A bill that would make e-mails and other citizen communications with lawmakers private is on hold while the Senate sponsor tries to muster support for the legislation.
A debate on HB12 was cut short Monday after a vote on an amendment showed the Senate divided on whether to make changes to the Government Records Access and Management Act.
Under HB12 citizen e-mail or other correspondence would become a protected record that would be available only under an approved records request or if one of the parties agreed to make the record public. Currently such information is considered public and does not necessarily require a written GRAMA request.
Sen. Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake City, pushed for an amendment to remove a few lines from the bill and prevent such restrictions. Hale said she was uncomfortable leaving the decision-making to those sending and receiving the communications.
"By removing these lines it does not mean we are going to broadcast to the world all the e-mails we receive," Hale said. "We are in public service. We are working on public property up here with our laptops and our e-mails. I think we just cannot wholesale say that these are not going to be public documents."
Sen. Dave Thomas, R-South Weber, the Senate sponsor, said the bill seeks to protect private information that citizens share about their lives and would-be whistle-blowers who fear retaliation.
The amendment failed on a tie vote of 14-14, with some Republicans, expressing their hesitation to support HB12.
Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, expressed grave concerns about the bill, saying he doesn't expect most private citizens want personal information shared, but at the same time, citizens would want to know when those letters illuminate a relationship between a lawmaker who helped some lobbyists or a special interest.
"I just don't think we've cut the right balance," Bell said of the bill.
HB12 is one of two born of a yearlong task force that studied GRAMA, which first became law 15 years ago. Thomas, a co-chairman of the task force, said that the goal of the task force has been to strike a balance between the public's right to privacy and open access to government.
Thomas, who cut debate short and delayed a vote, is now faced with the decision to either lobby fellow senators for support and run the bill as is, or amend it the way Hale suggested, which Thomas said is being driven by the Utah Media Coalition, a coalition of newspapers and televisions stations, including the Deseret Morning News.
Other provisions of the bill would set up retention schedules for government agencies to keep records and direct government to notify citizens what personal information will be used for once it is collected. The bill also makes communications between lawmakers and staff private, when that communication is related to the process of drafting legislation.