From Deseret News:
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Democrats are stuck with a $14,000 bill for public documents after the Legislative Records Committee voted 3-1 on Monday to deny the party’s appeal for a fee waiver.Party officials say the documents — approximately 16,000 pages of emails, correspondence and other records generated by the Legislature’s redistricting process — are being sought in the public interest. But committee members argued that the Utah Democrats’ request falls short of state policy for waiving fees.[…]Joel Campbell, an associate journalism professor at BYU and media watchdog, testified before the committee in favor of granting the fee waiver. He argued that because the requested documents deal with constitutional rights and voter district information, they carry a greater public interest than many open records requests received by the Legislature.