Our View: Everyone can access records

Some of our readers may wonder why newspapers fight so hard in regards to open access to public meetings and government documents.

This week, we published an article about a woman who was turned away from seeing a marriage license from 1915 regarding her husband’s grandmother as well as the results of a small public records audit we conducted. While some of our more cynical readers may view it as an attempt to either make news or draw undue pressure on hard working employees who have a lot on their plates, the fact of the matter is we’re fight to keep records and meetings open to everyone.

Contrary to popular belief, journalists don’t have more access to government meetings and documents than other residents. It’s true that we use those records more frequently in the course of our work, but everything we have access to in regards to government and city documents are documents legally available to anyone. Being denied access to any public document extends a chilling effect throughout the community. A few people talk about how they couldn’t look at a county or city record and word spreads, with people assuming they can’t look at what should be publicly accessible.

However, when a resident is denied access to a document they’re legally entitled to see, we’re fairly certain it isn’t done in an attempt to hide anything. An employee may busy with another project and not have time to handle a request to look through public records or they may simply not know what is available for public inspection and what isn’t.

Regular trainings for government employees as well as easy to understand pamphlets from the state regarding what is and is not a public document would do a lot in clearing potential confusion on both sides. We believe the county clerks association, working with state offices and the Wyoming Press Association, should produce such a publication.

In any democracy, the ability to access information is one of the most important rights the citizens of a government have. It allows people to question their representatives and hold government responsible for its failures in the hope that a better result will occur. Public records allow for a person to explore their family history and know an ancestor’s life in a way that differs from a short obituary or hand-written note found in the family Bible.

As such, we believe fighting to maintain access to those documents isn’t a fight for us to maintain access for professional reasons, but a fight to give Green River’s residents access to information they have a right to see.