Weber County officials review GRAMA workload, NextRequest costs and steps to digitize archives

Weber County Commission members reviewed a 2024 GRAMA report and discussed whether fees and internal cost allocations should change after staff said one department—Sheriff’s Office—accounts for the bulk of requests.

The discussion began as Janie Avery, records staff, briefed commissioners on the county’s GRAMA statistics and the county’s use of NextRequest, the public-records portal. “The first 15 minutes are free. You can’t charge for those. But past 15 minutes . . . you can,” Avery said, summarizing the county’s current charging practice under state rules as presented to the commission.

The nut graf: the commission weighed options to recoup more of the county’s GRAMA costs after staff showed that requests have risen sharply since the county adopted NextRequest in late 2019 and that the Sheriff’s Office generates a very high share of the work. Commissioners discussed whether the county can and should charge higher or different fees for out-of-county or high-volume requesters, and whether departments that generate the most requests should pay a proportionate share of fulfillment costs.

Commissioners and staff noted several implementation details. Commissioner Jim Harvey suggested the Sheriff’s Office should bear a proportional share because it accounted for roughly 83% of GRAMA requests in the county’s data, a figure that prompted several commissioners to discuss charging the department for a larger portion of the NextRequest/records budget. Clerk Connor and staff noted the county currently charges an internal administration fee that is allocated to department budgets, and Scott Park (county staff) said that, in practice, some departments have fewer requests while the sheriff’s team handles large daily volumes — “one day, they get 90 a day,” staff reported.

Commissioners also discussed recent state legislation that changes how GRAMA fees are calculated. Avery and other staff said a bill passed in the prior week alters the prior method that used the lowest-paid employee as the cost basis; staff said they will review the new law and return with recommended changes. Commissioner Sharon Bullows asked staff to look for whether residency-based surcharges are allowed; staff said they will review the new statute and report back. “If not, then maybe we need to get another bill going next year,” one commissioner said.

The commission also heard an update on archive and digitization work. Avery told the commission the county has reorganized its archive room and launched an online archive tool that departments can use to inventory boxes and request scans. Staff are planning a scanning project to make more marriage-license records and applications available electronically; hard-copy licenses must be preserved permanently, staff said. Jessica Clark and other staff described coordination with IT and ongoing training for departments on GRAMA and archives best practices.

Commissioners asked staff to: review the new state GRAMA fee rule and report back; analyze whether allocating NextRequest and GRAMA staffing costs proportionally by department is feasible and materially justified; and return with a recommended countywide fee or ordinance if needed. Staff said they would follow up with Scott Park and other administrators and bring options to a future meeting.

Ending: The commission did not adopt a new fee or ordinance at the work session; staff will return with legal and budget analyses and proposed language on how to allocate GRAMA costs and how to implement any fee changes.