Bill to create Iowa public information board heading to governor

After a bumpy, six-year trek through the legislative process, a measure creating an independent public information board to mediate disputes between Iowans and governmental bodies is on its way to Gov. Terry Branstad's desk for his expected signature.

Senate File 430 cleared its final hurdle Monday when the Senate agreed to accept some House modifications and ship the bill to Branstad on a 49-0 vote.

“Today, the people won. Mark one up for the public,” said Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, who was a House member when she first started working on efforts to beef up enforcement of Iowa's open meetings and open records laws in 2007.

Under the legislation, the governor will appoint nine members of the new oversight board – representing the news media, government entities and associations, and citizens – subject to confirmation by the Iowa Senate and balanced by political affiliation and gender.

The nine-member panel will have until July 1, 2013, to hire an executive director, who will advise the board that will have the power to hear and mediate disputes between Iowans and government bodies in matters of public meetings and open records and levy fines of up to $2,500 for willful violations. The board's authority would not extend to the governor's office, the judicial branch or the Legislature.

Branstad said the public information board will be an important entity to convey accurate information to government officials and citizens on compliance with state open meetings/open records laws and to provide an independent enforcement mechanism for the first time. “That's something that most other states have and I think we should have in the state of Iowa as well,” the governor said.

Currently, citizen complaints on open meetings and records issues are handled by the state Citizens' Aide/Ombudsman and the Iowa Attorney General's Office.

The ombudsman's office -- which handled about 231 public records, meeting and privacy requests last year -- can investigate complaints and issue warnings, but has no power to enforce the state's statute. The attorney general's office -- which received about 100 public meeting and open records requests last year that mostly were handled informally without levying any fines -- has the authority to enforce state statute, but its enforcement necessarily involves filing a lawsuit if penalties are going to be assessed to an offender.

Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, said provisions of S.F. 430 will ensure that “the public's right to know” is preserved and protected, while Sen. Daryl Beall, D-Fort Dodge, called Monday's action “a long time in coming.”

“I've never understood people who want to do the public business and then go behind closed doors to conduct it,” Beall told his fellow senators prior to the final vote. “They say that sunshine is the best disinfectant that there is.”

One significant House change adopted by the Senate would keep draft or speculative documents confidential until they are brought before a governmental board for consideration and action.

A fiscal note prepared by the Legislative Services Agency estimated the legislative would carry a general fund cost of about $122,500 plus the cost of the board members' per diem and travel beginning in the 2014 fiscal year.