This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Anyone hoping to attend board meetings last year of two independent state entities — the Utah Dairy Commission and the Heber Valley Historic Railroad Authority — would have found it nearly impossible.

Neither gave required public notice of its meetings.

The dairy commission also held one of its six meetings in Arizona, and another was in Florida. A report by Utah State Auditor John Dougall says that "effectively does not allow the public to attend."

Dougall's office issued an audit Monday that found that many of the 10 independent state entities subject to the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act do not fully comply with it.

It performed an audit of nine such entities after a recent look at a 10th — the Utah Communications Authority, which oversees 911 operations — found numerous lapses that perhaps contributed to an employee being able to embezzle $1 million over a decade.

The new audit found that the dairy commission and the Heber Valley railroad board "did not provide statutorily required public notices for any of their meetings held in 2015." It said auditors are not even sure how many meetings Heber Valley held, and it did not respond to numerous inquiries for information.

Additionally, it said the Utah State Fair Corp. failed to give at least the required 24-hour notice before eight of its 12 meetings during the year (and failed to list the meeting location on some others). The Utah State Railroad Museum Authority failed for one of its six meetings. The Utah Housing Corp. failed for one of its seven.

The audit also said the majority of such agencies failed the requirement to upload to the Utah Public Notice Website the minutes of board meetings within three days of their approval.

Boards that missed the requirement for all of their meetings were the dairy commission, Heber Valley railroad, Utah State Fair Cor., Utah State Railroad Museum Authority, and the Utah Military Installation Development Authority.

The School and Institutional Trust Fund failed for eight of its 13 meetings. The School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) failed for two of its 13 meetings.

The audit also found that six of the nine boards reviewed did not upload to the state website, as required, recordings of their meetings.

Those that uploaded no recordings included the dairy commission, Heber Valley railroad, Military Installation Development Authority, Utah Energy Infrastructure Authority, Utah State Fair Corp. and the Utah State Railroad Museum Authority.

The Utah Housing Corp. uploaded them for three of seven meetings; the School and Institutional Trust Fund board did for 12 of 13; and SITLA did for 10 of 13.

The audit also said that minutes of six of the nine agencies — all but SITLA, the military installation board, and the energy facilities authority — failed in their minutes to record how each member voted.

It said minutes often recorded that votes were "approved" or "unanimous," but often did not document which members were present or absent. The audit said, "Failure to include each board member's individual vote limits individual member's accountability."

The audit included numerous recommendations, essentially calling for the agencies to fully comply with the law. It also called for the dairy commission to cease out-of-state meetings, and to "clarify its relationship with the Dairy Council of Utah & Nevada to ensure appropriate entity oversight and transparency."

It included written responses promising compliance from the School and Institutional Trust Fund board, SITLA and the Utah Housing Corp.

Utah law allows criminally charging officials who violate the closed-meetings portion of the law with a class B misdemeanor. It also allows lawsuits to void actions taken in meetings that violate the law.