In our view: Protect access to public records

Utah's open records law is going under the legislative microscope.

Tuesday, the Government Records Access and Management Act Task Force conducts its first meeting. It is charged with examining various aspects of GRAMA and should proceed carefully to ensure that the open records law will not be watered down.

Among the issues the task force will examine are:

Whether to classify as private any record that would disclose an individual's name, home address, phone number, birth date, Social Security number, marital status or disability.

Whether a government entity may charge "fair market value" for information that could be sold. The law now requires government agencies to only charge "reasonable" fees for searching and copying data.

Whether government should manipulate electronic data to provide it in a compiled or summary form not normally used by the government.

Some concerns with open records in recent years arise from the increase in identity theft; others come from government record-keepers themselves.

Nobody has said that GRAMA was inviolate scripture that could not be touched. Like all laws, it is a living document that can be adjusted as the circumstances warrant. But it only should be adjusted in ways that strengthen the public's access to information, not cut it off.

For instance, GRAMA already addresses the question of identity theft. Social Security numbers are considered private, but their presence on a document that would be otherwise public, say the résumé of a candidate for university president, does not automatically render the document top-secret. Nor should it. GRAMA allows sensitive information to be redacted -- that is, blocked out -- from public documents, thereby retaining the balance between the public's right to know and an individual's right to privacy.

It's highly unlikely that an identity thief is going to use the open records law for data mining. By filling out the GRAMA request, a thief would be creating a paper trail that points straight back to him. And if someone does abuse public records, the solution is to lock up the offender, not the data.

GRAMA is also a medium-neutral law, meaning that it defines records based on the information itself, not on the container in which the information is held -- a file cabinet vs. an electronic database, for example. This makes sense. Under GRAMA, a government record is still subject to disclosure whether it's an electronic computer file, a photograph, a printed document or even if it's written on an old buffalo skull.

If we were still in the days of paper documents, asking for information in a different format would be a genuine inconvenience, but with more information being processed by computer, there should be no problem for government to release data in different ways. If a requester is truly being unreasonable, there may be justification to say no or apply a fee. But in most cases, release should be routine.

It's troubling when the custodians of government records seek to turn them into a profit center. The records are already maintained by public money, and people shouldn't have to pay an exorbitant rate for access. GRAMA already addresses this question and allows fees based on the actual cost of finding and copying documents. It does not allow for a profit.

Fees can be waived if someone is acting in the public good, such as a resident who wants to get more information to inform his neighbors about a proposed development, or a journalist gathering information for a news article.

We urge the task force to proceed carefully, and make sure that advocates of open government are on the table. GRAMA was not drafted solely by lawmakers, but with the help of the groups that fight for the public's right to information.

GRAMA's ability to provide people with the knowledge and power they need to be the masters of government should be protected. As James Madison, our fourth president and author of the First Amendment, said, "A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or tragedy, or perhaps both."

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