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SALT LAKE CITY — After hearing more than an hour of testimony opposing legislation that some called a "full frontal assault" on Utah's law allowing public access to government records law, a House committee unanimously approved the bill Wednesday.
"This attempts to bleed GRAMA dry and leave her in the gutter," Linda Peterson of the Utah Foundation for Open Government said of the proposed changes to the Government Records Access Management Act under HB477.
Currently under GRAMA, the public can request copies of government records, including communication between lawmakers and other government figures. The bill would exempt certain forms of electronic communication from those requests, including voice mails, text messages and online chats.
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The bill would also require the cost of "expansive and excessive" requests be covered by the person or entity making the request, according to the bill's sponsor, Rep. John Dougall, R-American Fork.
"We need to do something to protect taxpayers from footing the bill," Dougall said.
Dougall expressed concern that under current GRAMA regulations an individual could send him an e-mail containing private information that could end up on the front page of a newspaper. He said that while he appreciates openness in government, the scrutiny placed on lawmakers "causes me pause."
But Jeff Hunt, an attorney representing the Utah Media Coalition, testified that the law already protects private information.
He also pointed out that the bill would remove "legislative intent" from GRAMA, language that courts have relied upon to interpret the statute.
Excluding information related to public business is not good public policy, Hunt said.
All those testifying at the hearing before the House Public Utilities and Technology Committee were against the bill that was receiving its first public hearing with a week to go in the 2011 session.
Representatives from many of the major media organizations in Utah said that while they would be willing to discuss changing the law to address some of the legislators' concerns, they haven't had the chance to be a part of the conversation.
"If it's going to be in one bill, we ought to have time to really work on it," said Richard Shaw, publisher of the Sun-Advocate, a Carbon County newspaper.
Con Psarras, vice president for editorials and special projects at KSL-TV, urged the committee not to advance the bill because stakeholders haven't had the chance to give their input into legislation that is "sweeping in scope."
"Transparency is the key principal to the government records act," he said. "Any changes to that law should also be conducted in a transparent manner."
Joel Campbell, a journalism professor at Brigham Young University, said the bill would make it harder for the public to be informed about what government is doing. Excluding text messages from public record, he said, could effectively allow "a smoke-filled meeting inside the real meeting."
But Rep. Fred Cox, R-West Valley City, said the GRAMA requests have become a burden to government and private businesses. When the requests start to impact the way government can function, he said, "perhaps we've swung the pendulum a little bit too far in one direction."
Rep. Neal Hendrickson, D-West Valley, who made a motion to pass the bill out favorably, said that while GRAMA can be looked at, the Legislature doesn't need to take as much time to study it as they did when the regulations first came out.
The bill now moves to the House for its consideration.
E-mail: averzello@ksl.com
