The Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center’s adult speaker series featured Randy Evans, of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council (IFIC) on the importance of freedom of information in the state.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat, Republican or Whig,” Evans said. “Liberal, conservative, tory, or libertarian, the First Amendment exists for all of us. Open meetings laws are there when the need arises.”

Evans went on to state the government belongs to the citizens, not to elected officials and not to government employees.

“Don’t hesitate to engage with your government as a citizen, that’s your right,” Evans said.

The IFIC was established more than 50 years ago, and was put in place to allow people to watch and have input on the decisions their governor makes.

As part of the council, Evans said he has appeared before numerous government boards, writes to government leaders regularly and is hip deep in multiple lawsuits against the government for their failure to remain as open as possible.

Evans said that he is concerned that the government is the least transparent it has been in the 59 years he has been working as a journalist or the IFIC.

“It seems to be the attitude is if you don’t like something we’re doing, sue us,” Evans said. “Government entities know many people do not have the $50,00 to $75,000 on hand to sue if they lose the case and have to cover legal fees.”

Evans said that most entities are supposed to have open meetings that are accessible to the people, and whenever there is ambiguity, that should resolve in the favor of openness.

One of the lawsuits he helped pursue was the Warren County Board of Supervisors, who circumvented open meeting laws in 2016 when they decided to reduce the size of courthouse employees by a dozen people, but had all decisions happen over the course of several weeks in off the books meetings. It didn’t come to a vote until after all dozen employees were notified.

Another lawsuit he is currently embroiled in is the firing of the Davenport City Administrator after the apartment building collapse in 2023. The Davenport City Council agreed to pay the administrator $1.6 million to resign. That decision was kept quiet until after the next election.

Iowa open meetings laws have 12 exemptions for why a meeting can go into closed session.

Evans said there is one huge loophole to the law at the moment.

“All other government entities have to give 24 hours notice if they are planning on holding a meeting,” Evans said. “When the legislature is in session, however, they can pull a piece of legislation out of thin air, get it approved in one chamber, sent over to the other and that all can happen without public notice.”

Government entities can go into closed session to meet with an attorney to discuss litigation; to discuss discipline matters of an employee; for review of an employee’s performance or potential firing; to discuss pending purchase or sale of property.

When it comes to employee matters, that request has to come from the employee themselves that the matter goes into closed session.

“It can’t be used to just solely keep the entity from the potential embarrassment,” Evans said.

For documents, citizens can file an online form, make a phone call, submit their request by postal mail.

“The entity can’t prohibit you from making your request in person,” Evans said.

Government entities are able to charge reasonable fees for fulfilling the records request.

The cost for public records is the biggest hurdle for most public records requests, though the law says the amount is supposed to be reasonable.

During question and answer period, Evans answered a question on how likely it is to get the IFIC stricken from law.

Evans said that the laws pertaining to freedom of information are more likely to be changed at the court levels.

When it came to what entities have to be open to the public, Evans said that any commission or boards set up by the legislature or Governor would need to have open meeting laws. That would include the Iowa Department of Government Efficiency committee meeting. Evans said that commission did have an open meeting during their first meeting, but the public did not know what types of items would be discussed.

A questioner asked if public engagement diminished as more boards and commissions have been reduced by Gov. Reynolds.

Evans said consolidation has just meant that they are not as engaged on issues pertinent to boards, as they cover a lot more.

A questioner asked what is a reasonable amount of time for a Freedom of Information Act request to go unfulfilled.

“The law is not clear on that issue at times,” Evans said. “I know in the lawsuit against Gov. Reynolds during the pandemic, the court found her 18 months to answer FOIA requests was highly unreasonable, even considering the other factors the government was dealing with at the time of an ongoing pandemic. They seemed to indicate 15 days would be the max it should take to address any request.”