Story County Fights the Fed to Release Public Records

Story County officials are fighting a federal order prohibiting the release of the Sheriff's emails about a nationwide wireless system for first responders.

Attorneys representing the County government filed a motion in federal court on Monday asking to dismiss a federal action blocking the Story County Sheriff from releasing emails about the network called FirstNet.

Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald, who sits on the First Responder Network Authority, a federal board overseeing the creation of the nationwide network, shared a letter with government investigators that said there was a conflict of interest between FirstNet board members and wireless carriers and that the system has been developed without a “public safety point of view,” according to Politico.

Fitzgerald wouldn't elaborate on the evidence he might have, so Politico filed an open records request asking Fitzgerald's office to release emails sent between March 1 and June 30 about FirstNet, wireless companies and more, a report in the Ames Tribune said.

The Story County Board of Supervisors originally granted the request but a U.S. District Court judge barred Story County from releasing the emails in August stating the information could “cause 'immediate and irreparable harm' if released.”

Story County said, in a motion filed Monday, that the records are subject to Iowa's public information law and that the U.S. government doesn't have the authority to block the records' release, according to a report in the Ames Tribune.

The emails Politico wants were sent from Fitzgerald's county email account and even if the government could prove that they were federal documents the restriction encroaches on states' rights, the motion said according to the report.