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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