By Buzzy Hassrick
Cody Enterprise
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CODY — The city of Cody is more than four months late in fulfilling a request for public records submitted by Preserve Our Cody Neighbors on February 29.

Citing that delay, POCN filed a complaint in Park County District Court on June 29 asking the judge to order the city to produce the requested communications dealing with the proposed LDS temple. 

In addition, attorney Anthony Wendtland of Sheridan asked the judge to assess penalties, costs and damages.

“The City has been diligently working on gathering the records for the POCN ‘s request,” City Administrator Barry Cook said in an email Sunday. “Given the volume of emails and documents they requested, it has taken a great deal of time to review the records to determine what can and cannot be released under the Wyoming Public Records Act. The city continues to work on the records request, and will release the records to the POCN as soon as possible.”

POCN has extended, at the city’s request, the deadline for the city’s fulfillment of its records request to August 5.

The group opposes locating a temple on Skyline Drive as proposed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both parties have filed lawsuits about the issue, with the outcome awaiting a decision by District Judge John Perry who took the matter under advisement after final arguments May 23.

While the records might not have an immediate effect, “we felt there was additional information we could learn,” POCN member Terry Skinner said Sunday. He noted that the records released to the group last year ended July 18, and the new request begins from then.

“A lot of things have happened after that,” he added. “We believe the city is waiting and hoping the judge rules before they have to provide the records.”

Citing the late broadcaster’s Paul Harvey’s tagline, POCN member Carla Egelhoff said the new records could provide the complete tale – ‘“And now you know the rest of the story.’”

After beginning the application process in May 2023, LDS received a city building permit in the fall. The church had moved wrapped stacks of modular building components into Cody that spring and relocated them onto land adjacent to the site this spring, but no construction has started.

The proposed temple would measure about 10,000 square feet with a nearly 101-foot tower on 4.7 acres zoned rural residential.

History repeated

POCN made its first request for public records May 24, 2023, and received about 100 emails, texts and phone transcripts only in late July, Skinner said. When the group continued to press for more, the city provided about 4,000 records September 15.

POCN believes the city put off fulfilling the request so the group couldn’t use the records in its lawsuit, he said.  

The city delayed fulfilling the 2023 public records request “… for an unreasonable amount of time … a pattern that the City has knowingly engaged in with respect to POCN,” Wentland wrote. The city also hasn’t offered a reason for the current delay “… in open ongoing violation of the Wyoming Public Records Act.”

POCN is seeking public records from July 19, 2023, to February 29, 2024, for temple-related communications between the LDS and former City Planner Todd Stowell, City Planning and Zoning Board member Matt Moss and city officials, and also among P&Z board members.

The new time period includes the LDS’ withdrawal of its application for a special exemption regarding the tower’s height, Skinner said. Then P&Z accepted the findings for a conditional use permit and, on August 8, approved the final site plan.

POCN is challenging those P&Z approvals.

“From August 8 and beyond, there had to be a lot of information back and forth,” he said, including Stowell’s resignation Feb. 24, 2024. “We just want to understand what that is.”