Iowans lack clear relief when open government requests are denied

from The Iowa Independent:

From rural township boards to the governor’s office, each level of government in Iowa is responsible for carrying out the state’s open records and open meetings law. And when disagreements occur or citizens run into a roadblock in their pursuit of information, there is no clear path they can take to ensure the law is being properly followed.

...

“I get a lot of calls from citizens when they can’t find someone to call. They can’t believe their local officials are refusing to follow the law and there’s nothing the citizen can do about it except sue. It’s very frustrating for them,” said Kathleen Richardson, a Drake University instructor and director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. Richardson’s organization educates citizens — primarily journalists and public officials — about open records and open meetings rules.

Because uniform enforcement isn’t ensured by the state, advocates of open government say Iowans in search of information can run into incomplete explanations of denials or crippling fees for obtaining documents. But the avenues for redressing those decisions are often unclear.

Read the rest here.

Iowa Senate Approves Subjecting Non-Profit School Board to Open Meeting Laws

The Iowa Senate voted to make the Iowa Association of School Boards subject to state openness requirements, applying open meetings and open records laws to a privately run association.

The move comes as a nonprofit school board is alleged to have inflated salaries and engaged in other questionable practices.

Read more here.

University of Iowa Says Consultant's Documents Not Subject to Open Records Law

The University of Iowa denies that records sought by The Press-Citizen are subject to the state's Open Records law. The news group sought documents and correspondence from a consulting firm that helped the university draft new strategic communications and media response polices and communications consulting for an amount in excess of $250,000 in 2009.

The Press-Citizen sought documents and correspondence from the consultants and UI officials that related to the media relations strategies, practices and policies and tactical advice for specific circumstances or interviews. The university maintains that the Open Records law does not apply because the consulting firm is an external agency that was not performing a governmental function.

Kathleen Richardson of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council says the university's position violates the Open Records law and undermines a 2005 Iowa Supreme Court ruling.

For more, click here.

Proposed Iowa Public Information Board Being Considered

Iowa State Sen. Pam Jochum (D-Dubuque) is proposing a new state agency called the Iowa Public Information Board that would aid citizens with access to public records, assist local governments interpret open records laws, and aid in enforcement if a government agency has violated the law or mediation isn't successful.

Jochum says funding is an issue for the state. She proposes a five-member panel be appointed to outline the agency and the functions of the executive director. The Iowa Freedom of Information Council has offered to cover the $6,000 expenses for the exploratory panel.

Read more about the proposed agency here.

University of Iowa Faculty Not Subject to Open Meeting Law

After consulting with the University of Iowa General Counsel's Office and the Iowa Attorney General, a University of Iowa faculty leader said faculty government meetings are not subject to the Iowa Open Meeting law.

The question arose during an August state Board of Regents meeting when regents questioned the use of closed-door session by faculty government and whether the state open meeting statute applied.

Some professors disagree with the use of executive or closed sessions.

For more information, click here.

NFOIC Summit: Coalition Sustainability

Barbara Peterson, president of the Florida First Amendment Foundation and NFOIC president; Hyde Post, president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation; and Kathleen Richardson, executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Coalition discussed how to sustain state FOI coalitions at the 2009 NFOIC Summit. Here are the notes from their session.

Barbara Peterson
Lessons from the Florida First Amendment Foundation:

• The Florida First Amendment Foundation started in 1985. For first 10 years, it was housed in Florida Press Association. The foundation started publishing Government-In-The-Sunshine manual. The AG's office complies it. The coalition publishes it and distributees it. It was the main source of income.
  
• Peterson onvinced the board that the group should focus only on open-government issues. Nobody else in Florida did that. The group started a toll-free hotline for questions. Someone can call and get a quick question answered and a great quote. In the first year, 203 calls were placed. Now the line averages about 150 calls a month. Half of those come from citizens.
  
• Initially membership was mainly from newspapers. Now private investigators, broadcasters (not many), lawyers, anyone can be a member. Membership is as low as $25 and high as $5000.
  
• Because of the 501-c(3) status, there is a federal limitation on the amount of lobbying. So Peterson doesn’t lobby. She educates. An average of 100-150 exemptions bills are filed in Florida Legislature each year.
  
• The coalition is in the position of responding to all proposals for new exemptions. When a bill comes up on House floor, someone will say what is the position of Florida First Amendation Foundation on this bill. The foundation is sked to review 95 percent of bills. If the coalition doesn’t like it, chances are it won’t go anywhere.
  
• The coalition increased its profile dramatically by establishing a legislative alert list. The coalition can send out an e-mail alert about a bill to more than 300 newspaper editors and reporters in Florida. It makes the e-mails as outrageous as possible to get their attention.
  
• The coalition also conducts about 50 seminars and trainings a year. Those who attend automatically become a member for one year. In turn, the coalition gets their contact information, and many pay for the $25 membership the following year.
  
• The coalition has been talking to professional fundraisers after seeing a significant drop in every level of membership, even $25 members. One told Peterson that you should have three diverse, distinct sources of income.
• The foundation is about to launch a direct-mail fundraising campaign with advice from a professional fundraiser who volunteered her services. It would have cost $10,000 at minimum to hire her. A 2 percent return is expected. The second step will be getting everyone in the foundation to identify those who have been important in the history of the organization and send them a personal letter pleading for money ($1000-$5000 or more).
  

Tips:

• Raise your profile.
  
• Make sure reporters know you're a free resource.
  
• Track your calls. Know who's calling you and where from? That way if you got 15 calls from one newspaper, use that data to convince the newspaper to donate to your coalition. Those free calls were a lot cheaper than placing a call to the newspaper's attorney.
• Create a bullet list of talking points for board members when they're calling to ask others to donate.
• Develop champions. Identify those in the state who really support the cause. Honor them with an award. The Friend of the First Amendment Award has now become somewhat of a competition.
  
• Develop database of those who will continue to support organization.

Hyde Post
Lessons from the Georgia First Amendment Foundation:

• The Georgia First Amendment Foundation started in 1994. There was no consistent voice for FOI or access issues in Georgia. This issue was number 6 on the state press association's list. The Atlanta Journal Constitutaion was arguing a case before the state supreme court. The justice said journalists are always saying access to information is for the people but where are these other people? It's always just the Atlanta Journal Consititution fighting for documents. That's when the newspaper realized it would be helpful to have an organization of not just journalists.
  
• The first question: Who should be in the coalition? The group started with $5,000. To get diversity, it recruited some journalists (print and broadcast), journalism professors, law professors, media lawyers, librarians, intellectural freedom groups, like-minded public service groups (such as the ACLU, Common Cause) and JPF (just plain folks).
  
• A lot of the funding from newspapers. Obviously, that's not so much the case for those starting off today. Law firms are a good source of funding. Grants both through NFOIC and local organizations (such as state bar associations) are also something to look into. Don’t become dependent on any single source of funding.
  
• Pick a board of directors that includes a diversity of people with diverse skills. It's nice crucial to have a certain number of people who have money or can attract money.
  
• The coalition's most successful programs in Georgia have been workshops programs and booklets. It's an educational organization. Its most important constitutency is people just being elected to public office or newly appointed deputies, newly elected school board members, etc.
• The coalition produces a general citizen guide, one on school board records and is working on one on court access. Its board went to the attorney general and state sheriff association and asked them to coauthor the booklets. They didn't have to write it, just review it. However, the coaliton essentially had them approve the documents this way, which made it easier to get that material inserted into their training materials.

Tips:

• Get on regular list of newly elected magistrate judges. Show up during their training.
• Focus and consistency is key.
  
• Narrow the focus to what you can do well.
  
• FOI people who FOI stuff. Find out who's requesting records. That's your target for membership.
• Tell board members ahead of time that donating to the annual fund drive is a condition of being on the board.
  
• Aim to be nonpartisan.
  

Kathleen Richardson Lessons from Iowa Freedom of Information Coalition:

• The Iowa coalition began in 1976. Since early on, it had a strong alliance between print and broadcast journalists. One of its strengths is that it's had a broad base of support. This includes the state Associated Press bureau, state university journalism schools, Iowa Public Television, the League of Women Voters, Mediacom, the state high school press association, the state trial lawyers association, Iowa State Association of School Boards, attorneys interested in open records and meetings issues, etc.
• The coalition has focused on institution memberships, not individual membership. The group have stayed small. Its dues are a couple hundreds dollars for institution members. In current economic situation, that’s turned out to be a good thing. The coalition hasn’t lost any members.
  
• The group's mission is really educational. It publishing a handbook on open meetings and records laws that also includes FAQs about the laws. The publication is very popular and established the coalition as a neutral resource for information.
• The coalition is the statewide coordinator for cameras in courtrooms. It has done informal trainings. In the past couple years, it started partnering with Association of Counties, League of Cities, the Attorney General's office, etc. to conduct training around state.
  
• The key to success is that Richardson a professor at Drake Journalism School, which provided the coalition with office and Richardson's employment. This keeps the overhead low.
  
• The coalition has been successful in the legislature in terms of heading off some bad things. It's a voice of wisdom in hearings.

Tips:

• Establish credibility by trying to project a neutral, nonadversarial image.
• Look around state for successful models, such as state good government groups.
• Look around creatively for allies. Media is just another economic interest in many ways. Legislators are looking for voices of real people. Seek business groups that might be potential allies. Rely more heavily on the library or League of Women Voters, for example.

Iowa governor releases e-mails from private account

In response to an AP request, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver released some e-mails he sent during his first two years in office, when he used a private server from his campaign rather than a state e-mail account, the AP reported. The AP had requested e-mail communication from Culver and Lt. Gov. Patty Judge about right-to-work and prevailing wage issues. Iowa law does not specifically list e-mails as public records.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has released some e-mails he sent in his first two years in office using private computers and non-government servers, a move that follows criticism that he was using private e-mail accounts to dodge public-records law.

Freedom-of-information advocates called the decision a step forward for transparency in state government that counters a trend of public officials who deny access to electronic correspondence.

Joseph P. Sandler, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney for Culver's election campaign, said after researching the matter, he concluded that the governor's e-mails dealing with state business between addresses on non-government servers are public record. He made the decision in response to a public records request by The Associated Press.

More here.

CAR Boot Camp helps reporter tell stories with raw data

In this column, Gregg Hennigan of The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette details how he used Computer-Assisted Reporting to turn raw data on public money distributed to Iowa communities into a story. He learned that 79 percent of the $395 million in statewide disaster funds went to Cedar Rapids and the University of Iowa.

I was warned prior to IRE and NICAR’s CAR Boot Camp that many attendees leave feeling overwhelmed.

And at the end of the five-day class in Minneapolis in early October, I felt … overwhelmed.

But with my employer, The Gazette newspaper in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, having spent a decent amount of money sending me to the camp, I was not in a position to return home and not produce.

More here.

Open-government bill watered down to win approval

The Iowa House passed a bill that revises the state's open records laws, The Des Moines Register reported. The original bill contained plans to keep citizens informed of major government decisions, such as the search for a new university president, and to establish a board that would review public records complaints and acts as an enforcement agency. Both sections were watered down to meet approval.

A watered-down version of a plan to update Iowa’s open records laws was passed by the House today with promises from lawmakers that much more will be done in the future.

“This bill is not going to make everyone happy and it shouldn’t,” said Rep. Vicki Lensing, D-Iowa City, who led debate on the bill. “This is going to be a fluid, continuing process.”

Citizens who are refused public documents often either give up or are left spending thousands of dollars in attorney fees, supporters of the legislation have said.

More here.

Iowa bill to rewrite Sunshine Law debated

Iowa's ombudsman said the changes made to a state bill concerning open meetings and open records move the state backward rather than forward in its level of transparency, The Des Moines Register reported. Among the controversies are amendments that would make job applications at all government agencies and all "draft" materials exemption from public records laws.

Greater secrecy in government records would result from some of the changes lawmakers have made to a bill dealing with open meetings and open records, according to the state ombudsman.

"Some of the amendments adopted last week pose a retreat from the amount of transparency and openness that currently exists in Iowa. It is just bad public policy," Ombudsman Bill Angrick wrote in a letter to key lawmakers.

If the bill is adopted, many hiring decisions would be more secret, critical information used in forming public policy would be shielded from public light, and there could be problems with the fees an agency charges for reviewing records before their release, Angrick said.

More here.

School board members fined for violating open-meetings law

School board members in Spirit Lake, Iowa, who violated the state's open-meetings law twice must now pay $400 each in fines, the Des Moines Register reported. The first violation occurred when members met in a hotel lobby in Des Moines. The second offense referred to an incident in which members discussed the district's finances in a private meeting that had been scheduled to discuss the hiring process for a new superintendent. Citizens are now calling for the resignation of the involved members.

A Dickinson County judge on Monday ordered Spirit Lake school board members to pay $400 each for breaking the state's open-meetings law twice.

Taxpayers who mounted a case against the elected officials now want them to resign.

Board members broke the law in November 2007 when they held a meeting in the lobby of a hotel in Des Moines, 200 miles from Spirit Lake, District Judge John Duffy ruled.

More here.

Site decodes Iowa Legislature bills

The Public Interest Institute at Iowa Wesleyan College launched a nifty site that not only decodes Iowa Legislature bills, amendments and votes but also allows citizens to comment on proposed bills, e-mail legislators and receive e-mail updates on bills or issues of their interest.

Public Interest Institute at Iowa Wesleyan College announced the launch of a new Web site that gives users instant access to all the bills, amendments and votes in the Iowa Legislature in concise and plain language.

The Web address is www.iowavotes.org.

It is searchable by legislator, keyword and 50 subject categories, so users can create their own custom voting record guide.

More here.

NFOIC awards new grants to state coalitions

For immediate release

CONTACT:
Charles N. Davis
Executive Director, National Freedom of Information Coalition
daviscn@missouri.edu
573.882.5736
http://nfoic.org/

Columbia, MO -- The National Freedom of Information Coalition awarded new grants at its December board meeting in Columbia, Missouri, and it's an impressive list of worthwhile activities and projects that will be funded.

Meeting for the first time at the brand new Reynold Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism in December of 2008, the NFOIC board awarded eight grants to eight coalitions for a total of $69,820 in this the first of two grant award periods....

Full release here:

https://www.nfoic.org/nfoic-awards-new-grants

Bill calls for Iowa Web site that tracks tax money

President Obama's call for government transparency has trickled down to Iowa, where a bill was introduced to create a Web site containing easy-to-navigate data on taxpayer dollars. Republican supporters are optimistic about the site, which would be modeled after similar endeavors in other states. However, one Democratic senator has already raised concerns that funding a $40,000 Web site will be difficult in the face of a tight state budget.

The state of Iowa would have to launch a searchable Web site available to the public to catalog how tax dollars are spent under a bill proposed Wednesday in the Iowa Legislature.

Republican supporters in both houses of the Legislature said during a news conference at the Statehouse that such a Web site would allow for greater transparency in state government by turning all of Iowa’s citizens into budget watchdogs.

They likened keeping track of taxpayer dollars in Iowa to searching through a maze, but they said the proposed Web site would streamline the process.

More here.

A Column on TARP Argues that it is well, less than transparent

I read with interest the Jan. 6 article, “Iowa banks apply for ‘troubled asset’ funds,” by Bob Zientara, referring to the government bailout, “Troubled Assets Relief Program,” or TARP, which I have labeled “The Traitorous American Robbery Program.”

You may agree with that bold statement once you fathom the fine print about TARP and the $700 billion bailout plan, sold to the public as necessary to save the U.S. economy and with it, homes and jobs.

This is a story largely overlooked by the national media, which I monitor not only as director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University, but also as an editor for the journalism social network, NewsTrust.net.

That latter activity has provided me with a new outlook on the state of journalism and the economy because I read dozens of newspapers in the course of a week, getting a global perspective on how news events affect us locally.

In a Dec. 22 report titled “Where’d the Bailout Money Go? Shhhh, It’s a Secret,” Matt Apuzzo of The Associated Press investigated 21 banks receiving $1 billion or more each of taxpayer funds, disclosing that bank officers refused to supply any answers.

Banks operating in Iowa also have applied for TARP funds. But as Tribune reporter Zientara learned, even Tom Gronstal, superintendent of the Iowa Division of Banking, would not disclose the identities of those 26 Iowa chartered banks, citing confidentiality rules.

More here.

Open government benefits citizens as well as media

Brian Cooper with The Telegraph Herald of Iowa wrote an interesting reflection on recent legislative victories for open meetings and open records laws. Perhaps the most interesting part is that half of the examples he discusses were the result of "everyday citizens," not the media.

The Iowa Freedom of Information Council's annual meeting takes place Friday in Des Moines, so it has me reflecting on the status of public access to government.

The bottom line: It could be worse, but it could be a whole lot better.

The council, of which I am an executive committee member and past president, recently published an update on various legal actions involving government access.

There are some victories -- but at a cost.

More here.

Iowa newspaper denied flood-damage records

Although the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2007 that FEMA was required to release address-by-address information about hurricane assistance, city officials in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have denied a similar request for flood damage assessment data. They say the release of address-by-address data would violate U.S. privacy law.

Cedar Rapids city officials said address-by-address flood damage data is not public record, despite a federal appeals court ruling last year that said such data is public.

An assistant city attorney in Cedar Rapids said the city denied the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s Freedom of Information request for release of address-by-address damage assessments, citing U.S. privacy law.

The Gazette asked Cedar Rapids City Hall to provide address-by-address information about damage assessments of the 850 homes in the city’s 100-year flood plain.

More here.

Iowa Guv Sits On Flood Report Draft

Gov. Chet Culver's staff refused this week to release a draft report that outlines Iowa's housing recommendations after the floods.

The final report will be used to help state leaders navigate upcoming recovery efforts. What it says — largely a product of public input — could play a major role in the amount and types of additional assistance provided to families affected by the flood.

Culver's spokeswoman, Courtney Greene, said the Rebuild Iowa Office will release all drafts of the report on Aug. 25, after a the task force has had time to respond with possible revisions. The public will have time, after that, to recommend revisions and suggestions, she said.

"This office is committed to transparency as it relates to the Rebuild Iowa Office," Greene wrote in a statement.

But key pieces of the report, which was written by a consultant who monitored public meetings, could be altered by the task force before the public has an opportunity to view the document, an open-records advocate said.

"Decisions that are made out of the public eye breed suspicion by citizens," said Kathleen Richardson of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council.

More here.

Somewhere in Iowa, a Government Official Wants to Charge You...

for reviewing records requests.

Not fulfilling them, mind you, but merely for processing them.

My pal Al Cross over at The Rural Blog has the scoop:

The latest proponent of this bad idea is Democratic Gov. Chet Culver of Iowa, whose office started charging such fees after The Des Moines Register made "two unusually large and unconnected requests for public e-mails" in March, Lee Rood of the Register reported last week. "The requests also came after the governor’s office had mulled for more than a year about rare requests for large numbers of public information that take a lot of agencies’ time to compile," Rood writes, quoting Culver General Counsel James Larew as saying that charging fees to retrieve public documents is supported by case law and has prompted requesters to scale back their requests, and the new fees were intended to “discipline” requesters, not restrain them. "The charges can be levied when a request for records is estimated to take more than three hour of lawyers’ time, Larew said."

This stinker of an idea is worth watching. As Al said, bad ideas like this have a way of germinating...

Public Hospital = Public Salaries

An Iowa hospital has lost its fight to keep secret the salaries of its employees.

District Judge Michael Mullins ordered the Davis County Hospital in Bloomfield to turn over payroll records that Bloomfield resident Kenneth Turner requested last year. Hospital officials declined to comment Monday.

Last June, the county-owned hospital denied Turner's request to learn the salaries of its employees. The Des Moines Register then sought access to some of the same information.

In response, the hospital sued Turner and the newspaper, seeking a court injunction that would allow the hospital to keep secret employee salaries and bonuses.

The newspaper then dropped its request for the records. Turner hired a lawyer and pursued the matter.

Under Iowa's open-records law, the wages of government employees are considered public information. A separate law dealing with county hospitals says the salaries "of all employees paid in whole or in part from a tax levy shall be a public record and open to inspection."But Iowa law also says a government agency can keep secret such information by proving to a court that disclosure is not in the public interest and would "substantially and irreparably injure any person or persons."

The hospital contended in court that disclosure of its salaries would cause embarrassment and inconvenience, discourage medical professionals from working in Bloomfield and make it harder to retain employees.

More here.