UPA Legislative Watch: Update on UPA watch list

Key Legislative Bills UPA is watching

Updated Feb. 3, 2009

Joel Campbell

UPA Legislative Monitor

Public Notice

SB161 Repeal of Maximum Charge to Publish Legal Notice

UPA members are scheduled to speak to the Utah Legislative Rural Caucus on Friday, Feb. 9, about public notices Web site and Maximum Line Rate legislation.

HB 67 Public Hearings on Property Tax Increases

Reduces the number of Truth in Taxation notices by one and requires all entities in one county advertise in a combined Truth in Taxation notice. It has passed the House and has been introduced in the Senate.

Open and Public Meetings Act and GRAMA

HB122 was pulled from a committee agenda on Feb. 3. Newspaper attorneys were scheduled to meet with Attorney General Mark Shurtleff on Feb. 5.

See also Salt Lake Tribune article.

Jeff Hunt writes:

HB 122 is very problematic. It expands the exception for attorney-client records. Worse yet, it removes several categories of records from the public interest balancing test, meaning that the news media and public would not be able to argue that public interest is served by disclosure of records even if they are technically properly classified as non-public. Among the records that would not be subject to the balancing test under the bill are law enforcement investigatory records, employee disciplinary records, audit records, and licensing records. This may be an attempt to reverse the Deseret News v. Salt Lake County Supreme Court win and some State Records Committee decisions on disciplinary records. As you know, the news media fought very hard for the balancing test in GRAMA. This bill would remove the balancing test option for a large category of records frequently requested by the media.

SB 26 Open and Public Meetings Act

Revises rules for release of public meeting minutes before they are approved and makes recordings of a public meeting available within 72 hours. This has been passed by the Senate and by a House committee.

SB 18 Utah Transparency Advisory Board

This bill was amended with the following provisions explained by the Utah League of Cities and Towns. It’s interesting the concessions made to allow local cities to simply provide link to the state’s Web site rather than provide them to the Web site.

Transparency in Gov. Finance and Taxation of Special Districts

Lincoln Shurtz, Utah League of Cities and Towns

Well today two of the more anticipated bills for local government were drafted and numbered.

First, we have SB18 First Substitute Transparency in Government Finance . While the first bill SB18 was out much earlier, the substitute, which addressed many of our concerns was made available for public dissemination.

Here are a few concerns that were expressed as well as the response outlined in SB18 First Substitute.

1. We raised an issue with the ability of small jurisdictions to comply with transparency requirements. In response, Sen. Niederhauser has provided a special exception for jurisdictions with a budget less than $10 Million dollars, which allows for special consideration of their financial capacity and technical capabilities.

2. We raised a concern regarding the timing of implementation. Sen. Niederhauser has subsequently delayed implementation of the legislation's effect until May 2011 for municipal governments.

3. We raised concerns regarding the volume and complexity of information that would be required by the proposed compliance. Sen. Niederhauser has responded by taking the rule making authority away from the State Department of Finance and giving it to the Transparency Advisory Board, of which we will be members as a result of this legislation.

4. We raised concerns regarding a requirement to submit information in a format similar to the state's website format. In response. Sen. Niederhauser has allowed for us to simply comply by linking our existing websites to the state website to allow for a unique format for each city.

5. We raised concerns regarding potential liability for disclosing protected records inadvertently. To address this concern, a liability waiver was included in the substitute.