State panel won't drop fees for public information
By Lori Buttars
The Salt Lake Tribune
Issue: 09/17//04

Public information has a price.
The State Records Committee declined to waive nearly $300 in fees the University of Utah is charging biology student Jeremy Beckham, who is seeking information on primate studies. But freedom-of-information advocates say the committee overstepped its bounds in trying to define an unclear state law.
"It's a dangerous precedent because it opens it up to the possibility that an agency could use these fees as a deterrent to what is otherwise a proper records request," says Salt Lake City media attorney David Reymann.
Beckham sent a Government Records Access and Management Act request to the U. seeking information on the "protocols" or procedures used to conduct the studies on animals.
Before denying Beckham's fees-waiver request, the five-member panel debated several vague passages in GRAMA that say taxpayer-funded agencies "may" charge a "reasonable" sum for staff hours spent compiling the requested records..
Attorneys for the U. said due to the "proprietary nature of the research involved," one of the exceptions allowed by state law, Beckham's request required the services of a lawyer, a research scientist and a lab technician to go over the information. The cost of those hours was passed on to Beckham at a tab of $299.08.
Committee member Cherie Willis argued that time experts spent reviewing the material was reasonable because the U. had used staffers
for the process rather than hiring an outside patent attorney or researcher.
"In our previous discussions, we heard testimony from expert witnesses who said these type of individuals would be required and that it would be expensive," Willis said. "There were no objections to it at that time."
Beckham said most labs have the information he was requesting on hand as part of their grant-application process.
"All this means is that the taxpayer has no right to information as to how their money is being used to conduct these experiments unless they are wealthy," Beckham said.
Rather than paying the fee, Beckham could appeal the decision in state court. But he is unsure if he will take that step.
"If I can't pay $300 in fees, I doubt that I can afford an attorney to represent me in court."