Gov. Cox picks former lawmaker to represent the public on Utah's open records committee

The Utah State Records Committee decides which government records can be released to the public and which are not. Two of the seven seats on the panel are reserved for people who are meant to represent the interests of the public. Gov. Spencer Cox just nominated a former Utah lawmaker to fill one of those public positions.

On Friday, Cox selected former Rep. Logan Wilde to represent Utah citizens on the committee that hears appeals when the government denies access to records. Wilde served in the Utah Legislature from 2017 to 2020. He resigned from his seat in 2020 after former Gov. Gary Herbert named him to head up the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

Wilde replaces Marie Cornwall, a sociology professor at Brigham Young University, whose term expired at the end of September.

If the Senate confirms Wilde's nomination, he will play a key role in deciding whether to override a decision by a government entity to withhold records sought by members of the public or media.

Wilde did not respond to questions from Utah Political Watch, which included who first approached him about seeking a spot on the committee and how his experience as an elected official and cabinet appointee will impact his approach to the job.

Cox's office also did not respond to questions about Wilde's appointment.

Since 2022, Attorney General Sean Reyes' office has denied open records requests from the media for his work schedule. When news organizations appealed, the State Records Committee ordered Reyes to release his calendar. Reyes has filed a lawsuit in a last-ditch effort to keep those records away from the public.

Earlier this year, I filed a request for House Speaker Mike Schultz's calendar after he spoke at an event headlined by a far-right Christian nationalist figure. The Legislature claimed Schultz's calendar did not exist and denied the request.

In February, Republican lawmakers rushed to pass a bill exempting the calendars of public officials and state employees from Utah's open records law, known as the Government Access and Records Management Act (GRAMA). Gov. Spencer Cox swiftly signed the bill into law.

At the last minute, lawmakers inserted "intent language" into the bill, attempting to make the new law retroactive, but it hasn't worked. The committee has sided with the media several times this year, ruling that any GRAMA request for the calendars of public officials submitted before the law changed was valid.

The Records Committee has been unable to conduct any business since the end of September. Utah Political Watch first reported that three Utah State Records Committee members' terms expired this year. Those empty seats left the seven-member committee without a quorum until at least one new person was confirmed.

According to emails obtained through an open records request, Cox attempted to reappoint the three members whose terms had either expired or were about to expire to a second go-round on the committee in July. Senate Republicans refused to consider those nominations, claiming insufficient support to return them to the committee for another four-year term.

On July 15, the Cox administration was informed that those expiring terms would soon prevent the committee from conducting any business.

Rebekkah Shaw, Executive Secretary of the State Records Committee, emailed Brooke Scheffler, who coordinates appointments to various boards and commissions for Cox, to warn her about the problem.

"The Senate's next floor time is August 21st and Mark and Marie's terms end in September. If they aren't both approved, the Committee will have a stressful time keeping a quorum until they are. If something happens and god-forbid all 3 (Mark, Marie and Nancy) aren't reappointed, we would only have 4 members on the Committee, which isn't a quorum!" Shaw emailed.

Sheffler replied that she was set to meet with Cox on July 19 to discuss several nominations, including the three from the State Records Committee. Those nominations were finalized and sent to the Senate on July 22.

After that, the reappointments languished for over a month before being sent to the Senate Business and Labor Confirmation Committee.

On Sept. 5, Senate staffers emailed committee members seeking to schedule a confirmation hearing for the three nominees, but it never was put on the calendar.

Committee chair Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, explained that "there was insufficient support" for the nominees, and they were working with Cox to find alternates. Bramble was also the primary sponsor of the legislation to hide the calendars of government officials from the public.

It's unclear how Bramble concluded that the nominees could not be confirmed.

Communications turned over by Cox's office and the Utah Senate revealed that just one senator, Riverton Republican Dan McCay, expressed concern about giving the three nominees another term.

"I've heard some concerns about just keeping people on autopilot on the state records committee (sic)," McCay wrote.

Any other records about the three either don't exist or were not captured by the open records request. Democrats on the committee said they were not involved in any discussions about whether or not to approve another term.

Wilde is not the only new nominee for the committee put forward by Cox. On Oct. 7, Cox appointed Herriman City Attorney Todd Sheeran to represent local government. If approved, he will replace Clearfield Recorder Nancy Dean, whose term expired in May.