2024 Legislative Updates to GRAMA

Lauren Katz GRAMA, Open Government

In the 2024 session, the Utah Legislature made several updates to the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA). Here are the highlights.  Representative Loubet sponsored HB 266 which updates the Government Records Ombudsman statute and the GRAMA appeals process to include the Ombudsman. This bill also removed the State Records Committee from being a necessary party to a petitioner …

ARO Spotlight: Emily Bejarano from Academica West

Lisa Catano Records Officer Spotlights

Emily Bejarano has worked with Utah charter schools for the past twenty years through her job at Academica West. Her role is to train new school secretaries on records management,  student data privacy laws, and best practices. In other words, she’s the one who answers the question “What do I do with all these old boxes of records?” Thanks for …

ARO Spotlight: Department of Environmental Quality Records Team

Renée Wilson Records Officer Spotlights

Over the several years that I’ve been a RIM specialist at the State Archives, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many different State departments. The Department of Environmental Quality has consistently reached out to State Archives over the years, and is always just delightful to work with, so I wanted to recognize them for that. Instead of highlighting a …

Untangling Audio: Navigating Reformatting Challenges

Lauren Katz Records Management

As a Reformatting Specialist, Leif Johnson has come across his fair share of challenging projects. Recently, he was presented with a seriously tricky audio reformatting issue that required his expertise and problem-solving abilities. Below, Leif explains how his technical skills saved the day! “We had court audio records that were recorded at a slower speed to capture more data. This …

State Records Committee Year in Review

Rebekkah Shaw Open Government, State Records Committee

Last year was an exceptionally busy year for the State Records Committee! In 2022, the committee received approximately 260 appeals and issued 61 Decisions and Orders. 68 appeals were withdrawn before the hearing because they were resolved in mediation, thanks to the hard work by our State Ombudsman Rosemary Cundiff! 2022 Charts Most of the requesters who appeal to the …

Utah’s Emerging Record-keepers: Sydney Dahle, Cache County Deputy Clerk

Heidi Steed Records Management, Records Officer Spotlights

Sydney Dahle started as a deputy clerk in the Cache County Clerk’s office in 2021, and is assigned to work as the county’s official record-keeper. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri Sydney moved to Utah to attend Utah State University. Sydney has an interest in preserving history and helping people access government records, and recently graduated with degrees in history and …