Ogden might add fees for research
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By Scott Schwebke
Standard-Examiner staff
sschwebke@standard.net
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ong>Fees would help defray costs of completing record requests
OGDEN -- The city is exploring the possibility of imposing research fees on public record requests due to a voluminous amount of requests.
The city receives 25 to 30 requests from the public each month under Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act, said City Recorder Cindi Mansell.
Because some of the GRAMA requests are "open ended" and seek such items as all communications between the city and another party or involve a particular subject, it's difficult to respond to them in a timely manner, Mansell said.
"It makes our search (for documents) so huge that it takes a lot of time," she said.
The amount of correspondence generated by the city is massive, with more than 2.1 million e-mails being sent and received in the last month, Gary Williams, the city's attorney, told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday.
Tracking down e-mails related to specific GRAMA requests can be difficult and time consuming, because there is no central repository for correspondence, Mansell said.
"I have to figure out who has certain correspondence," she said. "It's a huge process that can involve a lot of departments."
Among those who submit the most GRAMA requests to the city are the Standard-Examiner, State Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, who is also a candidate for mayor of Ogden, and Dan Schroeder, who heads the Ogden chapter of the Sierra Club, Mansell said.
Hansen, whose recent GRAMA requests have been aimed at determining if there is a connection between the city and the Ogden Community Foundation, said he always tries to be specific when seeking documents.
He believes GRAMA is an important tool to provide transparency in government.
"It defines good government," he said. "It allows citizens to see what their elected officials are doing."
The Standard-Examiner's recent GRAMA requests to the city have sought documents related to a fiscal feasibility study for a proposed gondola project.
The Sierra Club's recent GRAMA requests have been very specific in seeking all records pertaining to the fiscal impact feasibility study and all correspondence since April 2006 between the city and Utah Transit Authority, Schroeder said.
"If the city ever felt that one of our requests was ambiguous, we would be happy to work with them to provide clarification, but they've never asked for that," he said.
At present, the only charge levied by the city in conjunction with GRAMA is a fee of 25 cents per page for document copies, Mansell said.
However, Mansell said she and Williams may eventually ask the city council to amend the municipality's code to impose fees on GRAMA requesters for extensive research.
State law allows governmental entities to implement an hourly charge that may not exceed the salary of the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill and training to perform a GRAMA request.
Ogden shouldn't impose fees for GRAMA research because residents already pay taxes for city services, Hansen said.
City Council Chairman Jesse Garcia said the council would have to carefully research any request to enact the GRAMA research charge before granting approval.
Enacted by the Legislature in 1991, GRAMA is a wide-ranging law that requires state and local government records to be made available to the public with few exceptions. Under GRAMA, a record is public unless specifically deemed private, controlled or protected under state law. Open records must be made available as soon as reasonably possible but no later than 10 business days after receiving a written request or five business days if the requester demonstrates that an expedited response benefits the public.
A governmental entity can delay approval or denial of a GRAMA request if it determines it can't respond within the time limits specified by state law due to "extraordinary circumstances."
Denial of a GRAMA request can be appealed to the city and state's records committees and finally to the Utah Court of Appeals.
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