Never mind that there's a civic responsibility aspect of monitoring your local jail, sometimes looking at the booking information is just darn fun.

Take this inmate from Utah County, who, please remember, has not yet been convicted. Maybe it's just me, but I find a disconnect between the suspected charges and the tattoos described on her feet.



— NC

Labels: jail/prisons

Think of it as the Razzies of the open records world.

The Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists wants to know who is doing the least for government transparency. Below is the call for nominations.

— NC

Call for Sunshine/Black Hole Award nominations

Are you dealing with a “black hole” that swallows up public records or shuts the public out of meetings?

Or is there someone you think has been a ray of “sunshine” at keeping government open?

The Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists would like to know about them. SPJ annually gives out Sunshine Awards for those individuals and agencies that work to keep government open and fully transparent. It also gives Black Hole awards to those entities that hinder the public's right to attend meetings of public bodies or review records that should be in the public domain. SPJ issues the awards around March 16, which is the National Freedom of Information Day and the birthday of James Madison, the author of the First Amendment and father of the U.S. Constitution.

But SPJ needs your help. We can't possibly track down every case on our own. So we've set up an e-mail where people may send nominations for Sunshine or Black Hole awards. The email is utahfoi@gmail.com. Our deadline is Feb. 27.

When you nominate someone, please be as specific as possible as to why you think they deserve either a Sunshine or Black Hole award. Cite dates and specific incidents, and whatever documentation you may have.

“The Sunshine Awards are a way to recognize efforts by elected officials and others to keep the governing process open and transparent to all citizens,” Linda Petersen, Utah Headliners Freedom of Information Chair. “Conversely, the Black Hole Awards put those who violate this sacred charge on notice that their actions are being noticed and will be remembered.”

Labels: secrecy

In his first day in office, President Barack Obama took a major step toward, as he called it, a "new era of openness" in government, reversing restrictive policies of the Bush administration that prevented the release of information.

In a Presidential memorandum, Obama said there would now be a presumption that government records requested under FOIA should be released. He directed the Attorney General to prepare new FOIA guidelines in line with the policy.

"Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known," Obama said.

The other memorandum focuses on transparency and public involvement.

"Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing," Obama wrote. "My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public."

Obama also issued an executive order that would require the disclosure of more presidential records, again reversing the changes under to the Presidential Records Act under the Bush administration.

The irony is that only the executive order were available on the White House Web site as of early Thursday morning. But the full text of the documents can be found

here

-- RG

A day after I complained his Website wasn't working, President Obama made open record nuts everywhere happy.

The new leader of the free world on Wednesday undid the previous president's orders closing presidential records and ordered federal agencies to lean on the side of openness when handling Freedom of Information Act requests. Click here to read the story.

Obama received immediate kudos from The Sunshine In Government Initiative. It issued a press release saying:

Yesterday's policy of 'When in doubt, leave it out,' today became, 'When it doubt, let it out.' And this policy will help keep the public informed in our technology-driven, connected society. On open government, the dawn is breaking.

— NC


Photo courtesy of The Associated Press.

Labels: FOIA, White House

That's the page I got when I tried to load the FOIA handbook for the White House office of Administration.

I'm trying to send President Obama his first requests under the Freedom of Information Act but I can't find up-to-date instructions for doing so. Maybe this lapse is a problem left over from the previous administration. (You know, the one that was in office this morning.) But here's hoping the new guys hop on this.

— NC

UPDATE: Below are copies of the FOIA requests I just sent the new administration.

HHSrequest.pdf

FOIAMSHA.pdf

ObamaRequest.012009.pdf

Labels: FOIA, White House

Given I received exactly zero votes in my file-an-FOI-request contest, I'm going to send all four entries to Barack Obama when he is inaugurated on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in the closing hours of the transition, articles and commentary continue to roll about how nontransparent the Bush Administration was and how the Obama administration can be beacons of light.

The latest, longest example is from the Columbia Journalism Review. A link to the article is here, but beware. It's long even for someone who really cares about this stuff.

— NC


— The photo is of then-Sen. Obama in Park City. It's courtesy of The Associated Press.

Labels: Candidates, FOIA

Be careful, BYU fans, about giving to the University of Utah marching band.

You may think you're just being a good sport, showing some state pride or supporting President-elect Barack Obama. But you may still have to answer to your fellow Cougars for what you've done.

That's because the identities of donors to colleges and universities in Utah can be public records, much like your political contributions are public records. But in the case of gifts to universities, you may request, in writing, that your name not be disclosed. At that point, the university is suppose to shield your name from disclosure.

Click here for the state statute. Read paragraph 37.

— NC

Labels: donations, GRAMA

The other newspaper in town praised the Salt Lake City government initiative to be more transparent. Meanwhile, I can't see in from my office.

Every time I try to load www.transparencyslcgov.com from The Tribune newsroom, I receive an error message saying the server is not responding. So last night, between interviewing refinery fire evacuees, I tried loading the page from a computer in the teacher's lounge at Woods Cross High School.

What do you know? It turns out Salt Lake City really does have a "transparency" page. (I saved the page as a PDF and attached it below.)

I can only assume there's some problem on my end, but this still seems strange. As a crime reporter, I've visited everything from Websites advertising prostitutes to instructions for making crack cocaine and I've never had a Web page everyone can access but me.

— NC

Salt%20Lake%20City%20Transparency%20-%20Home.pdf

Labels: SLC

While Salt Lake County undoubtedly will suffer criticism for the managerial mess within its planning and development division, the Mayor's Office deserves a few kudos for not treading the no-comment path in answering The Tribune's questions about recent personnel problems.

When asked whether the resignation of planning and development chief Simon Ginn was related to unconfirmed rumblings about sexual harassment, Chief Administrative Officer Doug Willmore confirmed that a complaint had been filed and investigated against Ginn. Did it factor into Ginn's departure? Willmore suggested chatting with Ginn, personally. (We dropped by Ginn's house. He declined comment.)

When asked to confirm whether another prominent planning official, Tom Roach, had been placed on leave, Willmore again verified that the county had taken action against him. He said little more, but could have said nothing at all.

And lastly, when asked why Delbert Swensen, associate director of the planning and development division, had been placed on leave within an hour of lambasting his bosses for failing to notify employees of Ginn's resignation, Willmore didn't dance around the issue. He confirmed that Swensen had been sent home and stated matter-of-factly that it was because of the critical e-mail the manager had circulated to his superiors and staff.

So on personnel issues, when the county could have been tight-lipped and nonresponsive to the public, Salt Lake County proved surprisingly open.

­­-- JS

Even though it doesn't have to, Utah County will allow Hilarie Orman to appeal to the State Records Committee.

Orman, of the Spanish Fork News, has been trying to obtain two police reports from the Utah County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office denied her request and then the Utah County Commission denied her appeal.

Orman thought she would be allowed to appeal both denials to the State Records Committee. But the secretary for the committee told Orman that Utah County had "opted out" of the state process — an option available to counties and municipalities in Utah if they formulate their own records process.

Then Utah County talked to the secretary and said, no, its procedures are to allow appeals to the state. It turns out the county just hadn't updated its ordinances.

If you're head is spinning, so was Orman's. But the bottom line is: She has another shot at the two police reports.

No agenda has been set yet, but the committee's next meeting is Feb. 12.

— NC

Labels: State Records Committee, Utah County

The resignation of Salt Lake County's Planning and Development Director Simon Ginn ended a frustrating public-records search that had yielded no explanation to why the planning chief had been placed on paid leave in early December.

The Salt Lake Tribune learned in late-October that something was amiss with the planning chief and filed a records request for all of Ginn's incoming and outgoing e-mails over a three-month period (which amounted to more than 1,200 pages).

We asked for any complaints lodged against him, for his compensation package, for a list of all vacation and comp time he had accrued and for any correspondence between county leaders and Ginn before his hiring.

We got the e-mails and compensation package without a problem (those are public). The county even turned over his vacation and comp time, although attorney T.J. Tsakalos wrote that the information isn't "technically public" but that the nature of the investigation led him to "tip the scale toward disclosure" anyway.

The complaints -- which we still haven't obtained -- proved more difficult, especially after Ginn was placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 1. Here's the written response we received from the county:

"These documents are properly classified at this time as 'protected' under Utah Code Ann. Section 63G-2-305 (9) as they are maintained for enforcement and discipline purposes," Tsakalos wrote. "I further examined them to determine whether the public interest warrants their release at this time. I find their release at this time could reasonably interfere with any investigation, disciplinary or enforcement proceedings or trials that may be conducted. I cannot find their release outweighs their protected status."

But even though we failed to obtain those documents, the county ultimately confirmed that they contained a sexual-harassment allegation that resulted in an investigation shortly before Ginn's resignation.

And the compensation package revealed that the county had previously had high hopes for Ginn, offering him a much more lucrative deal than his predecessor.

It was a sometimes-grueling open-records campaign that resulted in a wider story once Ginn tendered his resignation.

-- JS

The Utah Attorney General's Office is on a cold streak when it comes to records.

First the Utah Supreme Court ruled against the AG when it tried to keep secret records dealing with wilderness rights of way over public lands.

Then on Thursday the State Records Committee said the AG must release communications between the criminal appeals division and attorneys representing the Utah Division of Finance. Click here for an article about the decision.

The technical aspects of Thursday's case dealt with whether discussions among the lawyers constituted attorney-client privilege. The heart of the matter is public defenders want to know what the AG's office said about paying lawyers who defend appealing convicts.

But the latter case may not be over. The AG has the option of filing a lawsuit in state district court challenging the records committee decision.


— NC

Labels: State Records Committee

The junta commander in the People's Republic of Salt Lake City, Ralph Becker, on Tuesday pledged his government would be more accessible to the citizens.

Becker rolled out a plan to go "Wiki" by posting more documents online and foster more public input. For articles about the plan, go here or go here.

The initiative has the blessing of the Republic's high priest for open government, Joel Campbell, an assistant professor of communications at Brigham Young University.


This is how some people think the town is still governed.

But some want more. Neighborhood activist Polly Hart raised the issue of what happens once the people have their say.

"I thought this was going to be about how administrative decisions are made. I'm still not finding out."

One obvious problem: The new Website, www.transparencyslcgov.com, would not open for me this morning.

— NC

Labels: SLC

In the nine months I've been writing for this blog, I've tried to keep the topics relevant to Utahns.

But this story from The Olympian is so outrageous, I couldn't resist sharing. The article recounts how members of the Olympia, Wash., city council were e-mailing each other about business during a public meeting. Effectively, the council was circumventing the public process during a public meeting.

The Olympian obtained the e-mails and reported:

In several e-mails, council members discussed topics that were before the council on the given night. In an exchange on Sept. 23, Kingsbury appeared to try to line up enough votes to release a property from the moratorium on development in Chambers Basin in southeast Olympia.

He wrote to Hyer, "Are you comfortable if I make a motion removing the Kramer property from the moratorium area, and I think I can get (Councilman) Craig (Ottavelli) to second. And, do you support that? We haven't had a chance to talk, but I am ready to do that."

About a minute later, he wrote to Ottavelli: "If I move to remove the Kramer property from the moratorium area, will you second? Or are you on that page. We have at least 4 if you are."

I just hope this is illegal in Utah and I'm not giving public officials any ideas.

— NC

Labels: Open and Public Meetings Act

To read the complete notice and agenda for this meeting, click here.

The State Records Committee will hold a meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8.

The meeting will be held in the Courtyard Meeting Room, State Archives Building, 346 S. Rio Grande Street (450 West) in Salt Lake City

Committee business and one hearing are scheduled.

– 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. This hearing has been continued from the Dec. 11 meeting to allow the committee members to review a complete set of documents requested by the committee from the Office of the Attorney General.

—Approval of the December 11, 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 Item
—Other Business

Adjournment – Next meeting scheduled – Thursday, Feb. 12.

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. Jan. 6. Please mail or deliver those comments to:

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

Labels: State Records Committee

In another reminder of how public access laws are considered important to international human rights, the prime minister of Grenada says he will introduce freedom of information laws to that country.

Meanwhile, the fight for public access continues here in the homeland. The Utah County Commission has denied an appeal filed by Hilarie Orman of the Spanish Fork News.



Orman is seeking two benign police reports from the Utah County Sheriff's Office. But the sheriff's office, and now the county commission, says the reports are protected records.

Orman is considering an appeal to the State Records Committee.

Labels: Crime, Utah County