Iowa Workforce Development director subject of new open-records complaint
Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend at a March 2020 news conference. (Screen shot from Iowa PBS)
The Iowa Capital Dispatch has filed a formal complaint with the Iowa Public Information Board over Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend’s handling of public records requests.
The news organization’s complaint centers on two separate requests for public records made with the agency in late April.
The first, made on April 29, was for all of the exhibits filed in an unemployment case involving an Iowa county attorney. IWD provided 17 pages of records, stating twice that those were all of the exhibits in the case. The Capital Dispatch questioned that, noting a judge’s ruling that referenced at least 65 exhibits. On May 26, without explanation, the agency turned over an additional 380 pages of records.