The Iowa Public Information Board
In re the Matter of: Matt Loffer, Complainant And Concerning: City of Marengo, Respondent |
Case Number: 25FC:0012 Informal Resolution
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On February 3, 2025, Matt Loffer filed formal complaint 25FC:0012, alleging that the City of Marengo (City) violated Iowa Code Chapter 22.
The IPIB accepted this complaint at its meeting on February 20, 2025.
Background
On December 9, 2024, the complainant, Matt Loffer, submitted a Chapter 22 request seeking copies of “call for service” records involving abandoned vehicles. Twelve records were ultimately released, with an accompanying fee of $78.97. The City provided a breakdown of this fee as follows: $42.47 was charged for one hour of the city police chief’s time as the official or employee who responded to the request, $36.00 for the production of the calls for service, and $0.50 for a single highlighted copy of the Municipal Code of Ordinances which described the criteria for when a vehicle is considered an “abandoned vehicle.” The $36.00 cost was based on Resolution No. 24-46, “A Resolution Setting Fees for City Services,” which provides a $3.00 flat fee for each copy of a call for service record produced by the City’s police department. In this case, each record was two pages each, for a total of twenty-five pages, which were delivered electronically.
Resolution 24-46, as approved in December 2023, currently lists various fee schedules for different types of public records. For general records requests, the City charges a $10.00 administrative fee, with a $20.00/hour fee charged for “labor intensive requests,” and an additional printing fee of either $0.25/page or $0.50/page depending on whether color ink is used. A different fee schedule applies to police department records, which lists fees of $25.00/DVD for police video records, $5.00/record for crash reports, $5.00/record plus $0.25/page for incident reports, and $3.00/record for calls for service reports.
Mr. Loffer has paid the $78.97 fee, and the requested records were duly released by the City.
Applicable Law
“Although fulfillment of a request for a copy of a public record may be contingent upon receipt of payment of reasonable expenses, the lawful custodian shall make every reasonable effort to provide the public record requested at no cost other than copying costs for a record which takes less than thirty minutes to produce. In the event expenses are necessary, such expenses shall be reasonable and communicated to the requested upon receipt of the request.” Iowa Code § 22.3(1).
“All reasonable expenses of the examination and copying shall be paid by the person desiring to examine or copy. The lawful custodian may charge a reasonable fee for the services of the lawful custodian or the custodian’s authorized designee in supervising the examination and copying of the records. If copy equipment is available at the office of the lawful custodian of any public records, the lawful custodian shall provide any person a reasonable number of copies of any public record in the custody of the office upon the payment of a fee. The fee for the copying service as determined by the lawful custodian shall not exceed the actual cost of providing the service. Actual costs shall include only those reasonable expenses directly attributable to supervising the examination of and making and providing copies of public records. Actual costs shall not include charges for ordinary expenses or costs such as employment benefits, depreciation, maintenance, electricity, or insurance associated with the administration of the office of the lawful custodian. Costs for legal services should only be utilized for the redaction or review of legally protected confidential information.” Iowa Code § 22.3(2).
Informal Resolution
Following IPIB’s informal resolution process, the parties have reached an agreement that will allow for the recalculation of fees charged to Mr. Loffer under revised rates. This recalculation is necessary, as the current policy appears to be in violation of Iowa Code § 22.3 according to a determination made by IPIB staff, and the City has consented to a revision of its fee schedule in order to satisfy these concerns.
Pursuant to Iowa Code § 23.9, IPIB presents the following terms for an informal resolution of this matter:
This Informal Resolution will be formally approved at a meeting of the Marengo City Council. The City will include a copy of this Informal Resolution in its meeting minutes and will provide IPIB staff with a copy of the minutes demonstrating approval.
Members of the Marengo City Council, along with the City’s Chief of Police, will complete training on Iowa’s open meetings and public records laws. This training will be arranged by the City and conducted by IPIB in open session.
The City will work with IPIB staff to amend the records request fees portion of Resolution No. 24-46 to conform to the requirements of Iowa Code § 22.3(2), with retrieval fees estimated according to anticipated employee time and the cost of materials, if any, rather than charging flat fees according to the type of record. As a part of this reevaluation, the City will reassess the per-page printing costs to be charged in the event that physical copies are required. The revised fee policy will also reflect the language in Iowa Code § 22.3(1), which states that “the lawful custodian shall make every reasonable effort to provide the public record requested at no cost other than copying costs for a record which takes less than thirty minutes to produce.” Fulfillment of this term will be subject to a final review by IPIB.
Following the adoption of a new policy pursuant to Term #3, the City will work with IPIB staff to recalculate the fees charged for Mr. Loffer’s December 2024 records request, considering only the costs associated with delivering electronic records. As part of this recalculation, the City will provide a brief explanation of how the Chief of Police responded to the request, for the purpose of determining whether the time spent on the request was reasonable. If the recalculated cost is less than $78.97, the City will issue a partial refund equal to the difference. In the event that the recalculated cost is equal to or greater than $78.97, this term will be considered satisfied. Fulfillment of this term will be subject to a final review by IPIB.
The terms of the Informal Resolution will be completed within 60 days of the date of approval of
this Informal Resolution by all parties. Upon a showing of proof of compliance, the IPIB will dismiss this complaint as successfully resolved.
Matt Loffer approved the Informal Resolution on September 8, 2025.
The City of Marengo approved the Informal Resolution on August 27, 2025.
The IPIB staff recommend the IPIB approve the Informal Resolution Report.
By the IPIB Agency Counsel,
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Alexander Lee, J.D.
CERTIFICATE OF MAILING
This document was sent on September 12, 2025, to:
Matt Loffer, Complainant
City of Marengo, Respondent