Utah Defenders of Open Government

Utah's Open Government Watchdog

 UtahDOG Wins Court Case to Require the Utah Association of Special Districts to Comply with Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act

 

July 28, 2025

 

Syracuse, Utah - After receiving millions of taxpayer dollars but refusing to disclose its budget documents and financial statements, a court recently ruled that the Utah Association of Special Districts (UASD) unlawfully denied UtahDOG's request under Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) for these financial records.

 

In November 2024, when UtahDOG sent UASD a GRAMA request asking to see the last several years of budget documents and financial statements, UASD's Executive Director, LeGrand Bitter, denied UtahDOG's request and falsely asserted that UASD is not subject to GRAMA. In December 2024, when UtahDOG first appealed this denial, Mr. Bitter again falsely asserted that "UASD is not subject to GRAMA."

 

So UtahDOG filed a petition for judicial review in court in January 2025. As a result of this court case, the court recently ruled that UASD was, in fact, subject to GRAMA as a "governmental nonprofit corporation" at the time of the GRAMA request.  Also as a result of this court case, UASD has now produced all of the records requested in the original GRAMA request, including its budget documents, financial statements, and agendas and minutes for the meetings of its Board of Trustees from 2020 to 2024. Each of these records can be accessed here. With these documents, the public can now see how UASD has been spending the millions of taxpayer dollars that UASD has received since 2020.

 

UtahDOG is pleased to announce this win in its fight to get local government entities in Utah to comply with open government laws. UtahDOG is also pleased to provide these records for the public to view, free of charge, in order to gain insight into how taxpayer dollars are being spent within this particular local government entity.