does a lot of hearings that way.

Indeed, UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware told me Wednesday that the board has been using the court reporter version of a public hearing on certain issues since at least 2002.

"They've found that it's much more effective," Bohnsack-Ware said. "It's just not effective to verbally spar on an open microphone."

She said that the board members all receive a packet of materials that include the transcribed comments, along with emails and comment cards and remarks that are phoned in.

She added that regular board meetings and public hearings for permanent fare increases still allow open-mike testimony.

OK, well maybe I just haven't been paying attention, but I've never heard of a court-reporter assisted public hearing. A Tribune reporter did just point out to me that last year a couple of federal agencies held "public information sessions" on a proposed massive bomb test in Nevada in which court reporters were available, but no decision makers.

Bonsack-Ware may be correct that the court reporter is "the most effective way to get the information across."

But it seems to me that it's missing a fundamental purpose of a public hearing: allowing people to air grievances, quiz decision makers and maybe -- in a best case scenario -- even get a bit of dialogue going, all while they're looking one another in the eye.

Like they say, democracy is messy.

-- dh

Here're some links and reports from last weekend's National Freedom of Information Coalition summit in Philadelphia.

Labels: NFOIC

One of the helpful tools for information on Washington politicians -- including Utah's congressional delegation -- is a website maintained by the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

The organization, which now has been around for a quarter century, is a great source when you want to follow the money. The web site contains info on campaign donations -- both from the perspective of who gives and who gets -- as well as lobbyist spending.

One of the features I like are "profiles" on members of Congress, and their election challengers, showing with simple pie charts and graphics what industries are the particular politician's patrons and how much of their campaign funding comes from individuals.

There is so much on the site and so many cool features that I won't try to go into them here. But check it out for yourself -- no subscription is required.

--dh

Sometimes records requests prompt articles. Sometimes articles prompt records requests. And so on and so on.

That's the story behind our recent exposé about a secret compensation system that has netted tens of thousands of dollars in extra pay for Sandy city's top executives. The story was prompted by a review of pay records obtained by The Tribune via a Government Records Access and Management Act request (and several years of further legal wrangling.) The article then prompted discussions that led to a new revelation: In the waning days of the court case, the city hired outside legal help - in addition to the legal services of its own staff of attorneys - to try to fight a court order to pay the Tribune's legal fees.

That prompted a new GRAMA request. And the city promptly turned over records showing more than $14,000 in payments to a downtown Salt Lake City law firm - and about $700 to the public policy expert whom Sandy officials have said advised the city not to release the records.

You can review those records, which include a detailed account of how the lawyers spent their $200-plus-an-hour time, here, here, here, here and here.

-- mdl

Labels: GRAMA, Sandy

The removal of Holladay's chief of police services, Republican Steven DeBry, remains overshadowed by politics as the long-time cop challenges Democrat Randy Horiuchi for a seat on the Salt Lake County Council.

County Republican Party Chairman James Evans continues to shout about political payback from the Democrat-led Sheriff's Office. And Sheriff Jim Winder counters that DeBry's transfer was little more than a personnel issue.

But neither side can provide a convincing paper trail that removes DeBry's dismissal from the political realm.

The only bit of documentation is an e-mail from DeBry to Winder, suggesting that Evans incorrectly characterized the transfer as "a party vs. party issue."

"I have once again advised him that this is not punitive in nature and to let it drop," DeBry wrote. "Apparently he isn't doing so."

But several GOP insiders discredit the letter, saying DeBry was simply trying to make amends with his employer to save his job.

The paper trail disappears from there. Holladay came up empty-handed this week when asked to provide all correspondence involving City Manager Randy Fitts and Mayor Dennis Webb about DeBry's transfer.

"No records have been found, nor do they exist regarding the subject matter of your request," Holladay Recorder Stephanie Carlson wrote.

The only records, Carlson noted, are the minutes of a closed meeting on April 24, 2008 -- almost two months after DeBry filed for a County Council seat. The session was closed to discuss personnel issues and Holladay is keeping a lid on them.

Perhaps DeBry's removal will have to remain in political limbo a little longer -- at least until someone is willing to cough up the evidence to prove otherwise.

-- js

When tragedy hits a police officer, the thin blue line forms a circle.

Earlier this week, police issued a press release on a tragic incident in which the ex-boyfriend of an officer allegedly broke into the ex's home, assaulted her and then, after she escaped with her children, fatally shot himself.

The crime occurred Wednesday and was reported Thursday in The Tribune. But some vital information was left out -- namely, the identity of the alleged assailant.

That's because police wouldn't release that information, nor the name of the victim or the location of the attack.

While the desire to protect the victim in a tragic circumstance, particularly when it's a fellow officer, is understandable, the silent treatment is not allowed under GRAMA.

"We wouldn't name an exact address of the victim or her name anyway," explains Tribune reporter Melinda Rogers, "but we should be able to get it."

And the Trib would report the name of the assailant -- that's clearly a matter of public record and should be.

Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Paul Jaroscak told Rogers he wouldn't release the info because the victim is a police officer.

Below is the GRAMA request Rogers filed Friday.

--dh

TEMPLATEgeneral.doc

"It's hard when you've got an audience," says West Jordan mayor Dave Newton.

And that's why Newton is unapologetic for hosting a recent budget meeting in which the public wasn't able to hear city councilors deliberate on the city's budget.

"When we sit up on the dais and we put mikes out there, it becomes a different atmosphere than when we can just chat and go back and forth and be less formal," Newton told The Deseret News.

D-News reporter Amy Choate-Nielsen writes that "the Open and Public Meetings Act doesn't specify that amplification must be used in public meetings in order for city councils to 'conduct their deliberations openly.' "

-mdl

Labels: Open and Public Meetings Act, West Jordan

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Take 'er easy, Texas.

I spent 11 days here covering various aspects of the raid on the FLDS compound. Today The Tribune is recalling me. West Texas was all I ever heard: vast, flat, windy, hot and rough.

And I've never been in a place where everyone was so polite every time they told me to go away. (That includes the Amarillo, Texas, police department, which was very friendly when it investigated why I was parked outside a children's home in that town.)

So as I switch from barbecue sauce to fry sauce, ditch belt buckles with your names for elder name tags and trade conservative politics for . . . uh, well, here's a list of record requests the newspaper has made in the last few years to assist with reporting on the FLDS. Maybe it will demonstrate how open records can further public knowledge on a topic.

-- Nevada Highway Patrol -- reports and photographs concerning the capture of Warren Jeffs

We here at The Tribune are so proud of acquiring these photographs, we won't share them with others. That's not a joke. Don't snag this photograph from the Website unless you're lonely and need a phone call from a Tribune lawyer to cheer you! The reason we like the photos is because they demonstrate how Jeffs was living during his roughly two years on the lam. Along with Jeffs in his German-tourist disguise, there were photographs of his cash, cell phones and credit cards and storage lockers in Colorado.

-- Fremont County, Colo., Sheriff's Office -- reports and photographs concerning the surveillance of a home suspected of harboring Warren Jeffs

No one has ever said for certain Jeffs visited this particular house, but the photos at least demonstrate how law enforcement was searching for him.

-- Washington County, Utah, jail -- Visitor log and recordings of Jeffs

The newspaper and other outlets were denied access to the documents while Jeffs was awaiting and on trial, but when Jeffs was convicted the records became public and showed how Jeffs wasn't holding up well in jail.

-- Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training -- conduct complaints against marshals in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah

The documents included a letter written by one of the town marshals to Jeffs and appeared to demonstrate the cop's loyalty to the then-fugitive.

We have other various record requests pending to a variety of places. Here's hoping I can report on their contents soon.

— NC

Labels: Polygamy

The head of Internet Service Provider (ISP) Xmission is upset that the announced sale of the controversial iProvo fiber-optic network was botched.

Pete Ashdown charged yesterday that the sale of the public asset wasn't properly done through a public process, claiming the RFP (request for proposal) did not spell out that iProvo was seeking buyers.

Tribune reporter Don Meyers followed up, immediately requesting Provo City spokeswoman Helen Anderson to provide a copy of the RFP.

"She provided it within 5-10 minutes, apparently confident that it would vindicate her position that Ashdown has poor reading comprehension skills," said Meyers.

He's provided a copy of the document below, so folks can "decide for themselves."

75028%5B1%5D.pdf

-- DH

Tribune reporter Kristen Moulton figures she broke some sort of public records record while reporting on Logan's Summerfest Arts Faire this week.

"My hat is off to the Utah Division of Consumer Protection," Moulton said.

She wanted to see the division's file on the festival, so she e-mailed Department of Commerce to ask how to obtain it.

"Within 90 minutes, the director of the division called," Moulton said. "About an hour later, I got the paperwork, by fax, that I was seeking. Amazing."

Here's the paperwork she received: 8015306001_080506_94884149.pdf

--mdl

Daniel Ellsberg, admired/notorious whiste-blower of Pentagon Papers fame, will be in Salt Lake City to speak to a gathering of ACLU members. In an interview with The Tribune, Ellberg offered advice for would-be government tattle-tales.

"Don’t wait until a new war has started before you tell the truth," he said. "When you realize that keeping promises of secrecy involves breaking your promise to protect and uphold the Constitution," it's time to leak.

-mdl

Labels: DOD, leaks, secrecy

ELDORADO, Texas — Covering the story of the FLDS raid here in West Texas has kept me busy, but I'm still keeping up on the important news elsewhere.

The Chicago Cubs bullpen is losing leads and games. Big Brown is this year's star of the horse racing triple crown watch and LSU needs to recruit another quarterback. Hey, what can I say. I may be a news guy, but sports is my kinky mistress.

I have extra reason to notice the LSU story, where quarterback Ryan Perrilloux was punted after he allegedly failed a drug test. College drug testing was the subject of a big Tribune investigation published in November utilizing record requests sent to 122 schools.

LSU was among the respondents and you can read about its testing program from 2004 to 2007. For reporters, the benefits of having historical records like the LSU documents is having a guide for today. And as I read reports from the various news outlets in Louisiana on Saturday afternoon, I had several questions.

So, if I were reporting on the LSU quarterback story, here are a list of questions I would pose. Feel free to tell me what I've omitted.

-- How many tests did Perrilloux fail? LSU's policy -- which is similar to the policies at most athletic departments -- does not mandate suspensions until the second positive test. The third positive test can earn you a one-year ban. A fourth positive is not even discussed. If the NCAA arrived on campus for a random test and Perrilloux failed that, he still would only be facing a one-year ban. So what happened
with Perrilloux that a positive test earned him a permanent benching?


-- Who else recently failed a test and what happened to them? Supposedly there had been some previous discipline problems with Perrilloux, and that might have contributed to his dismissal. But if he was booted for testing positive for drugs and another football player with similar circumstances failed a test and was allowed to
remain, you have some justice issues.

-- Was Perrilloux given a test at random or was he tested for cause? And if they tested him for cause -- meaning the coaching staff suspected something -- what did Perrilloux do to draw suspicion?

-- For what substance(s) did Perrilloux test positive? This only matters if the substance factored into his dismissal. Some schools draw distinctions between recreational drugs and performance enhancers. For that matter, LSU's policy says a positive test can be assessed if Perrilloux took some prescription or over-the-counter
drugs but did not tell the athletic department.

— NC

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff publicly advocates for open records (though his office, charged with representing state agencies, is frequently on the other side of these disputes.)

He also has provided some valuable resources.

If you go to the GRAMA section of his web site by clicking here you will be able to download or print off a boilerplate records-request form. There also is information on the GRAMA law, including a copy of the statute, as well as info about the Open Meetings Law.

-- DH

Never mind trying to get documents and records from the government. How about giving me the right phone number?

Recently, I tried to check the status of two record requests I have pending with the FBI. I called the phone number for the FOIA Requester Service Center.

A gentlemen answered the phone and said I called the records management division. Things went awry from there.

This is not the phone number I should call to check on the status of my requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the man said.

So if that number is wrong, where should I call?

"I don't know, sir," was the reply.

The next day, FBI Public Liaison Nancy L. Steward called and was helpful in updating me on the status of my requests. Then I told her about what happened when I called the service center.

Steward called back again and said another section had someone incorrectly using the service center phone line. She said the problem would be fixed. I called the service center line on Monday and was able to check my request this time.

If you want to check on the status of your FOIA request to the FBI, the service center's telephone number is 540-868-4591. Steward's number is 540-868-4516.

— NC

Labels: FBI, FOIA

On KSL-TV to speak about our newspaper's recent exposé on Sandy's hidden bonus program, anchor Bruce Lindsay asked me why the public should care about public records laws, since such statute mostly are utilized by journalists -- who, as he pointed out, aren't exactly breaking the mercury on the public's love-o-meter.

Here's one good reason: In Washington on Thursday a bi-partisan duo of congressmen introduced legislation that would provide healthcare to veterans who were unknowingly subjected to biological and chemical weapons tests.

Those tests, known as Project 112, were run secretly out of a Utah Army base for decades -- and denied for decades more, despite reports from participating veterans that they were being stricken with unusual diseases.

What shook loose the veil of secrecy -- and ultimately led to this proposed legislation? A Freedom of Information Request by veterans groups in support of service members who felt they'd been wronged.

-mdl

Labels: DOD, FOIA, Sandy