The site, www.utahsright.com, provided by The Salt Lake Tribune and MediaOne, the company that prints, sells the ads and distributes The Tribune, gathers databases from throughout the state and puts them in one easy-to-use place.

The philosophy is simple: With the exception of national security, what the public pays for on the taxpayer's dime is public record.

People have a right to know how much money is paid to public employees and what divorces are granted and where the sex offenders live.

Tony Semerad, Tribune site manager, explains the site had a serendipitous beginning:

"The Tribune and Media One came nearly simultaneously to this idea, from different directions.

"The Trib saw it as part of a broader strategy for expanding its news gathering and publishing mission, in light of the digital revolution and the large numbers of Utahns who use the Web.

"MediaOne saw the potential for a niche online audience, one that is Web savvy and has an appetite for previously hard-to-get government information they could use in their daily lives. So it's been a joint operation."

The information is searchable, according to Semerad, but, "We are open to any and all suggestions from users. We are working to add on job title comparisons and similar functionality in the salary area."

Information you can find on the site should give you an idea of how much work and productivity to expect from public employees: Lohra Miller, Salt Lake County district attorney, pulls down $149,232 a year. Gary Edwards, director of the Health department, takes home $126,960. County Sheriff James Winder holds the keys to the jail for $123,648. Reid Demman, the county surveyor, keeps the lines straight for $120,456.

See, now you expect more from them, don't you?

We have district court charges, public salaries, sex offender locations, political contributions, divorce records, Utah statistics and the Adequate Yearly Progress ratings for schools on the site, but we are ready to put up more, according to Semerad:

"We intend shortly to add DUI convictions, day-care inspection and restaurant reports for the biggest municipalities - as well as other databases we acquire in the course of more traditional news gathering. Also, there are a few groupings of public salary data we are still seeking and we will post those as soon as they come in."

Print ads and billboards soon will bring public attention to the Web site, but an earlier news article did pull in some traffic. And, good news for advertisers and our staff is the fact that traffic to this site is "sticky." Simply put, visitors stick around for some time, Semerad says:

"We draw between 1,500 and 3,000 unique users per weekday, according to data from our first three weeks. Folks are spending a lot of time on the page, too, with about 23 pages viewed per user session, which is high by news site standards."

Getting some of these databases has been tough, even though nearly all the data can be found in other places, Semerad says.

"It's been a battle. Utah's records laws are not the strongest for public access. In general, the overwhelming response has been to recognize this as public information, but we have met resistance, notably, on the public salary information, with a tiny minority of agencies choosing to fight our GRAMA [Government Records Access Management Act] requests."

But our staff members are no strangers to fighting over access to public records.

What is the reception to the site? Semerad says, "The most common response has been, more data please!"

But some people are not happy, he adds. "There have been a few complaints about what some believe is personal data being posted on the Web, but they have been surprisingly few. Generally, e-mail responses reveal people are very interested in this kind of information and they are telling us they want more."

One site visitor wrote:

"So, all of this info is considered public information? That's pretty crazy! I guess I knew sex offenders were - and I suppose I heard that public salaries were - but I didn't know divorces and court charges were! Anyway, it's cool that it's all right here at our fingertips instead of having to go to the courthouse to get it!"

Well said.

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* The Reader Advocate's phone number is (801) 257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101. E-mail: reader.advocate@sltrib.com.

This week's stats

* 45: Number of people ecstatic over Utes football coverage

* 52: Number of folks happy with Dew tour coverage

* 16: Number of folks happy with Utah State Fair coverage

* 9: Number of folks impressed with Warren Jeffs coverage