Members of the House Political Subdivisions Committee voted for a bill that would limit the release of personal information about leaders of local government entities and answered other issues about a government entity registry during a hearing Tuesday, Jan. 28.
Rep. Stephen Handy, R-Layton, led the House Political Subdivisions Committee and sponsored HB31. The purpose of the bill is to amend the provisions of governing the local government and it limits the purpose entity registry. With a unanimous vote of 11 representatives in favor, the bill passed. If the bill passes all the steps, it will ensure that every local government entity has to register and update their information every certain time. Besides, it will protect the personal information of the people who leads these entities.
Justin Lee, from the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, said, “When a city or county has to register it didn’t say who had to do that?” Even though it was not merely Lee’s job to record the information from the cities and counties, so the staff at the Lieutenant Governor’s Office decided that county clerks will have that responsibility.
Lee said, “There were questions about timing and when certain entities have to file and update the information.” The Lieutenant Governor’s Office scheduled parameters for each type of entity. For instance, each year a non-profit is required to prepare an account to report under the financial sections.
This bill also highlights that every charter school goes under the definition of a limited-purpose entity. According to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, if a charter school is an operating charter school with affiliated satellite charter schools, it has to register in behalf of the satellite charter schools as well.
“We pass this information very often to the Auditor’s Office,” Lee said. This information includes names, email addresses and phone numbers of the member’s entities governing board. “One of the things we didn’t want to do was capture private information from a board member if that’s not something to use for their public duties.”
“If they disclose their private information on the website, or as part of their disclosure now became official business and therefore it can be subject to disclosure.” John Dougall, from the Auditor’s Office, said. Because of this issue the when filling the registry the entities do not necessarily have to fill it with personal information.
