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Residents ask Davis County to release petition-packet records after GRAMA requests
Summary
Two Syracuse residents urged the Davis County Commission on Feb. 4 to pursue records from petition-packet submissions after discrepancies in stamped receipts were found; no formal action was taken.
Two residents told the Davis County Commission on Feb. 4 they had filed GRAMA requests for petition-packet records and urged county officials to resolve discrepancies in stamped submission receipts.
The requests were raised during the public-comment period by Tina Horlacher, a Syracuse resident, and Nate Affleck, a Syracuse resident who said he helped gather signatures for a statewide ballot petition. Horlacher asked that her statement be included in the meeting minutes and said an appeal of a denied records request is pending with the Utah State Records Commission.
Affleck said petition packets the lieutenant governor's office provided in response to a GRAMA request were date-stamped for February submissions but not for packets from March. He told commissioners that the discrepancy meant either the lieutenant governor's office did not provide true receipts or that the packets had not been stamped as previously reported. "It can't be both," Affleck said, summarizing the inconsistency he found in the documents he reviewed. He offered to provide the packets to commissioners for review.
Affleck described the packets as the form used to record petition submissions and said his group sought the packets specifically as a verification of submission, not as lists of signers. He said the lieutenant governor's office had contracted Davis County to count some petitions and that the stamped packet is the receipt recorded when a packet is turned in.
Jennifer Garner of Layton also spoke during public comment to urge the commission to consider removing fluoride from public water in advance of a state bill; she asked the commission to act proactively rather than wait for the Legislature.
Commissioners did not take formal action on the GRAMA appeals during the meeting. A county official accepted a physical copy of the submitted appeal and commissioners noted public comment is not a question-and-answer period; they indicated openness to follow-up outside the public-comment timeframe.
The speakers asked for verification and action rather than immediate rulings. The Utah State Records Commission and the lieutenant governor's office were named in the public comments as parties involved in the records request and appeal.
