Black Hole Awards p.

By: M.L. Stein

Utah SPJ bestows dubious honor on public agencies for their alleged skill at withholding information
EIGHT UTAH PUBLIC agencies and officeholders have qualified for an SPJ "Black Hole Award" for their alleged skill at withholding information.
The dubious honor, bestowed annually by the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, is meant to "raise public awareness about government agencies and public officials who have failed to let the 'sunshine' into the workings of government," according to Janice Keller, executive director of the Utah Press Association and a member of the Head-
liners' board.
The Draper City Council earned its award, SPJ said, by taking a secret vote to reinstate a former police chief and pick a new city manager, "an action that clearly violated Utah's open meeting law." When SPJ blew the whistle on the council, it held a "corrective" open session in which the chief was again let go.
Also falling into the "Black Hole" were state officials who refused to tell the Salt Lake Tribune the names of 21 of Utah's 29 senators and 57 of its House members who, with their families, enjoy state health-care insurance benefits for $40 a month, a perk said to be worth more than their $5,000 yearly salaries.
Legislators claim that as public employees, they are protected from the Government Records Access and Management Act.
Replied SPJ: "They have misread the law, and the public interest in knowing this information certainly outweighs any reason to keep it secret."
The Ogden School Board was cited for meeting in a six-hour closed session and emerging with a press release supporting Superintendent James West in a controversy. Then in a public meeting, the board, in a few seconds, formally endorsed the release.
Among other things, the handout said the board recommended that West take legal action against the Ogden Standard-Examiner, which had published a series last December concerning the superintendent's financial activities.
The Department of Public Safety won its award for refusing to let the Deseret News view drivers' license records free of charge, as spelled out in the state's open records law. The newspaper wanted to determine if candidates in the general election had drunken driving arrests.
On appeal, the State Records Committee said the DPS may have the right to charge but should have granted a waiver for this particular request. The DPS still refused.
The Provo City Council, according to SPJ, trampled on the state's open meeting law by meeting behind closed doors to pare a list of mayoral candidates to six finalists.
The council also refused a media request for the r?sum?s and other documents involving all the candidates, offering instead to give out only the finalists' r?sum?s. News organizations refused the deal, SPJ reported.
Media are not spared from "Black Hole" designations, Keller said. Last year, she recalled, a Utah weekly newspaper was allotted a "Hole" for its "cover-up" of a story a city agency did not want publicized.