Joint Committee Discusses Public Records Access

Posted by Bobbie Frank on May 28, 2026

Public records and transparency were among the topics discussed by the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions committee meeting in Lander last Thursday and Friday in Lander.

Brian Rohrbacher, President & CEO of Grand Altitude FCU and Bobbie Frank, of GoWest attended the meeting. Although the entire discussion was focused on making more data and information available to the public and decreasing public entities response time to public records, Frank offered testimony to the committee highlighting the use of readily available public records, primarily property records available through the counties, by fraudsters to perpetuate Home Equity Line of Credit fraud.

This type of fraud has increased across the state. Last month, authorities in Casper made arrests tied to suspects who targeted several financial institutions.

The committee’s focus, driven primarily by freedom caucus members of the committee, was on moving bills forward to their next meeting requiring local governments to respond to requests quicker, decrease charges for records and allow for attorney fee reimbursement for citizens bringing suits against local governments.

GoWest has been discussing the issue with the Wyoming County Clerk’s Association to determine if there are any opportunities to decrease access to data and information for those who may not have a legitimate business purpose, such as title companies and the legal profession.

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Wyoming Advocacy.