Return to Nicholas Johnson's Iowa Rain Forest ("Earthpark") Web Site

Return to Nicholas Johnson's Blog, FromDC2Iowa
 
 

[Note: This material is copyright by The Gazette, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of The Gazette.]

  Most are from the media.

  Some requests are so time-consuming that the UI and regents’ office are charging media outlets for documents, which the law allows.

  ‘‘That isn’t just information you can run to a filing cabinet and pull out. It can be a struggle,’’ Regents Executive Director Gary Steinke said.

  ‘‘But we understand that as a state entity, all of this stuff is a matter of public record. We’re happy to provide it.’’

  Reporters have been seeking details of regents discussions that took place outside regular open meetings.

  The regents held a rolling closed session — meeting several times without adjourning and without public notice — and had some discussions via e-mail, practices that have drawn criticism. Some legislators are calling for a review of open-meetings laws. The Iowa City Press-Citizen newspaper sued the regents, claiming an open-meetings laws violation.

  The regents’ office received 41 Freedom of Information requests in 2006 — 25 in November and December alone, Steinke said. ‘‘I think probably all 25 dealt with the presidential search,’’ he said. The regents office typically gets about a dozen requests annually, he said. Three lawyers on staff handle the requests. Some requests ask for information that takes more time to retrieve, such as email over the period of a year or more, Steinke said.

  The regents office charges $15 per hour, plus 10 cents a page, on the most timeconsuming requests. The Gazette paid $90.30, for example, this month for 153 pages of e-mail exchanges among the regents about a new UI presidential search committee.

  The UI has received 36 Freedom of Information requests since Nov. 1, 16 seeking information on the presidential search or for documents and e-mail exchanged among regents and UI and University Hospitals officials, UI spokesman Steve Parrott said.

  More than half of the 16 have come in the past month. The UI typically gets about 100 requests a year.

  ‘‘It seems like one every other day lately,’’ Parrott said. ‘‘Suddenly it took off, and some of the requests are pretty voluminous.’

 Some requests denied

  The records requests have produced some controversy.

  The UI refused to release e-mail of John Colloton, director emeritus of UI Hospitals and a Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield board member, requested by several reporters. UI officials argue Colloton no longer conducts official UI business.

  Colloton has an office at University Hospitals, a UI parking pass and a university- paid secretary who earns $58,447 a year. Parrott said the office is in recognition of Colloton’s years of service.

  UI officials also said e-mail of former President David Skorton is unavailable. The e-mail was deleted automatically from the system because Skorton was a physician who sometimes dealt with confidential patient information, Parrott said

 Awareness raised

  The UI search and ensuing media coverage about open records have raised public awareness, said Kathleen Richardson, Drake University journalism professor and executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. Richardson gets at least one phone call a day now, mostly from reporters seeking information.

  ‘‘I’ve gotten few calls from the average citizen about it, but at least one indication that the wider public is reading these stories and paying attention is the fact that the legislators are,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s a good case study for the benefits of openness in government decision-making.’’