PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This letter, in accordance with  the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act, (GRAMA),  was sent by USPS Priority Mail to the City of Moab, c/o its Recorder, Rachel Stenta, on November 30, 2015; according to USPS tracking, it was received on Friday, December 4.  Also, via USPS first class mail, we sent copies to the five members of the Moab City Council, the City Mayor, and the City Manager. We look forward to hearing from the City of Moab and their compliance to this request.  We will keep our readers informed as  the GRAMA process moves forward….Jim Stiles

THE CANYON COUNTRY
Z E P H Y R
www.canyoncountryzephyr.com

November 30, 2015

FROM:
Jim Stiles, publisher
PO Box 271
Monticello, UT 84535
cczephyr@gmail.com

TO:
Moab City Clerk Rachel Stenta,
cc: Mayor David Sakrison & Councilpersons Kyle Bailey, Heila Ershadi, Doug McElhaney, Kirstin Peterson, Gregg Stucki, City Administrator Rebecca Davidson
217 East Center St
Moab, UT 84532

RE: GRAMA REQUEST

Hello,

Pursuant to the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act, (GRAMA), I am requesting documentation relating to:

(1) the hiring of Rebecca Davidson as the Moab City administrator,

(2) the subsequent contract agreement with Tayo, Inc to perform IT work for the city, and…

 (3) the “restructuring” of the city administration that led to the dismissals of city employees David Olsen and Ken Davey.

I request all relevant written correspondence, phone log records, and email correspondence by the Moab City Mayor and the Moab City Council TO and FROM the following:
Rebecca Davidson, Tara Smelt, Tayo Inc, City Recorder Rachel Stenta, Niyo Little Thunder Pearson and  Chief of Police Mike Navarre.

Further I request all correspondence between the Moab City council members, the mayor and the chief of police, and other city employees, relevant to this request.

Current Council members include:  Kyle Bailey, Heila Ershadi, Kirstin Peterson, Gregg Stucki, and Doug McElhaney

We request this information for the time period beginning in January 2015 and continuing to the day of receipt of this letter.

I request copies of messages sent via the official Moab City email address but also all related correspondence sent to and from email addresses provided to the public by four of the five city councilpersons on the official Moab City government web site. Note that when a citizen attempts to contact four of the current Moab City Council members, he/she is directed to the following, which appear to be personal email addresses:

kdbailey@citlink.net
heila4citycouncil@gmail.com
kirstin.m.p@gmail.com
gregg.sunflowerhill@gmail.com

Only Doug McElhaney’s email icon links directly to the city email address. We seek ONLY the correspondence involving these email addresses that are relevant to our request. It might require an examination of those emails by a third party to determine what is appropriate.

If there are any fees for searching or copying these records, please inform me if the cost will exceed $200.  However, I would also like to request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public’s understanding of management practices in Moab, Utah by its city government.

I am the publisher of ‘The Canyon Country Zephyr,’ based in Southeast Utah and the information being sought in this request is necessary to produce a fair and informed account of events that have recently occurred in Moab,  involving the persons mentioned herein, during the time frame requested;  a documented history will be helpful to the citizens of Moab.

I would request a prompt response to this request.  If you expect a significant delay in responding to or in fulfilling this request, please contact me, via the email address above, with information about when I might expect copies. You may scan and email the documentation to the Zephyr email address OR mail it to the USPS address listed above.

If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law.

Thank you for considering my request.

Sincerely,

Jim Stiles, publisher
The Canyon Country Zephyr

Excerpt:

November started with a bang here in Moab.  With four major events in town the weekend of November 7^th, there was not a hotel room to be found in town.  It is plain that the old pattern of an “off season” starting around October 31 is no longer part of Moab’s year.

Nearly 61% of eligible voters in Moab City voted in an election on November 2nd that was purely local.  There was enough early voting that the City had to order additional ballots for election day to be sure to have enough on hand.  I’d love to see even higher turn out, but compared to national averages over the years hovering around 35% or lower, it is pretty clear that Moab’s population votes.

To read more of Kara’s article, click the image below:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2015/12/01/moab-ground-zero-november-its-all-about-elections-and-insurance-by-kara-dohrenwend/

Excerpt:

This sounds great, of course. Everyone wants both safety and freedom. That’s why we have the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, after all. We want the government to be able to catch “bad guys” and we want for us, the “good guys,” to be left alone. And as long as the argument is framed in such a way—to stop the “bad guys” from using the scary “encryption” technology to kill innocents—you’ll find very few average folks arguing against it.

The primary tool in the arsenal of those who want to break encryption is the fact that most people don’t understand what they’re talking about. They don’t know what encryption is, or how a weakening of encryption might hurt them. They’re good people, right? So why would they need encryption?

To read more of Tonya’s article, click the image below:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2015/12/01/sowing-clover-who-can-keep-your-secrets-by-tonya-stiles/

EXCERPT: “The reality is that oil production continues to break record highs. The reality is that the deadly 21st century oil via rail empire – engineered by Warren Buffett (BNSF) has been deadly to dozens of people with horrific environmental consequences to life and ecosystems. The reality is that these victims, along with these facts, fall under the same category as those on the front lines: the invisible. The fact that this so-called “victory” is being cheered symbolizes the greatest lack of critical thinking – an ongoing social engineering project that continues to surpass all expectations of the oligarchs who finance it.”
— Cory Morningstar, The Art of Annihilation, November 7, 2015

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