Utah’s news media learned the public is passionately interested in protecting open government during 2011’s legislative session, when lawmakers rewrote Utah’s records law.
Public outcry forced lawmakers to repeal HB477, which had revised the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) to protect text messages, instant messages and video chat from public release. It passed the Legislature within days with little public input.
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No coinciding meetings?
A bill is in the works that would ban local governments, from city councils to school boards, from meeting when major parties hold neighborhood caucuses. › B3
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In time for the 2012 legislative session, which starts Monday, the Utah Media Coalition announced Saturday it created a GRAMA WATCH program.
Members, including The Salt Lake Tribune, will rank upcoming legislation or legislative action on openness and accessibility and tell lawmakers and the public about those rankings. Details about where to find the rankings will be announced soon.
"The public is vitally interested in government openness," said Randy Wright, editor of the Daily Herald in Provo. "We just want to keep this before their eyes."
He views the rankings as a service to both the public and lawmakers. "Sometimes legislators may not fully understand the implications of transparency and openness that a bill might carry."
GRAMA WATCH will rank relevant action that encourages or protects Utah’s open government with a "bright light," action that is neutral or has little effect with a "pale light" and "bad" action with a "light’s out."
In an annual report, the coalition will honor the most enlightened action with a "Bright Shining Light Award" and give a "Dim Bulb Award" for the worst.
Wright said the coalition — which includes newspapers large and small across the state — isn’t aware of any "light’s out" bills proposed for 2012. Instead, he points to one that would improve transparency: a proposal to amend the open-meetings law to prevent closed meetings when government bodies make interim appointments for elected positions. Orem and South Jordan city councils both appointed new mayors, after one died and another left office for work, with limited public exposure, Wright said.
Lawmakers will take up GRAMA again this year after a year of study by members of the media, lawmakers and the public.
Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, will sponsor legislation to make amendments. But he vowed his intent is to "strengthen the public’s right to know" and to pursue an "open, inclusive" process when making the changes.
"This is not revisiting 477," he said Saturday.
He said the proposed changes were agreed upon by members of the news media.
That was Wright’s take, too: "We found considerable common ground. The media coalition is all for improving it."
Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
