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The state has been ordered to release records to The Salt Lake Tribune about the controversial firing of its archaeologists.
On Thursday, the State Records Committee ruled that the state Department of Community and Culture must provide records of communications about the discontinued positions of the state archaeologist, the archaeologist's assistant and a physical anthropologist.
Tribune reporter Judy Fahys asked for those records shortly after the three employees were fired in June, but the department claimed her request was too vague to fulfill.
"The original request was very broad and undefined," said assistant Attorney General Kathy Kinsman, who represented the department at Thursday's hearing.
The department records officer, Jane Van Wagoner, testified that Fahys' request would require staff to search 200 separate email accounts used by employees in the department.
But committee member and state archivist Patricia Smith-Mansfield testified such a search was feasible and wouldn't require searches of all 200 email accounts.
"There's an obviousness" as to which employees would have messages related to the archaeology positions, Smith-Mansfield said.
Smith-Mansfield, who advises the department on record keeping matters, did not vote as a committee member but instead spoke as a witness at the hearing.
After being fired, one of the dismissed employees accused state officials of eliminating the positions to remove obstacles for developers who want to build on archaeologically sensitive sites. Two of the three fired employees were vocally opposed to a rail station and related development proposed on the footprint of an ancient American Indian village in Draper — a project that had financial connections to a state transit official and a legislator.
Tribune editor Dan Harrie said the department's complaint about the request's vagueness was only the latest objection.
"There have been a number of changing answers about why we couldn't have these documents: It'd be too expensive. Then they just couldn't do it. Finally, our request wasn't specific enough," Harrie said.
At one point, the department claimed there was no job called "state archaeologist," Fahys said. Then, she said, the department claimed there were no emails related to her request.
The committee ruled unanimously to order the state to grant Fahys' request.
"We've had other requests that are broader in scope," said committee member Lex Hemphill.
The department has 30 days to appeal the committee's ruling.