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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Dairy Commission held a third of its 2015 public meetings outside the state, and the Heber Valley Historic Railroad Authority didn't provide notice for any of its board meetings last year, a new state audit shows.
The state auditor's office found that many of the Utah's 10 independent entities that are subject to the Open and Public Meeting Act routinely violate the law.
Auditors looked at nine of the 10 agencies, including the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration and the Utah Housing Corp., both of which have multimillion budgets and employ nearly 100 people each. Boards for the nine agencies range in size from five to 13 members.
The Dairy Commission appears to have committed one of the most egregious violations, holding one meeting in Florida and another in Arizona where the public could not attend.
"The Dairy Commission should refrain from conducting inaccessible meetings out of state," according to the audit.
Also, the Dairy Commission and Heber Valley railroad authority did not provide the required public notices for any of their meetings held in 2015, numbering six and seven meetings, respectively.
Several of the entities did not post meeting information to the Utah Public Notice Website as the law requires, including the Utah State Fair Corp. and the housing corporation. The state fair board, in fact, posted six notices to the site after the meetings were held.
Most of the boards did not fully comply with requirements for keeping minutes, posting meeting recordings to the state website, keeping attendance and recording votes, according to the audit.
"Failure to include each board member’s individual vote limits individual member’s accountability and allows for the possibility of unrecorded abstentions or nonvotes," auditors wrote.
Written response
Only three of the nine agencies answered auditors' requests to offer a written response to a draft report of the findings.
Peter Madsen, director of the 2-year-old School and Institutional Trust Fund, said his office has experienced professionals, but they are new to state government.
David Ure, a former state legislator who heads the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, said the agency would not be compliant with the law for the first six months of this year, but would provide the training needed to comply next year.
Utah Housing Corp. President Grant Whittaker said he agrees with the audit and would take steps to ensure full transparency and accountability.
Other entities audited were the Military Installation Development Authority, Utah Energy Infrastructure Authority and Utah State Railroad Museum Authority.
The nine agencies have a combined budget of $39.3 million and employ 197 full-time and 23 part-time workers.
