Guides
General information about Utah law. Not legal advice.
Who decides, and how
When a Utah agency denies a records request, the appeal used to go to a committee of seven. Since May 2025 it goes to one person, the director of the Government Records Office. S.B. 277 made the change.
Sources: Utah Code § 63A-12-202, created by S.B. 277 (2025), and the old committee law, § 63G-2-501, which S.B. 277 repealed. The committee always had seven members, but the seats changed. In 2013 the State Auditor’s seat became a second citizen seat. In 2015 the local-government seat no longer had to be an elected official. In 2019 the State History seat and the governor’s-designee seat became the electronic-records and state-archives seats. The seven shown here are the seats from 2019 until the committee ended in 2025.
How they hold the job
The governor appointed five of the seven seats with Senate advice and consent. Staggered four-year terms, one additional term.
The governor appoints in consultation with the executive director of the Department of Government Operations, with Senate advice and consent, to a four-year term. Reappointable to consecutive terms, and removable before the term ends only for cause.
§ 63A-12-202(2), (4)Oversight
None set by statute.
Beginning in 2027, the Division of Human Resource Management must survey parties who appeared before the director and evaluate the office’s procedural fairness every two years.
§ 63A-12-205Where the rule carried over
Deadline to appeal
30 days from the decision, or 45 if the entity issued none. Under the committee the notice went to the executive secretary; it now goes to the director. The deadline itself is the same.
§ 63G-2-403(1)The rules of procedure
The R35 series of the Administrative Code, made by the committee, used by the director in the committee’s place until his own take effect. Updated rules were drafted and under review as of the office’s first annual report.
§ 63A-12-203(6)The ombudsman
The Government Records Ombudsman mediates disputes, as before, renumbered from § 63A-12-111 to § 63A-12-204 and now appointed and supervised by the director. Requesting mediation still suspends both the appeal clock and the judicial review clock.
§ 63G-2-403(1)(c)Vexatious requester petitions
From 2023, an agency’s petition to cut off a requester went to the committee. S.B. 277 substituted the director, who now receives and decides those petitions. The substance of the test carried over. See the vexatious requester guide.
§ 63G-2-209How often requesters have won before each body, counted year by year across every published decision, is in Records appeal outcomes. How an appeal actually moves is in The appeal, step by step, and what a court case costs is in Judicial review and fees.
The 102 appeals the office inherited
Each square is one appeal that was pending before the committee and transferred to the director on May 7, 2025. Hover or tab a group for its share.
2025 report to the Government Operations Interim Committee
The office’s first months, in its own figures
Hover or tab any bar for what the term means. Counts run from the director’s first hearings on July 22, 2025 to the report’s September 19, 2025 cutoff.
2025 report to the Government Operations Interim Committee