Court orders City to provide KGAN with a small portion of requested emails

This week the court ordered the City of Cedar Rapids and the Cedar Rapids City Council to produce 13 emails of out of 526 pages of emails previously withheld from KGAN under the Iowa public records law.

KGAN-TV (Channel 2)  accused the city of Cedar Rapids and the City Council violated the Iowa Open Records Act after the flood in 2008. Sinclair Acquisition IV, owner of KGAN-TV, asked the city to turn over copies of messages sent to and from the e-mail accounts of all City Council members between June 11 and Sept. 9, according to the petition filed in Linn County District Court.

The City refused to let the station inspect and copy the requested records and withheld some of the requested records from KGAN, according to the petition. The City argued some of the documents are confidential as attorney work product or attorney-client privilege and some of the documents consist of personal matters.

KGAN News Director April Samp didn't return a phone message left late Friday.

The City of Cedar Rapids issued a statement today.

“The City of Cedar Rapids is pleased that the court has agreed with the City's position that personal emails and attorney-client communications are confidential under Iowa's public records law. The City has complied with the law throughout this process.”

The district court on Tuesday ordered the City to produce only 13 emails, including four personal emails and nine attorney-client emails, Cassie Willis, City spokesperson said.

“The court's order tells the City to provide the additional emails to KGAN, however the City, in keeping with its policy of full compliance with the Iowa public records law, will file the emails with the Clerk of Court and make them available to any member of the media or the public who wishes to examine them, along with the court's orders entered in this case,” Willis said.