The ECHO-Association Appeal – Utah State Records Committee (Hawkes and Hall Emails)

 

From: The ECHO-Association <m.tracy@echo-association.com>
Subject: Appeal to the Utah State Records Committee (Ref: Hawkes and Hall Emails)
Date: March 16, 2022 at 3:29:10 PM MDT
To: SRCsecretary@utah.gov
Cc: Jennifer Hawkes <hawkes@ecmetro.org>, eric@ecid.org, mike@ecid.org, brent@ecid.org, dave@ecid.org, larryh@aquaenviron.com

Rebekkah Shaw
SRC Executive Secretary
346 S. Rio Grande
Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1106
Phone: 801-531-3851
Fax: 801-531-3867
Email: SRCsecretary@utah.gov

Dear Ms. Shaw,

We hereby appeal the “affirmed denial” of the Chief Administrative Officer of Emigration Improvement District (“EID” aka Emigration Canyon Improvement District aka ECID) Micheal Scott Hughes under Utah Code Ann. 63G-2-403 regarding our request dated January 21, 2022, to inspect all email correspondence of Emigration Improvement District EID General Manager Eric Hawks and EID Operations Manager Larry Hall) from August 1, 2016 to November 1, 2016 and May 1, 2020 to September 1, 2020.

Please note the following for the purpose of this appeal:

Name: Mark Christopher Tracy

Mailing Address: 1160 E. Buchnel Dr., Sandy, Utah 84094

Daytime Phone Number: 929-208-6010

Date of GRAMA Request to the EID Certified Public Records Officer: January 21, 2022 (see https://echo-association.com/?page_id=9012).

Date of GRAMA Denial: February 1, 2022 (see https://echo-association.com/?page_id=9093).

Date of GRAMA Appeal to Chief Administrative Officer: March 3, 2021 (see id).

Date of GRAMA decision of the Chief Administrative Officer: No response.

Relief Sought / Grounds for Appeal: Disclosure of all email correspondence of EID General Manager Eric Hawks and EID Operations Manager Larry Hall) from August 1, 2016 to November 1, 2016 and May 1, 2020 to September 1, 2020.

Under Utah Code Ann. sec. 63G-2-201(1)(a) “a person has the right to inspect a public record free of charge, and the right to take a copy of a public record during normal working hours” if the record is not privileged or confidential.

The Utah State Records Committee has previous rejected the argument that a governmental entity may disregard a lawful request for public records because a courtesy copy was also provided to the designated public records office (see Tracy v. EID, Case No. 21-45 available at https://echo-association.com/wp-content/uploads/SRC-Decision-and-Order-1.pdf).

Moreover, the Utah State Court of Appeals has expressly ruled that the designated public records office of the governmental entity must be listed in the GRAMA request for the purpose of further litigation.  See Tracy v. Simplify Company et. al, Case No. 20200275, Utah Ct. App.)

Please also note that the requested public records are directly relevant to federal litigation pending against Utah Attorney Jeremy Cook, EID Chief Administrative Officer Michael Scott Hughes, EID Certified Public Records Officer Eric Hawkes and Emigration Canyon Mayor Joe Smolka et al. (see https://echo-association.com/?page_id=1524 and https://echo-association.com/?page_id=818).

Kind Regards,

Mark Christopher Tracy
– qui tam Relator
Tel. 929-208-6010