Sen. President John Valentine said Friday he'll take another look at a just-passed bill that media representatives are saying could restrict the public's ability to reach government officials.
The Senate amendment to HB258 that is being called into question was quickly accepted by the House Friday morning. Debate was minimal, and the concurrence was unanimous.
"I didn't see that concern when I read it on the floor yesterday," Valentine said. The Orem Republican said that another bill related to the Government Records and Management Act, known as GRAMA, could be changed to undo the bill's effect.
Language was substituted into HB258 Thursday by Senate Assistant Majority Whip Beverly Evans, R-Altamont, that a coalition of the state's newspapers and broadcasters say would allow government agencies to limit the contact information that's made public.
Agencies would be able to "designate a global e-mail address, and a global business phone and a global business address for all the employees in a given agency," the coalition's attorney, Jeff Hunt, said.
"If government is going to be responsive to the public, it's important the public be able to contact and communicate with public servants," Hunt said. "These are not personal phone numbers or personal home addresses," but government-provided equipment and offices.
Valentine said that while it would not be reasonable to require the release of "every number you have in your private life . . . but on the other side it's not reasonable to not have access to your public officials. So there's a balance."
Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne, who sponsored the bill, said that the amendments clarify the way most governments do business. For example, the House of Representatives only provides the general office number, and does not make the phone numbers of each legislator's taxpayer-funded Blackberry cell phone publicly available.
"We are not trying to change current practice or make it more difficult to reach a member of government," he said. "We want to be specific about how to reach us."
House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, said that from what he understood, the amendment did not change current practice or reduce the ability of the public to get in touch with government officials. Instead, it simply said that government agencies had to provide a contact number, not the phone numbers for every single person.
"This does not change access to information as it relates to public officials," he said. "It only changes the availability of phone numbers."
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