Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA)

{{Article Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA) is the equivalent to the Freedom of Information Act (U.S) for the State of Utah. This legislation was put into effect in 1992. According to the Utah Department of Human Services, "The statute that allows the public to obtain copies of government records". This includes records that were produced by "any association, organization, or society whose members include elected or appointed public officials and for which public funds are used or paid to the public association for membership dues or for other support for the official's participation in the public association". To obtain copies of records, a request form must be submitted to the governmental department holding the desired record. Often, there are fees associated with the retrieval and duplication of requested records. These fees are minimal and necessary to cover the cost of the request. A sample request form can be viewed on the Utah Attorney Generals' website, http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/cmsdocuments/GRAMARequestForm.pdf. GRAMA has a time limit of 10 business days for response once a request has been submitted.
 * Author=Brian Bunker, Rob Sanders
 * Editor=Teresa Gomez
 * BoK Topic=GD12, GS5, OI5
 * 311 Week=6
 * Tags=freedom of information act, state information
 * Content====Definition===

Availability
Before GRAMA releases the requested document, they must first determine if the documents can be released to the general public. To do this many circumstances are taken into account. Some data is not made available due to special circumstances. For example, records can be flagged as Private, Protected, Controlled, or Security Related. If a record is flagged as such, it is not able to be accessed via GRAMA. Private records include general information about specific employees of any form of government in Utah. Protected records deal with items that, if disclosed would cause financial uncertainty, including trade secrets and similar proprietary information. Controlled records deal with medically sensitive information about people, both employees of the government and not. Security Related records include security plans, security codes and combinations, passwords, passes and keys, security procedures, and building and public works designs, to the extent that the records or information relate to the ongoing security measures of a public entity.

Enforecement
The state attorney general enforces GRAMA.

For more information see the GRAMA Handbook from the Utah Attorney Generals' office: http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/cmsdocuments/GRAMAHandbook&Appendix2005.pdf. Access the text of the legislation at http://eagle.ceu.edu/GRAMA/Utah%20GRAMA%20Law.pdf.

Scope
GRAMA is a state law applying only to government agencies in Utah. Other states have similar laws, such as the California Public Records Act, the New York State Committee on Open Government , Colorado Public Records Law , etc. Utah's GRAMA law, and other state laws, all mirror federal legislation called FOIA, an acronym for The Freedom of Information Act (U.S.). President Lyndon B. Johnson signed FOIA into law in 1966. }}