More Iowa public records, open meetings cases going to court

     This is the first article of two to appear in The Express.

   Iowa judges recently have sided with open government advocates trying to gain access to public records and attend public meetings — with the latest ruling requiring the state to pay $135,000 in legal fees for three media organizations denied records by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

But advocates would like to see courts and the Iowa Public Information Board use penalties already in Iowa law to discourage repeat offenses.

   When a District Court judge ruled in June the Central DeWitt superintendent and school board violated Iowa law by holding closed meetings under false pretenses, school board members were unapologetic, according to Rep. Norlin Mommsen, R-Dewitt, who was one of 75 residents who attended a July 13 school board meeting.

   “The school board’s response to this is was ‘we did nothing wrong’,” Mommsen told The Gazette. “It’s this defiance. And maybe it is because there’s no penalty.”

Recent court wins for open records advocates

   Iowa Code Chapter 22 requires government bodies — which include any state, county, city or school group supported with taxes — to allow people to view or copy public records in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable cost, if not for free.

   The sticking point often is whether specific records are considered confidential under one of more than 70 exceptions in the law.

   But in a lawsuit settled in June, the plaintiffs sued not because Reynolds and her staff claimed the sought records were confidential, but because the Governor’s Office did not respond to records requests for more than 18 months.

   The Governor’s Office fulfilled the requests in January 2022, a month after Clark Kauffman and the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Randy Evans and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and Laura Belin and Bleeding Heartland filed the lawsuit.

   The Governor’s Office asked to have the lawsuit dismissed, but the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in April the case could proceed. Reynolds’ team settled June 3, agreeing to let a state District Court resolve any open records disputes with the plaintiffs that may arise over the next year.

The Governor’s Office makes no admission of guilt in the settlement. Reynolds’ staff said the delays were caused by the state being busy dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

   “The COVID-19 response put unprecedented demands on the governor’s team to meet the immediate needs of Iowans. As a result, responses to requests were unintentionally delayed, which is not acceptable,” Spokesman Kollin Crompton said in June. “Our office has assessed our internal processes and we continue to reevaluate the process to improve timeliness.”

Evans said he hopes the ruling stops the “worrisome trend” of government bodies ghosting public records requests.

   “I was concerned if we didn’t prevail it would embolden, not only the governor, but other state agencies and local governments as well, to drag their feet,” Evans said. “To take the position they (government bodies) hadn’t rejected open records requests if they were too busy to get to it would cut the legs out from under open records statute.”

School districts violate open meetings law

   Other recent decisions show school boards trying to shield their discussions from the public.

Bettendorf Community School District in June settled a lawsuit filed by media outlets challenging the legality of a May 2022 board meeting.

   One day after the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre, the Bettendorf superintendent and school board — minus one member — met with about 300 parents to discuss misbehavior and harassment by some middle school students. Journalists were blocked from the meeting and parents were told not to record the session.

   Iowa’s public meetings law, outlined in Iowa Code Chapter 21, requires meetings with a board majority in which they are acting on their policymaking duties to be open to the public, including journalists.

   As part of the settlement, the district acknowledged the meeting was illegal and promised future meetings would meet the law’s requirements. The district agreed to reimburse plaintiffs $6,500 for attorney fees, reported WQAD, one of the plaintiffs.

   In the Central DeWitt case, Superintendent Dan Peterson and the school board told the public they were closing their Feb. 7, 2022, meeting to the public to evaluate Peterson’s performance.

Instead, they discussed controversial topics, including gender and sexuality issues, instructional materials, and an administrative realignment, Seventh Judicial District Court Judge Mark R. Lawson wrote in a June 26 ruling.

   “First, the scope of the meeting was breathtaking in contrast to its stated purpose,” Lawson wrote. “In other words, this was not a minor or technical violation. Second, as noted earlier, no one in the meeting spoke up to argue the meeting was straying well beyond its stated purpose.”

Lawson ordered the school district to pay Sycamore Media, which publishes the DeWitt Observer, more than $18,500 for legal fees.

   Peterson told The Gazette he disagreed with Mommsen’s characterizing the district’s response to the ruling as defiant.

   “We have accepted the District Court judge’s decision, will abide by the decision, and already have worked on improving our processes and procedures regarding scheduling and holding closed session meetings,” he said in an email this week.

   Part two will appear in the Aug. 30 Express.