Storm Lake revises open records policy after fee dispute on FOIA request

Storm Lake residents asking for public records now face a clearer process, lower copy charges and fewer traps in the fine print. The city also has a formal open-records policy in place after settling a dispute that began when Jacob Hall of Sioux Center challenged a $375 bill for communications tied to a Storm Lake Public Library presentation.

The revised policy names City Clerk Mayra Martinez as the records custodian and says requests may be made without giving a name or explaining a purpose. Storm Lake says it will try to meet requests within the limits of Iowa Code Chapter 22, while still protecting confidential files, redacting privileged material and identifying the legal basis when it withholds records. Storm Lake Police is carved out of the new citywide policy and will keep its own procedures and custodian.

The fee schedule changed in several specific ways. Black-and-white copies now cost 15 cents per page and color copies cost 20 cents per page. The city will charge actual cost for USB storage devices and postage, but it eliminated fees for mailing copies over 50 pages and 100 pages, along with eight other charges tied to double-sided pages and legal-format copies. Research time for files will be billed at the city clerk’s hourly rate.

Hall’s complaint, filed with the Iowa Public Information Board on Sept. 16, 2025, was accepted on Nov. 20, 2025. He alleged that in July 2025 the mayor spoke individually with council members about changing the terms of a city service and that a majority of council members discussed policy through group messages outside a noticed meeting. Hall had first sought communications about the Storm Lake Public Library’s Banned Books Week presentation featuring Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., and City Hall initially charged him $375, including 2.5 hours from its IT services provider, Rebnord Technologies.

The library event itself had been scheduled for Oct. 7, 2025, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. as a Banned Books Week presentation on censorship and the right to read. The library said the national observance has been held since 1982. Carver, who had previously spoken in Storm Lake, had been described locally as an award-winning teacher, activist and poet who called himself a “big gay hillbilly.”

The settlement also calls for Chapter 22 instruction for council members and designated staff, a sign that the dispute reached beyond one request. It follows an earlier hard line from City Hall on fee waivers, including the council’s denial of Hall’s request and a 2024 denial of a similar waiver sought by Investigate Midwest journalist John McCracken for records involving communications between city officials and Tyson Foods.

For Buena Vista County residents, the new policy offers a more defined path into city records and a firmer explanation of what Storm Lake can charge. It does not erase the city’s authority to protect confidential material, but it does force the process into writing, which may do more to limit future disputes than any single fee cut.