Iowa participating in pilot project on cameras in federal courts

The Judicial Conference on Wednesday announced the sites that will participate in a three-year experiment in allowing camera coverage of federal courts. One of the pilot sites is the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

The rules governing the pilot project are extremely restrictive, with no live broadcast allowed, the cameras and video being under control of the judiciary, and judges having complete discretion over which cases can be covered.

Details of the pilot program can be found on the U.S. courts website.

Audit of Bloomfield fire department withheld

The city attorney in Bloomfield is claiming that an audit of the community’s volunteer fire department is not a public record, according to an article in the Ottumwa Courier.

The longtime fire chief retired recently, and an audit of the department was ordered, though neither city attorney Michael Moreland nor city council members would say why.

Moreland claimed that the process was not an “audit” but a “review of financial transactions.” He also said that it was not a public record.

Waukee, IA, city manager’s goals not public

The city manager of Waukee, Iowa, has persuaded the City Council to keep his performance goals secret. Iowa law (Ch. 22.7(11)) allows “personal” information in government employees’ personnel files to be kept confidential. City manager Jeff Kooistra argued that his goals for the year should be part of that file. Goals for city managers in the neighboring Des Moines suburbs of Clive and West Des Moines are posted publicly, according to The Des Moines Register.

Iowa City’s Jim Lewers wins Skip Weber award

Jim Lewers, executive editor of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, was named the 2010 Harrison “Skip” Weber Friend of the First Amendment by the Iowa Freedom of Information Council.

Lewers received the award during the Council’s annual meeting on Friday, Sept. 24.

The Council cited Lewers’ leadership in making the Press-Citizen a staunch champion of open government. Among the battles that the newspaper has fought in recent years are challenges to the Iowa Board of Regents’ practice of holding “rolling meetings” without proper notice and secrecy in the hiring of the University of Iowa president. The newspaper has fought the University’s and Johnson County’s attempts to shield information in a case in which two Hawkeye football players are accused of raping a fellow student in a campus residence hall. The appeal of that case is now before the Iowa Supreme Court.

AP attorney addresses Iowa FOI Council meeting

Karen Kaiser, general counsel for the Associated Press, who specializes in Freedom of Information issues, addressed the annual meeting of the Iowa FOI Council on Friday, Sept. 24.

Among her comments were tips for journalists on how to better champion open-government issues. The text of her comments can be found at the AP’s Web site.

Open meetings/records handbook to be updated

The Iowa FOI Council is starting work on updating its popular Open Meetings, Open Records Handbook for the 14th edition. Thousands of copies of the booklet have been distributed over the years to journalists, government officials and other Iowans. The handbook will be updated later this year once the Iowa Code Office finishes its work updating Chapters 21 and 22, the state open meetings and records laws, to reflect changes made in the laws by the Legislature over the past two years.

Do you have any suggested changes to make to the booklet, any issues you’d like to see addressed in the Question and Answer section? Contact executive secretary Kathleen Richardson, whose contact information is at www.ifoic.org.

National FOI group hires new executive director

The National Freedom of Information Coalition, an organization of state open government groups, has hired former Seattle Post-Intelligencer associate publisher Ken Bunting as its new executive director. The NFOIC, based at the University of Missouri journalism school, is a wonderful resource for reporters with questions about national FOI issues.