More training, tougher penalties required to strengthen Wyoming government transparency 

LANDER — In January, the Fremont County Library Board was poised to enter executive session for a personnel matter when Library Director Anita Marple asserted her right to a public hearing under state law. A library board member pulled out her cellphone to google the statute on the fly in an effort to avoid breaking the law. 

In 2023, State Rep. Pepper Ottman and Sen. Tim Salazar attempted to attend a meeting of the Riverton Valley Irrigation District Board but were met with a closed door.

Last year, Fremont County commissioners used illegal secret ballots to appoint library board members, then met in executive session over months to ponder whether what they’d done was unlawful.

Public officials in Wyoming are required to undertake a training session aimed at spelling out the requirements of a host of state and federal laws. One option is an online, narrated Powerpoint-style presentation that can be completed in less than two hours. Some government associations like the Wyoming Association of Municipalities offer in-person trainings that attendees described as much more comprehensive. 

When the government breaks the law, officials often plead ignorance, and some Fremont County elected and appointed leaders have suggested more legal resources are needed for new government leaders.

And what happens when public officials break the law? 

It’s a question that was hashed during the interim session by the legislature’s Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee when it examined the state’s transparency laws. The committee discovered there’s little in the way of enforcement. 

“Right now, the entire burden is on the public,” News Letter Journal Publisher Bob Bonnar told legislators. He said the state’s public records ombudsman was doing a good job attempting to compel local governments to follow the law. 

“But the fact is, she has no real teeth,” Bonnar said. 

Government law 101

In 2022, the Wyoming State Legislature passed amendments to Wyoming State Statute 9-1-510 that required public officers to undergo financial training (unless they hold a relevant degree or professional certification). The Wyoming Department of Audit offers a free training course, and keeps on file the certificates of completion of all those who do this training and pass the related exam through that agency. Equivalent trainings can also satisfy this requirement, and several government associations offer such a training for their members.

In addition to being free, the Department of Audit training is entirely online, self-guided, and is relatively short. 

As is to be expected from a training explicitly required by statute to be on “books and accounts,” offered by a fiscally-focused state agency, the emphasis of the training is largely on finances, with only one section on meetings. 

The Public Meetings Act is an entire chapter of law focused on regulating public officials and how they conduct business, and the meetings section of the training does stress the importance of government transparency and ensuring public accessibility and both cites and explains relevant state statutes. 

Some local officials who took the shorter, online version of the training said they felt it wasn’t robust enough and they were essentially learning the laws on the job. Those who completed the in-person training offered by the WAM overwhelmingly said it was an excellent course on the many legal requirements they must adhere to. 

“They did a fantastic job,” explained Riverton City Council member Eric Carr of the course offered at the WAM convention for new public officials. “They covered, as best they could, every kind of pitfall that you might run into.” 

In addition to being a relatively new city councilman, Carr also served as the city’s public works director for a number of years, which provides him some greater insight into legal responsibilities of cities in Wyoming. 

Understanding and following the laws is incredibly important, Carr explained. 

“You know, I think the big ones for me would certainly fall under the conflicts of interests. We don’t want our public officials putting themselves in a position to personally or financially benefit from the decisions that they make … The reality is that we don’t have in Wyoming, you know, career politicians,” he said. “They have day jobs too, and there’s a certain amount of latitude that goes with that, but we certainly need to be following the law.”  

Fremont County Fair Board Chair Trevor Bekken took the online version of the training – which is most often used for appointed government bodies like the fair and library boards, and also partook in a similar course led by Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese. 

He said that the Department of Audit’s training was good information, but some state laws and situations are complex and involve a bit of learning as you go. He pointed to a situation where the fair board had to call a special meeting to revote on how many fair board members were appointed to subcommittees after the board initially added a quorum, or voting majority, to those groups. Calling a special meeting, providing proper notice, and convening the group for just one vote was all legally required by the state’s transparency laws, and an example of the fair board’s meticulous approach to following them, he said. 

“Some of those little things, I don’t care how perfect you are, but you’re going to overlook some of those things,” Bekken said.

Lander School Board member Mara Gans has taken several trainings, including the online Department of Audit course and several offered by the Wyoming Association of School Boards. “The Department of Audit training felt very comprehensive, but I think it is hard to grasp and hold on to a bunch of facts presented to you on a Zoom meeting – taking the exam was key to me to point out which elements of the training stuck, and which elements didn’t – and I found that after the exam I went back to videos and other resources to refresh my memory, and re-learn things I had not learned as well the first time around,” Gans explained. 

Those offered by the association were more engaging, but didn’t focus as much on the legal aspects, she added. 

“However, all that said, I do think there is just a lot that needs to be learned along the way. The superintendent of Lander Schools has been a great resource to me,” she said. “It also helps to have friends and family who have worked in policy/board adjacent positions. Without that background it would likely feel like a lot to take in.” 

There used to be government board trainings offered through the University of Wyoming Extension office, explained Freese, and she has worked to try to offer similar additional trainings for the county’s appointed governing boards in recent years. Over the past four or five years, she said, she’s done two trainings for the fair board and two or three for the library board. 

Even though the Department of Audit keeps these certificates on file, there is not currently a system in place for Fremont County to do the same. Freese said that she’s considering a more robust tracking system, in line with the county commissioners’ discussions around helping boards get better training and have a clearer set of expectations. 

While the relatively new training requirement is helpful in informing public officials about the laws they must follow, it can be a lot to take in, elected and appointed leaders have a year to complete the requirement, and mistakes still happen. 

“In my experience, training provided by Julie Freese to the library board members was very good. She knows her stuff,” remarked former Fremont County Library Board member John Angst. “Any public board, elected or not, can go off the rails if they act without knowing the law or neglect to seek the opinion or counsel of the county clerk or county attorney … Things could potentially devolve into state and federal lawsuits where consequences could include costly settlements for this county.” 

Letter of the law

It is not uncommon for members of appointed boards to describe themselves as volunteers when questions arise around what should be expected of and from them. It is true that they are unpaid, said Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, and serving on these boards can at times be a somewhat thankless task. But, he added, the technical term used to describe members of such a board is trustee, not volunteer. That’s not a coincidence, he emphasized: “You have a trust obligation – and that’s your job.”

This newspaper conducted an audit of every government lawsuit regarding two of the chapters of state law governing public officials and their duties – the Public Records Act and the Public Meetings Act – dating back to 1977. More than a third of the time when local governments ended up in court, it was non-elected bodies like library boards or museum boards, which sometimes went all the way to the state’s Supreme Court. 

Here in Fremont County, when those transparency laws are seemingly broken, the response from government agencies typically involves denial, though in several instances government officials took action to correct their mistake. 

Last year, after the county commission illegally used secret ballots for an appointment, commissioners eventually took a new vote in public; that’s how the Wyoming Supreme Court has indicated a violation of the Public Meetings Act can be corrected.

Last fall, the Riverton School Board conducted an email “poll” approving an out-of-state student trip and to approve selling off surplus equipment; the act requires that all government decision-making be done during public meetings. At the board’s next regular meeting in September, it retroactively “ratified” those votes – after the student trip had already occurred. 

While Riverton Superintendent Jodi Ibach denied that the vote was an actual decision and thus not a violation of the law, she did state that more resources and clear expectations about the law would be welcome.

“We think we have a solid understanding of the rules, which is why we made sure the final decision was a public one … On the larger issue of resources, it feels like most public meeting laws are written to stop overt attempts to hide public business or mislead people,” Ibach said. “It’s important to remember that our intent is always good. We just want to make sure that simple, non-controversial, day-to-day business isn’t treated with the same suspicion as if we were intentionally trying to pull something shady. Better resources could definitely help clarify that boundary for all Wyoming administrators.” 

This newspaper also audited the bylaws of the Fremont County museum, fair and library boards, and found that in some instances, those internal controls gave permission for certain actions that run afoul of the state’s transparency laws. 

The museum board’s bylaws, which were approved in 2018, state that proxy votes are not allowed but that board members may vote via telephone or email. If a board member is attending a meeting remotely, it seems reasonable to allow a method for them to also vote remotely – but email votes are unlawful in Wyoming, as is voting by secret ballot. 

The fair board’s bylaws are currently under revision, but its last approved version from February 2025 did not address the issue of proxy votes – but does allow for voting by “voice or ballot.” The library board’s bylaws allow a board member to carry a written proxy vote for another absent board member, and “in the absence of a quorum, the approval of the bills for payment or other administrative duties may be done by a telephone conference call.” 

Additionally, the library board’s bylaws state that “the library board complies with Wyoming state open meetings laws, but on rare occasions the board may need to take administrative action for the library system. If such action is taken, the library board will ratify their decision at their next properly called meeting.” 

The 2025 version of the fair board’s bylaws, which appear to still be in effect, require that any changes from its regular meeting schedule be published in the newspaper and via electronic media; the public officer training offered by the state Department of Audit says that meetings that require a notice should be published in the newspaper or in three conspicuous public areas, and that in the absence of a statutory requirement, governments should strive for more transparency. Social media can only count for one of these three places, the training emphasizes, as many people are not on social media.

In a draft version of new fair bylaws dated December 15, the requirement to publish meetings beyond the regular schedule, or changes to that schedule, was removed; instead, the fair board would only post notice of its special meetings on its website and its Facebook page “except as otherwise required” by Wyoming state statute.

The fair board has stated that the changes to its bylaws are to bring the document in line with its current practices, so it is worth noting that this paper did receive a legal advertisement for a special fair board meeting in June 2025 but did not receive legal advertisements for any of the special meetings the fair board has held since the fall. 

When asked about whether these types of non-elected government entities or small special districts are receiving the type of training they need to follow the law, Case put it simply. “Some of these boards are absolutely untrained,” he said. 

A remedy

During last year’s legislative interim session, the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee spent time discussing the lack of enforcement of the state’s transparency laws. While a bill draft that would have increased the penalties for violating those sections of statute failed, several state leaders have expressed a willingness to bring the topic back for further revision, and testimony revealed what some called a lack of teeth in current law. 

In 2019, Wyoming created the position of public records ombudsman, currently held by Darlena Potter. Potter testified before the Corporations Committee about instances in which she has attempted to resolve disputes over public records requesters and local governments where government officials simply “blew [her] off,” and when asked how many such cases she’d forwarded to the state’s attorney general’s office, she said none. 

“To be honest, I did not feel that was an avenue,” she explained, adding that there were at least four cases documented for individuals to take the government to district court, and she thought that two of those would proceed. 

In Wyoming, violating transparency laws that govern elected and appointed officials is considered a civil offense and carries a maximum penalty of $750. Battling the government in court can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and so these cases don’t often reach the courthouse. 

One recent example, however, is a 2023 case in which two Cheyenne attorneys sued the former state superintendent of public instruction and one Department of Education employee over a Public Records Act violation, and won. Attorney George Powers, a retired attorney who represented himself in that case, told legislators that although he didn’t bill himself for the hundreds of hours spent on the case, it cost the state $75,000 for its unsuccessful defense. And the penalty? The superintendent was fined $700, the employee $100. 

Additionally, anyone attempting to enforce these laws must prove that the public official or officials “willfully” violated the law, which Bonnar said disincentivizes governments from studying them. They don’t want to understand the law because they don’t want to comply with it, he told legislators.

“If you’re driving down the street and you didn’t notice a speed limit sign, ignorance is not an excuse to get out of the ticket there,” he added. “There’s no motivation for governments to understand the law.”

This story was published on March 21, 2026.