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Show Sunshine law amendment bars press from public meetings By Roger Scowcroft Senate Bill No. 32 was tabled last week by the Senate Committee on Higher Education. If passed, it will bar the public from state and county government meetings "at which no action (vote) is taken." Sen. Lowell S. Peterson, R-Weber, is chairman of the committee and sponsor of the bill. According to Peterson, S.B. 32 is meant to give state and county government "breathing room," and is supported by the Utah Association of Counties, and the League of Cities and Towns. Opponents of the bill include Sen. Frances Farley, D-Salt Lake, Common Cause, and the Utah Society of Professional Journalists. "The Ogden paper," he said, "has been camping on the Weber County Commission." Peterson believes that private interest groups and an over-zealous over-zealous press "disturb" the orderly consideration of public business. The current open and public meetings law requires that meetings of public bodies be open to the public, and notice given 48 hours in advance. According Ac-cording to Rep. Peterson, the counties are "already not following the law." S.B. 32 would exclude from this law "chance, casual or information gathering meetings. . .at which no action (vote) is taken. ..'Meeting' means the convening of a public body, with a quorum present... 'Public body' means any administrative, advisory, executive or legislative body of the state..." In 1978, the Utah Society of Professional Journalists successfully filed suit forcing the city of South Ogden to comply with the state open meetings law. Prior to this ruling municipalities were not covered by this law. According to USPJ President John Ringwood, "The Weber County Commission has been deciding issues in private. The paper has been trying to insure that they comply with the law. "S.B. 32," he says, "is a question of access. It removes government from the people and restricts the whole idea of democracy. Discussion of public issues is the public's business. "This bill is an absolute disaster," he added. "'Casual' is not clear if you take your tie off, is it casual? nor is 'information gathering.' The problem is particularly acute in county government. Commissioners could declare that a meeting is 'information gathering' and tell everyone to get out. The public should be in on the discussion of issues." Ringwood does not, however, consider con-sider S.B. 32 a sinister plot to exclude people from government. "I think some elected officials are tired of the press picking on them," he said, "and want to run their business as they see fit. But they are forgetting," he added, "the interests of the general public they work for, who put them where they are." |
