For Immediate Release
March 9th, 2011
MEDIA ADVISORY
Hundreds of Outraged Citizens from Duck Hunters to Grandmas to the Sierra Club Protest at Utah Capitol over HB477
CONTACTS:
Cherise Udell (President, Utah Moms for Clean Air): 510-306-6963, nomadicmuse@yahoo.com
Thomas Feeny (past Vice-Chair of Republican Committee in Weber County – just resigned yesterday due to HB477): 317-1786
Tom Haraldson (President of Society of Professional Journalists, Utah Chapter)
Dr. Brian Moench: (President, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment) 801-243-9089
Dixie Huefner (Chair, Utahns for Ethical Government): 801-359-6705
Kim Burningham (past Republican Legislator): 801-292-9261
Linda Johnson (Co-president, League of Women Voters): 801-277-4499
R. Jefre Hicks (President, Utah AirBoat Association): 801-540-9225
WHO: Over 30 local groups and a sea of concerned citizens who have spontaneously organized in two days via social media such as Facebook. This will be one of the broadest and quickest citizen coalitions ever built in Utah. Republican duck hunters, ATVers, Sierra Club, Peaceful Uprising, Tea Party folks, Utah Moms for Clean Air, doctors, professors, grandmothers and religious leaders will all stand in unity that HB477 is a VERY BAD bill for Utah and must be rescinded immediately.
WHEN: Thursday, March 10 at 6pm
WHERE: Utah State Capitol, in the north plaza by the fountain
WHAT: We, the citizens of Utah are not happy about HB477. In fact, we are outraged. We will gather together with flashlights just outside the Capitol Building with the message that “We won’t tolerate our government operating in the dark.” We expect hundreds of protestors with colorful signs and flashlights singing patriotic songs as our legislators tie-up the last day of a legislative session that has arguably made a mockery of “government of, by, and for the people.”
Additional, since this rally was organized three days ago, the Governor signed HB477 into law and said he had to otherwise his veto would have been overridden In fact, this is not true and is disengenious at best and an outright lie at worse.
WHY: HB477 represents retrograde legislation that has broad negative implication to the status of our state’s public records law. Electronic communications, including text messages, voice mails and/or video chat regardless of whether public officials are conducting public business or not, will be exempt from disclosure.
In this unprecedented move, Utah is embracing the concept that the medium, rather than the message, is what’s important when it comes to openness. This is a lobbyist’s dream, and a citizen’s nightmare, an untraceable communications channel in which the privileged have exclusive, real-time access to lawmakers on the floor. The same legislators who say that we can’t trust the federal government are forcing us to trust them, without question with the passage of HB477. Now, the same legislators need to hear our message: You work for us, not the other way around.
The bill was recalled yesterday after a huge public outcry but it was quickly amended (in date of effectiveness only) and Governor Herbert went ahead and signed the bill into law last night with a emailed statement to the press:
“With HB477 now amended, the delayed implementation date allows us to have an open public process with robust, deliberate engagement by the public, the media and lawmakers.”
But as Utahn and co-organizer of the Shine the Light on Government rally, Tim Wagner, quickly retorted:
“The Governor says he now wants to have a process with robust, deliberate engagement by the public and the media. I hate to be the one to tell him that the time for that was before he signed the bill into law. It appears that Gary Herbert graduated from the Richard Nixon School of Governing.”
