Jason Clayworth

jclayworth@dmreg.com

A bill that would make the names of Iowa's public volunteers confidential was abandoned Tuesday following the disclosure of the criminal history of a hospital worker whose case was the center of the legislative effort.

Crawford County Memorial Hospital officials had pushed for the legislation after the Iowa Public Information board ruled last year that the hospital must release its list of volunteer drivers. Hospital officials fought for nearly two years to keep those names confidential, arguing that volunteers are not subject to the state's open records law because they are not employees.

Hospital officials accused Denison resident Rich Knowles, who requested the volunteer records, of trying to hold its volunteers "up to public ridicule." Knowles was trying to learn whether Wes Furne, who in the past had been accused of sexual misconduct with children, was one of the hospital's volunteers.

The public information board's decision led to the disclosure that Furne was — and still is — a volunteer driver for the public hospital.

In reaction to the board ruling, the Iowa Hospital Association and its 118 member hospitals pursued an effort to add a 70th exemption to Iowa's open records law and classify all public volunteers as confidential.

Rep. Kevin Koester, R-Ankeny, led the effort behind House File 403. Koester initially felt the information board's ruling was an overreach because he believed the most serious crimes against Furne were unsubstantiated.

But court records unearthed by Knowles showed that Furne was found guilty in 1994 of two felony counts of lascivious acts with a child and was fined $500 in 2003 for supplying alcohol to minors.

In 2004, Furne agreed to complete a sexual perpetrators evaluation to defer prosecution and ultimately expunge a simple assault charge following allegations that he attempted to make physical contact with a 14-year-old boy at a Denison pool.

Koester said Tuesday that he and some of his peers agree they will not advance the volunteer secrecy bill, a decision influenced by the discovery that there was more to the criminal history behind the Crawford hospital case.

"I don't know the complete history there, but as I learned more I was even more convinced the passion" of critics of the bill "was well-founded," Koester said.

'I feel there is no threat from myself'

Furne, who is now 66, told the Register Tuesday that — after court-ordered therapy — he no longer has a desire for inappropriate interactions with children.

He said he volunteers daily between at least five other groups or organizations in his area in activities to help Iowa veterans, calling bingo numbers and delivering meals to the elderly.

Furne said he felt as if he is "a pawn” in Knowles' discontent with the Crawford hospital.

"I feel there's no threat from myself anymore," Furne said. "I have grandkids now, and I'm watching them all the time. I think it (my past problems) goes back to the way I was raised."

Knowles said his fight for volunteer records had no bearing on other complaints he has had with the hospital.

"I don't have anything against Wes Furne," Knowles said Tuesday. "He's a human being, but I know his record and I'm concerned. I don't think he should be volunteering for anything."

Koester, a longtime public records advocate, said he had concerns about the effort to make volunteer names confidential before details of Furne's record surfaced.

That was because groups such as the Iowa Newspaper Association and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council citing other examples where government transparency helps inform and protect the public.

Aware of volunteer's past

Crawford County Memorial Hospital CEO Bill Bruce and its director of marketing, Don Luensmann, acknowledged Monday that they were aware of Furne's criminal background before allowing him to volunteer.

But they maintained that those issues occurred more than 10 years ago, which is their cutoff for official background searches.

The hospital's drivers are always with a second volunteer, and children being transported must be accompanied by an adult or guardian, they said.

"If the question here is what are the circumstances" surrounding concerns with Furne's volunteerism, "I believe it becomes much less once you examine all the safeguards that we have in place," Luensmann said.

A sexual assault conviction against a minor should generally and forever exclude someone from volunteering in situations where kids may be present, said Beth Barnhill, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Barnhill agrees that government volunteers should be maintained as a public record. Transparency is a way to assess and hold accountable the people who are performing government services on behalf of the public, she said.

"There are a variety of places to volunteer, and one doesn't have to volunteer at a place that has vulnerable people,” Barnhill said.

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