Date:
05/19/2022
Subject:
Michael Merritt/Guthrie County - Dismissal Order
Opinion:
The Iowa Public Information Board
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In re the Matter of: Michael Merritt, Complainant And Concerning: Guthrie County, Respondent |
Case Number: 22FC:0018
Dismissal Order
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COMES NOW, Margaret E. Johnson, Executive Director for the Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB), and enters this Dismissal Order.
Michael Merritt filed formal complaint 22FC:0018 on March 9, 2022, alleging that Guthrie County (County) violated Iowa Code chapter 22. He provided documentation of a record request he filed on December 3, 2021, which requested copies of:
- “City of Guthrie Center Information System End-User interaction with the following uniform resource locators (URL)” between January 1, 2017, and December 3, 2021. Twenty-four URLs were then listed.
- “All Guthrie Center, IA end-user electronic mail/attachments mentioning domains in paragraph 1(a).”
- All City of Guthrie Center emails or attachments including a list of 22 specific names from January 1, 2017, to December 3, 2021.
- City of Guthrie incident reports regarding three named individuals.
He requested that the records be provided on a portable document format/thumb drive. The December 3, 2021, record request was sent to the Guthrie Center City Hall and a Guthrie County Sheriff’s deputy.
Mr. Merritt alleged that the County did not provide the records and did not acknowledge his record request. On February 15, 2022, he sent a status request, this time including Guthrie County. This is the first time he included the County. He alleged that a Sheriff deputy responded, stating that the deputy wrote that he did not understand what records were being requested.
On February 17, 2022, Mr. Merritt sent a second status update request, this time requesting similar records from the County.
At the time of the filing of this complaint, Mr. Merritt alleged that he had not received any other contact from the County and had not received any records.
On March 22, 2022, the County responded to the complaint and stated that the County has no records responsive to the record request.
On April 4, 2022, the county attorney stated that the County was now aware of the records being requested and that a deputy was retrieving the records.
On April 6, 2022, the county attorney provided additional information. The delay in response to the record request was due to the deputy being on medical leave and because there was some confusion as to whether Mr. Merritt was requesting Guthrie County or City of Guthrie Center records.1
The county attorney added that the County does not record the information requested in item 1, above. The County also does not have any incident reports as requested in item 4, but could provide dispatch information.
The county attorney stated that a request would be made to search for the records requested in items 2 and 3. Those records were released on April 18, 2022. Copies of the calls for service logs requested in item 4 were also released.
All responsive records have now been released. The County stated that the record request was difficult to understand. Once the complaint was filed, it was quickly determined that two of the record requests described records that the County did not maintain or possess. The email records were retrieved and released in twelve days.
The Iowa Supreme Court provided some guidance on the timeliness of record release in Horsfield Materials, Inc. v. City of Dyersville, 834 N.W.2d 444, 461 (Iowa 2013):
Under this interpretation, practical considerations can enter into the time required for responding to an open records request, including “the size or nature of the request.” But the records must be provided promptly, unless the size or nature of the request makes that infeasible.
According to an Iowa Attorney General Sunshine Advisory Opinion from August 2005, “Delay is never justified simply for the convenience of the governmental body, but delay will not violate the law if it is in good faith or reasonable.”
In this case, the records request initially referenced only the City of Guthrie Center, creating some confusion as to which body was responsible for fulfilling the request. Any initial delay by the County was in good faith and reasonable.
Iowa Code section 23.8 requires that a complaint be within the IPIB’s jurisdiction, appear legally sufficient, and have merit before the IPIB accepts a complaint. This complaint does not meet those requirements.
IT IS SO ORDERED: Formal complaint 22FC:0018 is dismissed as legally insufficient pursuant to Iowa Code section 23.8(2) and Iowa Administrative Rule 497-2.1(2)(b).
Pursuant to Iowa Administrative Rule 497-2.1(3), the IPIB may “delegate acceptance or dismissal of a complaint to the executive director, subject to review by the board.” The IPIB will review this Order on May 19, 2022. Pursuant to IPIB rule 497-2.1(4), the parties will be notified in writing of its decision.
By the IPIB Executive Director
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Margaret E. Johnson
1. Mr. Merritt has filed a separate formal complaint concerning the City of Guthrie Center, formal complaint 22FC:0019.
CERTIFICATE OF MAILING
This document was sent by electronic mail on the ___ day of May, 2022, to:
Michael Merritt
Brenna Bird, Guthrie County Attorney