Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker says he is planning to bring more transparency to city government.

The plan will be unveiled next month. The initiative received a mention in Monday's Tribune.

Also, Joel Campbell, an assistant professor of communications at Brigham Young University, wrote this Monday on his Facebook page.

Salt Lake City will announce a new "Transparency for Collaborative Policy Development" on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 10 a.m. to noon at City and County Building, 451 S. State. The initiative will look at how the public can be more aware, involved and have more input into city operations. A key part of this is changing the city government culture with relation to GRAMA and open meetings. I have had the opportunity to be a consultant on the project and hope it will be a model for other governments in Utah. I believe that the Becker administration is committed to rethinking openness, transparency and citizen involvement in government.

— NC

Labels: SLC

Upgrading streets, fiber-optic networks and baseball diamonds might fix the economy in Utah and elsewhere, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The Conference released a survey earlier this month of municipal infrastructure projects that are "ready to go" and can create jobs. A PDF of the report can be found here. A handful of Utah cities submitted projects.

Most of the requests from Utah are for street, sewer or water improvements. Salem, population 5,900, also wants $20 million for a recreation complex it says will create 200 jobs. Salt Lake City wants about $1.5 million to improve bleachers and concession stands at baseball diamonds.

Here's a list by city.

My favorite request: the Provo Police Department wants $663,000 for an "indoor gun range with noise attenuation." I'm sure the Obama stimulus package will hear you loud and clear, guys.

CNN viewed the list and found some peculiar requests. Nothing from Utah received mention.

— NC

That photo is not of Provo police officers, though it may very well be an accurate representation of their current firing range.

Labels: Bailouts, Utah County

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says it can't release documents to me until it checks with the companies who are the subject of the documents.

It seems a little strange government won't disclose public information without the permission of private enterprise. I can only assume the policy is meant to encourage the companies to be forthcoming with the Safety Commission. I just hope the Safety Commission gives me an opportunity to appeal if it withholds something at a company's request.



My request, discussed in the .JPGs here, sought documents related to product recalls and safety concerns with carbon monoxide alarms.

— NC

Labels: Corporate America

If you work in the public sector — or know someone who does — you've probably had fun with UtahsRight.com.

Who doesn't like learning how much money someone earns? Eric Watson, who works here in The Tribune newsroom, compiles the list through record requests sent to agencies.

Usually, the agency supplies the information in an electronic spreadsheet. But there's one town that does not give Watson digital data.

Provo prints the names and salaries of its employees and mails it to Watson. Yes, prints it on paper. Yes, through the U.S. Postal Service.

Watson explains:

They’re worried I could screw with their data. You hear of people not trusting the government all the time, but it’s rare when the government doesn’t trust the people, eh?

Watson said he has tried, without success, persuading Provo's human resources department to supply electronic data. Utah law does not mandate supplying documents in electronic format. So Watson scans the hard copies into a digital file.

Watson said that actually increases the potential for errors. Sometimes the computer misreads what the scanner produced. Zeros can become opened and closed parenthesis. A "2" can become a "Z."

Watson said he works to eliminate errors, but the increased likelihood of mistakes exists.

— NC

Labels: Utah County

The Utah Supreme Court just ordered the state to give some road and right-of-way documents to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Hold on. I know lots of people don't like SUWA. That's OK.

This is a blog about open government. So even if you want to bulldoze, drill and slash and burn SUWA, you might take some heart in the court ruling.

You can read a PDF of that ruling here. The court affirmed two important points.*

— Documents are public unless the law specifically says otherwise.

— Just because the government does something that might get it sued does not mean documents relating to that work are exempt from disclosure under the attorney-work-product rule.

This is the supreme court's second opinion this year concerning the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act.

— NC


*I am not an attorney and frequently remind myself of that.

Labels: GRAMA, rulings

As the Bush administration draws to a close, the U.S. Energy Department is looking at tightening its FOIA rules, eliminating the “public interest” test for releasing information.

Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, and easily the best in the business when it comes to government secrecy, noted the proposed rule change last week on his blog.

The Federal Register proposal, “would remove the so-called ‘extra balancing test’… which states: ‘To the extent permitted by other laws, the DOE will make records available which it is authorized to withhold under [the FOIA] whenever it determines that such disclosure is in the public interest’.”

That balancing test, the DOE says, would allow the department to make then discretionary release of information that might not be required under FOIA if it is “in the public interest.”

But, as Aftergood points out, that’s not the way its worked at the Justice Department under the 2001 Ashcroft policy. “To the contrary,” he writes, “it promotes withholding of exempt information and promises to defend agencies whenever they legally withhold such information.”

DOE is now moving closer to the Justice Department regulation. Does it matter. Well. Yeah, writes Aftergood.

Earlier this year, the president sought agency recommendations for a Public Interest Declassification Board to improve the declassification process. Aftergood asked for the agency recommendations and only got them from one: The Energy Department.

— RG

Labels: FOIA

Let's see if I have this correct.

A couple stood up at a public meeting and advocated for something. Then the couple asked the local newspaper not to name them because they did not want to draw attention to the issue?

Then the newspaper complied with the request and granted anonymity to the couple who just influenced public policy?

So much for newspapers being spotlights on public business.

This strange turn of events occurred at a meeting of the Alpine City Council, which considered whether to amend the town's off-road vehicle ordinance. A local couple asked the ordinance be amended to allow their Japanese mini-truck on city streets.

The couple then asked the Provo Daily Herald not to name them, according to the newspaper's article on the meeting.

The city of Alpine, however, had the good sense to keep the public business public. The city's Website has documents online suggesting the couple is Roy and Linda Pehrson. The documents, in the Dec. 16 meeting packet, include the Pehrsons' rationale for seeking the ordinance be amended.

— NC

Labels: Open and Public Meetings Act, Utah County

I just got off the phone with the FOIA officer for a small U.S. Army command. Generally I leave these conversations in a huff, but today I hung up the phone with a big smile on my face -- even though it's still unclear when I'll be getting the documents I have requested.

Here's why:

1) I'm a sucker for southern accents, and she had an absolutely lovely drawl.
2) She told me that I had requested "a lot of information" but didn't act as though this was a crime.
3) She said, "FOIA is a public access law. Many people don't understand that."
4) She gave me an update on my request and promised to do what she could to get over the bureaucratic hurdles.

While I realize that not every FOIA officer can have a southern accent, if they simply treated me the way this woman did, today, I'd be happy.

- mdl

Labels: FOIA

Roughly half of the financial bailout money has been spent with little or no accounting of where the money has gone, according to a coalition of taxpayer and government transparency advocates.

The coalition has sent Congress a letter, a PDF of which can be found here, urging disclosure. On the journalists side, Bloomberg has been leading the charge to find where the $700 billion bailout is going.

Meanwhile, OpenTheGovernment.org is compiling a rather unique clearinghouse. It's about what we don't know about the bailout.

— NC

Labels: Bailouts, Corporate America, FOIA

I've written before about how Utah has a superior system for appealing record denials. By one standard, Utah is ahead of its neighbors.

The National Freedom of Information Coalition published a position paper on how states can benefit by creating mediation to discuss disputes between citizens requesting records and the government agencies denying them. You can download the paper at the bottom of this post.

Utah, with its State Records Committee, is listed as a state with a mechanism for mediation or administrative appeals. It's one of the few Western states where you can fight a denial without an attorney. At least one person in Montana would like to hop aboard.

The executive director of the Montana Newspaper Association, John Barnes, suggested in a recent newsletter such an third party could prevent lawsuits and save money for taxpayers.

Despite the fact that the large majority of examples the public and media face in FOI violations require no judicial review…Montana’s open meeting and open record laws provides no other venue for relief except District Court.

And that means expense and delays so long (often a year or more) that any such value of obtaining the information has become moot.

— NC

hammitt_mediation_without_litigation.pdf

Labels: GRAMA, NFOIC

Today's article describing what happened during the Sept. 22 standoff in Farmington was written almost entirely from records I requested from the city.

I thought I was pretty aggressive requesting them shortly after the attorney general's office ended its inquiry into the shooting. But my colleagues had the same idea, and on Thursday I was livid when I looked at the Standard-Examiner.

That newspaper had an article about the contents of the documents. It turns out the city of Farmington had given the Examiner hard copies of the written reports by mistake. I had to wait until 4 p.m. Friday to receive digital copies of those reports as well as photographs and audio recordings.

It's tough for me to complain. Almost five years ago to the day, I broke a story for the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune in much the same way. Good job, Examiner.



There may be more documents coming in the Farmington standoff. The city has withheld hundreds of pages and some photographs, citing various statutes which the city feels exempts those documents from disclosure. I have not read the city's explanation letter and determined whether I will appeal.

— NC


The top photograph shows Brian P. Wood's truck after the standoff. The powder is from pepper balls, rubber bullets or other non-lethal munitions. The lower photograph shows one of the SWAT officers from that night. He was photographed for evidence purposes. Both photos were provided by the city of Farmington.

Labels: Police

Two months after her original record request was denied, Hilarie Orman has an appeal hearing Tuesday in front of the Utah County Commission.

Orman, of the Spanish Fork News, has had a few bumps on her way to what should be a routine matter.

As I wrote in October, Orman requested reports on a trespassing case and a motorcycle crash. The Utah County Sheriff's Office denied her request, claiming the reports are protected under the law and therefore not public.

Orman appealed the decision to the Utah County Commission. It should take no more than a couple weeks to schedule an appeal hearing. Here's what happened, according to an e-mail from Orman.

I filed my appeal with the Utah County Commission in mid-October and have called about it weekly since. The county commission forwarded it to Utah County Attorney a few weeks after receiving my fax.

The county attorney's office assigned it to someone on vacation. Then Diane Orcutt, the head of the civil division... told me that she was reviewing the records and that I would hear from her soon, within a few days.

The next week her secretary said that a hearing was being scheduled and that I would hear from her "shortly". The next week I called the county commission asking if the hearing had been scheduled, and they told me it had.

I asked why I hadn't been told and what day and time were involved. They said to call Diane Orcutt. Her secretary said it was for December 9, and that I would hear this from Diane "shortly". I said that I had a business meeting in Boston that day and asked to have it postponed to December 16. They said OK, and took the message. I still have not received any formal notice of a hearing, but I plan to call them next week when I return from Boston.

After Orman's hearing, the commission can order the records released or uphold the sheriff's decision. If Orman is unsatisfied with the commission's ruling, she can appeal to the State Records Committee.

— NC

Labels: GRAMA, Police, Utah County

From today's Salt Lake Tribune...

Should death-row documents be made public?
By Cathy Mckitrick
The Salt Lake Tribune

The State Records Committee meets today to settle a tug-of-war over government documents that might reveal whether the Attorney General's Office influenced the pay of public defenders working on death-row appeals.
In November, the Utah Supreme Court warned that it could be forced to reverse death sentences because most qualified attorneys object to doing such work for the state's low pay.
"We're looking at individual cases to figure the funding or lack thereof," said Daryl Sam, researching writer for the Utah Federal Offenders Office.
In July, Sam requested all communications between the state Division of Finance and the criminal division of the Attorney General's Office concerning death-row appeals.
In late August, both the Finance Division and the AG's Office denied Sam's request, saying the communications were protected under attorney-client privilege. Sam appealed that denial, maintaining that release of those records is a matter of public interest because these appeals involve the taking of an inmate's life.
"The execution of individuals convicted of a capital offense in Utah is a governmental function that should be done only with complete and meaningful oversight by governmental agencies and the public at large," Sam wrote to assistant Attorney General Brett DelPorto.
Sam claimed there would be an obvious conflict of interest between the two agencies rather than an attorney-client relationship.
"We're concerned about the AG's Office having any influence over the payment of the defense attorneys because they'd be the opposing party" -- in such appeal cases, Sam said. "They really shouldn't be pulling the purse strings."
Some of the communications did involve funding issues and particular cases, DelPorto said, but the requested e-mails contain nothing damning, he added.
In October, the Attorney General's Office denied Sam's appeal, voicing concerns about the chilling effect it could have on communications between attorneys working on issues of common interest.
Sam's office then sought further redress from the State Records Committee. Its members could issue a decision after today's hearing.

I spent Wednesday writing about a lawsuit filed against Ogden police officer Ken Hammond. At one point, I added this line to the article.

Shortly after the Trolley Square shootings, the city of Ogden, in answering a records request from The Tribune, said it had no records of discipline against Hammond.

That's right. While everyone else, including my own newspaper, was referring to Hammond as a "hero," I tried to find out if he had ever screwed up.

Discipline records are public records under the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act. Ogden was a little slow to respond, but eventually told me it had no records of discipline against Hammond; i.e. he had not been disciplined.

It's not that I wanted to just dig dirt on Hammond. I just wanted a more-complete picture of him.

That 1 1/2-year-old request now may be in Hammond's favor. It rebuts plaintiffs attorneys' claims there have been prior misconduct problems with Hammond.

— NC

Labels: GRAMA, Police

When I returned from my Thanksgiving vacation, I found a package from the National Park Service waiting on my desk.

It was the final reports on a June accident at Lake Powell where eight people suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, one of whom died. I referenced the accident in an October article discussing the reliability of carbon monoxide alarms. I requested the reports weeks ago under the Freedom of Information Act.

The final reports included narrative descriptions of the scene and subsequent investigation, witness interviews and illustrations from the park service and U.S. Coast Guard. In all, the stack of documents was about 1 1/2 inches thick and appeared to be comprehensive.

The park service and Coast Guard reports indicated the Howeths were poisoned from a gasoline-powered generator which had a design flaw in its exhaust system. (Twin Anchors, which manufactured the Howeth's rented boat, does not concur with that conclusion and says more investigation is needed.)

Some of you reading about the Howeths might wonder if your houseboat, or the houseboat you plan to rent this summer, has the same exhaust system. That's unlikely, unless you have a Twin Anchors houseboat manufactured in 2006 or later, according to the documents.

Even then, Twin Anchors or Aramark, the houseboat vendor at Lake Powell, may have improved the exhaust system design after the Howeths were sickened.

One way to protect yourself against carbon monoxide poisoning from houseboat generators is to ask the rental agency, dealer or a mechanic whether the generator complies with standards established by the American Boat and Yacht Council.

But even that is no guarantee against suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning aboard a boat. It's important to know any vessel's exhaust systems, where carbon monoxide can accumulate and the best uses for carbon monoxide alarms.

— NC

Labels: FOIA

A little blast from the past. No doubt this woman is to blame for the fact that I'm just recently getting responses back to records requests I made in 2003, right?
-mdl

S.L. Woman's Quest Strains Public Records System
By Christopher Smith
(c)2003, The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON -- Working from her austere Salt Lake City apartment or a nearby public library for more than a decade, Barbara Schwarz has carpet-bombed every federal department and agency with thousands of requests for public records the government says don't exist.

With no legal training, she has filed dozens of lawsuits against thousands of federal employees around the country, claiming they have withheld information on her Utah hometown, which can't be found on any map.

And she has written hundreds of letters to the White House, demanding to know the whereabouts of a husband she contends was falsely imprisoned for her own murder.

A twisted plot, to be sure, but one that can be recited almost chapter and verse by a legion of civil servants and judges who have dutifully waded through pages of her screeds since they began appearing shortly after she moved to Salt Lake City in 1989 from Europe in search of a murky past.

The U.S. Department of Justice contends Schwarz has made more requests under the landmark public records statute known as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) than any other person since it became law in 1966. A blueprint for open democracy and government accountability in other countries, the FOIA has been stretched to its limits by a reclusive woman who, by her own admission, is in the country illegally.

A Salt Lake Tribune review of federal court records and Justice Department annual reports on FOIA litigation shows at least one of Schwarz's lawsuits has been considered by a U.S. District or U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals somewhere in the nation every year since 1993. She also has filed unsuccessful appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1998 alone, Schwarz, who always acts as her own attorney and claims indigency to avoid paying court filing fees, had a caseload any rising lawyer would be proud of: 10 of her actions against the government were reviewed in federal courts in Utah, Maryland, West Virginia, Colorado, New York and the District of Columbia.

The slightly built woman in her late 40s with wavy dark hair rarely appears in court and has never won any of her lawsuits. One of her complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., set a record for voluminous litigation at 2,370 pages, naming 3,087 defendants, all of whom were employed as FOIA or "Privacy Act" officers in the federal government. Some of those workers have dubbed her a "FOIA terrorist" and coined a verb reflective of her unending request letters: "Have you been Schwarzed today?"

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals based in Denver and the D.C. District Court each have ruled that Schwarz's FOIA requests are frivolous and a waste of government resources. Both courts have enjoined or drastically limited her right to file future appeals within either jurisdiction.

"Imaginary conspiracy":
The FOIA's "admirable purpose is abused when misguided individuals are allowed (in this case repeatedly) to submit requests to every agency and subdivision of the government, seeking information about an imaginary conspiracy," U.S. District Court Judge John Bates wrote in a September ruling against Schwarz in Washington.

The Justice Department has taken the unusual step of notifying all of the thousands of federal employees charged with administering the FOIA that until Schwarz satisfies outstanding search and copying charges she incurred from various federal agencies, they can legally deny her continued requests for records. While senior Justice Department officials acknowledge such governmentwide notification of what they term a "exceptional" requester has only happened once or twice before in the history of the law, they say Schwarz is being treated no differently than anyone else.

"In the case of any FOIA requester who defaults or reneges on a commitment to pay, whether he or she has made two requests or 2,000, there would be a basis for the request not to be acted upon until the default is corrected," said Daniel Metcalfe, co-director of the Justice Department's Office of Information and Privacy. "It's certainly true that when Ms. Schwarz brought suit against virtually every government agency and subpart, that created an interagency focus that otherwise might not have existed."

But Schwarz is not giving up. She says she can't. Every boilerplate rejection letter from the federal government only widens the circle of suspicion that spawns more requests. And until she knows the answers to her questions, she says she is incapable of moving on with her life.

"I have no money for this but I am forced to do it because the purpose of the law is to reveal, not conceal, and government should be transparent," she said in a recent interview in a Salt Lake City restaurant. "When I started this journey, I never imagined it would take so long."

That quest, according to a September 2001 governmentwide memo on Schwarz issued by the Office of Information and Privacy, is "all based on unique personal notions that, most charitably stated, are entirely fanciful in nature."

Schwarz believes she was born in approximately 1956 at a secretive government compound "submarine base" called Chattanooga on the Great Salt Lake, the alleged daughter of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and the granddaughter of President Eisenhower, although there is no proof of any such place or relationship.

The ensuing story reads like a science fiction novel -- kidnapping by Nazis, mind control, conspiracy, hidden fortunes, faked deaths, insane asylums, cover-ups and microchips implanted in unsuspecting peoples' heads. Besides constantly referencing the tale in her FOIA requests and court filings, Schwarz has posted it in more than 80 parts on the Web newsgroup alt.religion.scientology.

"This is when people say, 'You're crazy,' " she says. "But I remember all those things so clearly, it's not like I just made it up. I need to know the truth of it and not to bury my perceptions."

That includes her belief she was once married to a man named Mark Rathbun who has been framed for her death and is being held somewhere in the United States, waiting for her to testify as his "relief witness" so that he can be cleared of the crime and the pair can be reunited.

Rathbun is, however, a high-ranking official of the Church of Scientology International, headquartered in Los Angeles. "We're clueless about this person and obviously she is delusional about Mr. Rathbun and she needs help," says Linda Simmons Hight, director of media relations for the church. "We're sorry for her."

When Schwarz is shown a recent photo of Rathbun from the church, she maintains it is not the same man she has asked the federal government to help her locate. She describes herself as a "nonorganized" scientologist who was "kicked out" of the church in Germany in the mid-1980s. University of Utah history professor Robert Goldberg, who has studied the subculture of conspiracy theorists, says Schwarz's manifestations seem based in the reality that the U.S. government does have a cult of secrecy. For instance, the federal Information Security Oversight Office's most recent study showed the number of government records classified as secret increased 44 percent in 2001 from the previous year, to more than 33 million.

Guarding secrets:
"The context here is the government loves to keep secrets and it guards those secrets very zealously," says Goldberg, author of Enemies Within: the Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America. "So when the federal government says you have everything we have on this subject and there's nothing, that only feeds more fuel to the fire in her soul."

Adding to the cycle of Schwarz's repeated requests is one of the virtues of the FOIA law: administrators are not to render judgment on the merits of the information being sought in a request. Those determinations only can be made at the judicial level once a requester loses an administrative appeal of a FOIA denial and files suit.

"Who's to say that one person's request has more validity than anyone else's?" says William Ferroggiaro, director of the Freedom of Information Project of the National Security Archive at George Washington University and president of the American Society of Access Professionals. "It's value neutral. In a way, she is using the law as it is intended even if her efforts cannot be characterized as anything but bizarre."

One of the other aspects of the FOIA law -- which has gained increased scrutiny in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- is that it may be used by citizens and foreign nationals alike. In some cases, fugitives of federal justice have filed FOIA requests and received responses, since only the courts may declare that a person who has flouted the laws of the land may not benefit from them.

Schwarz says she entered the United States on a visitor visa in the late 1980s and tried unsuccessfully for years to adjust her status with the Immigration and Naturalization Service before giving up. She says she has a German birth certificate but claims it was doctored to conceal that she was actually born in Utah.

Fighting INS:
"I have tried to get it worked out with the INS," says Schwarz. "They could probably arrest me or throw me out of the country for filing FOIA requests, but I'm not easily scared."

While the FOIA law is open to all, it does not guarantee free access to government information. Although Schwarz always requests that the standard fees for searching and copying records be deferred because she is poor and the request is in the public interest, a federal judge in the nation's capital ruled in 2001 that she didn't deserve a fee waiver because her disclosure would not "contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government."

As a result, the Department of Justice began tracking her outstanding FOIA bills and using those debts to disqualify further requests, beginning with a $16.80 balance due to the Salt Lake field office of the FBI.

"Anyone can see I'm not rich; I haven't bought new clothes for 12 years," says Schwarz, who does not hold a job or driver license and relies on a monthly stipend sent from relatives in Germany to pay for her rent, utilities and food. "I finally paid the FBI bill and two days later the chief counsel of the division said I owed $303.30 to the Veterans Administration. They are generating fees behind my back so they don't process my requests and it's spread to every agency."

To her, it's all part of the conspiracy.

"This circle is never going to close," says Goldberg. "Perhaps having this cause and mission gives her a will to live."

But Schwarz says being labeled a kook and an "FOIA terrorist" is not how she had hoped to find fame.

"It's not that this is my hobby and I don't have anything better to do," she says. "I would love to just write fiction and have a life. But I'm an optimist. I believe something will come my way that will end this."

Labels: FOIA

The University of Utah recently settled a lawsuit with Lisa Speckman, who claims she lost three limbs from a flesh-eating bacteria she contracted while under the care of university-trained medical staff.

We don't know what the university lost.





The university is refusing to disclose what it paid to Speckman to settle her lawsuit. As a taxpayer-funded institution, the University of Utah has to follow the state's records law, the Government Records Access And Management Act, which The Tribune has repeatedly used to force government agencies to disclose the terms of court settlements.

But the university is claiming a federal law takes jurisdiction here — a law governing the privacy of medical records. In denying a records request from Tribune reporter Pamela Manson, a university attorney suggested the terms of the settlement constitute are akin to releasing Speckman's medical records.

University Of Utah Associate General Counsel Brian Watts wrote to Manson:

As I am sure you appreciate, settlement of a claim that is closely connected to an individual's medical condition or treatment touches upon core personal privacy interests.

What Watts did not say in his letter is how Manson could appeal his decision. GRAMA requires agencies to include appeal options in denials.

In a follow-up e-mail, Watts suggested an appeal was not in order since a federal law is at issue. Manson disagreed and again asked Watts how to appeal. Watts later gave her the name of the university administrator who hears such appeals.

— NC

The scientific-looking photo is Strep bacteria, the root of flesh-eating bacteria, interactacting with human cells. It's courtesy of University Of California San Diego School of Medicine, via a Los Angeles Times blog. Trust me, this photo is a more-pleasant looking than a lot of flesh-eating bacteria photos.

Labels: GRAMA

The State Records Committee meets 9 a.m. Dec. 11. For a complete agenda, click here.

Here's a synopsis with instructions on how to attend or submit written comment.

— NC

The meeting will be held 9 a.m. in the Courtyard Meeting Room, the Archives Building, 346 S. Rio Grande St. (450 West), Salt Lake City, Utah, This is a public meeting, and anyone can attend.

* 9:00 a.m. – Hearing – Utah Federal Defender Office vs. Utah Attorney General’s Office, Capital Habeas Unit. The Federal Defender Office is appealing the denial of communications between the Utah Division of Finance and the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Division of Criminal Appeals.

* Training for State Records Committee members: 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

* Approval of the November 13, 2008, meeting minutes of the State Records Committee

* Appeals received: A summary of cases reviewed for hearings

* Cases in District Court

* Citizen representative update

* Approval of Retention Schedule Items

* Other Business

* Adjournment – Next meeting scheduled – Jan. 8.

Individuals wishing to comment during the meeting should notify Susan Mumford, Executive Secretary of the State Records Committee, and should be in attendance at the public meeting. The executive secretary will also accept written comments before the meeting but no later than 6 p.m. Dec. 9. Please mail or deliver those comments to:

State Records Committee
Utah State Archives
346 S. Rio Grande
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

NOTICE OF POSSIBLE ELECTRONIC OR TELEPHONIC PARTICIPATION
One or more members of the State Records Committee may participate electronically or telephonically pursuant to UCA 52-4-7.8.

NOTICE OF SPECIAL ACCOMMODATION DURING PUBLIC MEETINGS
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals needing special accommodations (including auxiliary communicative aids and services) during this meeting should notify Susan Mumford at the Utah State Archives: 801-531-3861.

Labels: State Records Committee