SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Is the Utah State Legislature keeping documents hidden from the public?
This is the question ABC 4 has been asking for more than a week now.
But lawmakers still haven't released the documents we asked for.
ABC 4 filed a public records request last Monday asking for two boxes of government papers.
These are the documents Utah Democrats asked for quite some time ago, but won't pay ten thousand dollars to obtain them.
These documents deal with the drawing of new political boundaries and are now sitting in the capitol.
We put in our request for the papers eight days ago.
But so far, we haven’t gotten any documents or a response to our request.
Now, remember, ABC 4 not only asked to see the hidden redistricting records, we also asked for them in an "expedited" manner.
Now according to the attorney general's own Open Records book,
"...if you can show a quick response will benefit the public the request must be handled within five business days."
And the attorney general's book goes on to say,
"A journalist is entitled to a quick response."
Because Tuesday was the 6th business day since we put in our request, we called the legislature's legal counsel.
We were told that the matter was being discussed with lawmakers and that an answer might be forthcoming by the end of the week.
FOLLOW CHRIS VANOCUR ON TWITTER: @cvan4
