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GRAMA - A guide to obtaining public records April 2, 2017, 6:12 amOne of the tasks that the city recorder has to handle is the requests made by residents for public records. These requests are called GRAMA requests, and can be submitted by anyone that wants to view city-related records, communications or information. GRAMA stands for Government Records Access and Management Act, and these requests are defined and covered in Section 63G, Chapter 2 of the Utah Code. Fionnuala Kofoed (Finn), the Eagle Mountain city recorder, is the one responsible for fielding those requests. Finn said that Eagle Mountain processed a total of 18 GRAMA requests during 2016. The majority of them were provided free of charge to the requester. If the request takes less than 15 minutes for the city recorder to process, then there is not a charge. One of the 2016 requests took some time to process and had a price tag of $376. Once a request is received, Finn will first find out what city department has the record. She then requests the record from that department. Once she receives the record, she then determines if the record is considered private or public. If the record is considered private, then the request is denied. If it is considered public, then the GRAMA request is granted, and the records are given to the requester once the fee is paid if one is required. If you would like to do a GRAMA request for something from the city, you can go to the city's website to get the form and more details. They have the information on who and how here: http://eaglemountaincity.org/departments/city-recorder/request-a-record. Some people would ask, why do you want to do a GRAMA request from the city? As a reporter and resident, I find that GRAMA requests shed a lot of light on the inner workings of the city government. If you have a question about what conversations were made between individuals on specific topics or if you would like copies of permits and other documents filed with the city, making an official GRAMA request is the way to go. I have personally filed several GRAMA requests over the years and have found the information to be very helpful. For example, every election year, after the deadline to declare you are running for office, I will do a GRAMA request to ask for a copy of all of the declaration forms that were filed. I can then contact each of the individuals that are running for office to have them answer surveys and get to know them better. There are also a lot of other entities that use GRAMA requests. One example is United Fire Authority, the entity that Eagle Mountain uses for fire and medical emergency services. If you want a copy of an incident report, statistics on calls or other data from them, you will be required to fill out a GRAMA request for the records. The community news source for Eagle Mountain Utah, Saratoga Springs Utah, Lehi Utah, American Fork Utah, Highland Utah, Alpine Utah, and The Cedar Valley, including Cedar Fort Utah and Fairfield Utah. Copyright 2024 The Crossroads Journal LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: Utah Code 63G-2
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