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Show , CLIFF MEMMOTT. Editor ' THEIR SERVICES ARE APPRECIATED BY THE PEOPLE OF DUCHESNE COUNTY . . . On the first Monday of January two brand new commissioners com-missioners were sworn into office and pledged to' uphold the Constitution of the United States and to be faithful and honest in discharging their duties as public servants . . . At the same hour two other men, tried and proven during the past two and four years, relinquished their office to their successors. For four years Marvin Michie, Tabiona farmer and stockman, has been your county commissioner, as was Ray Brown, Montwel rancher and Roosevelt business man, whose tenure of office was two years'. So far as I am able to find out these two men were honest in everything attempted by the county and were true and honorable public servants. Their efforts and contributions should be praised by the people they served. As new servants replace the old, it's natural to expect more from them than was expected from those who retire that's progress . . . Floyd Lamb, Roosevelt, newly named chairman of the board, and Clinton "Clint" Mickelson, Duchesne, Du-chesne, along with Floyd Case of Altamont, constitute the 1953-54 board of county commissioners. The latter, like Michie and Brown, has served faithfully and well and is capable of instructing his new associates. I'm sure each of you join me in wishing the new commissioners well in their positions of service in our county . . . It's our responsibility, as citizens and taxpayers, to talk over the county's problems with the commissioners, and assist where and when we can in making their jobs more pleasant and efficient. v E v Perhaps There Ought To Be A Law This week a portion of my editorial column is being devoted to reprinting an article under the caption, "The Prez Sez" and appearing in the December issue of "Utah Publisher & Printer." The article was written by Charles W. Claybaugh, editor-publisher of the Box Elder News and Journal at Brigham City, who is currently serving as president presi-dent of the Utah State Press Association. The article is being reprinted here, not as an affront to our local officials, . but in a serious i attmpet to bring to the readers of the Roosevelt Standard and Uintah Basin Record, a viewpoint of one publisher, which is shared by a vast majority of newspaper men . . . Likewise, this viewpoint view-point is shared by the great majority of men holding public office who are honest in their desire to serve with integrity and honor who want the public to know what goes on in meetings of county commissioners, school boards and city councils . . . Especially is this true in a large number of states where a law has been written upon the statutes making it mandatory that proceedings of such bodies be ...... p;bV..:ed. - , As the state legislature goes into session, assurance has been sent this way that such a bill will be introduced before the 1953 legislature advocating such a law for Utah. What Mr. Claybaugh points out in his article has existed in some parts of our fair state and before the "mess" was cleaned up, the taxpayers had been forced to pay on the nose for expensive investigations and court cases. Again I want to emphasize that the reprinting of Mr. Claybaugh's article is in no way a reflection on the various governing bodies of this area, but td inform our readers of what can happen if the freedom of the press is in any way jeapordized. Never have we asked for information, or the privilege to see the minute records, that any hesitancy has been in evidence something greatly appreciated. - THE DISCUSSION FOLLOWS: In the heat of the past election campaign, someone remembered re-membered an editorial published a' couple of years ago in the Box Elder Journal. That in itself is something of a record remembering an editorial two years. The editorial was devoted to one of the periodical arguments argu-ments we get into with our county commissioners about releasing information on action taken at their regular meetings meet-ings and this one was a little more heated than most of them. Let me cfuote from the editorial: "Last Tuesday when the Box Elder County Clerk was asked for the approved minutes of the commissioners' July ; 17 meeting, for the purpose of publishing a summary of ' them, they informed the reporter that ' the commissioners had decided that nothing should be published without their approval first .... While the clerk was still there the county attorney was contacted by . phone and asked an opinion on whether or not the commissioners could legally stipulate that before publishing any part of the minutes they had to' be approved by them. "Of course his answer was, 'that would be controlling the preis, which is against the Bill of Rights'. " The editorial went on to tell about an interview with the chairman of the board of county commissioners in , , which he was asked if the commissioners had directed the county clerk to tell newspaper reporters that their minutes could not be published without the approval of the commissioners com-missioners and he replied, "That is right. We feel that without with-out background, people misinterpret part of those minutes they get the wrong idea." The chairman went on to explain that "some parts of the minutes would be alright to publish." He complained that after the minutes were published last time, several people called him that day with question." The editorial continued with this conclusion: "Perhaps people who read the minutes will interpret them wrong, but most certainly will never comprehend their own governmental business unless they are given the opportunity to inspect it. "The minutes are open to the public at all times, but the average John Q. hasn't time to run into the court (Continued on page 2) OUR EDITORIAL VIEWPOINT (Continued from page one; house and read the minutes every two weeks. One of the jobs of a newspaper is to disseminate y that information, saving the public the time and bother of traveling to the-courthouse the-courthouse to read them." I'm sure that every Utah publisher is up against the same thing. There seems to be a complete meeting of the minds with county commissioners on this problem, just as if they might have talked it over and reached a unanimous unani-mous conclusion at a meeting of the county officials association. associa-tion. And it isn't just the county commissioners. We find the ' same thing true in city affairs and school board meetings.' Recently I had a long talk with our mayor. I used every 'argument I could muster but when we parted he was just .as positive that information about their meetings couldn't be released until the minutes had been approved at the following meeting. The school board covers its action in the same manner. We're a small staff and can't sit all day with the county commissioners on Monday, the school board on Tues-' Tues-' day and the city council on Thursday. It would be fine to . have a reporter you could assign those chores to, but then it probably wouldn't work either. 1 can remember back a few years when we were batt-..; batt-..; ling the school board in, much the same manner, trying to get information from them. We bowed our necks and decided de-cided to sit in on their meetings. After an embarassing period of complete inactivity, they went into executive session arid left us sitting all by ourselves. An hour went ., by, then another, and finally we gave it all up as a bad job. It's my personal opinion that . taxpayers have a right to know how and where the tax dollar is being spent, whether wheth-er it's for city, county or school purposes, and the separate 'governing bodies should give a monthly accounting to those taxpayers. ' . i 1 ; ' v..-,.- And it should be furnished while it's still "news." It's . absurd to think that the public MUST wait for two or three weeks or a month to' learn what action was taken by -; duly eleced officers who are supposed to be serving them. Excuses like "the minutes aren't written yet," or "we can't give out any information until the minutes are ap-. ap-. proved," are simpl cover-up measures. The truth is, those officials just don't care about the taxpayers knowing anything any-thing about the business and financial affairs of the taxing bcfdy. ;. ;- . It's high time something was done about the situation. It's the duty of the press to keep the public informed, ' but your head gets,4 sore after batting it against a stone wall, month after month. : iVLike; someone said, "Perhaps there ought to be a law." . 30 , |