Monday was rough for public disclosure in Utah.

First, a judge excluded reporters from a court hearing discussing a buyout involving Usana Health Sciences Inc. (Maybe there's something in the water at Utah courthouses.)

Then we heard about a lawsuit filed by the city of Murray. The city does not want to disclose the names of disciplined police officer, even though there is a state statute specifically saying it must.

63G-2-301. Records that must be disclosed...
...(o) records that would disclose information relating to formal charges or disciplinary actions against a past or present governmental entity employee if:
(i) the disciplinary action has been completed and all time periods for administrative appeal have expired; and
...(ii) the charges on which the disciplinary action was based were sustained;

This strategy sure worked great for Sandy.

-- nc

Labels: GRAMA, Sandy, secrecy

Given all the public vitriol that seems to greet every new bit of news about Real Salt Lake's relationship with Sandy city, I was greatly surprised by something I read in the Deseret News this morning:

"The Sandy City Council, acting both on its own behalf and as a redevelopment agency, signed off on the remaining $10 million in the $45 million public funding package (for Real's new stadium). The meeting was a public hearing, but no residents showed up to comment."

The council's online agenda, which appears to have been posted in accordance with Utah's Open and Public Meetings Act, does show that the council was scheduled to recess in order to convene into a Redevelopment Agency meeting. I had trouble finding a similar agenda for the RDA portion of the meeting, but Sandy spokesman Nick Duerkson told me that the notification was properly made and posted in accordance with the law.

Either way, it wasn't exactly a secret that this was coming up. You'd think that the staunchest critics would be on the ball.

For his part, Duerkson said he wasn't surprised. He said Sandy meets with RSL in a bi-monthly planning meeting -- and usually only a few members of the public bother to show up.

I suppose it's far easier to attack RSL and Sandy on the Internet comment boards and letters pages of the state's daily newspapers than it is to actually show up and try to make a difference. And yes, I'm sure an argument could be made that the council would have signed off on the final piece of this funding package no matter who showed up to complain at the meeting.

But when the public abandons its duty to participate in the process, it allows those in power to say -- and correctly so -- "we didn't hear any complaints."

-- mdl

Labels: Open and Public Meetings Act, Sandy, Sports

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

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

The Tribune's Rosemary Winters reports that Sandy City Councilors will "take a closer look" at the city's bonus program, focusing in particular on why so much or the money goes to so few people at the top of the pay scale on such a regular basis.

But it doesn't appear the council is rushing to the human resources office to start sorting through the pay stubs. At Tuesday night's council meeting, Winters reports, it took four hours "to bring up the elephant in the chamber."

This week, The Tribune published details of the bonus program after winning a four-year legal fight with Sandy to have the public records disclosed. The council plans to discuss the budget -- including the issue of compensation -- during meetings the next few weeks and at a public hearing May 20.

-mdl

Labels: GRAMA, Sandy

Several members of the Sandy City Council are demanding a review of the city's bonus system following The Tribune's Sunday report that senior executives were reaping rich and repetitive rewards under the program.

Under the direction of Sandy's top brass, the city's attorneys spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting a legal battle to keep the program secret, much to the dismay of community activist Robyn Bagley.

"It disturbs me that Sandy fought for so long," she said. "These are government salaries that are funded by taxpayers. Transparency is critical."

Meanwhile, Tricia Beck, a longtime Mayor Dolan critic and political opponent, told KSL-TV the recently-exposed bonus program "is an example of greed, arrogance and entitlement."

KSL also hosted a conversation on the issue as part of its "Talking Point" segment on Monday evening.

-mdl

Labels: GRAMA, Sandy

On Feb. 6, 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune published "Payday Blues" -- an extensive look into the disparities in pay between public safety officers throughout Salt Lake County. The article was the result of a months-long effort, using Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) to obtain personnel records from each city and the county government.

Recognizing that GRAMA denotes certain information as "records that must be disclosed," most of the queried agencies promptly complied with the newspaper's requests for the names, genders and compensation of their public safety officers.

But there was one city that gave us a tougher fight. Officials from Sandy refused to turn over the names of police officers and firefighters, arguing in part that disclosure of the identities of these officers might impair investigations or place the officers' safety in jeopardy. Among other arguments, they cited the kidnappings and murders of Iraqi police officers as evidence that it was bad policy to reveal the identities of public safety officials.

The Utah State Records Committee, which seeks to resolve public records disputes, disagreed with Sandy and ordered the city to turn over the information.

The city initially declined to provide segregated base pay, arguing that the committee's order and state law only required it to provide the sum total of all forms of renumeration given to each employee. Eventually, the city relented on the issue of salary, but continued to decline to provide segregated figures for benefits, overtime, bonuses, incentives and other forms of pay.

The city's response did give us enough information to work with in order to produce the Payday Blues article -- which revealed, among other things, that "with morale plummeting, many Sandy police officers and firefighters, who are among the lowest paid in Salt Lake County, are quietly seeking jobs elsewhere." Meanwhile, the article continued, "Sandy's top administrators are among the best paid in the county."

The article caused quite a stir -- and letters and phone calls we received from Sandy employees following the publication of that story steeled us to continue the fight for the other forms of compensation, particularly as several of the e-mails hinted of chronyism in the city's extensive bonus program.

"I'm sure the administrators are getting nearly all of the bonus money," wrote one employee. "I've heard rumors that the chief receives up to $10,000," added another.

Back before the State Records Committee, the newspaper won another order for Sandy to turn over the its bonus and overtime information.

But this time, the city sued to keep the information from the public eye, sparking a three-year legal battle which resulted in a judge's order for Sandy to disclose the information — and to pay the newspaper's legal fees of more than $30,000. That order, and other documents from the 3rd District Court case, can be found here and here.

Last month, The Tribune began analyzing those records. The resulting article, online now and to be published in print in Sunday's Tribune, reveals a bonus program that disproportionately rewards top administrators from all city departments -- and even provides Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan with a $1,000+ "thank you" bonus, each year.

Dolan's check pales in comparison to those received by city administrator Byron Jorgenson and 11 other city leaders who help administer the program, each of whom picks up the equivalent of about a month's salary in bonuses, year after year.

Meanwhile, most city employees who do get bonuses get the equivalent of a few day's pay. And hundreds get nothing at all.

In the wake of the Payday Blues article, Sandy's police officers and firefighters were given substantial raises. Recent interviews with officers indicates that morale appears to have improved and the rapid emigration of officers to other, better-paying municipalities has slowed.

What will be the result of our article about Sandy's secret bonus program? We'll be watching closely.

- mdl/mc

Labels: GRAMA, Sandy