County nominates public records point of contact

The Crook County Commissioners have nominated the Crook County Clerk as the designated point of contact for persons requesting public records involving any of the boards, departments and offices associated with county government.

The commissioners met in special meeting last week to approve the resolution because the point of contact needed to be designated before July 1 according to Enrolled Act 72, passed by the Wyoming Legislature earlier this year. The act changes how government entities handle public records requests.

Among other changes, the act requires each governmental entity to designate a “public records person” to whom all applications should be made.

At their regular meeting in May, the commissioners discussed the legislation with the county’s elected officials, many of whom had concerns over the new rules and their implications for the person chosen to be the “public records person”. For example, concerns were raised that the designated person would have no control over whether another department actually fulfilled a request.

The elected officials were asked to meet and create a proposal for rules pertaining to public records requests, which would then be presented to the commissioners for approval.

Resolution 9 names the county clerk as the point of contact between the governmental entity and applicants seeking public records. This will apply to records involving the county commissioners, clerk, assessor, coroner, attorney, clerk of District Court, sheriff, treasurer and offices including Public Health, Growth & Development, Road & Bridge, fire, Homeland Security, planning and zoning commission, fair and library.

Special districts are governmental entities and, according to the resolution, will have their own designated public records person.

The elected officials for the county – including the commissioners, clerk, assessor, clerk of District Court, sheriff and treasurer – will continue to make all decisions as to the release of their own documents and will remain the official custodians of their own records, according to the resolution.

County Clerk Linda Fritz informed the commissioners that County Attorney Joe Baron is working to create a form that can be filled out when a public records request is made and passed on to the official custodian of the record. He is also working on a possible fee schedule, she said.

“It works for me,” commented Commissioner Kelly Dennis as the commission unanimously approved the resolution on Thursday.