Lawmakers are taking aim at the state records committee. What does the panel do?


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Lawmakers propose replacing Utah's State Records Committee with a judge for efficiency.
  • The committee, which handles public records disputes, faces criticism and potential abolition.
  • Critics argue abolishing it would reduce transparency and limit multiple perspectives in decisions.

TAYLORSVILLE – Utahns fighting for information the government wants to keep secret often end up at a key destination: the State Records Committee.

The committee's seven volunteers spend one day a month hearing arguments from attorneys, journalists and everyday Utahns arguing they have a right to see public records such as a police report or copies of a state official's emails. The committee also hears from the other side: government agencies making their case for why that information should stay under wraps.

"When we get here in the morning, we're fresh and we're ready to go," said Nova Dubovik, a member of the committee. "And I would say by the end of the day, we all have headaches. We're exhausted."

It's a good exhaustion, Dubovik said, that comes with gratification from doing an important public service. Dubovik and her colleagues met Thursday, trekking through snow and ice to a state office in Taylorsville for their monthly hearing. They listened and deliberated two public record cases involving KSL reporters and one from a private citizen.

Utah’s State Records Committee is a group of seven that spends a day each month hearing arguments from attorneys, journalists and every day Utahns about why they have the right to see public records. The committee is pictured during a meeting on Thursday.
Utah’s State Records Committee is a group of seven that spends a day each month hearing arguments from attorneys, journalists and every day Utahns about why they have the right to see public records. The committee is pictured during a meeting on Thursday. (Photo: Mark Wetzel, KSL-TV)

After hearing arguments, the panel often deliberates and issues an order right away, either denying public access to the record or ordering the government to turn it over. Parties who don't like the decision can appeal by filing a lawsuit.

It's the way Utah's done it for over 30 years, but Thursday's session could be one of the last ever held.

State lawmakers are advancing a proposal to toss the committee and assign its duties to a judge instead. State Sen. Mike McKell, who's sponsoring SB277, said someone with legal expertise could do a better and faster job deciding the cases.

"The goal of this legislation is to make sure we have an ability to be efficient and responsive to these record requests," McKell told colleagues on a Senate panel Tuesday.

Sen. Mike McKell makes a proposal to a Senate panel to replace Utah’s State Records Committee with a single judge on Tuesday.
Sen. Mike McKell makes a proposal to a Senate panel to replace Utah’s State Records Committee with a single judge on Tuesday. (Photo: Mark Wetzel, KSL-TV)

Many lawmakers have disagreed with recent decisions by the records committee, including its order last year for Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes to release his calendar to KSL.

The attorney general's office appealed that decision in court, and a judge ruled in favor of transparency, but lawmakers didn't want the court to have the final word. They rushed to pass a bill shielding government employees' calendars from public view. Gov. Spencer Cox signed the measure into law just hours after the judge sided with KSL.

The legislative panel advanced the bill Tuesday, despite public outcry. Dubovik is among the plan's critics, believing the current system — open debate involving multiple perspectives — is more transparent and more accessible.

If the bill to abolish the committee becomes law, she said, "the checks and balances that we provide here with the seven members, that's not going to be there anymore."

Dubovik added: "You can always make the committee better. But to completely abolish it would be a travesty."

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Utah LegislatureKSL InvestigatesPoliticsUtahSalt Lake County
Annie Knox, KSL-TVAnnie Knox
Annie Knox has covered Utah news for over a decade. She is part of the KSL-TV investigative team.
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