§ 16-4-203 — Right of inspection; grounds for denial; access of news media; order permitting or restricting disclosure; exceptions

(a) The custodian of any public records shall allow any
person the right of inspection of the records or any portion
thereof except on one (1) or more of the following grounds or as
provided in subsection (b) or (d) of this section:
(i) The inspection would be contrary to any state
statute;
(ii) The inspection would be contrary to any federal
statute or regulation issued thereunder having the force and
effect of law; or
(iii) The inspection is prohibited by rules
promulgated by the supreme court or by the order of any court of
record.
(b) The custodian may deny the right of inspection of the
following records, unless otherwise provided by law, on the
ground that disclosure to the applicant would be contrary to the
public interest:
(i) Records of investigations conducted by, or of
intelligence information or security procedures of, any sheriff,
county attorney, city attorney, the attorney general, the state
auditor, police department, upon approval by the attorney
general the department of corrections investigation services
unit or any investigatory files compiled for any other law
enforcement or prosecution purposes;
(ii) Test questions, scoring keys and other
examination data pertaining to administration of a licensing
examination and examination for employment or academic
examination. Written promotional examinations and the scores or
results thereof shall be available for inspection, but not
copying or reproduction, by the person in interest after the
examination has been conducted and graded;
(iii) The specific details of bona fide research
projects being conducted by a governmental entity or any other
person;
(iv) Except as otherwise provided by Wyoming statutes
or for the owner of the property, the contents of real estate
appraisals made for the governmental entity, relative to the
acquisition of property or any interest in property for public
use, until such time as title of the property or property
interest has passed to the governmental entity. The contents of
the appraisal shall be available to the owner of the property or
property interest at any time;
(v) Interagency or intraagency memoranda or letters
which would not be available by law to a private party in
litigation with the agency;
(vi) To the extent that the inspection would
jeopardize the security of any structure owned, leased or
operated by a governmental entity, facilitate the planning of a
terrorist attack or endanger the life or physical safety of an
individual, including:
(A) Vulnerability assessments, specific tactics,
emergency procedures or security procedures contained in plans
or procedures designed to prevent or respond to terrorist
attacks or other security threats;
(B) Building plans, blueprints, schematic
drawings, diagrams, operational manuals or other records that
reveal the building's or structure's internal layout, specific
location, life and safety and support systems, structural
elements, surveillance techniques, alarms, security systems or
technologies, operational and transportation plans or protocols,
personnel deployments for airports and other mass transit
facilities, bridges, tunnels, emergency response facilities or
structures, buildings where hazardous materials are stored,
arenas, stadiums and waste and water systems;
(C) Records of any other building or structure
owned, leased or operated by a governmental entity that reveal
the building's or structure's life and safety systems,
surveillance techniques, alarm or security systems or
technologies, operational and evacuation plans or protocols or
personnel deployments; and
(D) Records prepared to prevent or respond to
terrorist attacks or other security threats identifying or
describing the name, location, pharmaceutical cache, contents,
capacity, equipment, physical features, or capabilities of
individual medical facilities, storage facilities or
laboratories established, maintained, or regulated by a
governmental entity.
(vii) An application for the position of president of
an institution of higher education, letters of recommendation or
references concerning the applicant and records or information
relating to the process of searching for and selecting the
president of an institution of higher education, if the records
or information could be used to identify a candidate for the
position. As used in this paragraph "institution of higher
education" means the University of Wyoming and any community
college in this state;
(viii) Sensitive wildlife location data in the
custody of the game and fish department which could be used to
determine the specific location of an individual animal or a
group of animals.
(c) If the right of inspection of any record falling
within any of the classifications listed in this section is
allowed to any officer or employee of any newspaper, radio
station, television station or other person or agency in the
business of public dissemination of news or current events, it
may be allowed to all news media.
(d) The custodian shall deny the right of inspection of
the following records, unless otherwise provided by law:
(i) Medical, psychological and sociological data on
individual persons, exclusive of coroners' verdicts and written
dockets as provided in W.S. 7-4-105(a);
(ii) Adoption records or welfare records on
individual persons;
(iii) Personnel files except those files shall be
available to the duly elected and appointed officials who
supervise the work of the person in interest and those portions
of files specified in W.S. 9-1-704(m), 9-1-708(h) and 9-1-710(o)
that are specifically related to a complaint shall be available
and provided to the peace officer standards and training
commission in accordance with W.S. 9-1-704(m), 9-1-708(h) and 9-
1-710(o). Applications, performance ratings and scholastic
achievement data shall be available only to the person in
interest and to the duly elected and appointed officials who
supervise his work. Employment contracts, working agreements or
other documents setting forth the terms and conditions of
employment of public officials and employees are not considered
part of a personnel file and shall be available for public
inspection;
(iv) Letters of reference;
(v) Trade secrets, privileged information and
confidential commercial, financial, geological or geophysical
data furnished by or obtained from any person;
(vi) Library, archives and museum material
contributed by private persons, to the extent of any limitations
placed thereon as conditions of the contributions;
(vii) Hospital records relating to medical
administration, medical staff, personnel, medical care and other
medical information, whether on individual persons or groups, or
whether of a general or specific classification;
(viii) School district records containing information
relating to the biography, family, physiology, religion,
academic achievement and physical or mental ability of any
student except to the person in interest or to the officials
duly elected and appointed to supervise him;
(ix) Library patron transaction and registration
records except as required for administration of the library or
except as requested by a custodial parent or guardian to inspect
the records of his minor child;
(x) Information obtained through a 911 emergency
telephone system or through a verification system for motor
vehicle insurance or bond as provided under W.S. 31-4-103(e)
except to law enforcement personnel or public agencies for the
purpose of conducting official business, to the person in
interest, or pursuant to a court order;
(xi) Records or information compiled solely for
purposes of investigating violations of, and enforcing, internal
personnel rules or personnel policies the disclosure of which
would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal
privacy;
(xii) Information regarding the design, elements and
components, and location of state information technology
security systems and physical security systems;
(xiii) Records or information relating to individual
diagnoses of contagious, infectious, communicable, toxic and
genetic diseases maintained or collected by the Wyoming state
veterinary laboratory as provided in W.S. 21-17-308(e);
(xiv) Information concerning an agricultural
operation, farming or conservation practice, a surface or
subsurface resource or the land itself, if the information was
provided by an agricultural producer or owner of agricultural
land in order to participate in a program of a governmental
entity. The custodian shall also deny the right of inspection to
geospatial information maintained about the agricultural land or
operations. Provided, however, that if otherwise permitted by
law, the inspection of the information described in this
paragraph shall be allowed in accordance with the following:
(A) The custodian may allow the right of
inspection when responding to a disease or pest threat to
agricultural operations, if the custodian determines that a
threat to agricultural operations exists and the disclosure of
information is necessary to assist in responding to the disease
or pest threat as authorized by law;
(B) The custodian shall allow the right of
inspection of payment information under a program of a
governmental entity, including the names and addresses of
recipients of payments;
(C) The custodian shall allow the right of
inspection if the information has been transformed into a
statistical or aggregate form without naming:
(I) Any individual owner, operator or
producer; or
(II) A specific data gathering site.
(D) The custodian shall allow the right of
inspection if the disclosure of information is pursuant to the
consent of the agricultural producer or owner of the
agricultural land;
(E) As used in this paragraph:
(I) "Agricultural operation" means the
production and marketing of agricultural products or livestock;
(II) "Agricultural producer" means any
producer of livestock, crops or dairy products from an
agricultural operation.
(xv) Within any record held by a governmental entity,
any income tax return or any individual information derived by
the governmental entity from an income tax return, however
information derived from these documents may be released if
sufficiently aggregated or redacted so that the persons or
entities involved cannot be identified individually;
(xvi) Except as required in a contested case hearing,
any individual records involved in any workers’ compensation
claim, however information derived from these documents may be
released if sufficiently aggregated or redacted so that the
persons or entities involved cannot be identified individually;
(xvii) Any records of the consensus revenue
estimating group as defined in W.S. 9-2-1002, that discloses
information considered by, or deliberations or tentative
decisions of, the group;
(xviii) Information obtained through a peace officer
recording provided that:
(A) The custodian shall allow the right of
inspection to law enforcement personnel or public agencies for
the purpose of conducting official business or pursuant to a
court order;
(B) The custodian may allow the right of
inspection:
(I) To the person in interest;
(II) If the information involves an
incident of deadly force or serious bodily injury as defined in
W.S. 6-1-104(a)(x);
(III) In response to a complaint against a
law enforcement personnel and the custodian of the information
determines inspection is not contrary to the public interest;
(IV) In the interest of public safety.
(xix) Any records of the investment funds committee,
created by W.S. 9-4-720, that disclose information considered by
the committee, committee deliberations or tentative decisions of
the committee;
(xx) Information related to legally taking wildlife
as provided in W.S. 23-1-302(r).
(e) If the custodian denies access to any public record,
the applicant may request a written statement of the grounds for
the denial. The statement shall cite the law or regulation under
which access is denied and shall be furnished to the applicant.
(f) Any person aggrieved by the failure of a governmental
entity to release records on the specified date mutually agreed
upon pursuant to W.S. 16-4-202(c)(iv) or by the failure of a
governmental entity to comply with an order of the ombudsman
pursuant to W.S. 16-4-202(c)(v) may:
(i) Apply to the district court of the district
wherein the record is found for an order to direct the custodian
of the record to show cause why he should not permit the
inspection of the record and to compel production of the record
if applicable. An order issued by the district court under this
paragraph may waive any fees charged by the state governmental
entity;
(ii) File a complaint with the ombudsman who may:
(A) Mediate disputes between the governmental
entity and the person;
(B) Prescribe timelines for release of the
records;
(C) Waive any fees charged by the governmental
entity.
(g) If, in the opinion of the official custodian of any
public record, disclosure of the contents of the record would do
substantial injury to the public interest, notwithstanding the
fact that the record might otherwise be available to public
inspection, he may apply to the district court of the district
in which the record is located for an order permitting him to
restrict disclosure. After hearing, the court may issue an order
upon a finding that disclosure would cause substantial injury to
the public interest. The person seeking permission to examine
the record shall have notice of the hearing served upon him in
the manner provided for service of process by the Wyoming Rules
of Civil Procedure and has the right to appear and be heard.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section,
the following applies to the Wyoming natural diversity database
located at the University of Wyoming and any report prepared by
the custodian from that database:
(i) The custodian may charge a reasonable fee for
searching the database and preparing a report from that database
information. The interpretation of the database in a report
shall not contain recommendations for restrictions on any public
or private land use;
(ii) The custodian shall allow the inspection of all
records in the database at a level of spatial precision equal to
the township, but at no more precise level;
(iii) Research reports prepared by the custodian
funded completely from nonstate sources are subject to paragraph
(b)(iii) of this section;
(iv) Any record contained in the database pertaining
to private land shall not be released by the University of
Wyoming without the prior written consent of the landowner.
Nothing in this paragraph prohibits the release of any
information which would otherwise be available from any other
information source available to the public if the original
source is cited.