Iowa’s Open Records Law

Access to public records is key to a healthy democracy, regardless if these records are maintained by state, county, school or municipal employees.  If government is allowed to keep public records secret, then the public does not have important information to use in supporting or opposing issues and projects.  Sometimes officials attempt to hide embarrassing details or mistakes from the public.   Some public officials in Iowa have been been caught stealing public money.  Sometimes public officials attempt to hide records in order to mislead the public. (Note, access to federal government records is done via a Freedom of Information Act requests - a FOIA.)

Denial of access to records is based on whether the records fall in a list of confidential records which is found in the Iowa Code.  Embarrassing information is not one of the reasons records are allowed to be kept confidential.  Currently, more than 70 types of records are exempt from open records in the Iowa Code.

The Sierra Club regularly accesses government records through open record requests.  The Iowa legislature is responsible for making changes to the open records law.  The Sierra Club supports the following policies related to public records:

Requesting public records should be easy.  Citizens should be able to request public records in person, via the telephone, via e-mail, or via a hardcopy letter.  Furthermore, it should not be mandated that records request be made via an on-line program.

Costs for records should be reasonable, and not at a profit to the agency.  Some entities are now charging exorbitant rates for record searching, legal review and redaction, or copying fees, in essence penalizing the public who wants to view the records.   The Sierra Club believes that the cost to the public for copies should be close to $0.  Further the public who is requesting records should not be forced to pay for labor in searching for records.  Nor should the requestor be charged for attorney fees to review the records or fees for redacting confidential parts of the records.  There should be no charge to a person who wants to view public records.  There should be no charge for a government employee to supervise the review of public records.

Existence of a copyright in itself should not deny public access to the records.  Those items in government files that hold a copyright should be available for public examination and copying, if they are not otherwise exempt from public access.

A public input process should be used when creating new exemptions to open records.  Exemptions are created by the legislature after government agencies and officials complain.  Currently the exemptions are created with little or public debate.  Any future additions to the open records exemptions should be made after a public input process.  Existing exemptions should be re-examined and retained only if they protect personal privacy. 

Electronic records should be accessible to the public.  When citizens are given electronic copies of E-mail records, they should also be provided the software to access and read those messages or instructions to access a no-cost reader.

Draft documents should be available to the public.