Iowa Gov. Reynolds settles 3 lawsuits regarding delayed open records requests

DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has agreed to settlements in three lawsuits that alleged her office violated state law by failing to respond to open records requests in a timely manner.

Under the terms of one settlement, the governor’s office agreed to allow a state district court to resolve any future open records disputes with three plaintiffs that may arise over the next year.

The settlements were approved Wednesday afternoon by the State Appeal Board; they now must be given final approval by a district court judge.

The state will pay roughly $135,000 — the entirety of which will cover legal fees — to settle Belin v. Reynolds, according to state records. In that case, two Iowa news organizations and an advocacy group for government transparency argued the governor’s office violated state open records laws by taking between five and 18 months to fulfill open records requests in 2020 and 2021.

The governor’s office fulfilled the requests in January of 2022, a month after the lawsuit was filed. The governor’s office then tried to have the lawsuit dismissed because, its attorneys argued, the suit was no longer necessary after the records requests were fulfilled.

The Iowa Supreme Court in April ruled the lawsuit could proceed. The state agreed to settle the case after that ruling, according to state records.

Reynolds has maintained that a large number of open records requests and an increased workload in general during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the delayed responses from her office.

A condition of the settlement is that the governor’s office does not admit to a violation of state law.

“The COVID-19 response put unprecedented demands on the governor’s team to meet the immediate needs of Iowans. As a result, responses to requests were unintentionally delayed, which is not acceptable,” Kollin Crompton, the governor’s spokesman, said in an emailed statement. “Our office has assessed our internal processes and we continue to reevaluate the process to improve timeliness.”

Staff for the ACLU of Iowa, which represented the plaintiffs in the case, said the organization will make a public statement once the settlement is given final approval by the district court.

State officials debate who should pay

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office approved the settlement agreement, as did two of the three members of the State Appeal Board: Department of Management Director Kraig Paulsen, and Iowa Treasurer Roby Smith. All are Republicans.

Appeal board member and Iowa Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, voted against the settlement Wednesday after expressing his opposition to its being paid by the state. Sand argued that state law says any fines related to open records violations should be paid, as stated in state law, “by the particular persons who were assessed damages.”

“I really don’t think it’s appropriate here for us to take the taxpayers’ funds to settle these cases when the law would require that the folks who did it be held personally responsible,” Sand said during the appeal board hearing. “We’re not going to encourage compliance or even attempted compliance if we look at a case where there was no response whatsoever for months or years and cover it for them.”

Paulsen defended the governor’s office, noting the increased workload and number of records requests during the pandemic.

“I don't know this, I haven’t had this conversation with her, but I think I’m comfortable saying she prioritized Iowans and Iowans’ safety and security above some of these requests,” Paulsen said during the meeting. “In particular, in this case where the lead plaintiff is a partisan blogger.”

Plaintiffs in the open-records lawsuits were Laura Belin, whose Bleeding Heartland site covers Iowa government and politics news from a liberal perspective; Iowa Capital Dispatch, a nonpartisan government and politics news site; and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan advocate for government transparency.

Other Iowa media organizations also said the state was taking months to fulfill their open records requests at the time.

Two more lawsuits settled

In the case of Rasmussen v. Reynolds and Rasmussen v. Iowa Department of Public Health, the settlement calls for the state to pay roughly $39,000, also to cover attorneys’ fees only.

In that case, Suzette Rasmussen, of Utah, had argued Iowa Department of Public Health failed to properly fulfill a request for information on the state’s contract with a Utah-based company to provide COVID-19 tests.

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