25FC:0062 Kayla Brown/Kirkwood Community College - Investigative Report and Probable Cause Order

Date:
07/17/2025

Subject: 
Kayla Brown/Kirkwood Community College  - Investigative Report and Probable Cause Order

Opinion:

The Iowa Public Information Board

COMES NOW, Erika Eckley, Executive Director for the Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB), and enters this Investigative Report:

On May 27, 2025, Kayla Brown filed formal complaint 25FC:0062, alleging Kirkwood Community College (“College”) violated Iowa Code chapter 22.

The IPIB accepted this Complaint on June 19, 2025

Facts

Kayla Brown submitted a records request for emails and calendar entries between certain employees at the College. Within seven days, the College IT manager provided an estimate of $620 to fulfill the request and sought prepayment. The estimated charges included: “Custom Data pull 8 hours at $50 per hour = $400; Processing 10 hours at $20 per hour = $200; SFPT Upload 1 hour at $20 per hour = $20. Total = $620.”

Brown alleges the charges are unreasonable and excessive in violation of Iowa Code chapter 22. Brown alleges the estimate is also in retaliation for an investigation with OSHA between Brown, her spouse, and the College. Brown alleges the estimated charges are intentional to keep the Browns from receiving the records requested.

In response, the College IT manager stated the estimate was in response to the College’s rubric for a custom data pull and processing and is based on the same per hour costs for every similarly-situated request. The College also consulted its legal team to ensure the estimate was handled appropriately because it was a big and unique request. The College stated the estimate included the actual time spent preparing the information requested, which is the cost of the labor involved in retrieving the records. The College also stated it typically provides an estimate prior to work, but due to the size of the request it had the team work on the data pull knowing it might risk not being reimbursed for that work so the estimate could be as accurate and low cost as possible.

Brown replied to the College’s response and alleged the College should not have expended any labor or costs on the search without approval as she had requested and the fact they did was in violation of their own policy. Brown alleges further, the extensive cost of the records could function as a deterrent in violation of Iowa Code Section 22.3. Brown requested IPIB review all the metadata from the College surrounding its estimate to determine when the information was created to verify the College’s statements.

Brown provided IPIB a copy of the records request made to the College. Brown sought email communications from October 20, 2024, through May 9, 2025, for 10 named College employees involved in public safety, human resources, facilities, and other. The request sought all emails with communications between any of these individuals, including the email subject lines, dates, addresses, etc. and attachments. The request also included calendar entries for all of these individuals during the same seven-month time period. In addition, the request included communications that had any of sixteen broad terms, such as “complaint,” “discipline,” “refusal,” and others.

The request also included a broad request for any records that related to “Alex Brown’s job duties, protected activity, or work refusal”—including those that may reference him indirectly or by job title/role rather than by name. The request directed that if emails are redacted or withheld, the College include metadata (To/From, date, time, subject line) for each redacted record. The request also sought “the list of search terms, filters, or criteria used by the College to fulfill this request.”

Applicable Law

Iowa Code § 22.3 is clear that governmental bodies can charge reasonable fees for the production of public records and can produce the public records contingent upon receipt of payment. “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 requester upon receipt of the request.” Iowa Code § 22.3(1).

“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).

Analysis

A web search indicates there are around 1,650 employees of the College. It is not unreasonable to assume it would take time and effort to program a search to include the parameters identified by Brown in pulling emails from specific individuals, but also to include broad search terms over a period of seven months. It is also not unreasonable that it would take hours to retrieve and pull the electronic information requested. The hourly rates of $50 and $20 for this IT work is certainly within a reasonable rate for the individuals doing the work and well below the salaries advertised for employees in the department. 

The number of emails or calendar entries pulled was not specified by the College, but Iowa Code does not require a per page or per record amount. The Code merely requires the actual costs to the government body for retrieving and providing the records. The College stated the actual costs of performing the search and pull of the records was $620 of employee time to program the search and pull the records. Based on the extensive request, this is not per se unreasonable.

Additionally, Iowa Code § 22.3(2) provides that reasonable expenses based on “actual costs” incurred by the government body may be charged to a requester as a condition of production even if this impacts the requester. “[R]etrieval fees may in fact hamper access to public documents. However, such fees may also ensure continuing access to public records through increased funding and deterring excessive or overly broad requests. In any event, weighing these policy interests is for the general assembly. [citation omitted] We hold that in allowing for the recovery of expenses incurred in fulfilling requests for public records, Iowa Code section 22.3(1) authorizes reasonable fees for the time spent by the custodian or its employees in fulfilling the request.” Teig v. Chavez, 8 N.W.3d 484, 497 (Iowa 2024).

There is no evidence of Brown’s allegations of the costs of the retrieval to be retaliatory by the College. The records request was signed “—A Concerned Member of the Public” and all communications were to be sent to an anonymous email address. The only information identifying Brown was inclusion of Brown’s name in some of the key words and documents sought.

Based on the request and the breakdown from the College, the fees requested for the retrieval of the records does not appear to be unreasonable. Brown can pay the estimate and receive the records or may work with the College to revise the search to reduce the costs. 

IPIB Action

The Board may take the following actions upon receipt of a probable cause report: 

a. Redirect the matter for further investigation;

b. Dismiss the matter for lack of probable cause to believe a violation has occurred;

c. Make a determination that probable cause exists to believe a violation has occurred, but, as an exercise of administrative discretion, dismiss the matter; or

d. Make a determination that probable cause exists to believe a violation has occurred, designate a prosecutor and direct the issuance of a statement of charges to initiate a contested case proceeding.

Iowa Admin. Code r. 497-2.2(4).

Recommendation

The records request sought seven months of email communications with broad search terms and a request to see communications between individuals who likely had other confidential information included within the data pull. Sorting through the specific requests, the broad terms, the specifics of the data sought, and actually pulling and reviewing emails from such a large period of time would certainly be time consuming. The College charged hourly rates of $50 and $20 for this work which below the typical hourly rate of the IT technicians involved in the work. The College ran the search and provided an estimate for the costs to the requestor within seven days of the request. Further, the College was within its rights to seek prepayment of the costs prior to releasing the records even if the costs may hamper some access. Based on this, it is recommended IPIB dismiss the matter for lack of probable cause to believe a violation has occurred.

By the IPIB Executive Director

_________________________

Erika Eckley, J.D.

Under Iowa Admin. Code r. 497-2.2(4) the Board takes the following action: 

• a. Redirect the matter for further investigation;
• b. Dismiss the matter for lack of probable cause to believe a violation has occurred;
• c. Make a determination that probable cause exists to believe a violation has occurred, but, as an exercise of administrative discretion, dismiss the matter; or
• d. Make a determination that probable cause exists to believe a violation has occurred, designate a prosecutor and direct the issuance of a statement of charges to initiate a contested case proceeding.

By the Board Chair

___________________________________

Monica McHugh