Public records requests are often denied to citizens of Iowa, who have no way to ensure that the state’s Sunshine Laws are properly followed. -SMD
News/Commentary
July 12, 2010
By Adam B. Sullivan
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.
There have been several attempts through the years to improve Iowa’s sunshine laws, but those moves — such as establishing a board to deal with disputes — have failed to garner sufficient support among policymakers
“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.
“Usually I advise people to go to that government official [who denied the request] and try to work directly with them. If that doesn’t work, I suggest they go to the county attorney, for example, who is supposed to be responsible for enforcing the law in that jurisdiction,” Richardson said.
“Most county attorneys don’t want to be bothered with these types of issues and the attorney general admitted [during legislative hearings in 2007] that they basically don’t want to be bothered with enforcing those laws,” Richardson said.
At the state level, both the Iowa Attorney General and the Ombudsman are equipped field government openness inquiries.
An official at the Attorney General’s office said the staff there often refers citizens to the Ombudsman’s office. In extremely rare cases, the Attorney General will take enforcement action to require government agencies to turn over documents. Citizens are able to sue for access to documents, the Attorney General’s office noted. But the cost and time commitment of legal action make it an impractical avenue even for large media organizations.
The Ombudsman’s office investigates disagreements between citizens and records custodians, but doesn’t have legal traction to enforce the law.
“If the agency denies the request we can step in and decide what is the basis and see if it meets any of the legal exemptions — see if there is any other rationale to why it’s been denied,” Iowa Ombudsman Bill Angrick told The Iowa Independent. His office sees about 100 open information requests each year. “…The Ombudsman has no enforcement authority. If persuasion doesn’t work, we can issue a report that is critical of that level of government.”
Representatives from both the Ombudsman’s and Attorney General’s offices said non-binding persuasion is generally successful in satisfying open government requests, but various officials have said Iowa’s freedom of information laws are sometimes murky.
“Sometimes the law is ambiguous. Sometimes there has not been a clear judicial answer in terms of interpreting the law,” Angrick said. “They looked at these issues over the last few years but the legislature has been unable to come up with a fix.”
In 2007, the Iowa state legislature commissioned a study of freedom of information, open meetings and public records. At the time, University of Iowa law professor Arthur Bonfied — who drafted administrative legislation for the state throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s — said Iowa’s open records and open meetings laws have “many obvious problems” and that reform is “very badly needed.”
In his 2007 report, Bonfield suggested the creation of an independent body with authority to enforce compliance with open meetings and public records laws.
Such a body could be authorized to receive complaints from members of the public, to investigate all such complaints, to prosecute alleged violators before that agency, to hold […] administrative hearings on alleged violations where warranted, and to issue legally binding orders against violators that it could enforce in the courts. All of this could be done at no cost to the complainant and without any need for the complainant to hire a lawyer.
During the 2010 legislative session, both the House and Senate saw bills calling for the creation of an Iowa public information board.
“I believe that was a process that would make it easier for Iowans to access public records,” state Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque — who sponsored the bill in the senate — told The Iowa Independent. “I believe the board could assist the guardians of public records to make sure they understand their responsibility in making records open to the public.”
That legislation saw a vote in both the House and Senate, but a stacked agenda and trumping priorities meant the two versions of that bill were never reconciled. With little sign the movement will gain traction, Iowans are left with little in the way of clear avenues for appealing agencies’ denial of open records requests.