Editorial: Ignoring the public interest

The City of Storm Lake ignores the public interest by refusing to let us see invoices from the city’s Des Moines law firm for its prosecution of an ill-fated lawsuit against Buena Vista County over messing up tax increment financing. The Storm Lake Times Pilot requested to review invoices from the Dorsey and Whitney law firm for its representation of the city in a lawsuit that attempts to claw back at least $5 million the city is due from TIF assessments over the years. The city denied our request by stating that the invoices are “work product” between an attorney and its client.

First, an invoice is not a work product. It is a bill for work product. We are not asking for the city to reveal its legal strategy, so far proving none too successful. A judge has thrown out the two meatiest claims against the county. Table scraps remain. We want to know how much the lawyers charge for reading the newspaper. In the Des Moines Waterworks lawsuit against Buena Vista, Calhoun and Sac counties, the silk-stocking lawyers charged the county for reading editorials, invoices illustrated. The public deserves to know what we are paying for.

Second, we are the client. We live in Storm Lake, own a commercial building that is taxed way too much for its worth, and own homes on streets with crumbling curbs. We deserve to know what we are being charged, that otherwise might go to fixing our curbs or reducing the 76% property tax increase on our office along the railroad tracks.

We know that invoices are public records. The city may redact from the invoice actual “work product” or anything that might hint at state secrets. As noted, Buena Vista County realized that it had to make public its invoices from the waterworks lawsuit. The only reason to withhold the information is because of embarrassment. The city and county each should be embarrassed for fleecing the taxpayer with this needless trial.

The Iowa Freedom Of Information Council, a non-profit dedicated to government transparency, has written a letter advising the city that it must let the public review invoices from vendors, including attorneys.

Experienced local lawyers tell us this trial could cost upwards of $1 million. The taxpayers of Storm Lake will get to pay double — for the city’s lawyers and the county’s (also from Des Moines). Those same local attorneys do not believe that the city can collect more than it will spend in legal fees. At this point, a district court judge restricts the city claim to TIF money kept distinctly by the county that should have gone to the city. We understand that most of the $5 million or more in TIF revenues went to the Storm Lake School District. Honestly, we don’t know because of secrecy by the city and the county.

We pleaded with the city or county to call in the State Auditor’s Office to get to the bottom and mediate a solution. Just one official had to invite the auditor. Nobody apparently did. Instead, the people wearing the millionaire hats in the city hall and courthouse decided to wage a full-blown fight in court, and the trial will not even be conducted in Buena Vista County where the taxpayers are getting abused.

Public officials should disclose the public’s business.

The county screwed up. It should make things right over the lost TIF revenue. The city and county should settle for the sake of the oppressive property taxes we pay. Our elected and appointed public officials would rather win in court than find justice. Somebody is going to lose — you are, for sure. You will keep losing so long as we keep electing and appointing public officials who think this is their play Monopoly money and not your hard-earned taxes getting burned up by legal fees. This is a matter in which the citizens of Storm Lake are suing themselves as taxpayers of Buena Vista County. It is absurd. The parties should settle with a fair deal.

Until then, they should respect the law and reveal their billings. We can’t afford legal fees. Neither can the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. That is why the FOI Council was awarded more than $100,000 in legal fees against the Centerville School District recently, for a lawsuit involving a closed meeting. We would hate to see it get that far in Storm Lake. It would be a lot cheaper to release the invoices, redacted if necessary to protect actual “work product.” Doing so would demonstrate a modicum of respect for the public interest which, to this point, has been displayed by neither the city nor the county. We have been trying to pry loose the facts about this huge bungling of public resources for years. Public officials have been attempting to obscure the facts for years. The only thing a trial will accomplish is to expose local government mismanagement. Maybe that’s worth a million bucks. An audit would have been free.