Public records advocates sue Iowa State over details of Dublin football game

[WISCY1895]

Not sure why so many people are up in arms about this entire episode, way to much "tribe mentality" going on. ISU is a public institution and therefore by law must release all public records which they are required to do, ISU is refusing to do this. The governor and the legislature has been doing the exact same things lately, refusing to release records regarding funding and where the money went.

Are there cases of abusing the opens record law, sure, but in many cases, it's those in power abusing the system to provide favors or favorable treatment to outside groups. It's always a good idea to get that information out the public in my mind. If ISU did something wrong here, then the paperwork will show it. A lot of times the coverup or refusal to release the materials is worse than what they did in the first place.

Agree they should release the information. My question from the start is why is this guy wasting peoples time? There’s no laws against the athletic department using their own money to bring people to Ireland. The process of making the request seems ridiculous to me.

 

[cyatheart]

I don't care, but given the massive amount of actual fraud going on in our state, local and national governments this time could be used elsewhere. It's a witch-hunt.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Agree they should release the information. My question from the start is why is this guy wasting peoples time? There’s no laws against the athletic department using their own money to bring people to Ireland. The process of making the request seems ridiculous to me.

Only he can answer that question, if he is always going after ISU and UNI, but giving Iowa a pass, that is wrong, but all this information should be made public about all of them.

 

[Cycsk]

Randy Evans is part of the age group that believes any money spent on Iowa State athletics is a waste of money that needs to be scrutinized, but believes that U of I athletics is part of the state’s “culture.” That’s the reason you won’t see the Gazette do very many FOIA requests against Iowa Athletics or U of I hospitals. They are the third rail of Iowa politics. Personally, we need to be transparent, but it cuts both ways.

And this from a member of the "objective" old school of journalism!

 

[Kinch]

Here are some things the Gazette should investigate that are perhaps the most important things going on at the U of Iowa as I see it.
1. What was the legacy of Gary Barta? Beyond the lawsuits and the $50 million welfare check from the state, the U of I ranked at the bottom of athletic achievement in the Big 10 during his tenure. Interview the big donors on what they thought of him.
2. What is Iowa’s place in the Big 10 now? Is Iowa getting further and further behind because of realignment? Iowa State obviously has a realignment problem, but doesn’t Iowa?
3. Iowa has hundreds of millions of dollars (close to a billion) of capital needs to keep up with the arms race in the Big 10. Probably need a new basketball arena. Kinnick is pushing 100 years old. Parking issues. Etc. Who is going to pay for it? Will the new Big 10 TV money be enough to pay for it?
4. what are the plans for coaching succession for football and wrestling?
5. Iowa State just demolished Iowa this year in the Cy Hawk series. Why? Iowa wrestling is closer to battling for fifth place in the Big 10 than battling for even second place. Why?
6. How does the Iowa donor base compare to the rest of the Big 10? Does Iowa have enough NIL donors to compete with the middle tier?

They won’t because they are busy trying to get information on Iowa State’s trip to Dublin.

 

[Kinch]

Here’s what I mean when I say the media really goes ga ga over Iowa athletics.
The last two years headlines in the Iowa Capital Disptach and the Gazette:
“Iowa sees another record year for revenues.”
“Iowa State manages challenges.”
Keep in mind, Iowa is not paying back their welfare check from the state of Iowa, while Iowa State was not given a welfare check. You won’t see it in their writing.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Requesting FOIA records of UNI’s AD expenditures makes way more sense since they’re subsidized by the state tax payers.

Okay and UNI has and would comply. I'm not sure what your point is here?

And it's awesome that everybody is so concerned about the .000013% of the state budget that UNI Athletics takes every year that still leaves them in a massive hole compared to peers that take 3-4x that amount.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Here are some things the Gazette should investigate that are perhaps the most important things going on at the U of Iowa as I see it.
1. What was the legacy of Gary Barta? Beyond the lawsuits and the $50 million welfare check from the state, the U of I ranked at the bottom of athletic achievement in the Big 10 during his tenure. Interview the big donors on what they thought of him.
2. What is Iowa’s place in the Big 10 now? Is Iowa getting further and further behind because of realignment? Iowa State obviously has a realignment problem, but doesn’t Iowa?
3. Iowa has hundreds of millions of dollars (close to a billion) of capital needs to keep up with the arms race in the Big 10. Probably need a new basketball arena. Kinnick is pushing 100 years old. Parking issues. Etc. Who is going to pay for it? Will the new Big 10 TV money be enough to pay for it?
4. what are the plans for coaching succession for football and wrestling?
5. Iowa State just demolished Iowa this year in the Cy Hawk series. Why? Iowa wrestling is closer to battling for fifth place in the Big 10 than battling for even second place. Why?
6. How does the Iowa donor base compare to the rest of the Big 10? Does Iowa have enough NIL donors to compete with the middle tier?

They won’t because they are busy trying to get information on Iowa State’s trip to Dublin.

Literally none of that would be covered in an FOIA request that takes 2 minutes to file.

 

[isu81]

It was written by Vanessa Miller, the same person who wrote the misleading budget shortfall article last summer.

Vanessa Miller has also broken "stories" on UI. She's an equal opportunity witch hunter.

 

[Clonealways]

It’s the athletic department Why does that matter? They are a free standing entity that doesn’t take in tax dollars.

It is a free standing PUBLIC Entity and it matters a lot.

 

[Kinch]

Literally none of that would be covered in an FOIA request that takes 2 minutes to file.

The point is there are more important things than those foia requests. If they are too afraid to question the future of Iowa athletics they will be too lazy to do an foia request. Such is the mentality of reporters who can’t see the forest through the trees. I know people who do an Foia request against u of I that gets stonewalled. Never makes Randy Evans columns. Like I said, if the gazette would do their job, they would get no gripe from me.

 

[Letterkenny]

They want to see how many people got a free trip out of it, ISU has been playing fast and lose with public records over the actual cost of the trip.

Do they do this for every road trip? Boosters, radio guys, band members, NIL people, etc... get free trips to all the away games. This doesn't seem any different other than it's a longer trip.

 

[LAClone]

Shameful to see the ISU athletic department failing to comply with FOIA requests. That’s all there is to it.

 

[Kinch]

Has the gazette done an foia request to see expenses and who traveled with the hawks team on their west coast trips this past year? See if Iowa spent more than $280,000. On their Rose Bowl trips? On Ronnie Harmon allegations if they were investigated? If they have I haven’t seen Randy Evan’s wrote about it.

 

[Kinch]

In previous years, I don’t think the register or gazette wrote negatively about the governor going to hawk athletic events out of state. They played it up and didn’t question who paid for it,

 

[3TrueFans]

Has the gazette done an foia request to see expenses and who traveled with the hawks team on their west coast trips this past year? See if Iowa spent more than $280,000. On their Rose Bowl trips? On Ronnie Harmon allegations if they were investigated? If they have I haven’t seen Randy Evan’s wrote about it.

You likely wouldn't have seen Randy Evans write about this had they just complied with the request.

 

[AuH2O]

There is no law saying the AD can't bring booster and/or whoever they wish on athletic trips. Even back in my day we'd have numerous non-football staff (including donors) on our bowl trips and some other games.

The fact the article calls out specifically "a dietician", "an announcer" and "an ISU police officer" tells you they have no clue what they are talking about. The dietician is part of the football staff, the announcer is John Walters who does the radio play by play and the ISU police officer is the SAME officer that protected coach Mac back when I was playing.

It's a waste of the time records request trying to make something out of nothing.

That’s part of it, but an area of abuse is people going to legit events for university business, then staying days ahead of or after the event and trying to stick ISU with the bill. There’s nothing wrong with people going early or staying later as long as they eat the additional cost. But people try to take advantage of that and get an extra few days of vacation on ISUs dime.

 

[Kinch]

You likely wouldn't have seen Randy Evans write about this had they just complied with the request.

They should comply, but Randy will still write about it. However, is the person who is stonewalling in the governors office giving instructions to Pollard? Or is it Pollard himself?

 

[chuckd4735]

Agree they should release the information. My question from the start is why is this guy wasting peoples time? There’s no laws against the athletic department using their own money to bring people to Ireland. The process of making the request seems ridiculous to me.

I just about guarantee you the reason they looked into it is because Kim Reynolds was on the Charter.

 

[Clonealways]

They should comply, but Randy will still write about it. However, is the person who is stonewalling in the governors office giving instructions to Pollard? Or is it Pollard himself?

From what I have heard, that could be close to the same thing. Usually, people in University Presidents an AD roles try to play a political middle ground. I have heard JP chose to be all-in.