Transparency of Iowa government a mixed bag during COVID-19 pandemic

(The Center Square) – Governmental bodies in Iowa have faced challenges in simultaneously maintaining transparency and safety precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic, with mixed results.

When asked to grade the executive branch’s transparency with reporters and the people of Iowa at large since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in March 20, Pat Garrett, communications director for the Iowa governor, declined.

“Not going to give ourselves a grade,” Garrett told The Center Square in an emailed statement. “Governor Reynolds held daily press conferences to update Iowans on COVID19, and the governor’s administration responded to the dozens of inquiries we received on any given day. This was an unprecedented pandemic, and everyone did their best to provide information to the public.”

Lyle Muller, a journalist, PolitiFact Iowa editor and retired former director of IowaWatch.org, told The Center Square in a phone interview that while he gives the governor “kudos” for “constantly talking at news conferences” and answering questions, “reporters aren’t always getting the answers to the questions.”

Muller said The Des Moines Register requested the state’s pandemic response plan and daily reports on Iowa’s response.

“The Department of Public Health denied that [request] … saying that they could not release the pandemic response plan because of the section that allows for keeping confidential records that could expose cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, security procedures, emergency preparedness and also that releasing the information could jeopardize life or property, which is ironic given that COVID is jeopardizing life,” he continued.

Muller said the DPH dared the newspaper to sue to release information. He noted legal action requires time, money and effort, “[S]o that’s how government is able to withhold records at times.”

The Iowa Public Information Board dismissed a formal complaint July 16 filed against the DPH after the department declined to send the emergency Iowa plan for a pandemic.

Muller said Sara Conrad Baranowski, editor of the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen, investigated the number of individuals tested in Hardin County as she “was noticing the numbers differed from what the state was reporting.” Baranowski reported on her findings both before and after the Associated Press covered the incident.

“She couldn’t get answers to the question of why these numbers the state had for Hardin County were different than the positivity rates that she was collecting on a daily spreadsheet from their public health department,” Muller said.

Muller cited Baranowski’s experience as an example of the erosion in transparency at the state level.

Muller said the state also no longer publishes county by county historical trends in COVID-19 testing and positivity on its coronavirus.iowa.gov website, which he said is problematic.

Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, told The Center Square in an emailed statement that governmental bodies in Iowa at both state and local levels have varied in complying with public meetings laws. He praised governmental boards that “almost instantly” turned from in-person meetings to video conference meetings and said he hopes governmental bodies will continue to offer both options for the public’s attendance.

However, Evans criticized the governor’s response to public records requests.

“Perhaps the worst example of government disregarding the spirit of the state’s ‘sunshine’ laws has been the refusal of the governor to acknowledge or respond to public records requests,” Evans said. “Some of those have gone back nearly a year. While I was sympathetic in the early months of the pandemic, the governor’s continued refusal to fulfill many records requests seems to be a deliberate thumbing her nose at the law – especially with the governor lifting restrictions on businesses and public gatherings.”

Muller said he spoke with Art Cullen and Tom Cullen of The Storm Lake Times about their ability to gather data on outbreaks at the Tyson meatpacking plants.

“They said they’ve been able to get how many people have died who worked at the Tyson plant in Storm Lake by talking with someone at the packing plant and that there’s been some openness, at least off the record, for confirmable numbers, but the state was not releasing information about this when we had this incredible pandemic running through packing plants not just in Iowa but across the country, and that was last June, around May and June, July,” Muller said. “You’re never going to die with or without transparency, but you could argue that if there were better transparency at the beginning, something might have [been] done faster in the packing plants and that some lives … could have been saved.”

Garrett said the state disclosed outbreaks once they hit 10%.

The lack of transparency from the governor and her public health administrators has been especially frustrating,” Evans said.

“The information and data that are, or are not, made public has been constantly evolving — leaving the public in the dark about the scope of the pandemic in their areas of Iowa,” Evans continued. “The governor has refused, at various time, to make public the amounts of PPE the state has received, the numbers of people in large facilities – from meatpacking plants to senior citizen care centers – who have contracted Covid. Such secrecy erodes public confidence in their work state health officials are doing.”

The Iowa Department of Public Health did not respond to questions by press time.

“It would be nice to know the plan [regarding COVID-19] so that we know that the state has a good firm grip on the issue and the solutions so the state can rally behind the governor,” Muller said.

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