State Representative David Butterfield, R-District 4, voted for House Bill 477 which puts significant restrictions on the state’s open records law. Now Butterfield says he will probably vote to repeal the bill at Friday’s special session of the legislature called by Governor Gary Herbert.On KVNU’s Crosstalk show Tuesday, Butterfield said he feels the bill has become extremely controversial, mainly because there should have been more time allowed for public input before a vote was taken.”If we repeal the bill it repeals the bill, obviously, and allows us to start over,” Butterfield said. “I think it’s what our constituents have clearly asked for. “They’re probably right to ask for, to ask, ‘we want more time and more input.’ I think that’s what House Republicans are trying to accomplish.”Butterfield is pleased about the fact that a working group has been appointed to consider changes to the bill. Jason Williams, co-host of KVNU’s For the People program, is a member of the working group.State Representative Curt Webb, R-District 5, also plans to attend the special session. But Webb says he will not vote to repeal the bill although he does go along with a work group studying the bill with the idea of recommending changes.”I think that if it needs changes, reasonable changes, we’ll make them,” Webb says. “But to just say we will cut and run without any assurance that those changes that need to be made, given today’s technologies, to cut and run without an assurance that those would be addressed I think would be an unwise move at this point.”Webb says he strongly believes in public access to government records but he also said he feels that to say House Bill 477 does not provide for public access does a real injustice to what the bill was meant to do.Webb gave a detailed explanation of his thoughts on HB477, its passage, and the debate about whether or not to repeal it on KVNU’s For the People blog. It can be read in its entirety by
<a href=”http://kvnuforthepeople.com/2011/03/24/rep-curt-webb-statement-on-grama-and-hb477/”>clicking here</a>
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