Daily Herald | Posted: Tuesday, January 3, 2006 11:00 pm
Utah's Open and Public Meetings Act has no teeth.
Without meaningful penalties for violators, there is little to encourage county commissioners, city council members or school board members to obey the law and conduct public business in the open. Just holding the meeting over again in public is not a punishment.
While the law has done wonders to ensure that the public is allowed to see government in action, there are still instances where public business is being done behind closed doors. Sometimes this happens through ignorance, while other times it is a willful attempt to exclude prying eyes from the decision-making process.
Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, is seeking to give the law teeth -- or at least a tooth.
If House Bill 14 is passed into law, knowingly violating or aiding the violation of the open meetings act would constitute a Class-B misdemeanor. The law also requires that all closed-door meetings be tape recorded and that members of all public bodies be trained in how to comply.
The bill came about after a legislative audit found compliance problems in one quarter of the state's school districts. The audit found improper record keeping and questions about whether a meeting had been closed legally. Without recordings of closed-door meetings, it is virtually impossible to know whether a school board or any other body discussed anything that should have been discussed in the open.
Harper's proposal is not exactly a giant leap. A Class-B misdemeanor carries the same punishments as first-time drunken drivers get. It doesn't even have to be reported on employment applications since it is not a felony. But the bill proposes a welcome change from a law that contained no penalty at all for its violation. If Harper's measure is passed, someone who conducts an illegal closed meeting will face up to six months in jail or a $750 fine. If deterrence works at all, this may make some people think twice about keeping the public out of a discussion.
If the law is passed, Utah will join seven other states in imposing criminal sanctions for those who deliberately violate open meetings law. Two of those states, Florida and Oklahoma, can lock up a convicted official for up to a year for breaking the law.
The penalty helps remind officials that they are public servants, and that they are accountable for how they discharge their positions. Part of that accountability is allowing the public to attend meetings and see how decisions are made.
Harper's bill also improves the current law by defining pre-meeting workshops as legal meetings under the law, eliminating a loophole some officials have tried to use to keep the public in the dark. The tape recordings ensure that a closed meeting was conducted legally, since there will be an indisputable record of what happened once the door was closed.
The training provision should be enough to assuage any critic who may suggest that the penalty is too harsh and may be applied to someone who acts out of ignorance. The training ensures everyone knows what the law means and how it is applied, and the penalty is only invoked against those who have been trained and know they are breaking the law.
The training will help in rural areas, where council and school board members may not be up to speed on the open meetings law and too often make honest mistakes.
We hope the Legislature quickly passes this much needed reform into law.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.