Council approves new policy for records searches

The City of Red Oak is implementing a new public records policy.
The Red Oak City council discussed the implementation of the policy at its regular meeting July 3. The policy defines the policies, procedures, and fee structure associated with handling public records requests made to the city, and clarifies the city is subject to Iowa’s open records laws set by Iowa code.
The city will meet all reasonable requests for information and documents within the constraints of Iowa code. Red Oak city administrator Kyra Smith said the policy has been put into place due to increases in staff time for records searches.
“There’s a lot of staff time being utilized for searching public records, so this allows us to recoup those expenses for the city from time lost while looking for public records while also doing our normal duties,” Smith said.  “There’s been no policy before, so this will be the first that has come through. Now we’ll have a resolution to manage our staff time better.”
Red Oak Mayor Shawnna Silivus said the policy also makes clear the feeds for obtaining public records.
“We can track the requests and set a fee to be paid for the research and for the documentation to be given to them in whatever method they need it,” commented Silvius.
Smith said due to an influx of document requests, the records searches were harder to keep track of, and help the city make sure they were getting the document requests handled as quickly as possible. Smith outlined some of the fees that can be expected.
“The first 30 minutes of a records search is free for 30 minutes per person, per month. Anything after that is based on the hourly wage rate of the employee doing the search. They can’t specify what employee does the search, but we’ll make it so the person doing the search isn’t someone who is making a high wage. We want to make the costs fair,” explained Smith. If they’re wanting it on any type of media or a USB drive, that will have to be provided by the city. They will have to buy a flash drive or CD from us because we don’t want any foreign materials in our computer. They would buy that from us at cost, it would not be up charged. It’s just to protect our systems.”
Additional fee breakdowns are as follows:
• An 8½ x 11 black and white photocopy is 25 cents per page, 50 cents for color.
• An 8½ x 14 or 11 x 17 black and white photocopy is $1 per page, $2 for color.
• A copy to a flash drive or city-provided media is $20.
• Certified mailings or prepared or bound reports are at actual cost.
• A domestic fax is $1 per page, $2 for international faxes.
• The city also reserves the right to amend the fee schedule at any time in the event of unanticipated expenses.
Additionally, anyone making a request is asked to fill out a request form with the information needed.
“It’s not required, but it helps us to help them in tracking stuff and getting them the information faster. It allows them to list the specific dates and items that they’re wanting, and whether they’re picking it up or emailed to them. Even if they ask for it to be emailed, they will still be charged if the search takes more than 30 minutes,” advised Smith.
The council approved the resolution as presented.
The council then held public hearings on a proposed ordinance for increasing the city’s water and sewer rates. No oral or written comments were received.
The council approved the first reading of an increase to the city’s water and sewer rates for the next three years. The increase was due to inflation and the costs for work to the wastewater facility.
“The costs for the water rate fees will increase 10% this year, and then 7% for the following two years. The sewer rates will increase by 10% for the next three years,” Silvius said.
As per the change, the basic water charge will be $8.78 for 2023-24, $9.39 for 2024-25, and $10.05 for 2025-26. Water usage from 0-4,000 cubic feet used per month will be $3.01 for 2023-24, $3.22 for 2024-25, and $3.45 for 2025-26. Finally, water usage over 4,000 cubic feet per month will be $2.31 for 2023-24, $2.47 for 2024-25, and $2.64 for 2025-26.
Basic sewer charges are $10.40 for 2023-24, $11.43 for 2024-25, and $12.58 for 2025-26. The sewer usage charge per 100 cubic feet is $3.80 for 2023-24, $4.17 for 2024-25, and $4.59 for 2025-26. Rates for sewer surcharge per pound of biochemical oxygen demand is 55 cents for 2023-24, up to 61 cents in 2024-25, and at 67 cents in 2025-26. Finally, the sewer surcharge per pound suspended solids is 28 cents in 2024-24, up to 30 cents in 2024-25, and 33 cents in 2025-26.
The council approved the rate increases as presented, effective July 1.
In other business, the council:
Approved the temporary shut down of 4th Street from East Cherry Street to Sunset Avenue between 2 and 11 p.m. July 20 for MotoCross races.
Approved a fireworks display at 10:30 p.m. July 22 at the grandstand area of the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.
Set public hearings for July 17 for an amendment to recycling fees and updating the International Property Maintenance ordinance.
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