Polk County says it wants to protect current and future victims of workplace misconduct by denying the Register access to messages sent by a fired manager.
Protecting employees is a worthy concern. But the county’s approach would open wide a way to keep Iowans from understanding how the public officials they pay go about their work.
Polk County fired Tom Alessio Jr. as deputy director of general services in June for unspecified “inappropriate behaviors and conduct.” The county, in a court filing rejecting a request from the Register’s Lee Rood, says that some of his messages are “personal information contained in confidential personnel records” exempt from disclosure under Iowa law.
That is too much discretion to leave to public officials. The potential for governments to say “oh, this is a personnel matter” could easily become a blanket excuse for keeping inconvenient records secret.
Our objection isn’t theoretical sanctimony from journalists who routinely use public records to try to hold government accountable. The Register, as one of the largest news organizations in the region, has long defended our right to public records in court when needed.
Further, 11 years ago, a Polk County judge wrote that “what are otherwise public records cannot be hidden from public scrutiny simply by the records keeper pronouncing them to be the basis for possible disciplinary action. If such were the case, it would be all too easy for records to be made undiscoverable.”
The lines between official and personal communication got muddier as it became commonplace to use work laptops and phones to handle personal business ― and as the exact language of that personal business is preserved in email and other records, unlike with phone calls.
That reality should not soften this principle, though: Communications carried out with government devices or government accounts should be presumed to be public records.
County says disclosure could lead to ‘scrutiny and ridicule’
After Alessio was fired, Rood asked Polk County for “all text messages, pictures (or) videos sent by Tom Alessio to any employees of General Services this year.” After answering other parts of the request, the county asked a judge to enjoin the public release of messages it obtained from recipients of those messages during the county’s human resources investigation. No court hearing has been scheduled.
“Examination of the records in question would expose current Polk County, Iowa employees to public scrutiny and ridicule” and could discourage workers from cooperating in future HR investigations, assistant county attorney Meghan Gavin wrote.
A Polk victory on this point would create a couple of problems:
In the Nancy Sebring case, a judge recognized the risks
In 2012, Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Nancy Sebring was hired to take over the Omaha school district. She never started work there after sexually explicit emails sent from her district account came to light through public records requests. Sebring eventually sued the district for releasing the emails to the Register and Omaha World-Herald, arguing that that invaded her privacy and that the emails were private. After two years of litigation, the district’s insurer pushed to pay Sebring $350,000 and end the dispute.
That resolution headed off the chance for Iowa courts to bring more clarity to these questions about personal messages sent and received on the government’s dime. Polk County District Judge Robert Hutchison noted in an order before the settlement that “records which are public — as the Court has determined Sebring’s emails to be — do not lose their character as public records or become confidential as a personnel matter simply because the records constitute misconduct and/or the basis for disciplinary action.”
Sebring’s position, as somebody who plainly violated her employer’s policy on computer use, was not particularly sympathetic. Polk County’s argument today about protecting victims and the integrity of investigations has more force. But the possibility of collateral damage should not carry the day if the law would otherwise compel that records be disclosed. The law explicitly instructs judges to “take into account the policy of this chapter that free and open examination of public records is generally in the public interest even though such examination may cause inconvenience or embarrassment to public officials or others.”
Polk County puts too much focus on confidentiality
Although it’s immaterial to the dispute over records in the county’s possession, Alessio’s dismissal implicates another section of the open-records law. In 2017, after a controversy over secret settlements for misconduct involving state employees, the Legislature amended the law to provide that “the documented reasons and rationale for the resignation in lieu of termination, the discharge, or the demotion” of a public employee is a public record.
Government agencies have at times evaded the purpose of this law by claiming that resignations were voluntary or by taking the vaguest possible interpretation of “documented reasons and rationale.” The latter is the case with Alessio’s firing letter attributing his dismissal to “inappropriate behaviors and conduct.” County leaders could at any time offer more context about the allegations against Alessio without compromising their investigation or the people involved.
That is the theme of Iowa’s open-government laws: Those charged with serving the public interest should default to disclosure. They should look for reasons to say what they responsibly can, not for excuses to withhold information.
Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board
This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register’s editorial board: Rachel Stassen-Berger, executive editor; Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Messages on government accounts are public records | Opinion
Reporting by The Register’s editorial, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By The Register's editorial, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
