Wyoming municipal leaders warn 10‑day public‑records deadlines, fines would overwhelm small governments

Mayor Leah Juarez, mayor of Mills, told the Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee that accelerated FOIA timelines in the draft bill would be impractical for small local governments juggling daily operations and reduced staff. “Compressing the statutory window to 10 days is quite simply impractical,” Mayor Juarez said, adding she had seen a single request estimated at $28,000 to fulfill.

The University of Wyoming urged caution. Tara Evans, vice president and general counsel at the University of Wyoming, said her office’s experience with high‑volume, privacy‑sensitive searches showed redaction work can be time‑intensive: “If we get a request for emails, it takes days and days to go through these emails.” She urged retaining a longer response window to avoid errors and added that the university’s average response time is about 31 days.

The Wyoming Association of…