SALT LAKE CITY — They’ve hung on walls, been boxes in day planners and worked as apps in Google, Microsoft Outlook and iPhones, and under a bill in the Utah Legislature, calendars — whatever the format — would stay a secret.
A state Senate committee Tuesday approved legislation that would clarify calendars of elected officials and government workers are not public record. The vote was 3-0 with three absences. SB240 will move to the full Senate for consideration.
“The longstanding practice of the Legislature and the statute was that daily calendars were not a record,” Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, the bill’s sponsor, told the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee.
The bill has a backstory. It features two elected officials.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported earlier this year that it filed a public records request asking for the calendar of Utah House Speaker Mike Shultz. The newspaper made the request after Shultz spoke to “Patriot Academy,” a group with Christian nationalist ties.
The House said it had no records responsive to the request, the Tribune reported. A state statute already said “daily calendars” were not a public record.
But the Utah State Records Committee last year ordered Attorney General Sean Reyes to provide a calendar detailing his official meetings and activities to KSL. The committee said Reyes could redact any personal meetings or appointments mingled into his official calendar. Reyes is challenging the order in state court.
Bramble cited the records committee order as a reason for the bill, though his legislation wouldn’t appear to impact the Reyes lawsuit given it’s already in the courts.
“This is not intended to address any court case,” Bramble said, “but rather clarify going forward this is what the standard should be.” Another provision in SB240 clarifies third parties who go to court to prevent the release of records could be found liable for attorneys fees if a judge eventually rules the records are public. Ever since the Utah Legislature in 2011 effectively repealed the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act, or GRAMA, and then restored it, Bramble has been the go-to legislator for GRAMA bills.
Renae Cowley, a lobbyist representing the Utah Media Coalition, mixed her Tuesday remarks with appreciation for Bramble and concern for the calendars provision.
“We support the Sen. Bramble’s great work on this bill that clarifies the legal fees and appeals,” Cowley said.
“Probably don’t love the policy, albeit existing, on calendars,” she added.
Sen. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine, was one of the yes votes.
“We’ve been hearing some things,” Kennedy said, “about the president of the United States and the various Hunter Biden issues being referred to as ‘The Big Guy’ and that sort of thing, and it’s really interesting to think how if our calendars are inappropriately available how we’ll obscure those calendars.
“We’ll figure out codewords for people because the scrutiny associated with trying to meet with people and mediate issues and all the sudden if you put the person’s name in your meeting with, with a high-powered players in the state of Utah and accused of nefarious dealings and whatever it might be.” SB240 is one of multiple public records bills moving through the Legislature.
The Utah Transparency Project, an effort by a coalition of news outlets, has given a “Closed Door” rating to a bill that would keep secret the amount of water used at golf courses, a bill that would exempt new water boards from public meetings and records laws, and legislation that would keep secret the name, image and likeness deals signed by athletes at public universities.