Legislators to address open records law

RIVERTON — When Tina Clifford sent a public records request to Fremont County, she didn’t hear anything for weeks. Then, she got a quote: $70 an hour for the remaining work, estimated to come out to a total of $560 to access data about the 2024 election.

Clifford isn’t alone in her experiences, and after hearing from the public and from industry representatives such as The Ranger, the Wyoming State Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee has chosen to take it up as one of its interim topics. F

Local elected officials Representative Pepper Ottman and committee co-chairman Senator Cale Case have noted the importance of government transparency laws and hope to see this start a broader conversation about how to improve government transparency in the state.

At its first interim meeting next week in Lander, the committee is set to discuss this very topic.

In Wyoming, government entities are allowed to set reasonable fees for the work involved in providing access to electronic records – and each government entity gets to decide for itself what reasonable means.

As this paper has shown, fees vary widely even within Fremont County. Some governments provide most requests for free, while some, like the county, have established fee schedules. School districts frequently pass along attorney fees, charging hundreds of dollars per hour.

Wyoming Journalist of the Year and Ranger Managing Editor Sarah Squires has been working to gather support over the last year to add clarity and limits to the way governments may charge for records.

Over the last 20 years, she’s uncovered millions of dollars in taxpayer funds being misused, and she’s done so using public records. But when she came to Wyoming, she discovered local governments have the ability to charge what she calls astronomical fees for records.

“There are no guardrails in state statute for the way our local governments can charge fees to access important government records,” Squires explained. “It means that, particularly when government workers don’t want you to see them, you end up with a huge price tag for that data. But these records belong to the people, and that’s how we hold government accountable – by keeping an eye on what they’re doing on our behalf, and how they’re spending our money. If citizens are to be the real watchdogs of government, we absolutely need to access these records without outrageous fees standing in our way.”

Although the committee has such a full agenda that the legislature’s Management Council allowed it to add back two days to its schedule after requesting that committees have shorter schedules this year, both chairs felt this topic was important enough to add it to their roster.

“I’ve been absolutely inspired by the support that we’ve had locally for making this fix in statute,” Squires commented. “We do a lot of work in holding local officials accountable as a newspaper, but there are lots of people out there who want to know more about local government, who are requesting documents and researching local issues, and who are engaged about these crazy fees standing in their way.”

“I think the interim is important,” Case remarked. “This is not rushed; it’s thoughtful, and you can get input … and it’s also the only real time when the public really interacts and gives input into these bills.”

For topics like government transparency, that can mean tackling just one or two smaller aspects of the issue each year, chipping away and doing research in order to carefully make improvements that will work for Wyoming.

Not every data cost or barrier to information is entirely unreasonable; attorneys and other professionals may at times request thousands of pages that occupy significant amounts of staff time, while entities like school districts are charged with protecting sensitive information. Finding the right formula for Wyoming for everything from public records fees to executive sessions will take time.

“I’m so thankful that the Elections, Corporations, and Political Subdivisions Committee has taken this up as an interim topic. Their work and time is incredibly valuable – particularly, election integrity,”  Squires said. “We don’t get to have government accountability if we don’t have government transparency. And if transparency costs more than any citizen out there who wants to know more about government can afford, then we’ve lost the oversight that we need as citizens to keep bureaucrats in check. That’s really the bottom line.”

For people like Squires, the hope is that the committee will start with fees this year – and continue to look into the topic for years to come, eyeing larger reform as a long-term project while starting with small changes that could be implemented as soon as next year.

“I’m excited for the future. When government knows you’re looking, they tend to act right. For far too long, Wyoming local government has been hiding behind fees. I hope the committee is ready to end that,”Squires said.

Other topics

Other topics the committee will be discussing include elections, electricity, “opportunity zones and regulatory sandboxes,” workforce housing, emergency services/911, elected official associations, a presentation from the Uniform Law Commission on 2025’s Senate File 189, and constitutional apportionment (or redistricting).

Case highlighted elections and electricity as high-priority items for the committee that stand out to him as topics to pay attention to.

A lot of new legislators this year brought big ideas about wanting significant changes to Wyoming’s elections systems, Case noted, and the committee will need to start by taking a hard look at what Wyoming currently has in place and what the facts are about elections and election integrity.

“We’re going to take it slow and really learn how elections are conducted,” he said.

While Case agrees that it’s important to ensure that only citizens are voting, the question of elections is a careful balancing act. Election integrity matters, he said, but he believes that most county clerks and election officials in Wyoming are upright individuals who follow the law – and making it harder to vote tends to cool voter turnout. Adding too much in the way of bureaucratic hoops to jump through could lead to accusations of preventing legitimate voters from being able to exercise their rights; the legislature needs to be careful that any changes it implements don’t interfere with citizens’ constitutional right to vote as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, he pointed out. “I wish people would approach the right to vote like the right to own a firearm,” Case remarked.

Electricity is also an important topic, but one that Case noted the committee is looking at a new way this year.

“We’re approaching electricity a different way,” he explained; Wyoming is facing some big cost drivers, and electricity is an important question. This isn’t the first time the committee has tackled the question of how electricity works in Wyoming, but this year it’s decided to share some of the responsibility of looking into this matter with a Wyoming Energy Authority taskforce.

Case added that he has full faith in the committee. The corporations committee has always done great work, he said, and although its membership has changed a little over the years it’s still full of passionate legislators committed to carefully researching topics and crafting the best solutions for Wyoming.

“We’re a good committee,” he said. “The corporations committee has always worked hard.”

Public input and testimony is an important part of interim work – but, Case said, if a bunch of different people step up to offer the same testimony during their meeting, it can severely limit the time the legislators have to actually work on agenda items.

It’s also helpful for legislators to hear from constituents beforehand so they can think about what they have to say and bring that information with them, he added.

Case encourages folks with thoughts or experiences to share to email or send a letter to the committee legislators in advance of the meeting. His email is cale.case@wyoleg.gov; co-chair Representative Christopher Knapp can be reached at chris.knapp@wyoleg.gov.

The Elections, Corporations, and Political Subdivisions will meet at the Jack King Administration Building, 863 Sweetwater Street, Lander, on Thursday and Friday, May 8 and 9.

It is set to discuss public records and open meetings at 10 a.m. on Friday, and will hear public comment on the topic following testimony from the state ombudsman and a review of research conducted by the Legislative Service Office.

To see the committee’s full agenda and check out what LSO has found out about policies in nearby states, go to https://www.wyoleg.gov/Committees/2025/J07 and click on the “Details” button next to the Lander meeting.

This story was published on May 4, 2025.