Becker’s open records complaint on shaky ground with IPIB

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Julie Becker

The Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB) on Thursday postponed ruling on a complaint filed in February against the city of Dallas Center by Julie Becker of Dallas Center, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for a city council seat there in 2017.

Becker’s Feb. 28 complaint claimed the city violated the Iowa Open Records law “by quoting a fee for record retrieval” that she requested after a Jan. 3 budget workshop. Becker said she asked permission to inspect the workshop records “without charge” but was told the city charged 50 cents a page.

Becker then filed the complaint with the IPIB.

According to the Iowa Code, the custodian of public records — in this case, the Dallas Center City Clerk — “may charge a reasonable fee” for copying records or supervising their examination, and “all expenses of the examination and copying shall be paid by the person desiring to examine or copy.”

The cost of the copying “shall not exceed the actual cost of providing the service,” according to the Iowa Code.

Becker’s fellow city council candidate, Bob Haxton of Dallas Center, later acquired the 42 pages of budget records after paying a copying fee amounting to $20.50. Haxton then shared the records with Becker.

Becker did not attend the Thursday afternoon meeting at the Wallace Building in Des Moines, but the city of Dallas Center was very fully represented. Dallas Center Mayor Michael Kidd attended via conference call, and Dallas Center City Council members Curtis Pion and Ryan Kluss came in person.

Dallas Center City Attorney Ralph Brown and Dallas Center City Clerk Cindy Riesselman were also present, as were former Dallas Center mayors Dan Willrich and Mitch Hambleton.

Brown spoke first on behalf of the city and characterized Becker’s complaint.

“Ms. Becker said in her complaint, and I quote, ‘I want to secure my right to examine — without charge — city documents housed in the city’s computers and to remove the city’s unreasonable, costly obstacles to open records.'”

Brown cited the relevant sections of the Iowa Code and claimed the city made a prompt and reasonable effort to satisfy Becker’s request.

“Being transparent, the council, the city offered a way for Ms. Becker to examine those 42 pages within hours of her initial request to the mayor, which by the way was at about 9 o’clock at night,” Brown said. “After being advised of the cost to retrieve and produce those documents, the city heard nothing further from Ms. Becker. She did not follow up on her request to examine those.”

Riesselman and Pion contributed to a detailed discussion that followed, which included much talk of watermarks and read-only documents, of Excel files and PDFs. It was noted the Polk County Recorder charges 50 cents a page for copies as does the Dallas County Recorder. Copies in the Waukee Recorder’s office are 25 cents for black and white and 50 cents for color. The city of Woodward charges $1 a page for copies of public records.

Brown summed up the Dallas Center position on Becker’s complaint.

“The city of Dallas Center submits that the cost quoted to Ms. Becker and actually paid by Mr. Haxton was reasonable and complied with the law,” he said. “The city of Dallas Center respectfully requests the board dismiss this complaint.”

Hambleton spoke briefly following Brown. “I think the city’s fee is very acceptable,” he said, and he also recommended dismissing the complaint.

Discussion among the nine-member IPIB board suggested they were persuaded by Brown’s argument for dismissal. One cautionary voice was raised by a non-board member attending via conference call.

“What the city is doing, in my view, is legally justifiable from a technical, legal standpoint,” said Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, “but I think it is abhorrent in the spirit of the open meetings and open records law because there is nothing more fundamental in local government and in state government than knowing how my money as a taxpayer is going to be spent.”

The problem, Evans said, “is not a legal one. It’s one in keeping with the spirit of the law. I don’t foresee Ms. Becker’s complaint as going anywhere or resulting in anything, but it ought to be a wakeup call to the citizens of Dallas Center and every other community in Iowa if local government is allowed to, in my view, abuse the law and make records more expensive than some people may be able to afford.”

With his eye less on the cost of copy paper and the mechanics of software and more on the principle of freedom of information, Evans called for a general turn to free information.

“Dallas Center is abiding by the law, but I’m just troubled by the underlying message that this sends to the citizens of Dallas Center,” he said. “It comes down to the fundamental attitude of government officials toward this whole concept of openness and transparency.”

In the end, the IPIB board postponed action on the matter until its next meeting, but the members plainly favored dismissing the complain. After the meeting, the Dallas Center Mayor explained the board’s procedural reason for tabling the complaint.

“The executive director suggested that instead of taking action Thursday to dismiss the complaint that it would be better for the Board to table the matter until the May meeting so that she could then prepare and present an order dismissing the complaint,” Kidd said, “and that is what Dallas Center expects will happen at the May meeting.”

Kidd defended the city’s policy and its vindication by the IPIB board.

“Dallas Center works very hard to quickly make public records available upon request,” he said, “and state law provides that the person requesting the record shall pay all of the costs associated with retrieving and producing the record. The city’s 50-cents-a-page charge was a reasonable fee that Julie Becker did not want to pay — but Bob Haxton did pay the charge and then shared the record with Ms. Becker.”

Dallas Center City Council member Curt Pion seemed pleased by the result of Thursday’s meeting.

“I’d like to thank the members of the Iowa Public Information Board for their careful consideration of the complaint from Julie Becker,” Pion said, “and their decision to table the matter for dismissal at their next meeting.”

The IPIB meets on the third Thursday of each month. The next meeting is May 17 on the third floor of the Wallace Building, 502 E. Ninth St. in Des Moines.

2 COMMENTS

  1. And who pays for the council members to take time off of their regular jobs to go to this meeting? Who pays for all the time and money that Miss Becker continues to waste? Not Miss Becker but the city volunteers, city workers and taxpayers pay for Miss Becker’s hate for the people in the community she claims to love.

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