Scott County Attorney Keeping DCI Report on 324 Main Collapse Secret Will Cost Taxpayers … Again.

[The remarks below were delivered during Public With Business at the Scott County Board of Supervisors Board Meeting Thursday April 24, 2025.]

My name is David Ezra Sidran. I am a resident of Scott County. Thank you for letting me speak today. Some of you may know that I taught computer science at the University of Iowa for a number of years. I am now retired. And, unfortunately, since then I have had to become an expert on Iowa Code Chapter 22, Public Records and the Freedom of Information Act.

You may also know that I filed a FOIA with the city of Davenport for the infamous Corri Spiegel demand letter. Rather than give me the public record, the city of Davenport sued me because they said they didn’t know if it was a public record.

I hope this specious argument sounds familiar to you because it is exactly the same argument currently being made by the Scott County Attorney for refusing to give up the DCI report on the collapse of 324 Main Street.

Judge Lawson took less than five minutes to rule in my favor and state that the public record I was seeking was a public record and that the city of Davenport had no reason to sue me.

So, now I am suing the city of Davenport because of this. But you need to know that I also have to sue the city council members personally because they are the legal custodians of the public records. Just as you, the Scott County Board of Supervisors, are the legal custodians of our public records.* (See Publisher's Notes at the end of this essay regarding public record custodianships.)

I believe that you are now in the process of paying Attorney Mike Meloy $93,000 because – to use the colloquial blues expression – County Attorney Cunningham wrote a check with her mouth that you have to cover. (Note: The Board voted at this meeting to pay ~$93,000 in attorney fees regarding the County losing a case at the Iowa Supreme Court for the County Auditor discretionarily keeping applicants for a Board seat appointment secret. See editor Kathleen McCarthy's timeline.) This is just like the Davenport City Attorney writing a check with his mouth, but now the individual members of the city council will have to cover.

You may have also heard of new legislation recently passed in the Iowa State House specifically because of what the Davenport city attorney did to me. The Senate Floor Manager for this bill – and he is from Bettendorf – was quoted as saying, “People there have been struggling and trying to find public information and been getting stonewalled day after day by a particular city, the city of Davenport, to not find the causes of that particular building collapse.” This legislation, by the way, will increase the fines levied against the individual city council members to $12,500 each because, once again, you are the legal custodians of the public records. Not the city attorney. Not the county attorney. You, the Board of Supervisors are the legal custodians.*

Recently, I, along with about a half-dozen other individuals and media organizations, including local TV and the Quad-City Times, filed FOIAs with the Scott County Attorney for the DCI report on the collapse of 324 Main St. Guess what the County Attorney’s response was. She refused to give up the public record, and filed a petition with the Iowa Public Information Board, “seeking clarification” if this public record is, indeed, a public record.

I will save you the suspense: It is a public record. We all know how this is going to end. The only question is if you’re going to write another check for $93,000 to Mike Meloy or not?

County Attorney Cunningham has filed a Petition with the Iowa Public Information Board arguing that she can withhold the DCI report because of Iowa Code 22.7.5. Twenty-two.7.5 states that a “Peace Officer’s Investigate Report” must be released unless, “disclosure would plainly and seriously jeopardize an investigation or pose a clear and present danger to the safety of an individual.”

First, County Attorney Cunningham has publicly and repeatedly said that there is no criminal investigation and that she absolutely refuses to prosecute the owner of 324 Main Street, Andrew Wold, in spite of the fact that there were 74 open housing violations, two orders to vacate, and an order from the Fire Marshall that the property was a public safety hazard. I have them right here. Do you want to see them? (View the full timeline at RCReader.com/324-main-street-how-did-city-davenport-iowa-allow-this-disaster-to-happen.)

So, clearly, there is no investigation to jeopardize.

County Attorney Cunningham tries to argue the other exception to 22.7.5. “Scott County desires a decision that the potential harm of releasing the report outweighs the public benefit. Releasing the report will not change the decision of the County Attorney regarding criminal charges but it could impact the safety of individuals … .”

To support this argument, the County Attorney attaches an affidavit from the owner of 324 Main Street, alleging that he believes, “that the release of the DCI investigative report will further spark violent activity in this community, which will be directed at myself.”

I think it’s important to point out that Mr. Wold has sold approximately $5 million of his Scott County real estate, he has legally changed his name to Andrew Langel and has moved himself and his family to Venice, Florida, where he has bought property.

I know that there are attorneys serving on the Board of Supervisors. I do not want to speak for you. However, I will say that the County Attorney’s arguments are easily demolished, and that numerous people, including Randy Evans, the president of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, and myself, will be speaking before the Iowa Public Information Board urging them to remind County Attorney Cunningham how Chapter 22.7.5 works.

I also need to speak, briefly, about the lack of a FOIA submission system with Scott County. This is a very serious problem and leaves the Board of Supervisors vulnerable to lawsuits for failure to follow Chapter 22 rules.

The city of Davenport uses a third-party system called JustFOIA. The state of Iowa uses a third-party system called NextRequest. I’m not recommending either system; I’m just saying Scott County needs to use a third-party to provide FOIA request support.

This is how it works: When I submit a FOIA with either the city or the state, the third-party system automatically sends an email with the request to the appropriate party at the government agency and sends the requestor a confirmation email.

More importantly, everything is time-stamped and this starts the clock. Chapter 22 requires that the government agency must respond to a FOIA request within 10 business days or 20 calendar days.

Scott County has no such system in place and the County Attorney’s office seemed dumbfounded when I contacted them after they had not responded within the allotted time and I informed them that they were now in violation of Chapter 22 and I would be filing a lawsuit against the county unless they immediately provided the document or gave a legitimate response.

Again, the County Attorney is writing a check that you have to cover.

Lastly, I want to ask you, I want to beg you, to please pass a resolution ordering the County Attorney to immediately release the DCI report on the collapse of 324 Main Street. The DCI report is going to be released eventually. We all know this.

It’s terrible enough that the County Attorney refuses to even consider manslaughter charges for three totally preventable deaths.

But there is no reason for the Board of Supervisors to leave the county wide open for the inevitable litigation that will certainly follow if the County Attorney is allowed to keep writing checks that she can’t cover. Thank you for your time.

* Publisher's Notes: Regarding custodial status of the DCI report, Sidran's remarks require a correction. The former Davenport city administrator's demand letter that netted her $1.6 million tax payer dollars without a city council vote (cover story May 2024: RCReader.com/commentary/what-we-know-one-year-after-324-main-street-disaster) was under the city council's custodianship and not the unelected city attorney. Meanwhile, the county attorney is elected, and according to Randy Evans, director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council (who has a related guest commentary), “The lawful custodian varies, depending upon the specific record. In the case of the DCI report, Cunningham is the lawful custodian. It’s in the possession of her office. The Board of Supervisors has overall responsibility. The board sets the county attorney’s budget. But right now, the decision of public vs. confidential is Cunningham’s to make. And the designation of 'lawful custodian' is one that can be formally assigned, too. In many cities, the chief is designated as the lawful custodian of police records. The superintendent often is designated as the lawful custodian for school records.”

The county's FOIA Web page is at ScottCountyIowa.gov/administration/open-records-foia and reads in part: “The Human Resources Director oversees the public records request process and is available to assist with questions. You may also contact County Administration, the Auditor’s Office, or a specific department for assistance.” And the Board Policy 31 at ScottCountyIowa.gov/hr/pub/policies_general/31_Public_Records_and_Information.pdf adopted in 2012 reads in part, “The Assistant County Administrator is the person designated to implement the requirements and procedures related to requests for public records.” Meanwhile, former Scott County Supervisor Diane Holst shared with the Reader that her current practice is to send FOIA requests directly to the assistant county attorney.

See also the Reader commentary "Debris in Davenport Is Gone, but the Secrets Remain: May 15 Iowa Public Information Board Might Hear County Attorney Request to Keep DCI Report on 324 Main Street Collapse Hidden" by Randy Evans, and the editorial "Elected County Officials Keeping Public Information Secret Cost Taxpayers $93,000: Scott County Played Games Even After Iowa Supreme Court Ruling" by Kathleen McCarthy.