17 post-flood City Hall e-mails show city's D.C. lobbyist, communications consultant on the job

CEDAR RAPIDS - The 17 e-mails released on Monday by City Hall after a two-year court tussle with CBS 2 in Cedar Rapids over the release of public records don't reveal much of anything.

The 17 e-mails were among a larger group of 526 “pages” of e-mails from the first couple months after the June 2008 flood, which the city declined to release, arguing to CBS 2 that these specific e-mails were confidential under Iowa law because they were either personnel e-mails or attorney-client communications.

The court now has reviewed the 526 and, on June 1, ordered the release of a few of them. Last Friday, the city said the total to be released was 13, but the actual count appeared to be 17 that the city made public at the clerk's office at Linn County District Court.

Several of the e-mails are between then-Mayor Kay Halloran, other City Council members and city staff and the city's lobbyist in Washington, D.C., at the time, attorney Mary Langowski.

A couple e-mails were related to a trip by city leaders to Washington, D.C. Other e-mails appended reports: a report about the 2008 floods and their impact on agriculture; a report about flooding and the issue, “rethinking flood insurance;” a report on emergency appropriations legislation for disaster assistance; a copy of a Washington Post story about federal stimulus spending; and proposed legislation on disaster tax relief authored by Congressman Dave Loebsack, D-Mount Vernon, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

One e-mail is to council member Pat Shey from CitiesGoGreen magazine.

Eight e-mails are from Lisa Lynn, a Minnesota communications consultant, to various City Council members informing them she had been hired to work with them on leadership and effective communications.

There is also an e-mail in August 2008 from Ralph Palmer, owner of the Ar-Jay Center in Cedar Rapids, to council member Justin Shields. Palmer asked Shields what he meant when Shields said at a council meeting that he had an opinion about using “the best and brightest from our community” to help in flood recovery.

Palmer also asked about “rumors” involving Alan Bernard, former executive director of the Hawkeye Labor Council. Shields was president of the council at the time of the e-mail. Just this May, Bernard pleaded guilty in federal court to misappropriating funds from the labor council.