A court hearing last Friday involving the Iowa State Daily Publication Board and Partnership Press was intended to determine attorneys’ fees — but it is still unclear whether the Publication Board will have to pay attorney’s fees for both parties.

Partnership Press, the parent company of the Ames Daily Tribune, filed the suit because they believed the Daily is in violation of the Iowa Open Records law. The open records law states that “every person shall have the right to examine and copy public records and to publish … the public records or the information contained therein.” The Publication Board was declared a public body by Judge Kurt Wilke in late March after a trial last December.

Although the Daily has been declared public, Wilke denied a Partnership Press motion to find that the Publication Board violated the law. That denial may keep the Daily from having to pay Partnership Press’ legal fees, which are in excess of $124,000.

Michael Guidicessi, attorney for Partnership Press, again asked that the judge declare the Publication Board in violation of the open records law. “The statute says the court shall” award the prevailing party by making the government body pay the Tribune’s attorney’s fees, Guidicessi said. The Publication Board must be accountable for violating the law, he added.

“We shouldn’t have to pay when the government is wrong,” Guidicessi said.

However, Mike Moon, attorney for the Publication Board, said the Daily shouldn’t be forced to pay the Tribune’s attorney’s fees because, with a history as a non-profit organization, the Publication Board has acted in good faith with the open records law.

“I think good faith permeates this entire case,” Moon said. The law states fees should be awarded if the court finds the Publication Board has violated the law, not because it is a government body.

“If the court would find violation, where is it? There is no violation,” Moon said.

But Guidicessi argued not giving the Tribune access to public documents means violation of the law. “We can’t write in this good faith — it isn’t in the statute,” he said.

In addition to arguments concerning attorney’s fees, the hearing worked through disputes over a list of records that the Tribune requested from the Daily.

Some requests were deemed as exempt from the law because they were personnel records or dealt with attorney-client privilege laws, among other things.

One witness testified at the hearing. John Hobson, chairman of the Publication Board, said the Daily has opened its records since becoming a public body.

Specifically, he said transcripts required for editor-in-chief applications were previously unavailable as public documents when the Daily was classified as a nonprofit organization. The 1997 applicants’ transcripts are available to the public “in accordance with a new Daily,” he said. “We’re on a different playing field,” Hobson said.

But Guidicessi pointed out the 1997 transcripts were released on March 13, before the judge’s March 21 ruling declaring the Publication Board public.

Judge Wilke’s decision has not been made. No deadline for the attorneys’ fees and other decisions has been set.