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A rendering of one of the proposed community islands in the Utah Lake Restoration Project, provided on March 17, 2022.

Courtesy Lake Restoration Solutions

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A rendering of one of the proposed recreation islands in the Utah Lake Restoration Project.

Courtesy Lake Restoration Solutions

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A cloudy sky is reflected in Utah Lake on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, near American Fork.

Evan Cobb, Daily Herald file photo

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Representatives of the City of Vineyard have been requested to appear at a hearing of the State Records Committee on Thursday to explain why a portion of a citizen’s records request was denied.

According to the State of Utah, the Government Records Access and Management Act, also called GRAMA, is designed to balance the public’s right to participate in state government and access public records with the right of privacy in relation to personal data gathered by governmental entities.

In January, Vineyard resident Shawn Herring turned in several GRAMA requests to the city focused mostly on Lake Restoration Solutions LLC, a group proposing dramatic changes around Utah Lake. The proposal was deemed unconstitutional by a state government official in August and its project application was cancelled in October.

There are a number of projects wrapped up in some of Herring’s request that are not connected to each other, according to Mayor Julie Fullmer, and the Lake Restoration Solutions plan was just one. There is also the Utah Lake Authority, created via a legislative bill earlier this year, and the Walkara Way/Holdaway project that takes in wetlands between Vineyard and Provo, lead by the Holdaway family.

Jacob Holdaway, whose family has owned wetlands and lake bed in the area since Utah became a state, has expressed concern for what will happen to the lake and also believes the communications between the mayor and city manager via text messaging include needed information.

“There’s nothing bigger to happen in Vineyard city than LRS, not even Geneva Steel,” Holdaway said.

Herring and others opposed the Lake Restoration Solutions plan, which envisioned dredging the lake bed to create livable islands in the middle of the lake.

Of the requests to Vineyard, 125 individual public records were released to Herring and four were not. Herring sent a second request and also met with the city, which held a mediation. In the end, Herring appealed to the State Records Committee.

“The biggest thing is not about the lake but the lack of transparency,” Herring said. He is waiting until Thursday’s decision from the committee to make further comment.

The four requests that were turned down include:

• A W-9 tax record for Sage Government Solutions.
• Emails to the city’s attorney, Jamie Blakesley, regarding contract matters.
• Emails to city officials regarding draft bills that were deemed protected by the senders.
• Text messages between former city manager Jake McHargue and Mayor Julie Fullmer containing edits to a draft letter. The city provided Herring with the final letter.

It is the draft letter, made in 2020, that Herring wants a copy of. McHargue has since left the city.

“Vineyard performed a full and complete search using the proper parameters. All are ‘protected’ by state codes,” said Ezra Nair, the new Vineyard city manager, who has appealed Herring’s request to the State Records Committee.

Both Nair and Blakesley will be the ones to defend the city’s reasoning to the committee for why the four requests were denied.

The committee will be looking at two things as part of the hearing: 1. Did the city perform a complete search? 2. Were text message edits to a draft letter a protected draft?

The committee will give its decision Thursday as to whether the city will need to provide the four requests or if they are protected under GRAMA exemptions.

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