Ogden Sierra Club Press Release

For Immediate Release -- October 16, 2008

Contact: Dan Schroeder, 801-393-4603

JUDGE ORDERS OGDEN TO DESCRIBE WITHHELD RECORDS IN MORE DETAIL

Ogden -- In an order signed on October 2, Second District Judge W. Brent West has instructed Ogden City to provide a more detailed description of government records that it is withholding from the Sierra Club and the public.

The order grants a motion filed by the Sierra Club in April, as part of its lawsuit over two partially denied record requests from June and July of 2007. The Sierra Club argued that the city may not withhold a record from the public unless it describes the record in enough detail to justify the record's exemption from disclosure under Utah's open records law.

Until now, Ogden has described the withheld records only as "correspondence", "draft correspondence", and "draft agreements", while claiming that the records fall under four different specific categories that are protected from disclosure under state law.

West's order is based on the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure, which specify that a party withholding information must "describe the nature of the documents ... in a manner that, without revealing information itself privileged or protected, will enable other parties to assess the applicability of the privilege or protection." West further determined that the city's one- and two-word descriptions were insufficient for such an assessment. He ordered the city to provide more complete descriptions within 21 days. (A copy of Judge West's order is posted at http://utah.sierraclub.org/ogden/OgdenFront/Order2Oct08.pdf.)

Sierra Club volunteer Dan Schroeder praised West's decision. "This is a major victory not just for us, but for anyone in Utah who believes in open government," Schroeder said. "If the government didn't even have to describe records it withholds, there would be no way for the public to tell whether the government is interpreting the law correctly. Any record at all could fall under a vague one-word description like 'correspondence'."

Schroeder also expressed disappointment that a slow and expensive legal process has been necessary. "We asked in writing for a more complete description of these records over a year ago. It's sad that we've had to wait so long to get it, and that we and the taxpayers have had to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to get to this point. The Sierra Club has been fortunate to have Joel Ban and Pat Shea, two Salt Lake attorneys who specialize in public records law, representing us. I hope that in the future the city will be more cooperative from the start."

The Sierra Club's original record requests asked the city to provide all records of communication with UTA or Chris Peterson, and all records pertaining to gondola-related studies. Peterson owns the Malan's Basin property in the mountains east of Ogden. In 2006, Peterson and Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey proposed an elaborate project involving a resort in Malan's Basin, an upscale residential development in Ogden's foothills, and two gondolas to serve these developments. Peterson has not succeeded in acquiring the foothill property, and stated in July that the project was on the "back burner".

The Sierra Club has questioned whether the Peterson project was ever feasible in the first place. The club filed its record requests in an attempt to learn more about rumored feasibility studies and whether taxpayers were paying for any studies.