Open Meetings/Open Records

After several attempts to pass legislation regarding Iowa’s Open Meetings/Open Records law, the Legislature left town without making any changes.  HF 777, which passed the House last year, reflected the changes that the stakeholders agreed on.  When the bill was taken up by the Senate this year, they struck everything in the bill and replaced it with a proposed Iowa Public Information Board.

The investigation of the Iowa School Board Association created an interest on the part of some legislators to expand Iowa’s Open Meetings/Open Records law to nonprofit associations funded by tax dollars.

During the last few days of the session, the Senate version was struck, the House version was drafted as an amendment but withdrawn, and the expansion of open meetings/open records was struck. The Education Appropriations bill does include a request for an interim study of the inclusion of nonprofit organizations supported in whole or in part by public funds in Iowa’s Open Meetings/Open Records law.