Last year an audit of how various government agencies comply with Utah's open records law revealed that some just don't get it.

The audit, conducted by the Utah Foundation for Open Government, found that some agencies, especially police departments, withheld documents that were clearly in the public domain or required people seeking information to jump through bureaucratic hoops that were not required by Utah's open records law.

A bill in the Legislature may correct some of this problem.

Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove, is sponsoring legislation that would require that all government employees receive training in the principles contained in the law and how to implement them. House Bill 188 would make the city manager, school superintendent or other administrative official responsible for ensuring that training takes place.

Training is a good idea, especially in something as important as government openness. Our system of government only works if the people, who are the government's masters, have the information they need to call government into account.

One of the problems the open records audit revealed was that the people handling requests appeared to either deny requests or make illegal demands for personal information or money because they were not aware of the law. For example, one does not need to say why he is requesting a record, yet there are officials who will insist on knowing the purpose of the request before granting it.

The lack of training is more evident in rural communities where local governments do not get a lot of requests for public records.

Training can go a long way toward opening up Utah's records by teaching those who handle them what the law is and what must be released.

But the question is, who will do the training and what will they teach? A city manager or school superintendent may not be up to speed on the law, making it difficult to pass information to subordinates. Also, the training must stress the basic presumption in Utah law that all records are public unless one falls under a specific exemption. The burden of proof for justifying a denial rests fully on government's shoulders.

The office of the Utah Attorney General has expressed a willingness to help out with public records training for government employees in the past. Having Utah's chief law enforcement officer take charge would ensure consistency in the teaching.

Open government advocates such as the Utah Foundation for Open Government and its parent organization, the Society of Professional Journalists, are other resources that should be used. These professional organizations recently created an electronic guide to Utah open records and members went around the state conducting workshops explaining how to use the law.

If Frank's bill can clearly address consistency in the training program, it will be a genuine asset in ensuring the public has access to its records.